Green days

Election '06: Democrats hope a final-hour focus on global warming will attract evangelical voters | Mark Bergin

The Nov. 3 national release of a new documentary film on global warming has Democratic strategists rubbing their palms together. Whereas former vice president Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, preached mostly to the environmentalist choir earlier this year, The Great Warming directs its message of impending climate disaster at evangelicals—particularly those planning to vote in the upcoming midterm election.

Employing a similar marketing strategy to that of recent religion-themed films, promoters of The Great Warming are offering special screenings for churches—no matter the spiritual qualifications of narrators Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette. Producers hope that such supportive voices as Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals and Joel Hunter, the newly appointed president of the Christian Coalition, will convince pastors to take up the message. The movie's website includes a printable church bulletin insert and resources for Bible studies and sermons on the topic of environmental stewardship.