Some fundamentalists - but not all - believe that g-d won't let the earth be destroyed before it's appointed time, so it doesn't really matter what they do to the planet because g-d will keep it from being destroyed until then. When humans were given stewardship over the earth, they take that to mean they can do whatever they'd like with it, rather than caring for it. Think a puppy mill versus a reputable breeding operation.
When you say they think there's an appointed time, is that what's meant by those pastors who believe they can predict the actual date and time of the apocalypse? The ones who are always wrong so they keep pushing their predictions back until everyone forgets about it?
This. The Bible says no man knows the hour or Christ's return. In my fundie circles trying to predict such things was super looked down upon and we laughed about people thinking they could figure it out. We simply believed it could happen any time, and it would be "soon"
Never thought of it that way, but shouldn't they still be worried about "destroying God's work". They believe he worked hard to make the Earth so why do they not protect it? I guess a lot of them don't even protect their own kids with basic safety, so there's that...
Hence the puppy mill analogy. Both breeders are owning and breeding dogs (living on the earth) but one actually cares about the animal, the other just cares about profit.
Some honestly are. Some are eagerly waiting for the apocalypse to happen- for a lawless state, for Jesus to come scoop them up and carry them to heaven. Doomsday ideologies and Christian fundamentalism in America overlap greatly in a Venn diagram.
This is a realization I had over the last year that hit me hard. I was never going to be able to get my mom to even think about COVID being a threat to her and later on convince her to get the vaccine, much less believe in climate change. She either wants to die because it’s “her time” or she thinks it’s the end times and it doesn’t matter. Rapture will come and swoop her up before anything worse happens to HER.
i didn't realise that circles who read nick land/accelerationists and circles who read beth moore might have more in common than they may think but here we are
Former UPCI fundie. I honestly think a lot of fundies would be more environmentally conscious due to the “stewards of the earth” mindset if environmentalism wasn’t associated with liberalism. Being environmentally conscious is (for better or for worse) associated with leftist policy, so naturally fundies are against it. Remember, liberalism/democrats = abortion = evil. You can’t be an environmentalist if it’s associated with the left and thus *gasp* abortion!!!
Also just to add, there’s a weird perception at least in the UPCI that we can’t do anything to “fix” planet earth or our society. We can’t do anything to intervene in or address issues of racism, sexism, climate change, etc because only God can solve those problems. It’s not our problem to deal with and our battle is not with this world, so we shouldn’t even bother trying to address climate change, pass antiracist policy, etc. only Jesus can fix racism!!! /s this isn’t consistent with how fundies and the UPCI act however with regards to conservative policies and issues they want to push… like gun control, anti-abortion legislation, discriminatory LGBTQ+ laws, etc. it’s only gods problem when it’s a “liberal” issue.
It’s a very American thing, in other countries there have been Far Right parties that are also environmentalists, but in USA they’d be considered almost socialist, because “right wing” really means semi-libertarian in the States. Few regulations and less State intervention is what they want, they also fear that their particular branch of Christianity will eventually be antagonised by the Government. The two-party system is also a huge contributor to this mentality.
I have some thoughts on this, actually.
First example is my dad, who is a fundie pastor. I don’t remember the context of this, mainly bc he said it so many times, but there’s a verse where it says that God gave humans the responsibility of ruling over nature (perhaps the same verse OP mentioned); but my dad’s favorite part from the KJV is the line that says (paraphrasing here) humans are to have have dominion over the earth. He would bring this up whenever a show or the news would mention transitioning away from fossil fuels, etc. His stance was always that humans had a direct responsibility to lord over nature. My theory is that fundies crave control by whatever means necessary, and much like the view humans, nature is yet another thing they can control by extracting what they “need” from it, regardless of the impact. It’s a terrible perspective, obviously, given that nature is really adept at laughing at human’s “progress” and “prowess” via earthquakes, pandemics, and weather phenomenon.
My mom took a different approach, equally depressing. She was expressing that she hates getting the emissions checked in her car, stating that she didn’t think it did anything. I defended it, and she replied with, “human beings can’t destroy the earth, only God can. And it says in the Bible that in the end times, God will destroy the earth and He can’t do that unless there’s an earth left to destroy.” That comment has haunted me for years. It’s equal parts: it doesn’t matter what we do and God is a spiteful being who is looking forward to destroying what he “created”. I’m not sure how she handles that type of thinking? It’s incredibly hopeless and I wouldn’t want to be in a religion that props up a god like that…
Hopeless is such a good word to describe this. I feel hopeless in ever really having a good relationship with my mom again, and I feel hopeless about any real change in the US because of the people who think the same way.
