Climate change might be the world’s most influential religion. Its gospel preaches inevitable calamity and irreversible environmental damage. Any non-believer is automatically labeled an insensitive and irresponsible detriment to the future health of this planet. Recently, even churches have become faithful to the cause.

The World Council of Churches is asking its places of worship to ring bells as a call to action on global warming Dec. 13, the midway point of the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

But it is not enough for churches just to ring their bells to pray that leaders demonstrate good judgment or that people respect the environment. No, the lunacy runs much hotter than that. They are expected to ring them precisely 350 times, symbolizing the 350 parts per million that scientists consider to be the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. How often do you see the words “church” and “parts per million” in the same sentence?

The church does not listen to scientists when they argue for evolution, but when they are told the planet will burst into a giant ball of fire they genuflect without hesitation.

Imagine if this scenario pointed in the opposite direction. Perhaps The World Council of Churches was urging the government not to waste an incalculable amount of money on global warming propaganda. The outcry would be as hot as sand on a summer beach. We would constantly be reminded of the importance of separating church from state. Instead, the church is not only playing along, it is giving this initiative a ringing endorsement.

Why doesn’t the council ask for bells to be sounded eight times for the recommended hours of sleep every individual should get each night? Why not three times for the number of seconds our gas-guzzling vehicles should be apart from one another on the highway? Why not seven times, symbolizing the brand of Jack Daniel’s whiskey it takes to put up with this nonsense?

Al Gore’s disciples can be as passionate about global warming as they wish. Inevitably, some of those devout followers will belong to religions. But it is unnerving and absurd for an organization of churches, which is supposed to represent its entire people, to generalize all of its support into a government propaganda machine like global warming. It makes a mockery of the respective faiths and the millions of followers within them.

The bells that truly deserve to be rung are not hanging in a church.