Podcasts about young evangelicals

  The Theology of Christmas Carols … GUEST Dr Richard Mouw ... professor of faith & public life at Fuller Theo Seminary in Pasadena, CA, where he served as president for 20 yrs ... written numerous books, incl “Adventures in Evangelical Civility,” “Uncommon Decency,” “Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport,”“The Smell of Sawdust,” and the newest “Restless Faith:  Holding evangelical beliefs in a world of Contested Labels”. Young Evangelicals & Deconversion … GUEST Dr Tim Muehlhoff ... Professor of Communication at Biola University ... He's the author of “Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing Without Dividing the Church,” winner of the Award of Merit in Christianity Today's Best Books of 2022 list … Tim's “Winsome Persuasion: Christian Influence in a Post-Christian World."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are young evangelicals becoming indifferent to Israel? In this episode of Inside the Epicenter, we delve into a revealing study by Dr. Kirill Bumin and Dr. Motti Inbari that uncovers a concerning trend of declining Christian support for Israel, particularly among the younger generation of evangelicals. Research-minded guests join host Joel Rosenberg and cohost Lynn Rosenberg to explore this shift's complexities. As we navigate through recent political developments between Israel, Hamas, and the United States, we also tackle the generational divide in political ideology, social justice concerns, and theological perspectives that influence support for Israel. Whether discussing the emotional impact of modern media consumption or the disconnect between older and younger evangelicals' views, this episode offers an in-depth analysis and invites listeners to reflect on the changing dynamics of Christian Zionism in the 21st century. (00:03) Hamas rejects the deal; Israel invades Rafa. (03:39) CIA visits Israel; the US aids Gaza; Evangelical views. (08:07) Support for Israel driven by theology and socialization. (11:20) Interest in religious impact on public opinion. (16:28) Young evangelicals differ; diverse information shapes views. (20:07) Podcast feedback and questions are highly encouraged. Learn more about The Joshua Fund. Make a tax-deductible donation. The Joshua Fund Stock provided by DimmySad/Pond5 Verse of the Day: 2 Corinthians 4:4 -In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. PrayerPray that God will intervene so that all of the captives held by Hamas would be set free.Pray for young people in Israel, the Middle East, and the United States all around the world that the next generation would come to know the living Messiah Jesus. Related Episodes:Evangelical Perspectives on the War in Israel #160Evangelical Delegation Insights on Israel's Struggle #158How Evangelical NGOs Are Caring For Israelis Devastated By War & Terror #148Are We Losing Young Evangelicals To Anti-Israel Sentiment? #17Why Do Evangelicals Love Israel and the Jewish People? #16 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

There are some shifting tides regarding young Evangelicals and their support for Israel. The Christian Post's Jon Brown joins "The Inside Story" to explore how "the number of young Evangelicals in the United States who support Israel and view it as crucial to the End Times is declining as they increasingly move toward amillennial and postmillennial eschatology."Brown breaks down the research, explains the different theological ideals concerning the end times, and examines why it matters to sociopolitical events. That and more on today's show. Read more about the topic here.

Top headlines for Thursday, May 30, 2024In this episode, we delve into the conclusion of Washington state's investigation into faith-based pro-life pregnancy care centers, with no charges pressed. We also preview the upcoming new chapter announcement from former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz and his wife, Laura. Plus, Disney-owned Hulu's acquisition of the U.K.'s first gay-themed reality dating shows, and the shifting perspectives of young Evangelicals in the U.S. regarding support for Israel. Subscribe to this PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsOvercastFollow Us on Social Media@ChristianPost on TwitterChristian Post on Facebook@ChristianPostIntl on InstagramSubscribe on YouTubeGet the Edifi AppDownload for iPhoneDownload for AndroidSubscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to the Freedom Post, delivered every Monday and ThursdayClick here to get the top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning!Links to the NewsWashington AG drops investigation of pro-life pregnancy centers | Politics NewsCarl Lentz and wife, Laura, tease ‘new chapter' in video trailer | Church & Ministries NewsPope Francis apologizes for using 'homophobic terms' in meeting | Church & Ministries NewsHulu to roll out gay-themed reality dating shows on platform | Entertainment News40% of Christians prefer not to tell others about their faith | Church & Ministries NewsSupport for Israel declines among younger Evangelicals | Church & Ministries NewsLibertarians select Chase Oliver as their presidential nominee | Politics News

A study from 2022 found that people who identified as non-religious or atheist were more likely to identify as pro-environment, as compared with religious people who tended to be “less committed to the environment.” Many of us environmentalists may not look to churches as natural sites for allies. But perhaps we should look a little … Continue reading Lauren Kim: Young Evangelicals for Climate Action → This article and podcast Lauren Kim: Young Evangelicals for Climate Action appeared first on Sea Change Radio.

Jens and Lukas recently had the privilege of sitting down with Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, the author of a recently published book entitled, "Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action." Kyle was previously the vice president of the Evangelical Environmental Network. Additionally, he was the national organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and he has been featured in news outlets such as CNN, PBS, NPR, NBC News, and U.S. News & World Report. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife and two children. On this episode, they discuss climate change from a Christian perspective, what meaningful steps can be taken to combat climate change, and how we ought to live with an "empathetic imagination" when it comes to issues surrounding our warming world.   Where to find Kyle: https://kylemeyaardschaap.com/ https://www.ivpress.com/kyle-meyaard-schaap   Important Resources Relating to Climate Change: https://creationcare.org/ https://yecaction.org/   Find us on: Email: doxologypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @doxologypodcast Instagram: @doxologypodcast Threads: @doxologypodcast   Be sure to check out our Twitter (X) page, where we will be giving away one copy of Kyle's book!    A special shoutout and thank you is owed to Krista Clayton at IVP for organizing the interview and sending us copies of Kyle's important book. We appreciate you.

