Evangelical group's report says Christians should battle climate change out of care for other people and the planet

"The National Association of Evangelicals has unveiled a sweeping report on global climate change, laying out what its authors call the 'biblical basis' for environmental activism to help spur fellow evangelicals to address the planetary crisis," Jack Jenkins reports for The Washington Post. "But the authors admit that convincing evangelicals is no small task, considering the religious group has historically been one of the demographics most resistant to action on the issue."

The report, titled "Loving the Least of These: Addressing a Changing Environment," has four main sections, each with supporting Scripture, perspectives from faith leaders, and real-world examples of faith communities that care for others through environmentally responsible actions.

The first section asserts that taking care of the environment is a biblical mandate, since Christians are called to be good stewards of the Earth and love their neighbors—especially the less fortunate. The second section notes the top signs that we live in a warming world, outlines the basic science of climate change, and discusses the anti-bias safeguards of the scientific process. The third section shows how climate change disproportionately affects people in poverty, and the fourth section advises Christians on how to take action as individuals and as faith communities. The report steers clear of current politics, advising readers to "become part of the bigger solution . . . by advocating for government and corporate action."

The report may have little impact; NAE first published a report on the issue in 2011. But it is part of a growing movement among evangelicals to tease environmentalism apart from its common association with liberal politics. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, evangelical Christian and The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist, has been honing that message with audiences for years. In fact, the report, which cites Hayhoe several times, emulates her methods (and her recent book) by trying to frame the climate crisis in ways more likely to resonate with deeply skeptical evangelicals.

Hayhoe recently advised a Wyoming audience that "We need to talk about things that are relevant to us: my family, my home, my job. . . . We need to talk about it in a way that directly connects the dots between things that we already care about, like having water, like agriculture and food." In a later interview with Mike Koshmrl of WyoFile, she elaborated: "We should really be focusing on what people have in common and what they agree on, and then building out a policy for that. And if it addresses climate resilience and climate mitigation at the same time, that’s an extra win."

The chief author of the report, Dorothy Boorse, a biology professor at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., said she believes evangelicals have a "very deep desire to care for others," but it can be difficult to change entrenched opinions. But, she told Jenkins, discussing it in terms of issues evangelicals already care about, such as care for children, can "spark an imagination" that climate change is "not different from other problems in the world that we feel committed to care about, such as education, food availability or disaster relief."