Faith leaders urge voters to consider climate
Bishop Deborah Hutterer often thinks about something Martin Luther once said, a phrase repeated in the sanctuaries of Lutheran churches across the country.
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces,” the reformer reasoned, “I would still plant my apple tree.”
For Hutterer, it’s a reminder of an individual’s responsibility to the future, even when the future seems bleak.
“I’ve always thought that’s a beautiful image,” Hutterer said. “From our Lutheran tradition, we have this idea of care of creation, the interdependence of each one of us, and the fact that without caring about creation, we have actually denied our neighbors. Our lives depend on the life that surrounds us.”
Hutterer, the bishop of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, was one of four Arizona faith leaders from diverse traditions who spoke at an online panel last week in Phoenix about how different faiths address human responsibility to the environment.
The panelists included speakers from the Jewish, Muslim and evangelical traditions and was moderated by the Reverend Doug Bland, the director of Arizona Interfaith Power and Light, a group that represents 100 congregations across the state, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Indigenous spiritual traditions.
The organization has worked this year to mobilize a national religious response to global warming by promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. The groups see the 2020 election as “a referendum on the values that will shape our future” and have developed a nonpartisan voting guide for people of faith.
Their work reflects a trend of religious groups working to educate followers about environmental issues and human-driven climate change.
The movement within the Christian community was spurred by Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on ecology, called Laudato Si, which says climate change is real and mainly “a result of human activity.”
A new poll reflects that movement. It found that a majority of American voters of faith not only know that climate change is happening, but they also want their elected officials to support policies that combat climate change and uplift clean energy.
The poll, released on Thursday, was conducted by science communication organization Climate Nexus in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. The poll surveyed nearly 2,000 registered voters with questions regarding climate change, racial justice, COVID-19 and President Donald Trump’s leadership.
Pollsters found that a significant per
centage of voters from all faiths viewed climate change as a problem. For example, the poll found that 70% of Black Protestants, 47% of White evangelical Protestants, and 67% of Jews think climate change is having an effect on extreme weather in their state.
The findings reflect what the four panelists discussed at the online webinar last week.
“As people of faith, we are called to care for Creation and to love our neighbors,” Bland said. “Today a majority of people of faith in the U.S. affirm that climate change is real and human caused. Having just experienced the hottest summer on record in Arizona, Arizonans believe that government should do more to mitigate the causes of climate change.”
Rabbi Nina Perlmutter, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff, highlighted that, in the Jewish tradition, all living things are considered to have a soul, not only humans.
“The Earth does not belong to us, the Earth belongs to the divine mystery,” she said. “It’s an aliveness that we are in siblinghood with.”
Sakina Al-Amin, lead organizer at the Arizona Council on American-Islamic Relations, talked about how in Islam, Muslims are required to eat meat that was killed and prepared in an ethical way according to Muslim law, known as “halal.”
“The way that halal meat is done wouldn’t destroy the environment, the planet, as the meat industry is doing now,” Al-Amin said. “You’re not allowed
to eat an animal that has been stunned to death, slaughtered by a machine. If you have to slaughter the animal yourself, you’re going to only do it when necessary. You’re going to eat less meat.”
Pastor Chris Gonzalez of Missio Dei, an evangelical congregation in Tempe, spoke about the conflicts within the evangelical community in prioritizing care for the environment over other issues.
“In American Christianity, I think there’s been a theological strain that basically says this world’s gonna burn up anyway, and so the goal is to believe some right stuff, to get up there and get out of here,” Gonzalez said. “And if that’s the case, then anything you do environmentally is kind of secondary.”
Gonzalez has worked to reframe that thinking within his congregation and in talks with evangelical congregations across the country.
“The God that we worship is the God who created the world and the original creation is good and God doesn’t make junk and he doesn’t junk what he’s made,” Gonzalez said.
That shift in perspective, he said, “really opens up for people that the goal is restoration. We get to join God in what he’s doing. The way that we care for the environment, for his creation, actually matters and is a part of our faith.”
The panelists wrestled with what can sometimes be seen as antagonism between the political and the spiritual.
“I think it’s very easy to bring your idolatry of your politics first,” Perlmutter said. “I think very often people aren’t
answering from their faith tradition, they’re reflexively responding from some other part of their identity. Who are you thinking about when you say economics is what I care about? And if it’s only yourself, I think you’re not listening to the Jewish teachings. I don’t think you’re listening to Christian teachings or other teachings either.”
They all emphasized the importance of electing leaders that align with one’s religious and spiritual beliefs, something that can be difficult to reconcile given the extreme polarization of political parties and the complexity and volume of issues facing Americans, and the world, today.
“I have people in my congregation who say, ‘How could a Christian vote for Biden?’ And I have people in my congregation say, ‘How could a Christian vote for Trump?’ ” Gonzalez said. “Our faith, the gospel of Jesus, it’s not partisan, but it is political. Our faith isn’t Republican or Democrat. The common good matters because God cares about his creation and his people.”
Erin Stone covers the environment for The Arizona Republic and azcentral .com. Send her story tips and ideas at erin.stone@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @Erstone7.
Environmental coverage on azcen tral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.