Then-Sen. John Kerry, speaking at a Baptist church in Miami in 2004, when he was a presidential candidate. (AP Photo/Carl Juste)
Kerry was speaking at an event announcing the creation of the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives.
"I'm convinced that all of you will agree," said Kerry, "that one of the toughest challenges that we face in terms of global diplomacy and relationships around the world between peoples nowadays, from sectarian strife to the challenges of many intractable, frozen conflicts, to the challenges of simply understanding people--one people to another--or even monumental challenges like the sectarian strife that we see tearing countries and regions apart, as well as the enormous challenges of things like global climate change, which really is a challenge to our responsibilities as the guardians--safe guarders of God’s creation."
Kerry made a similar statement at the State Department's Ramadan Iftar Dinner on July 24.
"For many of us, respect for God’s creation in almost every scripture really demands and translates into a duty to protect and sustain God’s first creation," said Kerry. "Our response to climate change ought to be rooted in a fundamental sense of shared stewardship of the earth that emerges from that tradition."