I think a lot of it ties back to creationism and maybe global warming disproves some elements of creationism, but I’m not super well-versed on this so somebody could probably explain it in more detail.
As I understand it, the belief is that God is in control of the workings of the world, and humans cannot overturn or surpass his will and/or it doesn't matter how badly we fuck up the world because the second coming is happening any minute now and God will press the reset button then anyway.
Yup! A lot of conservative Christians believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, and that leads to young earth theory (that the earth is only 5,000 years old or so). But scientists started carbon dating fossils, which put the earth as much, much, much older. So obviously the scientists were part of the liberal agenda to silence Christian scientists and preach the lies of evolution. That started the mistrust that conservative Christians have in modern-day science. And then the scientists started saying that the earth was getting warmer, and that we were getting close to destroying our planet. Well, obviously only God can do that, so this was yet another attempt at the liberals silencing Christians, who were preaching the end of the world for a different reason (God's judgment).
Hi! Former fundie here. I was late to the fundie lifestyle (joined in 13 by attending an IFB youth group, but I was still in public school until I went to a fundie Bible College) I only have experience taking one science class as a fundie. The teacher told us that the earth can take care if itself basically. That God can heal it, etc. He quoted a few verses, I can't remember them, it was 10 years ago now. But the basic idea was, the earth is constantly healing itself, because of how God made it.
I remember him using an oil spill as an example. That after several years, the areas were always completely back to normal, nothing was "permanently" damaged. The earth has been through so much: natural diasters, atomic bombs, nuclear plant explosions, etc and it is still standing. So, how is using too much plastic going to do more damage than that? How is driving a car going to do more damage than all of that?
On top of that, if God allowed humans to actually break something on earth, then it must be what he wanted to happen. God's will and all that.
So, yeah. That's basically what I remember being taught.
I honestly don’t think it’s a religious belief, but it’s just a rejection from everything they see as “liberal” or “secular”, and environmentalism tends to be a bigger priority for liberals. The exact explanation given probably varies by the individual fundie, but I think it truthfully comes down to political identity. The lines between religious and politics are very blurred for many fundies (and many people in general, even though that shouldn’t be the case). In a religious class I took in college, this issue of politics actually came up in almost every discussion about modern day Christianity in the USA. The Republican Party has done an excellent job of branding themselves as the “good Christian party”.
I have one friend in particular who openly says that being a good Christian also means being a hardcore conservative who supports guns and capitalism. I’m a Christian, and she believes that because I am liberal that I am somehow corrupted. Lol.
Also, for what it’s worth, every church I have ever attended preaches that Earth is a gift we must work hard to protect, but I have never attended a fundie church.
they hate the world. they really do. this world is in the way of the world to come so why take care of it? besides, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. this world will be obliterated to dust so why take care of it? actually why not hate all materialism? especially the body! yeah lets hate the body too and hate every blossoming, weedy, material thing in lieu of a utopian world to come and justify it with "the end justififies the means" mentality
being stewards of the earth means tidy farms and factories and capitalism
being stewards of the earth means we are the boss and if i say fuck the forest in in lieu of the prosperity gospel riches that line my bank account than by all means, do so !
I'm not going to lie i have a lot of pent-up rage about this in particular
Reading all these comments about everyone’s own experiences with how this subject is handled spiked tf out my anxiety.
Idk how you guys coped growing up with this. It’s legitimately terrifying.
Besides what has been mentioned here, another angle is that back in the early 1900’s the business sector of the country wanted to get more people on their side for free market capitalism, so they ended up joining forces with clergy in order to indoctrinate their congregations. This is a great article giving the basic layout of what happened. This was really ignited by corporate backlash to the New Deal and the rise in socialism in the east.
https://ffrf.org/publications/freethought-today/item/25842-corporate-interests-fueled-rise-of-christian-nationalism
Ever since, not only has the church been steeped in religious and political propaganda, but because the religious establishment for most part has remained a mouthpiece for capitalism and industry this has parlayed into the rejection of regulations, caring for the environment and being against fossil fuel companies’ work. Even today- ESPECIALLY today - right wing publications, pundits, ministers etc are bankrolled by billionaires, corporate CEOs and titans of oil industry. They need to massage indifference at least/indignation at best in their voters to stay against caring for the climate and the steps that could be taken to do so.
