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The Religiopolitical Clash Over Climate Change Within America's Dominant Religion

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The Religiopolitical Clash Over Climate Change Within America's Dominant Religion UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ A TALE OF TWO CHRISTIANITIES: THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL CLASH OVER CLIMATE CHANGE WITHIN AMERICA'S DOMINANT RELIGION A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in SOCIOLOGY with an emphasis in ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES by Daniel Bernard Zaleha June 2018 The Dissertation of Daniel Bernard Zaleha is approved: _________________________________ Professor Andrew Szasz, Chair _________________________________ Professor Miriam Greenberg _________________________________ Professor Nathaniel Deutsch _________________________________ Professor Bron Taylor ____________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Daniel Bernard Zaleha 2018 Table of Contents Abstract...................................................................................................................... vii Dedication and Acknowledgements.......................................................................... ix Chapter 1: The Religious Roots of Environment-Related Behavior...................... 1 Lynn White, Jr.: Was He Right About Christianity? ......................................... 4 Methods.................................................................................................................... 6 Why Calvary Chapel and The Center for Progressive Christianity?.............. 10 Road Map .............................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 2: What is Religion? How Does It Affect Environmental Behavior?.... 14 Chapter 3: A Brief History of the Western Religious Tradition and Its Sacred Texts ........................................................................................................................... 17 The Hebrew Bible ................................................................................................. 17 Genesis................................................................................................................ 17 How did the pre-biblical writers understand the human condition?................... 28 How did these antecedent creation and flood stories affect the later versions in Genesis? .............................................................................................................. 29 “Daniel,” Life After Death, and the Resurrection of the Righteous ................... 35 Key Textual Elements of Christianity, with an emphasis on the New Testament............................................................................................................... 38 Jesus of Nazareth ................................................................................................ 39 Stories about Jesus: the four canonical gospels .................................................. 42 Conflicts in the philosophical/theological/ethical content of the gospels........... 47 Did Jesus teach an imminent apocalyptic end to the world? .............................. 52 The Mush Gospel: What is it? ............................................................................ 54 Revelation ........................................................................................................... 56 First John............................................................................................................. 59 iii Chapter 4: American Protestantism-From Constantine to the Contemporary Moment ...................................................................................................................... 62 Anti-Catholicism in American Protestantism and Its Effects........................... 64 Chapter 5: The Evolution of Conservative Protestantism in the U.S. and Its Discourse on the Environment: 1950s-Present....................................................... 73 Early Conservative Protestant Reaction to Environmentalism........................ 73 Evolution of the Evangelical Protestant Discourse on the Environment: 1970- Present.................................................................................................................... 74 The Beginning of Conservative Protestant Backlash to Creation Care........... 77 The Cornwall Declaration: Packaging Christian Anti-Environmentalism for the Public ............................................................................................................... 81 Evangelical Climate Care and Its Backlash: 2004 to present........................... 83 Chapter 6 - Evangelicals: This World Is Not Their Home.................................... 93 Focus Group - Saving Grace Mesa - May 14, 2017............................................ 93 Calvary Chapel, A Brief History ......................................................................... 99 Visiting Calvary Chapels.................................................................................... 105 The ReGeneration Church, Scotts Valley, California....................................... 105 Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.............................................................................. 107 Calvary Chapel: Sermons explaining what the Bible means............................ 111 Calvary Chapel themes in Hibbs’, Bjorkman’s, and Valencia’s sermons..... 114 David Guzik and the Calvary Chapel Meme Factory....................................... 114 The centrality of hell as a driving concern........................................................ 116 World denial/discounting the importance of environmental concern............... 118 "God is in control": The absolute dominion of God ......................................... 119 Belief in Jesus is what saves ............................................................................. 120 Literal belief in the Bible is the most important ............................................... 121 Evolution is of the devil.................................................................................... 122 Anti-LGBT equality.......................................................................................... 124 Worry about one world government................................................................. 125 Anti-Environmentalism and/or Indifference Toward the Environment............ 126 iv Evangelical Creation Care Thought Leaders: Peter Illyn, Matthew Sleeth, and Anna Jane Joyner ............................................................................................... 128 Peter Illyn: “Evangelicals are quasi-Bible believing Christians; they believe what is convenient”.................................................................................................... 128 Matthew Sleeth - Evangelicals are “functional polytheists”............................. 132 Anna Jane Joyner: Evangelicals say they’re people of the book, “and they’re not”.................................................................................................................... 139 Conclusions regarding Evangelicals and Environmental Concern................ 140 Chapter 7: Progressive Christianity and Its Environmental Discourse - 1950s to Present...................................................................................................................... 146 Process Theology and Creation Spirituality..................................................... 147 Thomas Berry - reinventing what it mean to be human in the contemporary Christian context ............................................................................................... 150 The Dream of the Earth..................................................................................... 152 Befriending the Earth........................................................................................ 157 The Great Work: Our Way into the Future....................................................... 161 For Berry, what’s it all mean?........................................................................... 164 The Creation Spirituality of Matthew Fox........................................................ 165 Chapter 8 - Progressive Christian Congregations: “This World is Our Home” ................................................................................................................................... 171 Progressive Christian Forum of Santa Cruz County ...................................... 171 The Jesus Seminar and the Westar Institute.................................................... 174 The Center for Progressive Christianity........................................................... 181 Peace United Church of Christ, Santa Cruz...................................................... 185 Redlands United Church of Christ.................................................................... 189 First Church Phoenix UCC ............................................................................... 195 Sally Bingham and Interfaith Power and Light............................................... 198 Chapter 9 - Analysis and Conclusion.................................................................... 204 Analysis ................................................................................................................ 204 Two Christianities............................................................................................. 204 v Calvary Chapels as exemplars of evangelicals generally ................................. 207 Collective Narcissism within Evangelical Christianity .................................... 209 Evangelical susceptibility to conspiracy
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