Despite polls connecting evangelical Christians to climate denialism, and often, political conservatism, there is a growing bloc of evangelicals who are also environmentalists.
As part of the national movement Evangelical Environmental Network, students and volunteers are ramping up their canvassing and outreach efforts in the weeks leading up to the election, calling their fellow believers to consider climate policy when they cast their votes.
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action is a student-led ministry under EEN and has organized on Christian college campuses since 2012.
“I think young people just want the issues that we care about, like our communities, our economy and jobs and God’s creation, to be taken seriously,” Tori Goebel, a former spokesperson for YECA (and now the chief operating officer of EEN), told Earthbeat last month.
“We just want young people to be informed and to make meaningful decisions for the sake of God’s creation.”
YECA activists provide nonpartisan voter registration tools for interested individuals, as well as guides to help evangelical environmentalists send letters to editors, share their climate testimonies, and take a “faithful action pledge” to care for the planet.
While the advocates of YECA and EEN don’t explicitly tell their communities who to vote for, they provide more information for the curious community members who believe in God — and in a better future.
In the wake of worsening climate disasters, leaders at EEN have seen an uptick in interest from their evangelical peers, especially those who have experienced extreme weather themselves.
Jessica Moerman, CEO of EEN, told NBC News that the group is starting to focus more on making connections between climate change and increasingly powerful storms, wildfires, and the like.
“As evangelicals, we have this biblical mandate to care for God’s creation,” Moerman, who is also a pastor and a climate scientist, told NBC. “And in the 21st century, that means taking action on climate.”
In addition to student canvassing, EEN hosts webinars, welcoming newcomers into the fold to teach them about the science of climate change and how faith plays a role in taking action. The organization’s website also has a number of opportunities to speak up for or against certain climate legislation.
The group also runs faith-based nature camps for children, facilitates listening sessions in Christian communities impacted by climate-related disasters, and even corners the market on pro-life environmentalists by connecting their belief in the value of life to climate change.
Their Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign includes a push for reducing air pollution that intersects with a desire to “protect unborn children,” according to NBC News. This is based on research that such pollution can raise the risk of preterm birth and low birth weights.
A petition for this campaign has collected more than 3 million signatures online.
For Katharine Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian, scientist, author, and board member for EEN, there is power in connecting climate across theological and ideological differences, claiming that caring about the planet is indeed a bipartisan issue.
She told Earthbeat that the majority of Americans support action to address climate change.
“That is really something that we should always highlight and point out,” she said. “It’s almost like a public service to all of us who are concerned: There’s actually more of you than you think there are.”
To bring those people who are concerned out of the shadows — and perhaps convert the others — EEN also helps pastors and preachers to incorporate climate discussions into sermons.
“It’s 2024, and Christians aren’t the only ones talking about apocalyptic times,” Caleb Haynes, a pastor at a small church in Nashville, Tennessee, told his congregation at a Sunday morning service this summer, per NBC.
“As glaciers melt and sea levels rise, and greed wants to run the show, the people of God must show up!”
He focuses on the links between Christian teachings and caring for the planet, ultimately believing it’s the Christian duty to “consider climate while voting.”
Of course, learning more about climate-forward candidates — in all levels of government — is important in the weeks leading up to the election. But advocates also say this time to build energy is crucial for developing long-term engagement with elected officials.
Hayhoe told Earthbeat, “Our elected officials, at the city level, at the state level, at the county level, and, of course, at the national level, need to hear from their constituents about how they care about this issue and how they support action on this issue.”
Mobilizing congregations is the first step.
“Some pastors get kind of hung up talking about climate change, but to me, it’s biblical faithfulness 101,” Haynes told NBC. “Our original sin here was assuming that we consume, any way we want, whatever we want, from whatever tree in the garden we want, and that there wouldn’t be consequences.”
Certainly, balancing the scales of climate action and religious belief can be tricky amid today’s political landscape, but starting small — in the churches people have faithfully attended for years, on their city and county ballots — encourages evangelicals to confront all of the nuance with grace.
Even Karenna Gore — daughter of Al Gore and founder of the Center for Earth Ethics — is optimistic about the power of judgment-free, science-backed conversations in trusting communities.
“I have been in church spaces in the past year where I have been moved to tears by the integrity and the depth that people are bringing to this exact conversation, sitting with the uncertainty,” she told Earthbeat.
“Instead of approaching dialogue with a strident self-confidence, they are saying, ‘I can’t do this all alone. I want to hear what other people have to say, so that we can actually pull it together.’”
Header image courtesy of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action
