Re: Why are some Evangelicals skeptical of climate change?

Description: Science can be an ally rather than an enemy, yet there are tens of millions of evangelicals who don't see it that way.

Question: Why are some evangelicals suspicious of climate change?

Transcript: I think it’s in part an anti-intellectualism and a suspicion of science. In other words it goes like this. Scientists believe in evolution. Scientists tell us climate change is occurring, so I’m not gonna believe what they say. So it’s a . . . it’s an innate suspicion against science per se. And yet what I’m saying and what others are saying – those of us that signed The Climate Initiative – is that science is our ally. Science enables us to understand what creation is telling us about itself – about itself and about its maker . . . God from our vantage point. And so science can be our ally rather than our enemy; and yet there are tens of millions of evangelicals who don’t see it that way. Now they’re coming on board. Let’s face it. Seventy five percent of evangelicals now believe that climate change is real, that it will impact the poor, and we have to do something about it. So that’s a big change from just two years ago.

Question: What changed their minds?

Transcript: Leaders who speak out. Because if they don’t believe the scientists – I happen to believe you can trust science – but if you don’t believe the scientists, generally speaking, evangelicals will trust their pastors, and leaders of their denominations, and their colleges and universities. And these individuals are the one that have spoken out very clearly. Pastors. Mega church pastors. The largest churches in America now have pastors who believe this and are preaching it. And yet reaching into the pews and gathering the support I think we need in order to pass legislation that will actually reduce CO2 emissions will require that a lot of evangelicals in what are called the “red states” or the Republican states actually persuade their legislators that this is important. And we know that the percentages of, for example, red state Republicans, of which evangelicals are sizable percentages, well they consider the environment a priority. Well about 37 percent. But Democrats in blue states, well they think it’s . . . 68 percent think it’s a priority. So the holdup here politically is that one party – namely the GOP, the Republican Party – which is, let’s face it, heavily influenced by what evangelicals think, and say, and do, they’re the ones that need to hear. And increasingly we’re speaking and persuading these conservative Republicans that they shouldn’t be afraid of climate change as a policy issue, and indeed not to speak from our vantage point as evangelical Christians. For Republican leaders not to speak on this issue is not just a dereliction of their biblical duty; but it’s a violation even of Republican history. A violation of Republican history. Why? Because Teddy Roosevelt, the great conservationist, was a Republican. EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, began under Richard Nixon. The Clean Air Act and other environmental bills were passed under George Herbert Walker Bush. So why should Republicans all of a sudden be climate deniers, opposed to environmental action? Well I think that’s a violation of conservative, Republican values. And I happen to be both – a conservative and a Republican – and I think it’s a violation of my values not to take action in this respect on climate change most of all.

Recorded on: 6/25/07