Evangelicals aren’t always conservatives

LETTERS

On March 6, the CBC Radio Calgary breakfast show “Eye-Opener” broadcasted an interview with an evangelical Christian from Texas. Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is wife of a pastor of evangelical church and also director of the Climate Science Centre at Texas Tech University.

She is committed to educate the public about the danger of climate change. The CBC interviewer asked her how she could live with contradictions. She said, “Many people who call themselves evangelicals are letting their political ideology write their statement of faith first and listen to the Bible and Pope second . ... In Genesis 1, God commanded us to look after the welfare of Creation.”

I think it is the same in Canada: it is conservative messages evangelicals listen to first and read the Bible next. Evangelicals who refuse to accept climate change do not base their argument on the Bible. They let political ideology dictate their belief. However, I have met many evangelicals with whom I shared the same opinions, even though I disagree with their theology. They did not hold politically and socially conservative views, as we find among North American evangelicals.

In the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, my colleague in charge of Latin American programs came from and was representing the Pentecostal churches in Chile. She, however, was very much on the side of “Liberation Theology,” which the late Pope John Paul II chastised as Marxism, not Christianity. The Liberation Movement in South Africa and Zimbabwe was the same story.

The African Independent Churches such as Kimbangue and Shembe churches were an expression of resistance to the domination of European and North American missionaries in the churches. They split from the denominations rooted in the European tradition and formed African Independent churches while firmly keeping their Christian faith. Their spiritual practices follow African cultural traditions, while the theology and lifestyle are that of passionate evangelical. I met them in the context of Liberation Movements. One of them told me in Zimbabwe, “We have all-night prayer before we go out for a battle.”

Let us be quite clear, climate change deniers who claim to speak from their faith speak from their political views. They represent a right-wing political ideology. Meanwhile, there is an evangelical magazine “Sojourner” speaks like a liberal politically. In the CBC interview, Dr. Hayhoe quotes one evangelical climate change denier, “I agree with you, but never with Al Gore.”