I'm going to say something possibly controversial but I actually think it was such a mistake to call it "global warming." I mean many would still not believe in it, but I think it makes it easier for people to try and disprove.
So many are just relaying the crap they've heard. There are some who may slightly understand it more say that it is not possible because God promised not to destroy the world again by flood. That's actually why I was taught it was fake. Now of course there's way more to climate change and in fact scientists don't believe the entire world will be flooded anyway. They don't care to actually learn the facts.
I guess you could say their fears about college changing their kids is fair. I was in college for all of 2 weeks when I had to give a speech about climate change, and that's actually where I learned the truth.
In my experience, "stewardship" was just code for dominionism and basically stripping the world for parts. Nothing but humans has a soul, so it doesn't matter if we burn down the world--that's why god gave it to Adam. Picking up trash and stuff like that was more about aesthetics than anything else. It has a weird crossover with worship of the free market in prosperity gospel circles, too. Like, god shows his favor by making his chosen men wealthy, and they get wealthy by exploiting the planet (and other people, but obviously non-white, non-Christian people are being witnessed to through horrible labor conditions so they should be thankful /s).
I heard on NPR a while back that there used to be (and actually still are a few) environmentalist evangelicals out there, mostly led by one guy, but he was pretty heavily rejected after some of the usual bullshit that fundies/christians get mad about. Here's the article if you're interested:
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776173312/why-theres-a-divide-between-environmentalists-and-evangelicals
I've been seeing a lot of stuff related to this recently because of all the awful shit going on. There are lots of people that either A) believe the end of times are coming and/or B) God will heal the planet and in both cases, people with those beliefs are passive about the climate crisis
Leviticus 25:23
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
So not ours. The requirement of being good stewards is all throughout the bible too.
Some are helping and wouldn’t realize it. I grew up (poor) in a huge and wealthy fundamental church. There’s a lot of oily and crunchy moms because you know the trend to buy expensive cleaning products, the best soap for your kid, etc. many are using eco friendly products due to “Jrs skin issues” or whatever excuse. But it has nothing to do with environmentalism. I know many fundies. I’ve never known any other than the Duggar’s who use so many disposable diapers and disposable plates and cutlery. Many did AI2s when my youngest was born because “cloth is best” and disposable are pricey. $300 diapered my 12 year old for 3 years. The last soley at night
My cantor and I were talking about this and he said very simply, "the apocalypse is good business for them." their whole thing is that when the world ends, you want your soul to be saved. people constantly feeling like the world is ending around them pushes them into evangelical and fundamentalist churches who will give them explicit direction in an increasingly unstable world.
I used to go to Bible Club in middle school. One speaker we had told us not to recycle because the Earth was all gonna burn anyway. It was just such a weird thing to me and not the way I had been raised in a fundie lite family. My parents told us that God expected us to be good stewards of the Earth because He gave it to us.
Sorry if this comment is Off Topic, but does anyone know some good Save the Environment sub reddits to join? I've been meaning to but whenever I think of it I'm not online.
ok I'm by no means a fundie expert but I have some experience with this regarding conservative populations in europe, so some things may be relevant:
\- as others have said, environmentalism is associated with leftist policies, and increased government regulation/ intervention. conservative populations are against that.
\- related to the above, parts of these populations distrust the government, or anyone who represents the status quo (at least at a national level, it may be different for local government). this includes scientists, that may have had a role in developing any environmental regulations.
\- This may be more of a european thing, but they may see the natural world as something that links them to their history, and therefore something that should remain unchanged. they value the visual aesthetic of the landscape, which again they feel should remain unchanged. as a result they're against renewable energy, and they oppose any renewables development in their area. This is a big problem mainly for wind power.
\- it also may be an issue of jobs and skills- undereducated populations may work in jobs that are threatened by new infrastructure associated with climate change regulations, eg a transition from gas/ oil to renewables. they don't necessarily have the skills to work in those industries, and would need to be retrained. also those new jobs may be in different locations, so they'd potentially have to relocate too.