Did you attend Acquire the Fire, or send a teen to one of their events in the 90's? Brian and Aubrey are reading through a new piece on this from Katelyn Beaty; Then, the curious case of a Disneyland Paris cast member who may or may not have been fired over waffles; ChatGPT writes sermons for both Brian and Aubrey; And, from the New York Times, thoughts on decluttering your home, your mind and your technology. Follow The Common Good on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Hosted by Aubrey Sampson and Brian From Produced by Laura Finch and Keith ConradSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Forrest talks with Tori Goebel, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. YECA works to mobilize youth to act against climate change, to advocate for creation care, and to promote the hope among young people that a better climate future is possible.Guest: Tori Goebel, National organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action LinkedIn Twitter Mentions Atlantic Coast Pipeline Mountain Valley Pipeline Evangelical Environmental Network Katharine Hayhoe Genesis 2:15, Psalm 19, Romans 1:20 Mercury and Air Toxics Standard Yale's Six Americas The Supper of the Lamb YECA Leadership Programs YECA Take Action National Prayer Breakfast YECA Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube YECA Blog IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Keywords: climate crisis, climate change, nature, creation, faith, evangelism, Christian, values, climate action, sanctity of life, politics, partisan identity, generational divide, mercury, air quality, communication, creation care, eco anxiety, eco grief, accountability, support, community, fear, hope, love Find us on our website: Circlewood.Donate here to Earthkeepers Podcast. Join the Stand.

Be responsible, serve, and protect. — Kyle Meyaard-Schaap SHOW NOTES Have you ever looked at the effects of climate change and the apathy of so many around you and wondered, "What are we missing here?" Today's guest Kyle Meyaard-Schaap understands this feeling from personal experience. He is the author of the recently released book, Following Jesus in a Warming World, a field guide for Christian climate action. Steve and Kyle discuss the book and how climate change should not be grounded in a sense of guilt or drudgery, but in the joy of caring for creation. Thank you for joining us today! SPECIAL GUEST KYLE MEYAARD-SCHAAP   Kyle is vice-president of the Evangelical Environmental Network. Previously, he was the national organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and he has been featured in news outlets such as CNN, PBS, NPR, NBC News, and U.S. News & World Report. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife and two children. Kyle's Website (Order his new book, read more of his bio, and contact him directly) https://kylemeyaardschaap.com/   MENTIONED IN PODCAST Climate Vigil Songs from The Porter's Gate Kyle's Website Genesis 1 (MSG) Download Beauty and Nature Reader for $1   MUSIC USED IN PODCAST Music Break at 58:47 - My Father's World by Jadon Lavik · from Roots Run Deep SUPPORT THE PODCAST Please consider a gift to support our ministry. We have a few ways to make it easy for you: Use our Donation Page on our Website Donate using our new App Send by mail (Potter's Inn, PO Box 35, Divide, Colorado 80814 - make sure you make note that your gift is for the podcast)     FIND US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM Facebook Soul Care Conversations Group Page Potter's Inn Main FB Page Instagram CONTACT US podcast@pottersinn.com INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES? Check out our recommended reading, books on spiritual growth, and our soul care blog. Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care intensives and retreats. 

When Kyle Meyaard-Schaap joins a climate march or calls a senator to talk about his concerns about climate change, he sees it as an act of evangelism. His new book Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action tells the story of how he came to understand that acting on climate is necessary and urgent and that it fits within the call to follow Jesus. He tells some of his story here and also talks about parenting, imagination, and the role a pastor can play in bringing about the change we hope to see.  Learn more about Kyle's book, Following Jesus in A Warming World. Check out Evangelical Environmental Network at creationcare.org Check out Young Evangelicals for Climate Action at yecaction.org Join a conversation about this episode on the BioLogos Forum.

