When we think about solutions to climate change, we envision treaties and negotiating rooms – not houses of worship. But people of faith have a biblical basis for having a seat at the table. All we need to do is grab a chair.
The Christian version of climate action, called “creation care,” is rooted in Scripture, which makes clear that creation belongs to God. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it,” to quote the Lord’s Prayer. Thus, the First Assignment given to humans in the Garden of Eden was to do “God’s will on earth, as in heaven” (Genesis 2:15), which means not dominating the land but being its steward and protector.
The problem is modern-day Christians seem to have missed the message about the First Assignment, focusing instead on the First Amendment to the Constitution and on religious freedom. This is confirmed by a study of how evangelical writers and scholars covered the topic of the environment in theology texts between 1970 to 2000. Published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, the study found significant “blind spots” in the inclusion of environmental concerns into theology textbooks. Due to this imbalance, the amount of space devoted to environmental stewardship ranged from a low of 0% to a high of 12.5%, with the median being about 1%.
If evangelical theology textbooks hardly address environmental concerns and there is a dearth of preaching and teaching on the First Assignment, it is not surprising that white evangelicals doubt climate change. A 2022 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) finds that only one-third (32%) of white evangelicals say the earth is getting warmer mostly due to human activity and another 32% are unsure or unconvinced of global warming.
Yet, the reasons for climate “denialism” among white evangelicals are more than what appears in theology texts. White evangelicals have long questioned the role of science in society. Thus, today evangelicals are more than twice as likely to say that science and religion are in conflict than the general public (29% versus 14%) and that they are on the side of religion. Even so, creation care – and the call for Christians to care for and protect the natural world – was once accepted as a responsibility of evangelical communities. In fact, in 2008, a television commercial showed Rev. Al Sharpton and TV preacher Pat Robinson sitting together to demand action against climate change.
But then, politics entered the picture. U.S. Senator Jim Inhoff (R-OK) went to the floor of the U.S. Senate in 2007 and gave evangelicals an ultimatum: be an evangelical or support climate change. As such, Inhoff made it clear that being a Republican required disavowing climate change and this view has prevailed ever since. Now, the Christian right is actively promoting climate change skepticism, especially on Christian radio and television, and the rejection of creation care is a tenet of Christian nationalism, a disturbing movement that relies on a complex web of ideologies, including the belief in the Bible’s eschatological end-times prophecy and an apocalyptic vision of societal decline.
However, being an evangelical and a climate skeptic do not have to be one and the same. Separation is possible when politics is taken out of the equation and people of faith recognize
their responsibility to care for the earth as God’s creation.
The science is clear: Global temperature has risen above the 1.5 degree Celsius that scientists say is a “tipping point” for ecological disaster. Evidence of this is apparent for all to see. A warming planet results in heat waves and hurricanes that have killed tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, particularly in the South, Southeast and Southwest states. Floods and torrential rains have created 100-year climate disasters in states that were never impacted before. No one, no state, no country, is immune.
Seventeen years after Senator Inhoff told evangelicals to pick between supporting creation care or being a Republican, it is time for people of faith to change the rules. Be of whatever political party you wish but take climate change – and your role in creation care – seriously.
One voice calling for this change in thinking is Francis Collins. M.D. Ph.D., the former head of the National Institutes of Health and a co-founder of the Human Genome Project. He is a scientific superstar and devoted evangelical who asks, “Will we turn our backs on science because it’s perceived as a threat to God? Will we turn our backs on faith, concluding that science has rendered spiritual life unnecessary? Both of these choices are profoundly dangerous. Both will diminish the nobility of mankind. Both will be devastating to our future. Both are unnecessary.”
Inescapably, there are many voices who say “it’s too late to save the planet” or nothing can be done it is “God’s will” that the earth be destroyed. But these naysayers forget that God calls on us to be people of hope. And while hope is not the same as optimism, it is a state of mind premised on the ability to work for something because it is good. This is the call of creation care and the reason to have a seat at the table to advance faith-based solutions to climate change.