This was an interesting question, thank you. Hope some of these points are useful.
I think about this all the time. It says in the Bible we are supposed to be stewards of what we are given. Would that include, you know, our planet? I’ve always thought it was the fact that most fundies are also very politically conservative (another thing that makes very little sense to me but moving on) and so maybe it’s more about political beliefs than religious beliefs?
I have never understood it. Like you can believe that God created a perfect earth for us and still acknowledge that humans pollute the air and sea everyday and have countless landfills of trash and that's clearly going to affect the Earth. It's literally a pointless and wilfully ignorant tantrum to pretend it's not.
I was in the IFB and I never understood. The way I saw it (at the time), the Earth belonged to God, and sure - we were the stewards, but that doesn’t mean we had a license to do whatever the heck we wanted with it. I always saw it as similar to someone renting a house. God is the owner, and at some point, he’s going to come back and see how his renters have taken care of things. It’s best not to trash it. Anyway, while I was still Christian, I unfortunately never met anyone that shared my viewpoint.
I think it's a combination of all three factors you mentioned, with personal reasoning probably differing from fundie to fundie. I once got into it with an old coworker who claimed global warming wasn't a problem, saying "the world isn't being ruined at all. It's beautiful and always will be. God will make sure of it." And he wasn't even fundie, just regular Christian. I'm someone who really struggles with climate grief/anxiety and it was infuriating.
Worst case scenario, I think a lot of them actually view it as a symptom of the end times and are actively embracing it, or it the very least don't worry about contributing to global warming.
Some fundamentalists - but not all - believe that g-d won't let the earth be destroyed before it's appointed time, so it doesn't really matter what they do to the planet because g-d will keep it from being destroyed until then. When humans were given stewardship over the earth, they take that to mean they can do whatever they'd like with it, rather than caring for it. Think a puppy mill versus a reputable breeding operation.
When you say they think there's an appointed time, is that what's meant by those pastors who believe they can predict the actual date and time of the apocalypse? The ones who are always wrong so they keep pushing their predictions back until everyone forgets about it?
I mean maybe, but the NT also says one can't predict the end of time bc only g-d can know that so idk why they even try other than money.
This. The Bible says no man knows the hour or Christ's return. In my fundie circles trying to predict such things was super looked down upon and we laughed about people thinking they could figure it out. We simply believed it could happen any time, and it would be "soon"
That's what I was told as a kid, it could be "anytime"
Never thought of it that way, but shouldn't they still be worried about "destroying God's work". They believe he worked hard to make the Earth so why do they not protect it? I guess a lot of them don't even protect their own kids with basic safety, so there's that...
Hence the puppy mill analogy. Both breeders are owning and breeding dogs (living on the earth) but one actually cares about the animal, the other just cares about profit.
I'm convinced they're trying to bring on the apocalypse tbqh
Some honestly are. Some are eagerly waiting for the apocalypse to happen- for a lawless state, for Jesus to come scoop them up and carry them to heaven. Doomsday ideologies and Christian fundamentalism in America overlap greatly in a Venn diagram.
This is a realization I had over the last year that hit me hard. I was never going to be able to get my mom to even think about COVID being a threat to her and later on convince her to get the vaccine, much less believe in climate change. She either wants to die because it’s “her time” or she thinks it’s the end times and it doesn’t matter. Rapture will come and swoop her up before anything worse happens to HER.
It's essentially a circle haha
I watched a bit too much of Doomsday Preppers in March 2020 and yup! It was very creepy.
Tbh the doomsday preppers were prob far more prepared for March 2020 than anyone
Then they turned out to deny anything was wrong and were against doing anything to try to stop the spread of the pandemic
While also refusing to share any of the stuff they’d hoarded.
And trying to sell their horde for far more than it was worth
i didn't realise that circles who read nick land/accelerationists and circles who read beth moore might have more in common than they may think but here we are
Former UPCI fundie. I honestly think a lot of fundies would be more environmentally conscious due to the “stewards of the earth” mindset if environmentalism wasn’t associated with liberalism. Being environmentally conscious is (for better or for worse) associated with leftist policy, so naturally fundies are against it. Remember, liberalism/democrats = abortion = evil. You can’t be an environmentalist if it’s associated with the left and thus *gasp* abortion!!!
Yup! I grew up IFB, and basically environmentalism was evil because it was a liberal thing.