The church is waking up to the climate crisis, in part because the youth among us insist that we do. In this episode, I talk with Tori Goebel, national organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA). They have taken the lead in preparing young people to lead the discussion on climate in the church and community. We discuss how young Christians see the environmental movement, what type of actions they want to take to fight climate change, if they should talk with their parents about these issues, and the inspiring stories of the young leaders coming out of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. This links to the article on fathers and daughters and climate discussions. Disciple Science Links Website: https://www.disciplescience.com/ Explore our videos: https://www.disciplescience.com/videos Listen to podcasts: https://www.disciplescience.com/podcast Donate: https://www.disciplescience.com/support Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/disciplescience https://twitter.com/DiscipleScience https://www.facebook.com/DiscipleScience.com

Tori Goebel of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and Lila Kohrman-Glaser of 350nh, join the show. Listen to these two young leaders talk about their work on the climate crisis, about their motivation to be involved in the work they do, and about the challenges they face. Through dialogue and appreciative listening, we help open new perspectives on our shared common life. The Climate Dialogues™ is an on-going series of What In God's Name. Our theme song is Private Eye by Kevin MacLeod Reconditioning Has To Start Somewhere is by Dear Gravity

Jon reads an article he wrote all the way back in 2014 about a tendency he saw in evangelicals to devalue the American dream.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/conversations-that-matter8971/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Environmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall it hasn't prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being destroyed day after day.Many folks in the environmental movement are thinking a lot about how to make messaging more effective. But it's not just the message we need to question—it's also the messenger.In the U.S., white evangelical Christians are not known for their strong support of environmental protections or for believing that humans are even causing climate change, but maybe they haven't had the right messengers.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is an evangelical Christian climate activist, which is not a combination of descriptors we often hear. Kyle has spent years building a movement of young messengers from within the evangelical community who speak a new language of creation care.He believes that Christians don't need to look any further than the Bible to become fierce and passionate advocates for ecological protection and climate action.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action before becoming Vice President at the Evangelical Environmental Network.I met Kyle in 2019 at a week-long climate storytelling retreat in New York City. I was super excited to continue our conversation here and dive deeper into his own ecological awakening, what scripture says about caring for the environment, and how Christians and non-Christians alike can find common values and build power together to care for life on Earth across cultural lines that often divide us.You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapRev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap serves as the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He holds an undergraduate degree in religious studies from Calvin University (B.A. '12), a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary (M.Div. '16), and is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). Much of his professional experience has involved the integration of theology, science, and action toward a deeper awareness of the Christian responsibility to care for God's earth and to love one's neighbors, both at home and around the world. Kyle has been named to Midwest Energy Group's 40 Under 40 and the American Conservation Coalition's 30 Under 30 cohorts for his work on climate change education and advocacy. Most recently, he was named a Yale Public Voices on the Climate Crisis Fellow for 2020. His work has been featured in national and international news outlets such as PBS, NPR, CNN, NBC News, New York Times, Reuters, and U.S. News and World Report. He is married to Allison and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with their son, Simon.Quotation Read by Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapThe Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. - Wendell Berry © Wendell Berry. This poem is excerpted from New Collected Poems and is reprinted with permission of the Counterpoint Press.Recommended Readings & MediaTranscriptionIntroJohn FiegeEnvironmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall, it hasn't prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being destroyed day after day.Many folks in the environmental movement are thinking a lot about how to make messaging more effective. But it's not just the message we need to question—it's also the messenger.In the US, white evangelical Christians are not known for their strong support of environmental protections or for believing that humans are even causing climate change, but maybe they haven't had the right messengers.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is an evangelical Christian climate activist, which is not a combination of descriptors we often hear. Kyle has spent years building a movement of young messengers from within the evangelical community who speak a new language of creation care.He believes that Christians don't need to look any further than the Bible to become fierce and passionate advocates for ecological protection and climate action.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSo when humans read, have dominion and subdue the earth, and they separate that, from the rest of scriptures witness, which is that Christ is creations true king, then it's easy for us to say, "Well, I guess we have a blank check. Let's do whatever we want." Instead of saying, "Well, let's shape our dominion in our rulership after creation's true king, which is Christ." And when we actually do that, then the way we have dominion and subdue the earth is going to look a whole lot different. It's going to look a whole lot less like privilege and a whole lot more like responsibility.John FiegeI'm John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action before becoming Vice President at the Evangelical Environmental Network.I met Kyle in 2019 at a week-long climate storytelling retreat in New York City. I was super excited to continue our conversation here and dive deeper into his own ecological awakening, what scripture says about caring for the environment, and how Christians and non-Christians alike can find common values and build power together to care for life on Earth across cultural lines that often divide us.Here is Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap.---ConversationJohn FiegeYou grew up in Michigan. And that's where I wanted to start. Can you tell me where you grew up? And as a child, what was your relationship to the earth, to the forest, to the ocean, to the rest of life on the planet?