Fracturing Over Creation Care? Shifting Environmental Beliefs Among Evangelicals, 1984–2010

Abstract

While evangelicals have been popularly portrayed as caring primarily about social issues including abortion and homosexuality, there have been more reports in recent years of evangelical leaders, congregations, and institutions shifting focus to environmental issues. Are evangelicals shifting attention to and becoming more progressive in their views on the environment? Moreover, are evangelicals fracturing over the issue of environmentalism, as some have suggested? Using content analysis of three evangelical periodicals (Christianity Today, Sojourners, and World) from 1984 to 2010, I find not only that attention to environmental issues has increased over time, but also that the discussion has grown increasingly polarized and politicized. This change represents a potentially important break with the Republican Party and the Christian Right, as moderate evangelicals have moved to the left on environmental issues. Even among highly religious, self-identified evangelical political elites, there is more diversity in views and political leanings than is commonly assumed. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of a lack of alignment between evangelical elites, traditional Christian Right leaders, and the Republican Party.

How Complex Religion Can Improve Our Understanding of American Politics

“…Class differences likely explain why, although conservative Protestants are more likely to be politically conservative on issues of abortion and sexuality, they do not have more conservative views on economic issues such as redistribution (Davis & Robinson 1996b, Hart 1992, Johnson & Tamney 2001, Kiecolt 1988, Layman & Carmines 1997 and have variable opinions on social justice issues such as race relations (Davis & Robinson 1996b, Edgell & Tranby 2007, Emerson et al 1999, Kirkpatrick 1993, Read & Eagle 2011Wilcox 1990), peace and justice issues (Olson & Carroll 1992), and environmental issues (Biel & Nilsson 2005, Danielsen 2013, Djupe & Hunt 2009, Tarakeshwar et al 2001.…”

Climate Change, Politics and Religion: Australian Churchgoers’ Beliefs about Climate Change

“…Explicit engagement with climate change has generally been lacking from the leadership of Pentecostal and evangelical Protestant churches [23]. There has not been open polarization among the leadership, in contrast to the USA [19,20]. Because action on climate change is so politicized on party lines, Christian leaders who have conservative views of marriage and the family but are concerned for those affected by climate change face a dilemma which might suggest that it is easier to ignore climate change.…”

“…Other factors include evangelicals' beliefs about the end times [18], weaker biospheric/altruistic values [14], and theologically-and politically-fueled distrust of international institutions and international cooperation [16]. However, there is also a diversity of positions on climate change among US evangelicals, with fault lines between evangelical elites who support action on climate change and the Christian Right who oppose it or at least don't want to be distracted by it [19,20]. Moreover, young evangelicals appear to be more concerned about climate change and other environmental issues than their older counterparts [21].…”

An Examination of the “Greening of Christianity” Thesis Among Americans, 1993–2010

“…To test the above hypotheses, we utilize data from the environment module of the 1993 and 2010 GSS datasets. The GSS first included an environment module in 1993, which happened to coincide with the first wave of mobilization to green U.S. Christianity (Danielsen ; Kearns ; Wilkinson ). For year 2010, this module was administered to two of the three randomly split parallel subsamples.…”