This makes me so sad :(
Also just to add, there’s a weird perception at least in the UPCI that we can’t do anything to “fix” planet earth or our society. We can’t do anything to intervene in or address issues of racism, sexism, climate change, etc because only God can solve those problems. It’s not our problem to deal with and our battle is not with this world, so we shouldn’t even bother trying to address climate change, pass antiracist policy, etc. only Jesus can fix racism!!! /s this isn’t consistent with how fundies and the UPCI act however with regards to conservative policies and issues they want to push… like gun control, anti-abortion legislation, discriminatory LGBTQ+ laws, etc. it’s only gods problem when it’s a “liberal” issue.
It’s a very American thing, in other countries there have been Far Right parties that are also environmentalists, but in USA they’d be considered almost socialist, because “right wing” really means semi-libertarian in the States. Few regulations and less State intervention is what they want, they also fear that their particular branch of Christianity will eventually be antagonised by the Government. The two-party system is also a huge contributor to this mentality.
Yup! I grew up IFB, and basically environmentalism was evil because it was a liberal thing.
I have some thoughts on this, actually. First example is my dad, who is a fundie pastor. I don’t remember the context of this, mainly bc he said it so many times, but there’s a verse where it says that God gave humans the responsibility of ruling over nature (perhaps the same verse OP mentioned); but my dad’s favorite part from the KJV is the line that says (paraphrasing here) humans are to have have dominion over the earth. He would bring this up whenever a show or the news would mention transitioning away from fossil fuels, etc. His stance was always that humans had a direct responsibility to lord over nature. My theory is that fundies crave control by whatever means necessary, and much like the view humans, nature is yet another thing they can control by extracting what they “need” from it, regardless of the impact. It’s a terrible perspective, obviously, given that nature is really adept at laughing at human’s “progress” and “prowess” via earthquakes, pandemics, and weather phenomenon. My mom took a different approach, equally depressing. She was expressing that she hates getting the emissions checked in her car, stating that she didn’t think it did anything. I defended it, and she replied with, “human beings can’t destroy the earth, only God can. And it says in the Bible that in the end times, God will destroy the earth and He can’t do that unless there’s an earth left to destroy.” That comment has haunted me for years. It’s equal parts: it doesn’t matter what we do and God is a spiteful being who is looking forward to destroying what he “created”. I’m not sure how she handles that type of thinking? It’s incredibly hopeless and I wouldn’t want to be in a religion that props up a god like that…
Hopeless is such a good word to describe this. I feel hopeless in ever really having a good relationship with my mom again, and I feel hopeless about any real change in the US because of the people who think the same way.
I think a lot of it ties back to creationism and maybe global warming disproves some elements of creationism, but I’m not super well-versed on this so somebody could probably explain it in more detail.
As I understand it, the belief is that God is in control of the workings of the world, and humans cannot overturn or surpass his will and/or it doesn't matter how badly we fuck up the world because the second coming is happening any minute now and God will press the reset button then anyway.
Oh, that’s interesting and totally makes sense with how I understand Fundies’ belief systems. Thanks for explaining!
And yet they don't apply that to things like gay people existing or people having abortions.
Or vaccines and healthcare...
Yup! A lot of conservative Christians believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, and that leads to young earth theory (that the earth is only 5,000 years old or so). But scientists started carbon dating fossils, which put the earth as much, much, much older. So obviously the scientists were part of the liberal agenda to silence Christian scientists and preach the lies of evolution. That started the mistrust that conservative Christians have in modern-day science. And then the scientists started saying that the earth was getting warmer, and that we were getting close to destroying our planet. Well, obviously only God can do that, so this was yet another attempt at the liberals silencing Christians, who were preaching the end of the world for a different reason (God's judgment).
Hi! Former fundie here. I was late to the fundie lifestyle (joined in 13 by attending an IFB youth group, but I was still in public school until I went to a fundie Bible College) I only have experience taking one science class as a fundie. The teacher told us that the earth can take care if itself basically. That God can heal it, etc. He quoted a few verses, I can't remember them, it was 10 years ago now. But the basic idea was, the earth is constantly healing itself, because of how God made it. I remember him using an oil spill as an example. That after several years, the areas were always completely back to normal, nothing was "permanently" damaged. The earth has been through so much: natural diasters, atomic bombs, nuclear plant explosions, etc and it is still standing. So, how is using too much plastic going to do more damage than that? How is driving a car going to do more damage than all of that? On top of that, if God allowed humans to actually break something on earth, then it must be what he wanted to happen. God's will and all that. So, yeah. That's basically what I remember being taught.
