The Book of Genesis is a starting point for gaining a Christian view of our relationship with Creation.
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| Christians in tension on climate change |
Dan Horan, OFM, has found three models of Creation, based in Genesis and discussed in the 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” issued by Pope Francis to invoke attention of people to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
Amy Erica Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science as well as Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Professor, Iowa State University has found that among Christians in the United States, evangelicals are least likely to believe that climate change is real and human caused, according to public opinion polls and academic research.
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| A challenging ticket |
This is not the case in Brazil. There, evangelicals and Pentecostals – who make up about 30 percent of the Brazilian population – are just as environmentally concerned as other religious groups, public opinion surveys show.
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| Brazil ticket |
In fact, some surveys find that church attendance actually boosts Brazilian evangelicals’ environmental concern.
My own research on politics, religion, and public opinion in Latin America reveals that many conservative Protestants in Brazil don’t just believe in climate change and think of it as sin. Some even see environmental destruction as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. The Catholic Church recently held a global meeting addressing the climate crisis in the Amazon. And Brazil’s former environment minister, Marina Silva, a member of the Pentecostal Assembly of God, has voiced horror at the recent fires consuming the Amazon.
Silva leans left, but most Brazilian evangelicals are politically conservative. So their environmental beliefs aren’t necessarily reflected in their voting records.
Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, won 68 percent of evangelical and Pentecostal voters in last year’s presidential election. Bolsonaro, a climate skeptic whose policies have dramatically accelerated the rate of deforestation in the Amazon, appealed to evangelicals and Pentecostals with his deeply conservative views on gender, sexuality, and religion’s role in society....1
The Interfaith Power and Light website has curated Religious Statements on Climate Change.
Most religious communities have released statements on Climate Change and the need to care for Creation. The following list (organized alphabetically first by religion, then by denomination) demonstrates the unity within the religious community on these important issues.
Please let us know if there are any additional statements you would like to see included.2
Emma Frances Bloomfield has determined that understanding Christians’ climate views can lead to better conversations about the environment.
In 1967, historian Lynn White Jr. argued that Christian beliefs promoted the domination and exploitation of nature, and therefore were incompatible with environmentalism. Almost half a century later, polls showed that fewer than 50% of all U.S. Protestants and Catholics believe the Earth is warming as a result of human actions.
There are notable exceptions, such as Pope Francis, who called for action to slow climate change in his 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’.” Another prominent advocate for action is U.S. climate scientist and evangelical Christian Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. A growing number of Christians are joining the Creation Care movement, which combines Christianity and the environment. But as recently as early 2018, they were outnumbered by Christian climate skeptics.3
The principle of the Common Good is cited by Dan Horan, OFM, as a concept that underlies Catholic Social Teaching. It is the sum of all conditions of social life that allow groups and individuals within the group to relatively thorough and ready access to resources for their own fulfillment.
The responsibility Christians have to care for Creation and be our brother’s keeper is first stated in Genesis
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| Cry of the earth: cry of the poor |
and is a foundation for action to deal with the climate emergency.
References
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