They may all agree on the way to salvation, but evangelicals are not all on the same page when it comes to their views on what should be done to protect the environment.

That's one of the concerns raised in a resolution presented to the Southern Baptist Convention by its new president, Dr. Frank Page of Taylors.

And it's an issue that threatens to drive a wedge between evangelicals and detract from their priority of spreading the Gospel, the resolution says.

The resolution was approved without opposition last month at the annual meeting of the nation's largest Protestant group.

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It shows that at least the core Southern Baptist conservatives agree with Page that the science suggesting human activity is causing global warming is suspect.

"There's no unanimity among scientists that global warming is being caused by any particular one factor," Page said in an interview with The Greenville News.

The resolution calls the environmentalism of some activists a "neo-pagan religion" that deifies "Mother Earth" while discriminating against humans.

The resolution doesn't mention global warming specifically, but there is "a huge difference of opinion" among evangelicals in that area, Page said.

But the resolution takes aim at environmentalist activists outside the Christian right.

It says some "are seeking to advance a political agenda based on disputed claims, which not only impacts public policy and in turn our economic well-being, but also seeks to indoctrinate the public, particularly students in public institutions."

Pam Shucker, a member of Greenville First Baptist, which left the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago, doesn't necessarily consider herself an evangelical, but she takes a decidedly different perspective on global warming.

"I have absolute certainty that humans have affected global warming and created a worse situation than had been in the past," she said. "I don't think there is any evidence to the contrary that is reputable."

She lives out her convictions by driving a Prius to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

"For me that is very important to my Christianity, because to me it is my job to take care of creation," she said. "And if I'm having a negative effect on the rest of creation, then I need to do something about it."

Page agrees that it's a Christian responsibility to care for the environment but believes "secular ecologists" have relegated humanity to the status of "an alien species" while protecting every other form of life.

"So humans are really absolutely discriminated against in these circles, and the Earth is deified as if it were a divine entity," he said.

"Evangelicals, particularly Southern Baptists, have tried to make very clear that we worship the creator God, not the created Earth."

The environment has become an increasingly important issue for conservative Christian political activists, with some evangelical leaders calling for stricter regulations to reduce greenhouse gases, said Dr. James Guth, a political scientist at Furman University who studies the religious right.

The issue "may indeed be creating a little bit of conflict between politically active evangelical groups," he said.

A group including Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," and Rich Stearns, the president of the Christian relief organization World Vision, signed a statement in February "expressing a biblically driven commitment to curb global warming."

The statement says, "This is God's world, and any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God himself."

Some evangelicals take the view that the natural world is going to continue "getting worse" until the Second Coming of Christ, which means there's not much point in trying to correct larger problems, Guth said.

The National Association of Evangelicals adopted a strong pro-environmental statement a few months ago, which was attacked by Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, a conservative evangelical group, Guth said.

Despite the fact that the resolution says environmentalism "is threatening to become a wedge issue to divide the evangelical community," Page believes there's no real division among "responsible evangelicals."

"I think the vast majority of evangelical persons know that the Earth is a wonderful gift from God and we must be responsible in caring for it."

"Now, there are huge differences as to what that means and how much we should do to care for it," he said, "but I think basically the general agreement is across the board."