June was the 13th month in a row to break global heat records, and the summer of 2024 already has seen more frequent and long-lived heat waves, hotter and bigger wildfires, longer lasting and more violent storms, and more heat-related deaths and hospital visits.
The scientific consensus is that human-caused greenhouse gases make these problems worse, but conservative Christian groups deny this consensus, claim it’s not really that hot, and suggest weather woes may be signs of God’s divine wrath or the second coming of Christ.
“Happy people see a romance to summer, its warmth making family and friend gatherings easier and more enjoyable,” said Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen. “Radical activists see it as a threat to life itself.”
“Make memories even while the alarmists try to make mischief.”
“Don’t let the radicals ruin the joy of this glorious summer. Sit in the sun. Savor the beach or pool. Take a swim. Go out in a boat. Go fishing. Sit on your porch and read. Take the kids camping. Barbeque, play ball, take a walk, go for a bike ride. Make memories even while the alarmists try to make mischief.”
Focus claims mainstream media are “party poopers” whose coverage of the earth’s changing climate is designed to “leverage a current heat wave to try and advance their belief that a man-induced climate crisis is threatening our very existence.”
“Radicals … are in a constant state of agitation, looking to fabricate and manufacture something out of nothing,” Focus claims.
Tony Perkins
The Focus-founded Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins says he has been “looking for a deeper meaning behind” the “increasing incidence of extreme weather.”
“What’s going on, God?” has asks. “What are you doing?”
His 1,400-word article asks, “Is America’s forecast stormy with a chance of divine wrath because of the nation’s sinful provocations?” It suggests two answers:
- God “does send natural disasters as judgment for specific sins”
- “And, heaven knows, America has accumulated plenty of sins worthy of provoking divine wrath; we have permitted the killing of millions of unborn babies, systematically dismantled God’s design for the family, and celebrated lies and liars while kicking God’s word to the curb.”
“How should Christians respond when our country experiences extreme weather events?” asked an article in FRC’s Washington Stand titled “Divine Displeasure in Severe Storms?” “We keep ourselves ready for his return.”
Focus and other groups that deny a human role in climate change promote a theology of divine sovereignty that claims humans lack the ability to harm God’s creation.
“Man cannot destroy the earth,” writes young-earth creationist Ken Ham in his book Climate Change for Kids … and Parents Too! which is published by his ministry, Answers in Genesis. “God promised that. But God’s word makes it clear that one day, Jesus, who returned to the Father in heaven after his resurrection, will one day return to this fallen, groaning earth and judge this earth and the whole universe with a fiery end!”
Meanwhile, Focus on the Family says, “As we read in Genesis, we need not fret about the ever-changing nature of weather.”
“As we read in Genesis, we need not fret about the ever-changing nature of weather.”
But for millions of Americans, there’s plenty to fret about.
Heat is now killing more people and sending more to hospitals. An estimated 2,300 Americans died from heat-related illnesses in 2023, triple the annual rate between 2004 and 2018. Also, 2023 recorded 120,000 heat-related emergency room visits. Heat also worsens medical conditions such as kidney disease and asthma and leads to increases in gun deaths.
“Heat waves are growing stronger and more frequent under climate change,” reports The New York Times. The increasing heat is allowing wildfires to burn overnight, grow bigger and last longer.
In 2023, fires and storms forced 2.5 million Americans from their homes, with a third of them displaced for six months or more. Hurricanes now grow stronger and blow harder due to rising ocean temperatures, and this year’s season is predicted to be the worst. Rising ocean levels bring more frequent flooding.
Climate change has brought an unprecedented number of billion-dollar weather disasters, and insurance companies are now losing money in 18 U.S. states. They’re trying to survive by entirely withdrawing from some regions of the country while drastically increasing rates in regions where they remain.
The Times reported: “As a warming planet makes events like hail and wind storms worse, insurers are fleeing. The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which had been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington.”
The destroyed Waiola Church is shown following wildfire, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Churches across the country are fretting over fast-rising insurance costs, according to a Religion News Service report, “How A Perfect Storm Sent Church Insurance Rates Skyrocketing.”
United Methodist bylaws require its churches to have property insurance, but hundreds of Methodist congregations in Texas lost their existing coverage last year, and some have not been able to replace it. Established companies including Church Mutual and Brotherhood Mutual are suffering and declining to cover churches in some regions.
Climate change has hammered Florida, but Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to prioritize culture war. Last year, he turned down $346 million in federal funds to help homeowners. This year he signed legislation that prohibits some forms of “green” energy and limits consideration of climate change impact on policy.
“We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” DeSantis wrote on X.
At the GOP convention in Milwaukee, Monday night focused on energy. As BNG reported, the GOP’s new platform includes the promise to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL,” and on Monday, delegates affirmed that promise.
Focus on the Family offers similar support of fossil fuels, citing the 2014 book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels:
- “Fossil fuels make us safer from dangerous temperatures”
- “Anti-fossil-fuel policies increase the danger from cold and heat”
As BNG reported last Earth Day, evangelicals supported environmentally friendly “creation stewardship” policies through the 1970s and 1980s. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission acknowledged in 1991 that “humans are changing the earth” and causing temperatures to rise.
But as white evangelicals married their cause to GOP politics, they increasingly began dismissing claims of global warming, condemning environmentalism as a pagan cult, and using their influence to oppose climate-friendly legislation.