Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archives
    • By Issue
    • By Article
    • By PDF (2008-14)
    • By PDF (1985-97)
    • All Articles
  • Sections
    • Current Research
    • Findings & Footnotes
    • On/File
  • Google Search
You are here: Home / Archive / Evangelical scientists turning fellow believers to climate change activism

Evangelical scientists turning fellow believers to climate change activism

March 1, 2009 by Richard Cimino

Print-friendly

Evangelical scientists are having a significant impact on many evangelicals and their views on environmentalism, writes Mark Pinsky in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin (Winter).

The American evangelical rank and file have been divided on such environmental issues as climate change, with both sides using scientific authorities to help defend their positions. But Pinsky writes that a subset of evangelical scientists at prestigious (often British) universities have turned their attention to climate change, authoring several books making the Christian case for curbing global warming, among the most popular being A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming, by Michael Northcott.

Other scientists, such as Brian Heap and Sir John Houghton, along with their American counterparts, such as Francis Collins and Calvin DeWitt of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, have directly influenced religious leaders, who, in turn, spread the word to their constituencies about the dangers of climate change and the need for activism.

For instance, Houghton personally influenced Richard Cizik, head of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, who became an outspoken proponent of activism on climate control (attracting the attention of critics such as Pat Robertson and James Dobson, who exerted pressure to try and have him fired).

Joel Hunter, an influential megachurch pastor and advisor to President Obama, has likewise been the recipient of Houghton’s personal counsel. Hunter says that believing researchers have been very important in generating support for activism on the issue, mainly because they are seen as respected scientists who are also committed Christians. Pinsky adds that support for an activist role regarding climate change has become a “major tenet among a cohort of younger megachurch pastors now bidding to assume national leadership of the evangelical movement.”

(Harvard Divinity Bulletin, 45 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138)

Print-friendly

Filed Under: Archive

Also in this issue

  • On/File: March/April 2009
  • Findings & Footnotes: March/April 2009
  • New Age movement returns to India in Hindu dress
  • Sri Lanka: new role for religious communities in conflict areas
  • Current Research: March/April 2009
  • The Family moves in a collaborative, if centralized, direction
  • Pro-life position gaining support in mainline denominations and becoming strong in world Christianity
  • Pope’s appointments tilt American church leadership
  • Rehabilitating jihadists—and reviving ghosts of the “cult wars”?

Search the Site

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Click on the image for downloading

© 2016-2020 Richard Cimino / Religioscope
·News Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress