The Greening of Evangelicalism

An interesting, if somewhat condescending, report on a growing sensitivity to environmental issues among evangelicals.

This October, the board of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), representing 51 denominations encompassing 30 million American evangelical Christians, unanimously approved a document entitled “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility.” The declaration calls for public engagement in a range of issues, prominent among them “Creation Care”—Christian-speak for environmental activism.

The document states: “We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to ‘watch over and care for it’ (Gen. 2:15).”

Richard Cizik, the NAE’s vice president for government affairs, says the purpose of the document is to “educate evangelicals that our public policy concerns go beyond a few high profile social issues like abortion.”

Cizik is a self-described conservative evangelical, both pro-life and in favor of a federal marriage amendment. In this he reflects the broad membership of the NAE, the largest evangelical umbrella group in the country. Representing 60 percent of the nation’s estimated 50 million evangelical Christians, Cizik thinks the NAE is in a position to send a shot across the bow of a Republican establishment that assumes evangelical support for its entire platform—so long as it includes homilies to faith, heterosexuality and family. […]

It remains to be seen what impact developments such the NAE initiative will have on figures associated with the hard Christian Right, but there are signs pointing toward stronger grassroots evangelical support for protecting the environment than is generally assumed. A poll conducted this year by the Ray C. Bliss Institute at the University of Akron found that more than half of self-identified evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Strict rules to protect the environment are necessary even if they cost jobs or result in higher prices.” Only one-third disagreed outright.

When it comes to the regulation of industry, a majority of evangelical Christians appears to side with Ted Kennedy over George W. Bush.