On Tuesday night, I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Katharine Hayhoe speak on the topic of climate change. Considering that there have been only eighteen possible chapel credit opportunities so far this year, it’s safe to assume that most of the student body attended chapel this Wednesday in the quest towards the elusive twenty-seven. If you were one of those students, the following ideas will not be foreign to you.
Climate change is real. Climate change is detrimental. Climate change is caused by human activity.
I believe these statements are true. Frankly, if you disagree with me, the point of this article is not to convince you otherwise. If you have questions about climate change, I would highly recommend reading Dr. Hayhoe’s book, “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith Based Decisions” or watching the 2014 Emmy Award-winning non-fiction mini-series “Years of Living Dangerously” among other resources. If 97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is real and caused by human activity, then it goes without saying that we should take climate change seriously.
That being said, the tension felt within the areas of faith and environmentalism is not entirely new to me. I have been interested and aware of environmental issues for as long as I can remember. The ideas of caring for creation and stewardship had always been a part of my Christian faith. The intersections of climate change, justice, and human flourishing have fit together seamlessly in my mind. Why care about the planet? Because humans live on the planet, that’s why. It seemed simple to me.
In September of 2014, a group of Houghton students, including myself, went to New York City for the Peoples Climate March, the largest march on climate change in history. For me, the march represented a movement of solidarity between all groups of people, despite the differences in the values held by each group. Afterwards, however, I was unprepared for the lack of support and downright disapproval my friends and I received for going to the march.
Christian family members criticized our participation, saying that it was a waste of time. Christian friends told us that we should be more focused on the condition of people’s souls than the condition of the planet. Christians supported us too, but the negative interactions left an overwhelmingly bad taste in my mouth, and I realized that the bad rep Christians have when it comes to environmental issues is not entirely unfounded. Where did this leave me? As a Christian who felt strongly about the impact of climate change on all aspects of creation, human and non-human, was I too “Christian” to align myself with environmentalists, or too “environmentalist” to align myself with other Christians?
As Dr. Hayhoe pointed out on Tuesday evening, science can tell us what climate change is and how it is happening, but science cannot tell us why we should care. Science can tell us which parts of the world are feeling the severest effects of climate change, but science can’t motivate us to care for human life and inherent dignity. Science can’t, but faith can. My faith calls me to love my neighbor as myself (Mark 12:31). My faith calls me to love in action and truth (1 John 3:18). My faith calls me to have a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
In short, I am faced with the reality that climate change is negatively affecting the lives of people across the globe right now and will continue to do so in the future without human intervention. On the basis of my faith, I must think clearly and critically in order to love my neighbor in truth and action. Therefore, I realize that I must approach climate change with an understanding of the strengths and the limitations of science, and with humility and love for God’s creation.
There is tension present between Christians and Environmentalists: I realize this.
Yet in my mind, my role as a Christian and my role as an Environmentalist are concerned with one thing: people. People’s lives matter, both in the present and for eternity. Climate change, by its very nature, is not something you can be ambivalent about. The consequences of climate change for the human race are real and serious. Members of the Christian faith are faced with the reality that caring for people’s souls without caring for people’s physical condition is to care for neither at all. Until the climate change is recognized by the members of my faith as being real and serious, I choose to live in the tension between Christians and Environmentalists. And as the planet continues to experience climate change, that tension will only increase for all of us.
5 replies on “Living in Tension: Climate Change, Critics, and Convictions”
Good article! do you think that these Christians would have had the same disapproval if you had engaged in some right-wing cause (say, a protest march against immigration) in NYC?
I would add also that Paul instructs Christians in the Bible to safeguard the reputation of the Gospel (sorry I don’t remember which letter it’s in, but a Baptist pastor once explained this to me).
Never mind that commenter mememine69 – I have seen him on all sorts of sites before, commenting prolifically. That leaves the impression that he might be getting paid for it as his job.
Proof science only agreed it “could be” the death of the plant;
After 34 years of delaying climate action to save the planet not one CO2 scientist has been willing to say they can’t say “proven” because the scientific method won’t allow them to.
This prove science isn’t able to prove the end is near from Human CO2 .
Deny that.
I went to her chapel talk and was highly disappointed that nothing was mentioned at all about the negative impacts of the meat industry. The meat industry destroys the climate/environment much more than people realize. Also, people’s lives matter, but so do animals’ lives.
34 years without climate action clearly proves the people of the planet have spoken so what can science do or say to convince the people of the world to “believe” that we must goose step our children to the greenhouse gas ovens?
Great article Lauren. A lot of these same issues have been on my mind the past week as well.