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, absolutely. I did. I grew up in Holland, Michigan, which is a beautiful, small town, on the shores of Lake Michigan, western part of the state and grew up, you know, minutes from Lake Michigan. So the beach and dunes were always a big part of my life growing up, as was camping, and just enjoying the beautiful landscapes of Michigan. Northern Michigan, with it's in the lakes and forests, and obviously, Lake Michigan and the coast there. So creation and its beauty, you know, was always a part of my childhood and my upbringing. I can't say it was always a conscious part, though. We didn't talk often about our relationship to the natural world, our responsibilities toward it. My community was a beautiful Christian community, that that taught me lots of really important lessons and values and virtues. But I don't remember a conversation about God's creation and our relationship to it, our responsibility to it, certainly nothing about climate change. And I don't remember outright hostility, to be honest. I think a lot of people expect that from a small Evangelical community like mine. What I remember most was just silence, around climate change, around environmental issues in general, pollution. Except for recycling, which I'm not sure we would have done if the truck didn't pick it up at our curb every other week for us. Except for that, I can't really remember any intentional choices that we made as a family or as a larger Church community. And, and so my childhood was marked by kind of this dissonance between my experience of God's grandeur in these beautiful, breathtaking landscapes that were just a part of me and a part of my life growing up, and the relative silence around those gifts. Silence around what our responsibility would be toward those things. I think it was taken for granted that these things were here, and very little conversation about how to protect them, or what our faith, well how our faith could inform the way we approached questions about how to protect those gifts.Right. And an interesting thing, though, is even if you're not talking about it, in articulating this connection, you obviously had that really profound experience with the natural world. Even if kind of culturally, politically it wasn't, you know, positioned that way. Do you have any, like, particularly strong memories of an experience that has really stuck with you in terms of being in the natural world?Yeah, I think more than one experience, I think I have just a general sense memory, of being in the sand and in the water in Lake Michigan. I don't think I ever really reflected on how formative that body of water was to me and continues to be for me. It's almost like a my center of gravity. I travel a lot for my work, but I feel most at home back in this landscape in Michigan, close to the lake. It's my directional guide for someone who struggles with innate sense of the cardinal directions with Lake Michigan's always West. So if I know where Lake Michigan is, I know where West is. So I think more than kind of a general, distinct, or discreet memory, just the the general sense memory of being near Lake Michigan, of going to Lake Michigan often in the summers, going to the beach often, being in those dunes, being in the water. A couple of years ago, I was invited to a multifaith space where people were invited to bring a part of creation that's meaningful to them to the space, and to kind of offer it to the group. And I brought a vial of Lake Michigan water because that was the only thing I could think of, right? Lake Michigan is the spot for me. Yeah.John FiegeOh, that's awesome. Yeah, I've, over the last couple years, I've started, when meditating, I've started visualizing, being in the surf of the ocean and having the water come in and out in the same cadence as the breath. And that's, I've really, like connected with that as like a technique. And I've thought about it. And I realized, you know, I grew up going to the Atlantic Ocean every summer for a long time. And it's so embedded in me and in my psyche. It sounds like you might have a similar water relationship there.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I love that! I love that. And people who grew up in the mountains speak similarly about the mountains. I don't think I realized it, until relatively recently, the impact that that gift has had on me in my life. Yeah.John FiegeOh, that's awesome. Can you tell me the story of your brother spending a semester abroad in New Zealand?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, so my older brother is three years older than me. My hero for much of my life, continues to be one of my best friends. He went off to a semester abroad program in New Zealand when he was a sophomore in college, and I was still in high school, I was a junior in high school. And he grew up, you know, in the same kind of milieu as I did. Pretty conservative, Evangelical Christian community. Very, very little discussion around the environment around climate change in particular, pollution, and the environment in general. And he went on this semester abroad trip, which was designed for Christian college students to engage the disciplines of ecology, biology, environmental science, and biblical studies and theology, in conversation with each other, to examine this beautiful, unique ecosystem in New Zealand; and to bring theological questions and biblical insights into conversation with what they were discovering. And he came back totally transformed.John FiegeIt sounds like an amazing program!Kyle Meyaard-SchaapIt does! I almost went on the same program myself! I ultimately chose to take a different trip elsewhere, but it was an amazing trip. And he came back pretty on fire for what he had learned, and particularly for the way that the trip helped him integrate his existing Christian values, with his burgeoning understanding of the environmental and climate crisis. I think the climax of his return was when he announced to the family...I forget what it was...a couple of days, maybe a week or two, after he came back that because of what he had learned, he was now a vegetarian. Which for my Midwestern, pretty conservative meat and potatoes family, that was pretty shocking. I remember for myself as a junior in high school, I didn't know anybody like me who had ever made that choice. And I had the caricature in my mind of the hemp-friendship-bracelet-weaving, vegan-pizza-eating, throw-paint-on-fur-coats-on-the-weekends-vegetarian, and I was forced to to either keep that caricature and then put my brother in that camp along with them, which was painful, or to suspend my assumptions and hear him out. And he was gracious and patient, and kind of laid out for me all of his rationale for the decision. And most importantly, he helped me see why that decision to become a vegetarian was not a jettisoning of the values that we had been taught by our community. It was, in fact, a deepening of those values. It was a way for him to live more fully into those values, like loving our neighbor, loving God, caring for God's creation. All of the values that we had been instilled with, it was another opportunity to express those values more deeply. And that was, that was a real lightbulb moment for me. I think I had assumed that to make those kinds of decisions or to care about something like the environment or climate change, I would need to turn my back on my community, turn my back on the lessons I learned in Sunday school, turn my back on the values that were instilled in me by my family. And he was the first person who gave me permission to recognize that actually taking these things seriously and doing something about it is a way for us to live more fully into those lessons and those values that we had been taught.John FiegeGreat. That's so interesting, because it seems to set up a trajectory for so much of what you've done since. I'm thinking in particular about this idea, this assumption that, if we just explain the facts, if we just reveal the scientific truth, and everyone would be like, "Oh, okay! Well, let's change everything now!" You know? And it doesn't work that way. You know, we're changed by the people who are closest to us. And that's the key that unlocks people's ability to transform. So I'm wondering if you can kind of start with that moment with your brother. And you know, what path did that take you on? And what does your work and life look like now? And in particular, I'd love to hear you talk more about the work you're doing with young people, and that idea of change from within the community.