DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. chairman Bill Ford Jr. and top officials of General Motors Corp. will meet today with representatives of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a group whose members include Christians and Jews.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Rev. Jim Ball, one of the leaders, will announce that the Evangelical Environmental Network is launching TV ads in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and North Carolina, urging Christians to buy fuel-efficient vehicles.
The religious leaders also plan to release an open letter to U.S. automakers signed by more than 30 senior U.S. religious leaders, including the U.S. heads of the Lutheran, Presbyterian and Greek Orthodox churches and of the institutions representing reform and conservative Judaism.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a member of the national religious partnership isn't participating in the anti-SUV push.
"Our focus has been on broader issues of environmental justice and climate change," said John Carr, secretary of the conference's department of social development. But, "we're sympathetic to the goals."
Rev. Ball formerly worked for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national environmental group that has loudly criticized automakers' fuel-hungry SUVs.
"We hope that when Christians go to purchase their next vehicle, they will ask: 'What would Jesus have me drive?' " he said. "We think the answer would be he would have you drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle that truly meets your needs."
