Creation Care—from the Left and the Right

by Tammy Alexander

Not long ago, the environmental movement was thought to be narrowly confined to those on the left side of the political aisle. Recently, however, there has been growing awareness of the idea of “creation care” within Christianity—and many conservative and evangelical churches and denominations have joined the cause.

Last summer, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and PublicWorks held a hearing on faith and global warming—the first of its kind. The witnesses, coming from traditions such as Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, and evangelical, agreed on many points, including the importance of creation care and the need to consider how climate change—and measures to address climate change—affects the poor.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, noted that, “While many of the faith communities represented here today may disagree on a variety of issues, in the area of global warming we are increasingly of one mind. The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness, interconnectedness, and sanctity of the world God created and loves.”

A recent poll by Ellison Research found that 84 percent of evangelicals support legislation to reduce the pollution which leads to global warming. In February, evangelical pastors and lay leaders gathered for the first-ever Creation Care Conference. Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the 30 million- member National Association of Evangelicals, said, “We as a nation will face a judgment from God if we don’t do this.”

Although there is general agreement across the political and religious spectrum that humans are having an effect on the climate, there is not always agreement on how to respond. Concern for the poor and personal responsibility for how our own actions contribute to climate change have emerged as areas of common ground.

This summer, “America’s Climate Security Act” (S. 2191) is expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. Many faith-based Washington offices, including MCC’s, have yet to take a stance on the bill due to concerns that its reforms do not go far enough and that it may be altered and weakened before a final vote.

While the bill provides assistance to lowincome communities in the U.S. and abroad to ease the transition to a low-carbon economy and to mitigate the negative economic effects of climate change, MCC would like to see these provisions strengthened. Additionally, the bill calls for curbing carbon emissions by 4 percent below 2005 levels by 2012 and 70 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, targets which fall far short of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommendations (25–40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80–95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050).

To address the devastating impacts of climate change, pollution, and irresponsible consumption, we will need to continue to find ways to work together, across the aisle and across denominations, heeding the call to love our neighbor and to care for God’s beautiful creation.