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapAbsolutely. So that that experience with my brother was really the spark that was fanned into flame, when I myself went off to college a couple years later. Went to a small Christian liberal arts school here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I took classes, and had professors, and read books, and went to lectures, and made friends and all of it just combined to continue to advance my understanding of what my faith had to say about the environmental crisis and the climate crisis in particular, and in how my commitment to my faith was drawing me more deeply into action. At the same time, I was studying religion there. I thought I was going to be a biology major, and all of the intro to bio classes were closed. So I signed up for a religion course, because I had to take two of those as a requirement of the school I was at, and I loved it! I loved it! It was scratching the itch I didn't know I had. It was asking the questions that really got me excited. So I continued to pursue that. I was studying scripture and theology deeply at the same time as I was being exposed to the realities of the climate crisis, being exposed to activists who were doing something about it, embedding myself in a community of peers who are passionate about these things. And were asking these questions too. And all of that led me to after graduation to pursue a seminary degree. I was feeling a call to serve the church. I was pretty clear at that time that that particular calling was likely not to be a traditional pastor of a congregation, but to help the church understand that addressing the climate crisis and taking care of God's creation is a fundamental component of what it means to be a Christian.John FiegeDid you have any models for that? Where did that idea come from? That was in seminary school that you first conceived of that as a calling?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, it was. I had a few models. One model was actually the founder of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, which I think we're going to talk about in a minute, that I had gotten to know over the last couple of years at that point, his name was Ben Lowe. He was certainly a model for me. Other models were Evangelical Christians, or Christians in the Evangelical space, who are active on social justice issues in general, Shane Claiborne, is certainly an influence on me and other Christian activists, who use this language. Who talk about how caring for the vulnerable, protecting the oppressed is a fundamental part of the church's calling in the world. And it's not an ancillary issue for a handful of members in the church who have a predisposition to care about those things. It's not an affinity group on the sidelines of the church. It's at the heart of the church's mission in the world, especially when it comes to climate change. It's just a fundamental part of what it means to follow Jesus and in the 21st century. And so I did have a few models for that. I also had terrific mentors, who helped expand my idea of what could be possible, who kind of helped me discern this calling and tease out the shape of it. And that took some time. That took a few years to really get a sense of the particular shape of that calling. I entered seminary with a general sense that I was called to serve the church in some way. And I was passionate about social justice at the same time, and then over the course of my time in seminary, and conversations with mentors, that the shape of that calling really kind of filled out.John FiegeAnd how would you describe the work that you've done since seminary?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah. So since seminary, I have been working with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, which is a national organization of young Christians around the country, many with a very similar story to mine grew up in a conservative Christian community, were not given a whole lot of tools to help them integrate their faith and the values they were being taught in church and Christian day school, in many cases, with the realities of climate change, and environmental degradation. Many of them came to be concerned about the climate crisis. But were often told they needed to keep that separate from their life at church. So, many of them would join a Sierra Club or three-fifty protests on the weekend, and then go to church and not tell anyone about it. Because they felt implicitly or explicitly that they were told that those things had to be separate. So my ministry really for the last several years, since seminary has been to come alongside these young people, and to hopefully catalyze the kind of experience that I had. Because of my brother, because of other experiences because of other people I had in my life, that wedded together my faith and my faith values with climate action, to do that, for young Christians across the country, and to hopefully, create a space where that transformation can happen more quickly. Because it took me years, and where that transformation can happen for more people more quickly. And that can translate into a movement within the church of young people calling the church back to our own stated values, our own calling in the world, and can translate into real political pressure that can hopefully create the circumstances that will lead to policy change that can address the climate crisis at the speed and scale necessary. So I use the word ministry, because I believe that's what I'm doing. I believe that's what this is. That this calling I have to educate, equip, and mobilize young Christians. And recently, I actually transitioned to a role with Y.E.C.A parent organization where I'm now the vice president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, continuing to support Y.E.C.E., but also leading other programs for other Christians across the country to. I do believe this as a ministry and I believe I'm called to this ministry. Because the gospel of Jesus, in Jesus's own words is about setting the oppressed free, proclaiming good news to the poor, and climate action is that, and the church needs to recognize that and to get to work.John FiegeWell, great. I'm curious to hear more about, kind of your assessment of how that is going. But before we do that, I want to just jump into more of the heart of some of these ideas that I think that you spend your time steeped in and talking about. So I wanted to jump into this book you contributed to called Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care. I was wondering if you could talk about the evolution of the idea of creation care. So let's let's start in 1967, when historian Lynn White Jr. wrote an explosive article in the science in the journal Science called the historical roots of our ecological crisis, he cites the Dominion Mandate from Genesis in blaming the Judeo Christian tradition for its abusive attitudes towards the Earth and its non-human creatures. So here's Genesis 128, "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." What do you hear in this passage, and how do you think it's been read or misread by Christians or non-Christians?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. That's a terrific question. And you're right. I think a lot about this. So I'll try to be concise, but I am a preacher by training. This is one of the passages I've maybe thought most about. So I hear a few things. I think the first thing we should name is that read on its face in the English translation from the original Hebrew that you just read. It sure sounds like God has given humans license to do as they please with creation. However, I think my seminary education in particular has sensitized me to the importance of a slow, and careful, and contextual reading of Scripture. So when I hear that passage, I want to ask the question, "What's around it? What's around that verse, those verses that can help us contextualize that command?" And when I asked that, I see a couple of things. The first thing I see is that that command comes after 27 verses of God, creating and reveling in that creation. Genesis 1 says, "God looks at what he had made and calls it good," says that seven times and in the Hebrew imagination, the number seven connotes wholeness, perfection, even holiness. So having that Hebrew word in there, "Tov," seven times, for good, signals something to the original listeners, right? God is calling God's creation maximally good. This is this creation, I'm making as good as it gets. And the other thing I see is, pretty clearly, creations true king going about the work of creating, right? The language of dominion, and rulership evokes kingship. And so when we see God giving humans the command to subdue, have dominion over. That is the language of kingship. And we have to ask ourselves, "Is God really placing humans as creations true king? Or does the