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Evangelicals and the Environment

Interview with Rev. Richard Cizik

Rev. Richard Cizik is a founder of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good (www.newevangelicalpartnership.org), a faith-based nonprofit that seeks to mobilize a new evangelical constituency for action on key issues including the environment, nuclear disarmament and Muslim-Christian dialogue. From 1998 to 2008, he was vice president for government affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a powerful lobbying organization in the USA representing 45,000 churches, until his expression of conditional support for civil unions led to his resignation. Widely known for his advocacy of environmental concern, or "creation care" as he calls it, he was instrumental in creating the Evangelical Climate Initiative, introduced in 2006. In 2008 he was named to TIME magazine's "TIME 100" list of the world's most influential people.

SGI Quarterly: What is the basis for environmental concern, as an evangelist?

Richard Cizik: It's rooted in the firmest foundation possible, the Holy Word of God. Scripture mandates that we "care for and protect the Earth," which is stated first in Genesis 2:15, but this message is carried throughout the Bible all the way to the last book, Revelation 11:18: "I will destroy those who destroy the Earth." This was not a request from God but a command which is to be obeyed. Sadly, preachers of the Word, particularly Evangelicals, who say they take the Bible seriously, have simply overlooked this command. We all ignore it at our peril.

SGIQ: What has been the response within the church to your advocacy of environmentalism, or creation care?

RC: The response has differed widely. Some opponents, including voices from within the Religious Right, asked that I be fired from my position as vice president for government affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The resistance comes from a combination of beliefs, as follows: environmentalism is liberal politically; mainstream science, especially the science of climate change, is unreliable and can't be trusted; government regulation is bad for the economy, and only free-market economics will solve these environmental problems; and finally, that God gave us "dominion" over the Earth and we can do what we please with it. The fallaciousness of this criticism, especially the opposition to government regulation, can be evidenced in the failure to regulate the oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the worst oil spill since the Exxon Valdez.

Rev. Cizik at the 2005 March for Life in Washington DC [© Lyndsay Moseley]

In the end, my opponents got their way, since I was forced to resign in December 2008, on account of my views expressed on an NPR program entitled "Fresh Air." In other words, I gave too much fresh air, and the leaders of the NAE asked me to resign, and I did. But others within the movement, particularly the young, have been very supportive, and it's with their support that I've founded the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

SGIQ: How do you respond to the resistance?

RC: I've responded to this criticism by always going back to the Bible for my theological rationale for involvement. My critics can hardly argue with the Bible. I've also tried to never attack my critics personally. We simply disagree, and yet we together love God and should therefore also love His creation, that is, this Earth and all its inhabitants.

SGIQ: When did environmental concerns become important to you, and what has that change meant?

RC: I had a "conversion" to the biblical argument of caring for creation at Oxford University, England, in 2002, at the Oxford Conference on Climate Change. I went to the event with an open mind, but never expected to have an awakening that would alter my whole life. The eminent British scientist Sir John Houghton, a founding member of the International Panel on Climate Change, told me, "Richard, if you've changed your mind, you need to speak out." I told him that to do so could cost me my job. Well, it did. I left the NAE in 2008, six years later, to found the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. In sum, the "conversion" has changed my whole life and that of my family. I see the world differently, with a new "vision."

[© Uniphoto]

SGIQ: How can religious leaders help people bridge the gap between concern about the environment and effective action to create change?

RC: Religious leaders can help bridge the gap between a general concern and real action by giving people three things: (1) a vision to see and think more clearly. People must see the world with new eyes, that is, as God sees it; it is to move from "seeing to beholding"; (2) a strategy to care more deeply. To care this way requires that we do as the Bible says: "Love your neighbor as yourself." You can't say you love your neighbor if you are drowning him or her by sea ice melt from global warming; (3) a set of tactics to act more boldly. We need Christian people to see that God needs bold actions to protect the planet He created and loves deeply.

SGIQ: What have you learned from collaborating with other religious groups on environmental and other issues?

RC: I've learned that we can't save the Creation by ourselves, just Christians doing this work. We need Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and those with a Confucian worldview, all working together, since every nation and people-group will be required to do this. One example of this is the Interfaith Delegation to Vietnam in May this year examining the impacts of Agent Orange left over from the Vietnam War. We come from many different faith communities, but together we believe in cleaning up the "hot spots" left over from the deadly dioxin sprayed during the Vietnam War over an area of that country the size of the state of Massachusetts. Cleanup has barely begun, 35 years after the last helicopters left from the roof of the US Embassy in the old Saigon.

SGIQ: I believe some see the current global crisis, including the environmental crisis, as being simply the natural order of events preceding the second coming of Jesus Christ? How does this fit with the idea of creation care?

RC: I don't believe that the world has to come to environmental destruction for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That belief is rooted in Premillennial Dispensational theology, which is steeped in an end-times Armageddon view which is contrary to my understanding of the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is a book of warnings, not predictions. It says that the end of times may be dominated by war, famine, plagues and destruction--if we don't take actions to prevent them. Indeed, God told us to protect the Earth because He owns it, we do not. The future is not necessarily pessimistic, unless we succumb to pessimism and a failure to act as God told us to act.

SGIQ: What keeps you going in your advocacy of creation care?

RC: I am optimistic and unrelenting in preaching about creation care because God instructs us to be faithful, regardless of whether we are successful. But the reality is that God also gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit to encourage us and spur us onward. And, not least of all, we do experience success. There has been enormous movement toward greater environmental action in the United States because Evangelical Christians have joined the fight for cleaner air that we all breathe, and the water we all drink. The failure to regulate oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico is the evidence that a lax attitude will only destroy the planet. I warn my fellow believers of the following: "When you die, God will not ask you how old the Earth is, but rather, 'What did you do to protect it?'" This inspires me to carry on. It also inspires others.

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