Greening for God: Evangelicals Learn to Love Earth Day

Greening for God: Evangelicals Learn to Love Earth Day

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For some churches, the environmental movement is not only a bad idea — it’s a false religion. But while some conservative church leaders continue to demonize a movement they call “The Green Dragon,” a growing number of evangelical leaders have been promoting mainstream environmental causes, even linking such concerns to biblical commandments. In 2006, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson went so far as to declare himself a “convert” on the issue of global warming.

But within the evangelical community, the unmistakable tipping point may have come at Washington’s National Cathedral, where some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical seminaries signed an agreement with a group called the Seminary Stewardship Alliance. The purpose of the covenant is to educate future church leaders about environmental initiatives — or “creation care,” in evangelical parlance. The Earth Day agreement asks the seminaries to commit to 10 specific actions, including modeling “sustainable practices in areas such as our facilities, hospitality, housing, missions, communications, recruitment, travel, and use of resources.”