rest of Scripture attest that creations True King is actually Christ?" And if that's the case, then we have to ask ourselves, "Is our dominion separated from the dominion of Christ's or is our call to rule over creation supposed to be shaped in a particular way?" I would argue our call to dominion is derivative of Christ's true claim to the rulership of all of creation. And if that's the case, then our rule has to be shaped after the way that Christ rules and scripture is quite clear about how Christ exercises his authority over creation. We see it in the Incarnation, when he empties himself and and takes on human form, and limits himself in human form, to bring creation back to himself. I think Paul says it really well in Philippians, when he says that Christ did not see equality with God as something to be exploited for his own advantage. But he emptied himself and became a servant when he came to serve us in the Incarnation, and in his death and resurrection. So we see that Christ as creations true king exercises Dominion in a particular way, and it's not through exploitation, or through domination, it's through humble sacrifice, and through service. So when humans read, have dominion and subdue the earth, and they separate that, from the rest of scriptures witness, which is that Christ is creations true king, then it's easy for us to say, "Well, I guess we have a blank check. Let's do whatever we want." Instead of saying, "Well, let's shape our dominion in our rulership after creation's true king, which is Christ." And when we actually do that, then the way we have dominion and subdue the earth is going to look a whole lot different. It's going to look a whole lot less like privilege and a whole lot more like responsibility. Responsibility to serve that which we are ruling over. And I think Genesis 2 actually supports that interpretation. Genesis: 1 and 2 are two creation accounts in Scripture. Genesis 1 is really high minded language that belongs and, you know,magisterial archives along side the decrees of the king, but Genesis 2, the language is really intimate and earthy. It's a story about a God who stoops in the mud and forms humans with his hands, and then breathes his own breath into it, into the humans that he's creating. And the first command he gives to humans in Genesis 2 is to serve and protect creation. Genesis 2:15 has the Hebrew words "svad" and "shamar," the garden, those are often translated as till and keep it, which I don't like. Really, when you actually go to the Hebrew, it's pretty clear the word Avad. The Hebrew word Avad is all over the Old Testament. So we have a good idea of what it means. It's almost always used in the context of service and even slavery. And Shamar is also used everywhere. And it's quite clear that it connotes jealous protection and proactive guarding from harm. So in Genesis 2, God takes the humans he just made, puts them in the garden and says, serve and protect this, this thing that I've made. I think when you put that next to Genesis 1's call to dominion, it's quite clear that both of them are calling humans toward a particular responsibility to creation. Not to privilege, but to responsibility.John FiegeWow. Well, that amazing textual reading you just gave it, makes me think about the Protestant Reformation. In the sense that so much of the tumult in the church over the past millennium, has been about who interprets the Bible. And the Protestant Reformation was all about the ability of everyone to be able to read and interpret the Bible as they'd like. But when I listened to you have this amazingly learned and nuanced interpretation of the contextual reading of any one particular line, you know, it makes it gives me pause. I was like, "Yes, we should all be able to read ourselves." But that doesn't mean we don't need help from people who spend their lives studying the intricacies of a very complex text with very old language, that can be interpreted in many different ways. How have you approached that?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I like that a lot. I think you're right. And I think we can have both at the same time. I think we can invite people to experience scripture on their own terms. Because I do believe that Scripture is alive, that it is less an object to be dissected, which much of modern interpretive methods have tried to do and it's much more a living subject to be encountered. I believe the Holy Spirit works through our engagement with scripture to shape and change us. So I want people to encounter scripture on their own. And at the same time, I want people who have, like you said, spent their lives studying the cultural context of Scripture, studying the linguistic intricacies of Scripture. I want those people also speaking into folks' individual readings of Scripture to help people understand some of the complexities of what they are reading and what they're experiencing. You know, much of especially modern Evangelicalism, has emphasized a plain reading of the text. And that has been held forth as a way to honor scripture and honor the Bible on its own terms. I actually interpret that as the opposite. I think that's doing scripture a great disservice by ignoring all of the depth that is present in Scripture, that can be gained through a deep study, and winsome explication of it.John FiegeYeah. And it's a bit like constitutional originalism. I see a lot of parallels there with this very plain reading of texts. And it's interesting what you say about interpretation. Where, you know, some of the brilliance of these texts, is their openness and their invitation for interpretation and invitation for nuance, and like almost built in layeredness of meaning, and what meaning could be. And to read that plainly can, as you say, really be a disservice to it.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, absolutely. And it's even, there's even more layers than constitutional originalism when it comes to the Bible because the Constitution was written in English, older style English, but English nonetheless. But, you know, Scripture is coming to us through the Hebrew language and the Greek language. Coming to us through a variety of manuscripts, different versions, different interpretations, different translations. There's there's a longer history and more layers of interpretation they're already baked in. So to pretend like we can read the Bible in English and read it, you know, to gain everything we possibly can from it in that one English reading, again, just does a disservice to the complexity and the depth of Scripture.John FiegeLet's go back and read Lynn White Jr's article from 1967 very briefly. What I find interesting is that while he clearly blames the Judeo-Christian tradition for our ecological crisis, as he calls it, his solution is not to abandon religion or even Christianity. He says, "I personally doubt that disastrous ecologic backlash can be avoided simply by applying to our problems more science and more technology." Instead his solution is St. Francis of Assisi. He wants to dig back into Christian history and on earth, more earth friendly theologies that have been suppressed over time. And I'd love to read just his last paragraph from his piece. He writes, "The greatest spiritual revolutionary in Western history, Saint Francis, proposed what he thought was an alternative Christian view of nature and man's relation to it; he tried to substitute the idea of the equality of all creatures, including man, for the idea of man's limitless rule of creation. He failed. Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with Orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecological crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refill our nature and destiny. The profoundly religious, but heretical sense of the primitive Franciscans for the spiritual autonomy of all parts of nature may point a direction. I propose Francis as a patron saint of ecologists." I think of our current Pope Francis, I think he would agree. There's this dominant secular idea of replacing Christianity with a purely scientific worldview. But that's not what Lynn White Jr. is calling for. What do you think when you hear this passage? I don't know if you've read it before, but what does it make you think?