At the NC Climate Challenge Summit, a grassroots faith-based climate activist gave me a biblical imperative: “if Noah was asked by God to save 2 of every living creature, how can we do less?” As agnostic as I may be, I couldn’t ignore a statement like that.
There has been a lot of talk on this blog about the connections between faith communities and climate work. Many religious folks have come to remember that “dominion” as used in the Bible literally means “to cultivate and to keep” rather than to dominate and govern (if only the coal company Dominion had a religious scholar on staff).
There are some striking coincidences between religious and secular efforts in this movement. I have recently been part of discussions with two campus environmental groups on religious campuses, the Environmental Club at the Christian Waynesburg College and GREENCOW at the Jesuit St. Joseph’s University. Waynesburg was recently highlighted by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities for their recent climate work. There are a host of other religious groups making similar contributions, like the Eden Project , the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (also check out their Environmental Justice program), and the Evangelical Climate Initiative .
A more striking connection comes from the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s Polling Report released in February. They found, much like the MTV polling of young people in this country, that “three out of four evangelicals tend to support environmental issues and causes” and “while only 19% of all evangelicals feel they know a lot about the issue, almost two thirds are either completely or mostly convinced that global warming is actually taking place.” This follows the MTV poll extremely closely, so I guess that data was useful after all eh?
At the NC Climate Challenge Summit, I joined the faith group workshop to ask for guidance on community organizing in the very Christian and very pro-coal region of Southeast Ohio. While we were all at a bit of a loss given the amount of work that needs to be done, we all agreed on one thing: there is a connection between faith communities and environmental communities. That may sound trivial, but it is something to celebrate, and to nurture.
However, the Evangelical Climate Initiative says unabashedly that “while we are not working with environmentalists, and are critical of some of their views and approaches, we also feel that once we have established our own voice on this issue we should use this as an opportunity to share the gospel with those who care about “environmental” issues.” This clearly demonstrates that our movement has done a poor job of outreach and a good job of isolating ourselves. Lots of work to be done, for sure. I see this as a great direction for the Campus Climate Challenge to evolve towards.
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Great post, Matt! Check out this Grist interview with a Christian activist working on mountaintop removal in Appalachia: http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/11/07/johnson/ It echoes a lot of the issues you raise here — definitely worth a read!
I enjoyed your fresh perspective! It’s definitely something I’ve neglected to concern myself with until this semester of school. I am working on the Challenge at Elon University in NC (I was also at the Summit) and I was approached by the Elon Community Church to help sponsor a screening they were giving of An Inconvenient Truth. Their pastor is so enthusiastic about working on climate issues on campus and in the greater Elon/Burlington community. They offer so many creative ideas and resources and are a strong influence at the University. They will be a huge champion for the campaign. Who knew?
Matt,
Great post! The spiritual element in this climate crisis is so often muffled by policy and science. There’s a book by Gary Gardner called “Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World,” which is also worth the read for those looking to apply contemplative studies to our climate crisis. I see these issues closely related to the moral challenge of developing the capacity to do work and service that might not come to fruition in our lifetimes. It is like when the Abenaki tribes here in the Northeast would prune birch trees so that five generations into the future would be able to burn the strongest and lightest canoe possible. We should have the same humble commitment to future generations. Thanks for the post Matt.
Hey Matt!
I was browsing through this website this morning and came across this post, and I assume it’s the one you were talking about at the UC Energy Conference. This topic has really been intriguing to me, especially because the general experience I have with devout Christians is not so hopeful. However, I have noticed a change within some of my friends - many of them are starting to realize that they are meant to be stewards of the Earth rather than dominators of the earth. I think we have a lot to be hopeful about, but we definitely need to watch where we step, and we need to mesh our ideas so we aren’t fighting against each other for the same ultimate end. There is hope, but yes, a lot to be done…