After years of decline, the number of Christians in the United States has stabilized. But, when they file into church on Sunday morning, only a few will hear about the state of the planet that the Bible calls them to manage.
according to A study of 2025, Although nearly 90% of American faith leaders across all major Christian denominations believe in human-caused climate change to at least some degree, only about half have ever discussed it with their congregants.
Stylianos Siropoulos, one of the paper’s researchers and an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, said there were several factors that helped create the separation.
“Just because they care about it doesn’t mean they feel obligated to talk about it,” Syropoulos said, adding that clergy may feel inadequately equipped to raise it. “Or some people may feel it’s not their role. Climate change, at least in the US, is a heavily politicized issue.”
‘The second coming of capitalism’
This is not lost on the Reverend Bradley Matson of Hope Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania, who sees the divided opinions on climate change in the United States as a reason to discuss the issue rather than remain silent.
“I would say that political forces in this country and other countries around the world can work much harder to address human impact on our climate,” he said. “They’re actively working to say: ‘There’s nothing we can do about it. Let’s mow, mow and spray and go ahead and do whatever we want.'”
The United States, under the current administration, is an example. From halting the expansion of renewable energy to promoting the extraction and use of polluting fossil fuels, US President Donald Trump has imposed literally dozens of regulations to protect not only the country, but the rest of the world from environmental destruction.
“Any one of us has the potential to go very far with our power, and we need to keep ourselves in check,” Mattson said. “I think some groups of people use power for unbridled consumption, and there is no Jesus in that.”
Mattson said some people have a “second coming of capitalism” way of looking at the world: the idea that we can consume as much as we want “because eventually God will come back, destroy the Earth and make it new.”
He said this narrative stems from a misinterpretation of Genesis, which was originally written in Hebrew, where the call to “fill the earth and subdue it” is taken to mean exploitation – “just plow it.” This passage, he said, is actually a call to be good stewards.
Mattson takes that call to management seriously. He has involved his church in climate advocacy, reforestation, and protection of the Great Chesapeake Bay watershed, which spans six states, including New York. For the most part, their congregation is on board.
But this is not the case for every pastor who wants to teach his flock to care for the planet.
Climate backlash in the church
One state away, in Maryland, Brother Ken Taylor’s efforts to weave environmental and climate awareness into his sermons at St. Nicholas Lutheran Church in Huntingtown have received varied responses.
Taylor said, “There is a very large minority of people who, when we dedicate a Sunday series or a teaching series about climate, say: ‘Why are you bringing in so much politics?’ Taylor said.
Some people have explicitly told Taylor that they are leaving his church because they find its approach too environmentalist. And, although the pushback initially took them by surprise, it hasn’t stopped them from encouraging climate action.
Taylor’s troupe is planting native species to combat erosion, installing water dispensers and bins to collect items that are difficult to recycle, and getting involved in clean water conservation.
He said he understands that faith leaders can easily lose their depth when it comes to knowing enough to talk about climate. Or facing challenges from people – this is where the idea of forming a congregation comes from.
“To move the needle we have to rely on a whole community of people who care,” Taylor said. He further said that he has often invited people from his group to deliver speeches in the congregation.
start small with respect
In Pennsylvania, Mattson said that when he joined Hope Episcopal Church six years ago, he began to integrate caring for the planet in small ways that congregants could respect, rather than having an entire climate agenda imposed on them. One example was simply giving people freshly grown vegetables.
“And then we did pollination, and then we created herb gardens,” Mattson said. “And then we started talking to some grant organizations doing environmental work and expanding into land management, watershed conservation.”
Mattson is grateful that his congregation has accepted him and his methods, which includes the understanding that preaching is not the best approach when it comes to climate and the environment.
He said, “We approach the life of faith from a position of running toward the light, not away from the darkness.” “I didn’t tell you not to run your gasoline lawn mower if that’s all you have. I didn’t tell you you were bad because you had a gasoline lawn mower. What I said was: Think about the pollinators. You know, Jesus said: Consider the lilies of the field. Consider them. Just think about it.”
Edited by: Jennifer Collins
This article was adapted from the DW Living Planet podcast. To listen to the full episode, Click here.