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When the Vatican released a report last week calling man-made climate change “serious and potentially irreversible” and advocating aggressive action to curb emissions, it stirred up old divisions within the U.S. faith community over whether human activity can affect creation and what should be done about it.
It is a question that divides people of the same religion and denomination.
Some, like the interfaith members of the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care who visited Capitol Hill last week to lobby for climate change legislation, believe that man-made greenhouse gases are an example of human activity threatening creation and unjustly subjecting the Earth’s most vulnerable populations to climate-related privation and violence.
Others — often from relatively similar religious backgrounds — point to scripture as the basis for their belief that only God can cause a destructive change in climate and that the poor are more likely to suffer from expensive energy than from weather disasters.
The Rev. Mitchell Hescox, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, is firmly in the first camp. He said last week that he expects Christians in particular to play a key role in eventually persuading lawmakers, especially Republicans, to support curbs on emissions.
Hescox said the religious community was already making inroads on the issue when the economy tanked in 2008 and would do so again when the economy is fully recovered.
“I think the fear over job loss has sort of trumped the issue of climate change for a short time,” he said.
While acknowledging that evangelical Christians are far from unanimous in viewing climate change as a threat, Hescox predicted that would change.
Read more of how the Vatican Report Shines Light on Climate Change Divisions Within the U.S. Faith Community
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