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI'm always struck when I'm reminded of Lynn White's conclusion. There's no doubt that this paper looms large in environmental consciousness, particularly in the consciousness of the modern environmental movement, it because in many ways it was one of the catalysts for it. I appreciate his recognition that religion and the Judeo-Christian worldview is so part and parcel with Western civilization that I don't even think a project to jettison it is possible. And I think that's what he's saying too. He's saying, look, we're not going to replace the cultural impact, but the cultural foundations of the Judeo-Christian worldview and Western civilization, probably ever. So how do we work in recognition of that reality toward a better spirituality, a more earth friendly, Judeo-Christian perspective. So I appreciate that. And that's in many ways what we are trying to do in our work. St. Francis is a great example. Scripture is full of support for Saint Francis' kind of spirituality that recognizes the inherent goodness and the inherent sanctity of the created world. Scripture shouts this stuff, not just in Genesis, but all over Psalms, Job, the Pentateuch, the Law, the Gospels, Colossians, Ephesians, Revelation, it's everywhere! Romans. You can't run away from it. And you know, people like St. Francis and other leaders have shown us what it looks like to take those teachings and turn it into an operative theology and a way of life. And this is part of our heritage, too, right? I think that the Church, often especially after the Reformation, the Protestant Church tends to think that the Church of Jesus Christ in the world was established when Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the wall, to the door of the church. But it goes back so much farther. And that's all our heritage and that's all worth reexamining. Especially in the light of the current ecological crisis that we are in. We have tools and resources. The church has tools and resources at its disposal that we can use to help understand the crisis we're living through and can point us forward, give us a way forward toward positive action.John FiegeYeah, great. Well, can you talk about Christian environmental stewardship and how that grew out of a response to this criticism of dominion as domination?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSure, yeah. So the Lynn White article was a catalyst for a lot of Christians to examine Christianity's perspective around dominion, and how that influences the way we interact with creation. And that started some conversations that kind of culminated in the late 70s, early 80s. Around this concept of stewardship, that was kind of the Protestant Churches, at least in America, the Protestant church's answer to Lynn White's, I think, correct critique of dominionist theology, and the Church saying, Look, Lynn White is right! The Bible does not give us a blank check to do whatever we want with creation. Dominion does not mean domination. It means stewardship, it means wise management. And so stewardship became kind of the dominant frame that was articulated by Christian environmentalists and Christian theologians just looking to try to do better theology, say, look, Dominion. Dominionism, isn't it. Stewardship is much closer to what Scripture is talking about. So stewardship was a necessary corrective and a really important step in the right direction. It wasn't without its limitations, though. One limitation is that from a communication standpoint, a lot of rank and file folks and churches didn't quite understand what it meant. And there was a lot of confusion around are we talking about stewarding creation? Are we talking about why stewardship of money. A lot of studies have been done that show that Christians dominant views on stewardship centered around money still. So stewardship had always been used around language of finances and money, and so to add stewardship onto conversations around ecology and creation felt a little confusing to a lot of folks in the church, and it continues to confuse some people. Another limitation of the stewardship model is it creates unnecessary distance between us and the rest of creation. A steward is someone who is outside of and separate from the thing that is being stewarded. A steward is a custodian, a manager, but it can separate us from the rest of creation and kind of reinforce the hierarchy that dominionism created between us and the rest of creation. When in fact, I think scripture actually teaches us that humans are much more radically interconnected with creation. We are not separate from creation, we are created ourselves. We have a unique role to play in the midst of creation, but we are not separate from it. So stewardship kind of developed out of Lynn White's critique, and now, some of us in the church are thinking about stewardship and its legacy. We're grateful for the ways that it's reframed dominionism, but trying to imagine other ways to think about our relationship to creation that might be more effective in mobilizing Christians toward deeper action and care for the earth.John FiegeAnd this seems to be this, this problem of our separation from the rest of the natural world. You know, that's a problem shared by the broader environmental movement. This idea of locking away nature as wilderness in reserves, as important as that might be, it's not everything. And it creates this distance. As a replacement for the concept of stewardship, you suggest the idea of kinship and commonality in difference. I think this is a really wonderful idea for our view of both the nonhuman and the human world. Can you explain what you mean by kinship? And maybe talk about this beautiful metaphor you use of the mother and the child?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, sure. So the the project of the Beyond Stewardship book was to imagine multiple different vantage points that we might use to better understand our relationship to the natural world. So I highly encourage reading the whole book because the contributors offer other really insightful perspectives about how we can think about our relationship to the rest of creation. My contribution was, as you said, this idea of kinship, and off the bat, I want to say, this is certainly not a unique idea. Indigenous cultures, throughout time and space, have been articulating our relationship with creation as one of kinship. And I also think that the Old Testament, and the new, but especially the Old Testament, attests to this relationship too. And what I'm trying to get at with kinship is this idea that, for so much of the Christian Church's history, we have elevated ourselves above the rest of creation. We have elevated our uniqueness over against creation and diminished or completely flattened out our commonality with the rest of creation, in a way that I don't think Scripture supports. I think Scripture is clear that humans are different in an important way from the rest of creation, but not separated from it. One of the ways I think Scripture does that really beautifully, is I often say this in my presentations, and people are surprised, but humans don't have their own special creative day to themselves. Humans are created on the same day as all of the other land creatures, day six, when God creates badgers, and beavers, and billy goats. He also creates human beings.John FiegeRight. And that's not insignificant.