To some, the phrase "Christian environmentalist" may sound like an oxymoron.
But Christians are not of one political mind on the environment, and a growing movement called "creation care" is greening Christianity, even in socially conservative evangelical circles. In particular, the climate change debate is exposing ideological divides among Christian groups that traditionally have been lumped together as the "Christian right."
While some evangelical leaders face off in battles over endorsing U.S. action on global warming, others believe the mainstream of conservative Christianity is experiencing an environmental awakening.
"The ice is breaking in the center of the community on this issue," said the Rev. Jim Ball, an evangelical pastor at the forefront of the global warming debate. Ball spoke at a panel discussion on creation care at the 2005 Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Austin.
Ball is an ordained Baptist minister and a leader in a movement he calls "creation care," a faith-based brand of environmentalism that stresses the responsibility of humans to be good stewards of God's creation. Ball founded the Evangelical Environmental Network, a Christian non-profit organization that publishes Creation Care magazine and campaigns for environmental causes, most famously in the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign, in which Ball drove a hybrid Toyota Prius across the Bible Belt, spreading the word about clean vehicles from church pulpits and Christian radio stations along the way.
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| The Rev. Jim Ball, a leading green evangelical, promotes "creation care" among churches (Photo/ Kara Ball, Evangelical Environmental Network). |
In February, Ball led a group of conservative Christian leaders to create the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a campaign calling on government to enact legislation to curb carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.
A statement from the group implored that "Christian moral convictions demand our response to the climate change problem." The statement was signed by 86 evangelical leaders, including 39 college presidents, and first appeared Feb. 9 in a full-page New York Times advertisement. Signatories included Todd Bassett, national commander of The Salvation Army, and Rick Warren, the megachurch pastor who authored the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," as well as several prominent African-American pastors.
 | The Evangelical Climate Initiative ran this full-page ad in the New York Times (Image/ Evangelical Climate Initiative). |
Recognizing that "the consequences of climate change will be significant, and will hit the poor the hardest," the statement urged evangelicals to "engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or humanity's responsibility to address it."
The statement was part of a tug-of-war between church leaders trying to lay claim to the role of mouthpiece for the evangelical community. Ball worked for months crafting a statement opposing global warming with the large and politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals. The group seemed poised to take a strong stance: in 2004, they had crafted an environmental statement claiming a "sacred responsibility to steward the Earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part."
But the NAE finally abandoned the statement on climate change in January after a small group of influential leaders wrote a letter criticizing the effort, citing disagreements among Christians over the "cause, severity, and solutions to the global warming issue." Among them were Focus on the Family head James Dobson, and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. In response to the rebuff, Ball organized the Evangelical Climate Initiative.
Climate change is only one environmental concern of Christians among many. Because the poor are often hit hardest by environmental problems like climate change and air pollution, justice issues play heavily into Christian environmental ethics. Evangelical progressives cite a biblical mandate from Jesus to care for the poor and oppressed, and the "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign against gas-guzzling SUVs made it clear that some Christians think Biblical values can inform consumer decisions that may affect others.
Best-selling Christian author Jim Wallis challenges Christians to examine their social decisions closely in a moral and biblical context. In his book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, Wallis argues that the political right has been allowed to hijack faith and moral values, defining moral values narrowly and focusing on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage.
Wallis, who describes himself as a "19th-century evangelical" in the tradition of a spiritually based emphasis on social justice, is the founder of the Sojourners Community, an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington, D.C.
"I would say that if our gospel isn't good news to poor people, it isn't an evangelical gospel. That's what I believe. I think that's right in the heart of the true evangelical tradition," Wallis told PBS in 2003 on a program called "The Jesus Factor" which examined the growing political influence of evangelicals in American politics.
Broadly defined, evangelical Christians believe in a personal conversion to a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Bible as the authoritative word of God, and the importance of spreading their faith. That leaves plenty of room for a diversity of opinions on the environment, and even on social issues.
Some evangelicals agree with Wallis' premise of protecting the poor but disagree about the best way to do it. Greenhouse gas-cutting measures that might increase energy prices could hurt the poor disproportionately, argues Calvin Beisner, a professor at Knox Theological Seminary and organizer of an opposition group to the Evangelical Climate Initiative called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.
Grassroots action at the local level is the breeding ground for the kind of new Christian movement—or return to traditional Christian values, which Wallis would claim—that evangelicals like Wallis and Ball preach.
Denver-based Eco-Justice Ministries is an ecumenical agency that helps churches in Colorado and across the country get involved in creation care and social justice issues. Its founder, the Rev. Peter Sawtell, an ordained minister in the more liberal United Church of Christ denomination, runs the ministry with a board of directors, teaching clergy how to develop social and environmental ethics in their home congregations.
"We seek the well-being of all humanity on a thriving Earth," Sawtell said.
The group provides educational materials for adults and children and asks partner churches to form leadership teams to coordinate church projects. Materials are available to any church, conservative or liberal.
Last November, Eco-Justice Ministries co-sponsored a conference in Denver with the National Council of Churches where about 70 participants, mostly from Colorado, gathered to learn about regional environmental issues and how to bring environmental concerns into their home churches through preaching, Sunday school lessons and group activities.
At the conference, Sawtell emphasized that "the church is not meant to be a branch of the Sierra Club," but rather that his ministry is concerned with how Christians should live within their faith.
Around Boulder, both progressive and conservative churches are putting creation care into practice. Cornerstone Church pastor Gene Binder who describes his church as "conservative evangelical Christian," says church members are interested in caring for the environment. A more liberal congregation, Community United Church of Christ, has formed an Earth Action Team that helps the church recycle and hopes to eventually get the church powered solely by renewable solar energy.
The Rev. Martie McMane described her hopes for the creation care movement, starting with her congregation at Boulder's First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ.
"Our church is small and can only do so much for the environment. But think of it like ripples going out; if each person does something, it carries forth," she said.
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