In an increasingly polarized political landscape, one issue continues to draw a dividing line between red and blue: climate change. Despite overwhelming evidence that human-caused atmospheric warming is taking place, only 53% of Americans address climate change for what it truly is—a threat to human health and the creation we are called to steward well.
Evangelical Christians are the most likely to reject the facts about our changing climate. According to a study from Pew Research Center, 36% of individuals in this category believe that climate change is the result of natural patterns, while 17% dismiss the prospect of a warming world altogether. Additionally, one in five American Protestants say that climate change is not an issue because “God is in control of the climate.”
By that logic, since God is in control, should we not advocate for the lives of unborn children? Should we neglect the orphan and widow in need? Such a perspective goes directly against our Christian calling to love others (Matt. 22:37-39). God’s sovereignty is not an excuse for complacency, but a call to worship him wholeheartedly through both word and deed.
According to Michael Guebert, professor and program director for Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, many luxuries we enjoy in the United States are burdensome for our under-resourced global neighbors.
“The impacts we have through our daily actions and choices have a disproportionate impact on those who are least able to accommodate and adapt to (climate) change,” he said.
Overconsumption and car dependence are two major sources of pollution which contribute to rising global temperatures. Despite their normalization in the United States, these practices harm both humans and the environment. That being said, it's never too late to alter our daily habits as a response to climate change—and it certainly isn’t too late to adopt a biblical understanding of creation care.
Guebert believes that creation care—including climate action—is a critical means of advocating for the vulnerable.
“If we're concerned with actually caring for people and those who don't have the resources—politically or economically or individually or corporately—to respond with mitigation to those climate changes, then we are actually taking the admonition to care for them,” he said.
The purpose of stewardship is to worship God by obeying his commandments to love him, others, and creation. Taking action to combat climate change, then, is a worshipful response in accordance with our calling to do all things unto the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). It is a means of embracing the holistic gospel which embodies God’s work to redeem the whole creation (Romans 8:19-23).
To water down this reality is to neglect a critical piece of our role in God’s restoration story.
