Dear Revealer readers,

At the 2012 Republican National Convention, presidential-hopeful Mitt Romney mocked President Obama for saying that rising sea levels were one of the greatest threats to our country. The crowd erupted in laughter. The image of a Commander-in-Chief who worried about water made for an easy joke about a weak and out-of-touch leader. Romney puffed his chest and assured his audience that he would protect America against “legitimate” threats by strengthening our military and securing our borders. The audience loved it.

Earlier in his political career, Romney had actually spoken out against man-made climate change and insisted that the U.S. must do more to protect the planet. But by the time he sought the Republican presidential nomination, Romney changed his tune to appeal to the corporations that resisted environmental regulations and the white evangelicals who opposed climate science.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

In the nine years since Romney lost the presidential election, the United States has witnessed an avalanche of climate catastrophes: destructive and more frequent hurricanes, deadly flooding, excessive draught, dangerous heatwaves, and horrific wildfires that look like scenes from apocalyptic movies. These same years have also witnessed a rise in environmental activism, spearheaded especially by teenagers and young adults. Climate strikes and marches have taken place across the globe as young people cry out for political and corporate leaders to save the planet before it becomes uninhabitable.

Where does religion fit within this matrix of addressing (and denying) climate change? Religious leaders and communities wield incredible power. Many have used their influence to raise awareness of the climate crisis and to lobby for change. But too many others have failed to tap into their power or have outright denied climate change, and we all suffer for it.

The climate crisis touches on nearly every political issue we face, from immigration, war, and housing to economics, crime, and employment. To ignore the climate crisis, or to confront it slowly in ways that are not effective enough, is to invite a host of catastrophes as people are forced to flee their homes, as nativism ramps up to oppose immigration, as resources become scarce, as industries collapse, as products become more expensive, as electrical grids fail, and so on, and so on. The climate crisis could very well be the most important issue of our time. That is why we are bringing you this special issue of the Revealer on religion and the climate crisis.

Our special issue opens with Tulasi Srinivas’s article “A Lake of Fire, A Runaway Goddess, and the Perils of Climate Change in India,” in which she recounts how the lakes in her hometown of Bangalore, India are filled with waste and, at times, literally on fire. She questions if the goddesses and gods, who some Hindus believe reside at those lakes, have fled because of the pollution and what that means for India and the rest of the world. Next, in “Beyond Solar Panels and Priuses,” Amanda Baugh explores Latinx Catholics’ often-overlooked conservation practices, and she reflects on how most environmental activism is centered on white Americans and why that must change. Then, in “Jewish Farming and the Climate Crisis,” Adrienne Krone reports on the Jewish farming movement and how Jewish farming organizations are taking a multi-pronged approach to combat climate change.

Robin Veldman gives us a different perspective on religion and the climate crisis in “Christian Nationalism and Climate Skepticism,” as she investigates the link between Christian nationalists and climate science deniers to make sense of why people who want the United States to be an avowedly Christian nation tend to reject the realities of climate change. Finally, the special issue includes an excerpt from Amanda Baugh’s book God and the Green Divide: Religious Environmentalism in Black and White to explore how some religious groups are working to make environmental activism more racially and religiously diverse.

Our special issue also includes the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “Religion and Climate Change.” For this episode, we sat down with three of the writers from this issue to discuss what various communities across the United States are doing, or not doing, about the climate crisis, as well as what needs to happen to make climate change an urgent priority among America’s diverse religious communities. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We need not wonder how future generations will judge our handling of the climate crisis; we already have the answer. They should condemn us. And we should condemn ourselves for not doing nearly enough, for allowing corporations to prioritize shareholder profits above everything else, for letting media give space to ridiculous climate change deniers, and for not joining Greta Thunberg and her comrades in denouncing our political leaders until they make the climate crisis their most urgent priority. Of course, religions have much to say about judgment, and about how people should live their lives. Religious communities must therefore do more to combat climate change. And all of us, religious or otherwise, must lobby our elected officials to make the climate crisis a top concern that demands their action.

I hope the articles in this special issue inspire you to act on behalf of the planet and the people most directly affected by climate change. Addressing the climate crisis may well be the greatest imperative of our time.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.