Fire, brimstone and tortured souls are a few of the cattle calls employed by movements at extreme odds: Tree-hugging climate advocates and overzealous evangelicals.
Concerning the global climate crisis, Earth-lovers point to the rapidly increasing frequency of wildfires traceable to droughts and declining ecological diversity, while hardcore evangelicals allude to Dante’s Inferno-style visions of soul-scorching flames and underworldly retribution.
Both evangelical protestants and environmentalists demonize the consequences of inaction — for die-hard Baptists, the price is eternity in hell, and for the climate-concerned, it is an uninhabitable world.
The same depictions of fiery catastrophe that terrify Greta Thunberg and her legion of European schoolchildren are ingrained into the Christian consciousness as early as Sunday school. For many Christians, however, preventing environmental collapse is fruitless when Jesus is returning regardless.
In fact, evangelical protestants are the least likely demographic to feel the heat of global warming: the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reports that 70% of Americans recognize the indisputably human role in climate change, while Pew Research reports that only 32% of evangelicals do.
According to Pew Research, 78 million predominantly white and Republican Americans ascribe to some form of evangelical protestantism and compose a stunning chunk of the electorate. Despite President Donald Trump’s sacrilegious inability to name a single Bible verse, MAGA Christians look to him as a beacon of Christ-like masculinity, and denialist rhetoric erodes fundamental conventions of truth.
Current political messaging attempts to persuade action and acknowledgement of climate change by employing modern, left-leaning values — equality of opportunity, scientific thinking and secularism, to name a few.
On the other hand, conservative Republicans, specifically protestant evangelical Republicans, value individual liberty, minimal government intervention and justice.
To tell a climate denier that acting on climate change is the equitable thing to do is like telling Danny DeVito to enter the next NBA draft — not only is DeVito 4-foot-10, but he probably is not wired to score three-pointers.
The evangelical game relies on entirely different rules. Climate advocates have preached action based on values that closely align with the largely secular Democratic party, which is counterintuitive. A more effective approach would be to exploit the rules of 21st century protestantism.
For one, point to Biblical theology — Revelation 11:18 speaks of God “destroying those who destroy the Earth” (perhaps a prophetic allusion to big oil), Proverbs 12:10 confers righteousness upon those who “take care of the needs of their animals” and most canonically, Genesis 2:15 displays when God “took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it.”
On a less scriptural level, consider history’s most famous modern evangelist: the late Billy Graham, whose six-decade-long career reached 215 million people in 185 countries and territories and included spiritual counsel to 12 sitting presidents. Graham argued that “when we fail to see the world as God’s creation, we will end up abusing it.” Both scripture and scholars explicitly command good stewardship of the Earth.
Allow climate deniers the benefit of the doubt — maybe they do recycle their plastic straws, never, ever litter and most importantly, repost cute earth graphics for Earth Day. Even then, personal action barely scratches the surface compared to policy action.
According to the Alliance for Science, more than 99.99% of peer-reviewed research admits in the existence of climate change and humanity’s contributions to it, including a liturgically whopping 90% of Christian religious leaders.
At the end of the day, climate change is already terrifying, and planetary skeptics pose an additional barrier. Given that Mississippi boasts the third-highest evangelical protestant population, as reported by the Association of Religious Data Archives, reframing climate change as a Christian duty is tangibly relevant to our state.
So, the next time you find yourself in a heated discussion with an evangelical climate denier, there are a few points to keep in the back of your brain.
First, walk in their Sunday-best shoes: Argue, for example, that acting on climate change is as pro-life as you can get. Voting for pro-life policies is, after all, in the interest of the archetypal American conservative.
Second, point out that just because the world will end one day does not mean that action on climate advocacy should be abandoned. Shouldn’t the earth be clean and tidy when the Son of God returns?
Finally, and most importantly, be kind. Not only is altruism a basic human duty, but people are far more receptive to sweet talk than derogatory quips.
While acting on an issue that humanity can barely wrap their fingers around seems impossible, knowing that you are making an effort, whether through replanting trees to fight deforestation or convincing your climate denying meemaw after church on Sunday about global warming, the time is now.
Kadin Collier is an international studies and Arabic major from Hattiesburg, Miss.
