SAN ANTONIO — Conservative Christians generally have turned a cold shoulder to concerns about global warming, but ethicist David Gushee believes he understands why.
“Climate change is among the most heavily reported stories — and in my view, one of the most significant human challenges — of the 21st century,” Gushee, a professor at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, told the Texas Christian Life Conference.
PHOTO: Ferrell Foster/BGCT
David Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, discusses “faith, science and climate change” during a recent Baptist conference.
Even so, cultural, ideological and theological factors combine to make many evangelicals skeptical about global warming, he observed.
Gushee believes “die-hard anti-climate-change soup” follows this recipe:
• Begin with disdain for the environmental movement.
Some conservative evangelical Christians associate environmentalists with the 1960s counterculture and “flower power” hippies, he noted.
Others equate the environmental movement in general with “non-Christian or eclectic eco-spiritualities,” he added. “It's Pocahontas talking to spirits in the trees.”
• Add a distrust of mainstream science.
The same scientific method that produces evidence for global warming also runs contrary to the biblical literalism that teaches the Earth was created in six days less than 10,000 years ago, he observed.
“Some use climate change as a proxy for endless fighting of evolution battles,” Gushee said. And Christian talk-radio thrives on generating conflict, he noted.
Furthermore, many conservative evangelicals fail to understand the scientific peer-review process. They seize on a few of the findings of a few dissenting scientists rather than the peer-reviewed findings of international scientific panels.
“Think of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as peer-review on steroids,” he said.
• Blend in mistrust of mainstream media.
Gushee characterized the attitude as “if it's in the New York Times, it must not be true.”
Conservative niche news outlets and Christian talk-radio reinforce preconceived perceptions that do not challenge the conventional wisdom of political ideologues, he noted.
“There's a need for Chris-tian exposure to diverse new sources,” he said. “The niching of the news has made it so that we never have to encounter an idea we don't like.”
• Throw in loyalty to party and president.
In recent years, environmentalism has been linked to the Democratic Party. Former Vice President Al Gore “has become a lightning rod” attracting people who are skeptical about global warming because they view the issue through a political lens, he said.
But that could be changing. Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has bucked the right wing of his own party by supporting legislation to reduce the level of greenhouse gasses, Gushee noted.
“Whoever is elected president from among the remaining candidates, I believe we will have significant climate change legislation. And it's about time,” he said.
• Combine with the belief in libertarian free-market economics as God's will.
Conservative Christians committed to unfettered capitalism inherently are opposed to government intervention in the marketplace, he noted.
“Real or exaggerated worries about the economic effects of climate legislation,” particularly on the poor, also figure into the equation, he added. Some evangelicals genuinely fear efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses will cause a loss of jobs and have a negative impact on the poor.
• Add a dash of reluctance to believe the unbelievable.
“Season with the belief that human beings are too frail, small and insignificant to change something as big as the planetary climate,” he said.
Ironically, Chris-tians who believe in a resurrected Savior who was God in the flesh, of all people, should find it easier than most people to accept “inconvenient and surprising truths,” he noted.
• Mix in a misunderstanding of divine sovereignty.
A resurgence of an extreme form of Calvinism “cuts the nerve of acute human responsibility,” Gushee said.
The belief that God ordains all things and therefore whatever occurs is destined as part of his plan leads to “the obscenity of complacency,” he insisted.
“Technological enhancements of human power heighten human responsibility,” he stressed. And biblical Christianity presents “a God who genuinely rules and humans who genuinely decide.”
• Add an unhealthy dose of dominion theology.
A reading of Genesis that focuses on the idea of human dominion of creation — the idea that God gave people free rein to exploit the earth for their own benefit — needs to be reexamined, Gushee urged.
“It's time for rereading Scriptures and rethinking theology,” he said. Gushee suggested an approach that focuses on creation stewardship and “reclaiming the wounded creation for God.”
Rather than sipping the stew of die-hard climate-change skepticism, Gushee offered another entrée.
“A better path is to apply the best scientific resources in conversation with the best theological reflection to discern what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ today,” he said.
And considering “how much is at stake” and in light of the threat that global warming presents, it places a special responsibility on Christians “in red-state America” to exercise influence, he added.