People of Faith
"Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists."
That’s climate skeptic Michael Crichton in 2003. His aim was to shove environmentalism into a pagan box. Worked for a while, but four years later it’s without basis. Perhaps it never was.
Why? Because environmentalism, and climate change activism in particular, have become proud acts of faith for the religious. And not just among the theologically liberal. Evidence is mounting that conservative Evangelical Christians have joined the national chorus of climate action, and some are even leading the charge. The banner they are unfurling is not environmentalism -- the word is still too loaded with negative political and social associations -- but "creation care," an idea rooted in and supported by scripture.
Big deal? You bet. Faith-based leaders have been at the forefront of every great American social movement. In the latest Pew Poll, eighty-seven percent of Americans defined themselves as religious. Right-wing Christian Evangelicals are 50 million strong, and made up 24 percent of the U.S. electorate in the 2004 and 2006 elections, according to a recent Washington Post article.
There’s no denying it: religion has an unmatched legitimacy among many Americans who are powerful enough to force Washington to solve climate.
The Tides Turn
For years, global warming activists, and environmentalists in general, were at odds with organized religion. Environmentalism was seen as a secular religion that worshipped nature, not its Creator, a modern form of paganism. It kept the sides poles apart. But another force was at work: Evangelicals in particular tended to be hostile toward modern science.
But as global warming activism began to spread on the other side of the Atlantic, American scientists and environmental leaders knew they needed to mend the science-religion breach here at home to make inroads. Thankfully there were sympathetic ears in the Evangelical community. And attitudes began to shift.
In 2003, Rev. Jim Ball, head of the Evangelical Environment Network, launched his influential “What Would Jesus Drive” campaign. Around this time, progressive evangelicals began to drop the term environmentalism in favor of “creation care.”
In 2004, the 30 million member National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) published its “Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility (PDF),” a platform that included global warming. Soon after, the influential Evangelical magazine Christianity Today ran an editorial in support of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act. In February 2006, 85 evangelical leaders launched the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI). The ECI invokes biblical passages to link climate change with fundamental Christian convictions. Like the fact that climate change will hit the poor the hardest:
"We are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and to protect and care for the least of these as though each was Jesus Chirst himself (Mt. 22:34-40: Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46)."
In January 2007, the NAE announced a joint climate effort with scientific groups, called an Urgent Call to Action. And in April 2007, Pope Benedict for the first time urged bishops, scientists, and politicians to address climate change. He has since made several follow-up appeals.
And this doesn’t even begin to cover the many interfaith projects. These include the Interfaith Declaration on the Moral Responsibility of the U.S. Government to Address Global Warming. It has 500 signatories from top leaders across the religious spectrum.
Not All Roses and Chocolate
While many people of faith are clearly energized, the conversion on the global warming issue has not been universal, especially in the Evangelical camp. As the NAE and other groups have forged a new breed of Evangelical environmentalism, others have accused the converted of diverting attention from more important issues, like abortion and homosexuality. These conservatives want to park the movement solidly on the wedge issues that have proven so politically divisive, and they've tried to banish the environmentalists in the process.
Back in March, some of them (James C. Dobson, Gary L. Bauer, and Tony Perkins, to name a few) wrote a letter (pdf) to NAE urging its board of directors to stop its policy director, Rev. Richard Cizik, from advocating climate action or force him to resign. They failed in their very public and very embarrassing bid.
The controversy over religion and politics is as old as this country. But the “wall of separation between church and state” can’t stop the faith community from being an influence on politics and policy. It never has.
So while environmentalists (and most of America) keep pushing the climate science, the faith groups are increasingly pushing the moral authority of climate action. It’s a collaboration that could change the face of climate action in Washington, and the entire world.
