There was a time in the not too distant past when the focus of American churches was on preaching Christ, and evangelism truly meant the delivery of "good news."  Nowadays, it's become fashionable in many churches to save everything but souls.

For instance, one of the big urgencies is to save the planet.  It's argued that by saving the planet we will at least be influencing souls to salvation. After all, unbelievers will see how helpful and sincere Christians are and be drawn to the Everlasting Light.

No doubt that Christian commitment and sincerity to organized efforts such as Creation Care, or its more-focused sibling, Climate Care, is real. But, sincerity is not a virtue; and besides, it's a bit confusing that an omnipotent God cannot maintain a tolerable climate so that Christians can fulfill the express mandate to "go into all the world and preach the gospel."

Even more confusing though is just how quickly the worldly progressive philosophy, which operates from a "divide and conquer" strategy, has sidetracked Christians from the lofty "preach the gospel" command.  If Christians are separated from the clear calling of Christ and fight amongst themselves over who cares about the atmospheric environment the most, then progressivism has already made substantial headway in the congregation.

Meanwhile, progressivism proselytizes on for "climate justice," winning full-fledged converts or just tacit supporters among the church faithful.

As a Christian and an atmospheric scientist with nearly 35 years of experience, I believe that the compassionate mission is to focus on real aid to the world's poor and needy--a mission, by the way, that does not neglect effective care for creation.  Christians should work to bring liberty and, as a minimum, basic human services to those in dire need around the globe.

I have witnessed throughout my career the never-ending story that humans are somehow destroying a "fragile" planet--this time the story's about releasing too much greenhouse gas.  Christians, of all people, should be the least gullible on this untenable position, since Christians have a foundation build on the belief that God is not only the creator, but also the sustainer of all things. Forget about the dubious "sin" of anthropogenic climate change; focus instead on the arrogance germane to the idea that not only are humans causing long-term global climate change, but that we can fix it.

The climate of the world will be much better off when Christians focus on being ambassadors for Christ, rather than activists for the atmosphere.

Meteorologist Anthony J. Sadar is the author of In Global Warming We Trust: A Heretic's Guide to Climate Science (Telescope Books: www.inglobalwarmingwetrust.com).