Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

“Faith and Environmentalism: A Natural Partnership” is the topic of this conversation between the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), and Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III.

Cizik says, “I believe the degrading of the environment is an offense against God.” As an evangelical, he encourages Christians, particularly within the evangelical movement, to heed scientists’ warnings about human responsibility for damage to the earth. An effort to silence Cizik or remove him from his position at the NAE backfired when the NAE’s board concurred with him about the issue.

Lloyd asks why evangelicals, along with countless other Americans, have been slow to support environmentalism. Cizik mentions several causes, including disdain for environmentalists as leftists, distrust of mainstream science and media, free market economics, and interpretations of human “dominion” over the earth. “And yet I would say that it is fast changing,” Cizik adds, pointing out a broad new environmental awareness among evangelicals.

Cizik believes that environmentalism is a “victim of the origins debate.” Some Christians who do not believe in evolution extend their mistrust of evolutionary science to other forms of science.

Although environmentalism is sometimes considered outside the scope of evangelical concerns, creation care is linked to the sanctity of life, Cizik maintains. He cites birth defects from mercury pollution as one example.

Cizik recounts his visits to the Arctic Circle, where millions of acres of trees have died in recent years. Closer to home, he has seen results of nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond. “It’s time for business as usual to be over,” he says of public and political reluctance to take concrete action to safeguard the environment. Cizik considers environmental degradation to be a question of national security, and mentions the struggle for natural resources as a key element in the Darfur conflict.

About Richard Cizik

In January 2010 Richard Cizik formed the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good with David Gushee and Steve Martin. For ten years he had served as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a post he left in 2008. He has been a leader in bringing evangelicals and scientists together in the search for common ground on climate change.

In 2002 Cizik participated in Climate Forum 2002, at Oxford, England, which produced the “Oxford Declaration” on global warming. He was instrumental in creating the Evangelical Climate Initiative, introduced in 2006. In 2005, the New York Times dubbed him the “Earthy Evangelist” for his advocacy on climate change, and in 2008 he was named to Time Magazine’s list of the “Time 100” most influential people. In 2006, Fast Company placed him on its list of “Most Creative Minds.”

Cizik has written more than 100 articles and editorials and is the author and editor of The High Cost of Indifference. He contributed to the landmark document “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Engagement.”