Churches practice, preach a green life

More churches espouse a spiritual responsibility to protect the Earth.

By SHERRI DAY, Times Staff Writer
Published November 18, 2007

For a year and a half, First United Church of Tampa studied global warming. A small group of members looked at the science, studied the church's carbon footprint and set about changing it.

These days, First United no longer uses plastic foam coffee cups. It sells compact fluorescent light bulbs to its members. And parishioners send letters to Congress supporting goals to reduce car gas emissions.

The church sits near Interstate 75 on Fowler Avenue and may set aside 50 parking spaces for commuters to encourage carpooling.

"This is real high on my radar," said the Rev. Warren Clark, the church's pastor. "Just as we have been active and on the streets for peace in the war in Iraq and standing up for human rights in the Sami Al-Arian case and others, we'll be out on the streets about this."

This is the church: increasingly green and environmentally conscious. Saying they have a biblical mandate to take care of the Earth, many Christians locally and nationally are embracing the call to affect global warming.

In Boise, Idaho, a church has large recycling bins on site for members' use, feeds the poor from an organic garden and sells canvas grocery bags while members volunteer with the state's forestry service.

In Grandville, Mich. a pastor who preaches "God is Green" sermons modeled his message by downsizing to one car for his family and trading in his dryer for a clothesline.

"Stewardship of creation is fundamental to the Judeo-Christian tradition," said the Rev. Keith A. Haemmelmann, pastor of the Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church in St. Pete Beach which urges attendees to carpool. "We take care of our neighbors in many ways, and one of the ways is by making sure that we all have a world that we can enjoy and appreciate."

Evangelicals in particular are starting to preach on it even as some conservatives believe the focus should remain on what they call "the great moral issues of our time," including abortion and same-sex marriage.

Last year, nearly 90 evangelical leaders signed a climate initiative pledging to fight global warming with "moral passion and concrete action" and press legislators for change. The group bought a full-page ad in the New York Times and ran television spots promoting its stance. They also have lobbied for environmental issues on Capitol Hill.

At Tampa Unity Church, support for the environment bubbled up from church members. They organized an Energy Day, distributing energy-efficient light bulbs and reusable grocery bags. The church also showed Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth documentary and displayed hybrid cars.

"We just simply made sure that everybody understood that it was about energy conservation," said the Rev. Debbie Moss, co-leader of the church. "I can't say that we continued the discussion because it is a hot topic. Not everybody agreed with what we did."

Recent polling reflects some of the disagreement.

Fifty-one percent of adult Christians view global warming as a significant problem, but 42 percent said the issue carried less weight with them, according to a September poll by the Barna Group, a California research firm.

Dissension also exists among national leaders.

At a Values Voter summit in Washington, D.C., last month, organizers said global warming was not a pressing issue among the event's 2,500 attendees.

"The environment does not come up in polling," said Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family Action. "It does not come up when Republican candidates try to reach evangelicals. ...The idea that Christian conservatives are taking on the global warming issue en masse is something some people in the media would like to see."

But evangelical leaders who signed the climate initiative have touted other poll results. In that survey, 84 percent of evangelicals expressed support for legislation that would reduce global warming pollution levels, according to Ellison Research, a Phoenix market research firm.

In local congregations taking on global warming, members seem pleased they can merge their faith with a personal commitment to environmentalism.

"We're not calling for anything political," said Jim Roney, 54, a kindergarten teacher and member of First United Church. "My experience here at the church is we're encouraging people to make responsible decisions about caring for God's creation. It just strikes me as very natural that if I'm doing it at home, I'd like to encourage other people to be aware of the Earth too."

Judie McKown, a certified public accountant who came up with Energy Day at Tampa Unity Church, muses about what she can do next to spread environmental responsibility.

"We're talking about the Earth here," said McKown, 53. "Everybody has to get involved. No matter what group you're in. No matter who it is that's organizing it, whatever it takes to get the word out to people is really important."

The issue has been slow to catch on in the Tampa Bay area, but the nexus of Florida's movement appears to be at a megachurch in north Orlando.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor at the 12,000-member Northland church has been fervently pushing environmentalism for a year. The church now has a Creation Care Task Force that helps the church find ways to better use its resources. In August, members donned protective suits and sifted through a week's worth of trash to analyze the church's waste. And in January, they plan an expo on environmentally friendly products.

Hunter takes care not to scold members for driving gas guzzling automobiles or living in large homes, believing it's not constructive. Instead, he suggests ways parishioners can reduce waste and save energy.

"We gave out a list," Hunter said, "And on that list is: Whenever we're driving, keep the tires inflated. Keep the engine tuned. Drive at a reasonable speed. Those kinds of things. They're more general, what anybody can do from where they are."

Hunter admits preaching about global warming can strike some as too political. Since he started, four families have left the church, he said.

Others question environmentalism on theological grounds, saying the Earth will eventually be destroyed or Jesus' return is imminent so there's little need to try to save the planet.

"My response always is, 'Look if he's coming back, he'd better find us doing what we're supposed to do,'" said Hunter, 59.

Recently, he also reached out to interfaith leaders hosting a talk on the environment that drew a rabbi, an imam and a Catholic bishop. Each one said their faiths required them to take care of the Earth. The headliner was an Anglican bishop from Liverpool, England, who made sure the carbon emissions created during his airplane trip were offset by a donation to a group that supports reforestation projects.

"We do bear a huge responsibility," the Right Rev. James Jones told the crowd assembled last month at Northland. "The future stability of the world depends upon the faith communities."

Information from Religion News Service was used in this report. Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3405.

Fast Facts:

From the Bible

Ask Christian church leaders to cite what they feel compels them to take up the cause of environmentalism and many immediately turn to the creation story in Genesis. The story, some leaders say, contains a directive to care for creation:

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 1:28

"The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it." Genesis 2:15

[Last modified November 17, 2007, 20:34:46]