by Almost 90% of the Christian religious leaders of the United States believe that people are promoting climate change. When churchgoers learn how widespread this belief is, they report that they have taken steps to reduce their effects, as we have found in our research that were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We examined data that was collected in 2023 and 2024 from a nationwide survey of under 1,600 religious leaders in the United States. The sample included religious leaders from fundamentalist and Protestant churches, baptists, methodists, black Protestants, Roman Catholic denominations and more – all recruited to meet the proportions of the churches across the country. The survey assessed the beliefs of religious leaders about climate change and whether they discuss climate change with their communities.
According to this data, the overwhelming majority of Christian religious leaders accept the human reality of climate change, but almost half never mentioned climate change or the role of man in this community. In addition, only a quarter more than once or twice talked about it.
Why is it important
When it comes to climate change, faith communities are often considered divided. It is the assumption that religious conservatism and climate skepticism go hand in hand. This assumption is based on religious beliefs how the earth was created by God and therefore people cannot and should not change them, together with the rejection of climate science and a reduced concern about climate change.
We then examined a sample of Christian Americans from large denominations across the country and found that they believe about half of the Christian leaders in the United States, and contest in churches such as their own that people cause climate change. In view of the actual number of 1 of 10, based on the data we examined, Christians seem to overestimate the prevalence of the refusal to climate among their leaders by about the five times the level to be found in the survey.
Church goals who believe that their religious leaders do not believe that people report that climate change reports that it is less likely that they will discuss with other communities and are less interested in participating in events that aim to consider climate change or to raise awareness of the topic.
Research also tested what would happen if we informed church visitors about the true consensus among their religious leaders, who accept that climate change is powered by humans. In a short survey, Christians were told the percentage of Christian leaders at the national level, and under their denomination, which accepted that human activities cause climate change. As a result, your perceptions and attitudes to climate change have shifted in different ways.
In particular, the church visitors, who were informed about the actual consensus among religious leaders about the acceptance of climate change, said that “measures to reduce climate change” agreed with the values of their church.
Church goers who received this information were also more like voting with the values of their church to vote for a political candidate who opposes actions that could slow down climate change.
These findings show that religious leaders have a unique force to influence climate aid – but only if they let their beliefs be known.
What’s next
These results do not focus on what is going on in certain churches and denominations. We have only provided the church guests information about the consensus about the acceptance of the climate change produced by humans among Christian religious leaders in the United States. A natural next step is to conduct research with religious leaders in order to examine the effects of their communication directly with their communities, even if they convey the consensus described in this work.
Religious leaders, who are often considered a moral guide, have the ability to redesign the climate discourse within the faith communities. If you vocalize your acceptance of the climate change produced by humans, we believe that you can correct widespread mis seizets, promote dialogue and promote action in a way that may have difficulty secular authorities.
The research mandate is a brief perspective on interesting academic work.
This article will be released from the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and trustworthy analyzes to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Stylianos Syropoulos, Arizona State University and Gregg Sparkman, Boston College
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Stylianos Syropoulos is connected to Deartomorrow, the See Change Institute, the applied cooperation initiative and the thoughts beyond the pump.
Gregg Sparkman receives funds from the National Science Foundation.