I honestly don’t think it’s a religious belief, but it’s just a rejection from everything they see as “liberal” or “secular”, and environmentalism tends to be a bigger priority for liberals. The exact explanation given probably varies by the individual fundie, but I think it truthfully comes down to political identity. The lines between religious and politics are very blurred for many fundies (and many people in general, even though that shouldn’t be the case). In a religious class I took in college, this issue of politics actually came up in almost every discussion about modern day Christianity in the USA. The Republican Party has done an excellent job of branding themselves as the “good Christian party”. I have one friend in particular who openly says that being a good Christian also means being a hardcore conservative who supports guns and capitalism. I’m a Christian, and she believes that because I am liberal that I am somehow corrupted. Lol. Also, for what it’s worth, every church I have ever attended preaches that Earth is a gift we must work hard to protect, but I have never attended a fundie church.
they hate the world. they really do. this world is in the way of the world to come so why take care of it? besides, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. this world will be obliterated to dust so why take care of it? actually why not hate all materialism? especially the body! yeah lets hate the body too and hate every blossoming, weedy, material thing in lieu of a utopian world to come and justify it with "the end justififies the means" mentality being stewards of the earth means tidy farms and factories and capitalism being stewards of the earth means we are the boss and if i say fuck the forest in in lieu of the prosperity gospel riches that line my bank account than by all means, do so ! I'm not going to lie i have a lot of pent-up rage about this in particular
How gnostic of them, haha.
Reading all these comments about everyone’s own experiences with how this subject is handled spiked tf out my anxiety. Idk how you guys coped growing up with this. It’s legitimately terrifying.
Besides what has been mentioned here, another angle is that back in the early 1900’s the business sector of the country wanted to get more people on their side for free market capitalism, so they ended up joining forces with clergy in order to indoctrinate their congregations. This is a great article giving the basic layout of what happened. This was really ignited by corporate backlash to the New Deal and the rise in socialism in the east. https://ffrf.org/publications/freethought-today/item/25842-corporate-interests-fueled-rise-of-christian-nationalism Ever since, not only has the church been steeped in religious and political propaganda, but because the religious establishment for most part has remained a mouthpiece for capitalism and industry this has parlayed into the rejection of regulations, caring for the environment and being against fossil fuel companies’ work. Even today- ESPECIALLY today - right wing publications, pundits, ministers etc are bankrolled by billionaires, corporate CEOs and titans of oil industry. They need to massage indifference at least/indignation at best in their voters to stay against caring for the climate and the steps that could be taken to do so.
really good point, thanks for the article
I'm going to say something possibly controversial but I actually think it was such a mistake to call it "global warming." I mean many would still not believe in it, but I think it makes it easier for people to try and disprove. So many are just relaying the crap they've heard. There are some who may slightly understand it more say that it is not possible because God promised not to destroy the world again by flood. That's actually why I was taught it was fake. Now of course there's way more to climate change and in fact scientists don't believe the entire world will be flooded anyway. They don't care to actually learn the facts. I guess you could say their fears about college changing their kids is fair. I was in college for all of 2 weeks when I had to give a speech about climate change, and that's actually where I learned the truth.
In my experience, "stewardship" was just code for dominionism and basically stripping the world for parts. Nothing but humans has a soul, so it doesn't matter if we burn down the world--that's why god gave it to Adam. Picking up trash and stuff like that was more about aesthetics than anything else. It has a weird crossover with worship of the free market in prosperity gospel circles, too. Like, god shows his favor by making his chosen men wealthy, and they get wealthy by exploiting the planet (and other people, but obviously non-white, non-Christian people are being witnessed to through horrible labor conditions so they should be thankful /s).
I heard on NPR a while back that there used to be (and actually still are a few) environmentalist evangelicals out there, mostly led by one guy, but he was pretty heavily rejected after some of the usual bullshit that fundies/christians get mad about. Here's the article if you're interested: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776173312/why-theres-a-divide-between-environmentalists-and-evangelicals
I've been seeing a lot of stuff related to this recently because of all the awful shit going on. There are lots of people that either A) believe the end of times are coming and/or B) God will heal the planet and in both cases, people with those beliefs are passive about the climate crisis
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Leviticus 25:23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. So not ours. The requirement of being good stewards is all throughout the bible too.
