Data from a Pew Research Center Analysis, “Religion and the 2006 Elections,” Dec. 1, 2006.

Some Christian groups think climate change should be a priority

by ROBIN BRAVENDER

The movement to curb global warming is gaining popularity across the United States but remains a divisive issue within political and religious groups. While secular liberals are often perceived as the champions of the environmental movement, some Christian conservatives try to become the environmental caretakers that they believe their faith mandates.

“We’ll be held to account for what we’ve done to [God's] creation,” said Alexei Laushkin, program assistant at the Washington-based Evangelical Environmental Network.

The network is one of the many Christian environmental organizations that have formed around the notion that the Bible mandates caring for the earth and that fighting global warming is part of that directive.

This idea is as old among Christians as Genesis 2 [of the Bible], in which “man is given responsibility to steward the earth,” Laushkin said.

Although many evangelicals are skeptical of the environmental movement, “there is a growing understanding [among Christians] that climate change is a problem,” Laushkin said.

But the range of opinion among evangelicals has caused “a pretty heated debate in the conservative community,” largely because the leaders are concerned that it will distract from other issues, Laushkin said.

Data from a Pew Research Center Analysis, “Religion and the 2006 Elections,” Dec. 1, 2006.

This internal rift heated up earlier this year when the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization representing about 30 million evangelicals, came under fire for what opponents called a “relentless campaign” by the Rev. Rich Cizik to speak out against global warming.

Cizik, the vice president of government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals, was featured in the Canadian documentary “The Great Warming,” in which he called upon Christians to combat climate change.

Some Christians saw Cizik’s widely publicized comments as divisive, and on March 1, 25 evangelical leaders sent a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals criticizing Cizik’s views about global warming, contending that he was speaking in a way that was dangerous to the Christian community.

“We have observed that Cizik and others are using the global-warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children,” the letter said.

The religious divide within the environmental movement is indisputable, according to some studies.

According to an August 2006 poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, 78 percent of secular Americans had a favorable view of the environmentalist movement, compared to 49 percent of white evangelical Christians.

Regarding global warming specifically, the poll shows that 25 percent of white evangelicals believe that there is no solid evidence that the earth is getting warmer, compared to 9 percent of secularists.

Although evangelicals are less likely than other groups to view global warming as a pressing issue, some want to make it clear that members of their religious sect are not all in agreement on the issue.

“I think folks are surprised when they learn Christians aren’t monolithic on environmental issues,” said Don Bosch, a blogger for the Evangelical Environmentalist. “We’re no different than other folks in the diversity of political and ecological opinion.”

This new focus on global warming could have significant political consequences.

According to a 2003 Newsweek poll, 32 percent of Americans identify as evangelical Christians. They also constitute a significant portion of the Republican Party’s base.

According to the Pew Research Center, white evangelical voters made up 35 percent of Republican voters during the 2006 congressional election.

Republican politicians might be persuaded to change their views toward climate change if the environmental movement among evangelical Christians continues to grow.

Laushkin said Republicans are reviewing their stances on global warming.

“I do see it changing, and it should change the GOP,” he said.