The current climate in the U.S. reflects the growing role of Christian churches in social and environmental transformation. Both political parties in this U.S. presidential election have used strategic outreach to court the “religious vote.” In environmental outreach, the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, was shown in more than half a million churches around the country. Getting this film into churches helped to underscore the moral urgency of climate change and demonstrate the power of shared resources between churches and scientists for environmental change. All faith traditions, from Judaism to Buddhism, have a connection to the environment. We focus this presentation on the Christian faith, given the 77% percent of U.S. citizens who identify as Christians, the political power of churches, and current involvement of churches in issues such as climate change. This presentation addresses two key questions: (1) Why should we conduct outreach with churches? and (2) How do we connect ecological issues to the institutional life of churches? Through these questions, we explore the moral mandate of churches to promote stewardship of the earth and outline concrete strategies for connecting churches and faith organizations with conservation. We use a framework of specific ecological issues, from water conservation to climate change, to illustrate a diversity of outreach strategies across the U.S. for promoting faithful environmentalists within churches.
Results/Conclusions
On a national level, the National Council of Churches, a network of Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox faith groups, includes 45 million people. One initiative of its Eco-justice Program has included rebuilding churches in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast using green building techniques. On a local level, individual churches such as St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, WA have integrated “creation care” into its five core values of the congregation. Despite the growth of this movement, many environmental professionals are unaware or even skeptical of the power of this partnership between Christians and conservation. Indeed, ecologists who identify as religious may not think of their places of worship as places to practice sustainability. Environmental organizations across the U.S. could be working with networks of churches with established membership databases, meeting spaces, leadership roles, and moral mandates for conservation. This presentation will provide a rationale for outreach, examples and strategies of success, as well as concrete resources for taking next steps to connect churches with conservation.