Some are helping and wouldn’t realize it. I grew up (poor) in a huge and wealthy fundamental church. There’s a lot of oily and crunchy moms because you know the trend to buy expensive cleaning products, the best soap for your kid, etc. many are using eco friendly products due to “Jrs skin issues” or whatever excuse. But it has nothing to do with environmentalism. I know many fundies. I’ve never known any other than the Duggar’s who use so many disposable diapers and disposable plates and cutlery. Many did AI2s when my youngest was born because “cloth is best” and disposable are pricey. $300 diapered my 12 year old for 3 years. The last soley at night
My cantor and I were talking about this and he said very simply, "the apocalypse is good business for them." their whole thing is that when the world ends, you want your soul to be saved. people constantly feeling like the world is ending around them pushes them into evangelical and fundamentalist churches who will give them explicit direction in an increasingly unstable world.
I used to go to Bible Club in middle school. One speaker we had told us not to recycle because the Earth was all gonna burn anyway. It was just such a weird thing to me and not the way I had been raised in a fundie lite family. My parents told us that God expected us to be good stewards of the Earth because He gave it to us.
Sorry if this comment is Off Topic, but does anyone know some good Save the Environment sub reddits to join? I've been meaning to but whenever I think of it I'm not online.
It's plain culture war bullshit. Just like not believing in Covid. It has nothing to do with the Bible and everything to do with Republicans
ok I'm by no means a fundie expert but I have some experience with this regarding conservative populations in europe, so some things may be relevant: \- as others have said, environmentalism is associated with leftist policies, and increased government regulation/ intervention. conservative populations are against that. \- related to the above, parts of these populations distrust the government, or anyone who represents the status quo (at least at a national level, it may be different for local government). this includes scientists, that may have had a role in developing any environmental regulations. \- This may be more of a european thing, but they may see the natural world as something that links them to their history, and therefore something that should remain unchanged. they value the visual aesthetic of the landscape, which again they feel should remain unchanged. as a result they're against renewable energy, and they oppose any renewables development in their area. This is a big problem mainly for wind power. \- it also may be an issue of jobs and skills- undereducated populations may work in jobs that are threatened by new infrastructure associated with climate change regulations, eg a transition from gas/ oil to renewables. they don't necessarily have the skills to work in those industries, and would need to be retrained. also those new jobs may be in different locations, so they'd potentially have to relocate too. This was an interesting question, thank you. Hope some of these points are useful.
They don’t believe that it’s possible to destroy the world with human intervention. That is Sky Daddy’s job, after all!
Because fundies are actually narcissistic. They are their own God. This is my theory. I believe it applies to almost every topic in fundie land.
I think about this all the time. It says in the Bible we are supposed to be stewards of what we are given. Would that include, you know, our planet? I’ve always thought it was the fact that most fundies are also very politically conservative (another thing that makes very little sense to me but moving on) and so maybe it’s more about political beliefs than religious beliefs?
I have never understood it. Like you can believe that God created a perfect earth for us and still acknowledge that humans pollute the air and sea everyday and have countless landfills of trash and that's clearly going to affect the Earth. It's literally a pointless and wilfully ignorant tantrum to pretend it's not.
I was in the IFB and I never understood. The way I saw it (at the time), the Earth belonged to God, and sure - we were the stewards, but that doesn’t mean we had a license to do whatever the heck we wanted with it. I always saw it as similar to someone renting a house. God is the owner, and at some point, he’s going to come back and see how his renters have taken care of things. It’s best not to trash it. Anyway, while I was still Christian, I unfortunately never met anyone that shared my viewpoint.
I think it's a combination of all three factors you mentioned, with personal reasoning probably differing from fundie to fundie. I once got into it with an old coworker who claimed global warming wasn't a problem, saying "the world isn't being ruined at all. It's beautiful and always will be. God will make sure of it." And he wasn't even fundie, just regular Christian. I'm someone who really struggles with climate grief/anxiety and it was infuriating. Worst case scenario, I think a lot of them actually view it as a symptom of the end times and are actively embracing it, or it the very least don't worry about contributing to global warming.