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

Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).