ATLANTA The tall, tan pastor stood at the pulpit of his Baptist church on a recent Sunday morning, cleared his throat, and nervously proclaimed the following:

First, he believes in God. And second, he believes in the Bible.

Robert Walker Jr.’s audience, a crowd of about 100 faithful parishioners, shuffled uncomfortably as he spoke, surely wondering why their pastor of a decade was offering up these disclaimers. But it didn’t take long to figure out why.

Over the next few minutes, Walker told his flock that science contends that sixth century scholars wrote the Old Testament, but that it was still written with “divine spirit.” It was his way of telling them that science and religion aren’t always at odds.

“We can embrace God and Scripture and science together. And it’s enough to say when they agree – and sometimes they do – we should embrace it. And they agree that our Earth cannot last forever. And that we are charged with the responsibility of taking care of it.”

With that, there was another rustle in the crowd. And Peachtree Baptist Church had opened its two-month Sunday sermon series on the environment.

The congregation is one of 130 members of the local chapter of the Interfaith Power and Light movement, a group that tries to engage the faithful into environmental activism. And thanks to a recent spurt in environmental interest, similar chapters are springing up through the South.

“We try to engage faith communities to do just this – encourage their congregations to talk actively about environment and faith,” said Jennifer Downs, the chapter’s outreach coordinator. “We don’t want this just to be a political conversation. Scientists won’t be able to solve this by themselves.”

The chapter offers tips on low-energy care of church organs, sermon suggestions and hands out kits that encourage people that encourage greening through holidays. One program encourages people to switch to energy efficient light bulbs on each night they light a candle for Hanukkah or Advent.

The movement has quickly spread its roots throughout the Southeast.

In Virginia, the chapter offers tips on how to incorporate environmental concerns into worship prayers. “Be gentle in interpreting these dangers, which can be frightening,” offers one.

The North Carolina group presents a workshop that tackles global warming and energy efficiency, a message it highlights using Al Gore’s global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which it screened to about 100 churches in 2006.

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