In this time of pervasive polarities, I believe it to be deeply important to share those stories which breathe hope and inspiration into the changes that these times are urgently asking of us. Paul Rogat Loeb is certainly among those who are passionately informing while also building the bridges that are such a necessary part of moving forward. May we all work to shine light on our judgments and increasingly transform them into working together for what, in the larger picture, we all want for ourselves, our children, and generations yet to come. Peace ~ Molly
Soul of a Citizen: Jesus and Climate Change — The Journey of Rich Cizik
By Paul Rogat Loeb
When we become frustrated in working for change, we might remember how hope can come from unexpected places, and historically resistant constituencies. Rich Cizik’s efforts to engage his fellow evangelicals on global warming exemplify this.
As vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Rich Cizik represented 4,500 congregations serving 30 million members. Considering himself a “Reagan conservative” and a strong initial supporter of George W. Bush, Cizik had been with the organization since 1980, serving as its key advocate before Congress, the Office of the President, and the Supreme Court on issues like opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
During the Clinton era, he had begun to expand the organization’s agenda by tackling such issues as human trafficking and global poverty, working with groups across the political aisle. Later he’d convinced the organization to take a stand against torture.
But he thought little about climate change until 2002, when he attended a conference on the subject and heard a leading British climate scientist, Sir James Houghton, who was also a prominent evangelical. “You could only call the process a conversion,” Cizik said. “I reluctantly went to the conference, saying ‘I’ll go, but don’t expect me to be signing on to any statements.’ Then, for three days in Oxford, England, Houghton walked us through the science and our biblical responsibility. He talked about droughts, shrinking ice caps, increasing hurricane intensity, temperatures tracked for millennia through ice-core data. He made clear that you could believe in the science and remain a faithful biblical Christian. All I can say is that my heart was changed. For years I’d thought, ‘Well, one side says this, the other side says that. There’s no reason to get involved.’
But the science has become too compelling. I could no longer sit on the sidelines. I didn’t want to be like the evangelicals who avoided getting involved during the civil rights movement and in the process discredited the gospel and themselves.”
One day during the conference, Houghton took Cizik on a walk in the gardens of Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s ancestral home. It was a lovely day, sunny and bright. Houghton said, “Richard, if God has convinced you of the reality of the science and the Scriptures on the subject then you must speak out.”
“Let me think about it,” Cizik responded. He knew he’d meet resistance from his colleagues and board. But Houghton convinced him that the world couldn’t solve the issue without serious American participation, and that the Republican Party was the major political force blocking action in the United States (in contrast to Europe, where conservative parties had helped take the lead on the issue). “As evangelicals, we’re 40 percent of the Republican base, so if we could convince the evangelical community to speak out, it could make the key difference,” Cizik said. American evangelicals, Houghton told him, might literally hold the fate of the planet in their hands.
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As a biblical Christian, I agree with St. Francis that every square inch on Earth belongs to Christ. If we don’t pay attention to global climate change, it’s pretty obvious that tens and or even hundreds of millions of people are going to die. If you have a major sea-level rise then Bangladesh becomes uninhabitable. Where do you put its 100 million people? Do you put them in India? In China? They’d have no place to go. Britain’s Christian Aid talks of climate change impacting one billion people by mid-century, with drought, floods, disease and malnutrition. I’ve asked African American leaders whether, as a white man, I can call climate change "the civil rights issue of the 21st century." Unanimously they say "You not only can, but you must.”
~ Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the
National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)
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