Is God Green? Emerging Environmentalism in the Evangelical Community By Marina Sophia Psaros B.A. European Studies University of California at Los Angeles, 1997 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN CITY PLANNING AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2006 @ 2006 Marina Psaros. All Rights Reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. // Author / Marina Psaros Department of Urban Studies and Planning (May 25, 2006) Certifi by Professor Judith Layzer Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Professor Langley Keyes Department of Urban Studies and Planning Ford Professor Chair MCP Committee MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY OCT 2 6 2006 LIBR EROTCHOC LIBRARIES Is God Green? Emerging Environmentalism in the Evangelical Community Marina Sophia Psaros Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 25, 2006 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning Abstract In recent months, evangelical environmentalism has been the subject of much media coverage and debate. The central questions are whether evangelical environmentalists could be potential allies for the mainstream environmental movement, and what impact pro-environment evangelicals might have on politics. I argue that evangelical environmentalists do not seek alliances with the mainstream environmental movement because the perception in the wider evangelical community is that environmentalism is liberal and un-Christian. This perception is the result of a confluence of theological, political, and cultural developments that have taken place over the past 30 years. As a result, the leaders of evangelical environmentalism do not want to risk forming coalitions with civic or political groups that would alienate members of their own political and religious communities. Instead, they work from within their own religious community to reframe environmentalism as a Christian duty, and they seek to change the Republican Party's stance towards environmentalism to align with their own. Thesis Supervisor: Judy Layzer Title: Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy Psaros 2006 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Judy Layzer, for encouraging my academic and intellectual development over the past two years. I would also like to thank my reader, JoAnn Carmin, for all of the listening, suggesting, and support she has given me during my time at MIT. My husband Karsten deserves my gratitude for being continually supportive of my decision to return to school. He deserves my appreciation for reading countless drafts of my thesis. And finally, he deserves my admiration for being a paragon of principled secular humanism. I feel lucky to come away from MIT with so many new friends and colleagues, three of whom have been central to my thesis experience. Anna Brown's infectious laugh, willingness to answer her cell phone at all hours, and appreciation of the absurd helped keep everything in perspective. Anna Wells has been my constant group mate, friendly competition, and intellectual companion since I arrived at MIT. Lindsay Campbell urged me to follow the topic that my heart was set on, and her casual brilliance has been a source of inspiration. Finally, I would like to thank the wonderful people in the evangelical community who shared their thoughts, prayers, experiences, and aspirations with me. This thesis would have been impossible without them. Psaros 2006 Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................... 7 Definitions................................................................................. 9 The Origins of Evangelical Anti-Environmentalism................................. 12 The Christian Right and the Environmental Backlash......................... 14 Developing "Creation Care"............................................................. 20 Contemporary Religious Environmentalism..................................... 20 Responding to "An Open Letter"................................................... 22 The Evangelical Climate Initiative....................................................... 33 The Christian Right Response to the ECI......................................... 35 Confusion in the Center............................................................... 40 Conclusions................................................................................. 42 Discussion................................................................................... 43 Appendices................................................................................... 45 ECI and ISA signatories............................................................... 45 W orks e ............................................................................. 50 Psaros 2006 Psaros 2006 6 INTRODUCTION "I am a white, heterosexual, conservative Republican evangelical, and I am an environmentalist." Ted Haggard, Christianity Today, 2005 On February 8, 2006, a group of evangelical Christian leaders issued a statement called the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), urging business, government, and their own religious community to take actions to prevent global climate change. The seeming paradox of conservative Christians endorsing pro-environment policies intrigued the media and the event was covered widely. The event countered the conventional political wisdom that Republicans are the party of the faithful, that Democrats are the party of the environmentalists, and that the two don't mix. Many journalists and pundits on both side of the partisan fence wondered whether the ECI signaled a shift in the evangelical community towards a more "green" stance (Kuraitis, 2005); and speculated that environmentalists could count on a politically powerful new ally (Janofsky, 2005, Shields, 2005). In dozens of articles since the launch of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, journalists have pointed to the ECI as proof that conservatives are coming around to join the environmental movement. On the surface, the Evangelical Climate Initiative does seem like a boon for the environmental movement and a potential source of headaches for the Republican Party. Interest group coalitions form and break based on individual groups' aims with respect to specific policy proposals, and examples abound of strange bedfellows coming together to achieve a common policy goal (Stone 2002, Cigler and Loomis 1998). Could the ECI be the start of a new alliance between traditionally opposed groups? When I began this research by speaking with the leaders of evangelical environmentalism, I wanted to find out 1) how and on which issues they would be willing Psaros 2006 to form coalitions with mainstream environmental groups, and 2) whether evangelical environmentalism would have an impact on evangelicals' support for the Republican Party. Contrary to my expectations (and to the conclusions that many observers had come to), I discovered that the evangelical environmentalists who had organized the Evangelical Climate Initiative are not interested in forming any coalitions with mainstream environmental groups at this time. In fact, they have intentionally avoided any association with mainstream environmentalism. Instead, they work from within their own religious community to reframe environmentalism as a Christian duty, and they seek to change the Republican Party's stance towards environmentalism to align with their own. I argue that evangelical environmentalists do not seek alliances with the mainstream environmental movement because the perception in the wider evangelical community is that environmentalism is liberal and un-Christian. This perception is the result of a confluence of theological, political, and cultural developments that have taken place over the past 30 years. As a result, the leaders of evangelical environmentalism do not want to risk forming coalitions with civic or political groups that would alienate members of their own political and religious communities. The emergence of ecotheology - that is, environmentalism grounded in religious beliefs - provided an opportunity for evangelicals to reframe environmentalism for their community. Evangelical environmentalists used the principles of ecotheology to develop an approach to environmentalism that they call "creation care." The Evangelical Climate Initiative is the first concerted effort by evangelical environmentalists to apply this creation care framework to environmental policy. The ECI represents the culmination of several years' work on the part of evangelical environmentalists to legitimize their framing of environmentalism within the wider evangelical community. Psaros 2006 Definitions One reason observers have arrived at the wrong conclusions about evangelicals "joining" the mainstream environmental movement is simply due to confusion of terms. Words like "the Christian Right," "conservative Republicans," "the Religious Right," "evangelical" and "fundamentalist" are often used interchangeably, by those who belong to one or more of the above categories, as well as by those who do not (Wilcox and Larson 2006, Kellstedt and Smidt 1996). These overlapping groups are commonly conflated into one undistinguished mass hovering over the right side of the political