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapRight! It's a really brilliant reminder for humans that, hey, we may have this unique image of God thing, which actually, is a call to responsibility and privilege. But we are embedded in creation. We are a part of creation in really important ways. And I think kinship helps us remember that and center that and keep that front of mind. So that the way I tried to express that is through the metaphor of a mother and a child. And I think that was on my mind because when I was writing this chapter, we had recently had our first child. And the metaphor is essentially trying to get at this idea that a mother and a child are deeply connected, right? They are connected through shared DNA, they're connected through shared spaces, but they're different. They are different beings. So just as we are different from other creatures in creation, we also have shared features, we have commonalities. We are all created from the same earth, from the same stuff, we were created on the same day in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2, that connection is even deeper through the the use of a Hebrew pun. The scripture in Genesis 2 says that God formed Adom, which is where we get the English name Adam, for the first man scripture actually never named Adam as Adam. It's just the Hebrew word Adom, which is "man from the soil," Adamah, we are Adom from the Adamah, we are soil people is essentially what Genesis 1 says. And we share that with the rest of creation. So there's a deep kinship and similarity between us and the rest of creation, while distinctiveness and distinction, and we have to hold both of those at the same time, right? We cannot elevate our uniqueness at the expense of our commonality, and we can't collapse our uniqueness for the sake of emphasizing our commonality because that also doesn't honor scriptures witness scriptures witness is that we are radically embedded in the rest of creation. We are radically connected to the rest of creation. And we are unique in that we alone bear the image of God, we alone were called to exercise authority, exercise responsibility toward the rest of creation. We have to hold both of those at the same time.John FiegeAnd that idea of kinship and commonality and difference. It feels like, it's such a beautiful way to live your life in so many ways. It's not just about the environment. But when we talk about race or human rights, or so many other things that that we're dealing with that centering around kinship and commonality in difference is, it's hard to fault that.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, yeah, I think you're right, I think it it extends to a lot of our lived experience. And I think it can inform a lot of the conversations we're having right now, like you said, around race, civil rights, immigration reform, a lot of social justice issues that at their root, in my opinion, are kind of the product of elevating one at the expense of the other. Usually elevating our difference at the expense of our commonality. But if we can find a way to honor our commonality, and our differences, at the same time, recognize that we have commonality and difference, then I think we could we could go a long way in healing some of the divides and divisions that exist.John FiegeYeah, for sure. This mother child relationship is a metaphor used in many cultures across history. But usually in terms of Mother Earth, where we're the children. What you're doing here is flipping the metaphor. We are the mother and the earth is our child. Seeing Earth as our child brings with it, this kind of fierce sense of love and protection and adoration. Do you have a sense of how this image of us loving and protecting the earth as our child is resonating with pastors and congregations and other Christians?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. I love that. I actually hadn't considered that I had kind of borrowed that metaphor and flipped it on its head. But you're right. I one of my favorite books of the last year is Braiding Sweetgrass, and Robin Wall Kimmerer talks often about how humans are the youngest siblings among the rest of creation, how we have the most to learn from our siblings and creation, about how to live in harmony and in reciprocity with Mother Earth. So yeah, you're right, I flipped it. And and I kind of make us as the mother, because we are given in scripture, this responsibility to steward, to rule over, again, ruling as Christ rules, which is through sacrifice and service, seeking the good of that which is ruled. To your question of how it's resonating, even though as I said, indigenous thinkers and wisdom keepers have been teaching this for millennia. The white Evangelical Church is very much steeped in kind of Dominionism. And I think stewardship even is still trying to break in 40 years after it was put forth as an alternative. So I think the jury's still out, we have a long way to go in reaching pastors with this kind of idea in reaching lay folks and lay leaders with this idea that our relationship to the rest of creation is much more intimate and interconnected than we often think. So I don't have a whole lot of data on that yet. I hope that I hope that in the next several years that this idea can continue to get some traction and can start to make a difference.John FiegeAwesome. You talk about liturgies of kinship, that have been enacted for centuries, including the "Canticle of the Sun," a song written by none other than St. Francis of Assisi. And that reminds me of the second encyclical of the current Pope Francis, which takes its name from the first line of a canticle. I just want to read for a second how Pope Francis begins the encyclical. "Laudato si mi Signore, praise be to you my Lord. In the words of this beautiful canticle St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. Praise be to You, my Lord, through our sister, mother earth, who sustains and governs us and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts wounded by sin is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself burdened and laid waste is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor. She groans and travail. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth. Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air, and we receive life and refreshment from her waters." What did "Laudato Si," the Pope's second encyclical mean to you, as a Christian, if not a Catholic?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI remember being deeply moved. As I read it. It's just such an important teaching from such an important figure. And like you said, even though I'm not Catholic, I can recognize the beauty of it, the heart of it. I just think the importance of such of such a consequential teacher and leader in the church, saying the things that are said in that encyclical, right, are hard are hard to overemphasize. I think it's so important. And studies have actually shown that even Protestants were affected by the encyclical. Some of their views on creation and the environment and climate kind of spiked after the release, most evidence shows that it went down again. So I wish that had been sustained. But it had an impact even outside of the Catholic Church, and certainly on me personally, I think it's a gift to the Church universal for all time that will be treasured for a long time.John FiegeSo I wanted to talk a bit about the idea of love. Love is an essential element in Christianity. Here's 1 John 4:8 from the King James Version. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." In your work, it seems to me that you're making an argument to Christians that the biblical idea of love must be expanded to include the nonhuman world. Similar to Aldo Leopold's call and his land ethic to enlarge the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or Albert Einstein's call to widen our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. How is your call for love of the nonhuman world in harmony with these ideas are distinct from them?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, you're right. That is what I and others in this movement are trying to do. We're calling the church to expand our understanding of love and who our object of love is. I think it's distinct because the way that I understand this call to an expansive love is rooted in a command given by Jesus in Matthew 22 and other passages in the gospels too, you'll find this in Mark and Luke as well. When Jesus is asked by a teacher of the law, which is the greatest commandment, this questioner is trying to trip Jesus up, because at the time there were over 630 commands in the Torah. So essentially, he's asking Jesus to choose a side, and Jesus refuses to play that game. And he says, actually, I'll tell you this, all of those laws and commandments can be boiled down to these two: love God with everything you've got with your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that is the heart of, I believe our call to care for creation and address the climate crisis. Because if we are truly going to love God and love our neighbor, in this 21st century, when the evidence is clear, that God's creation that God called good, that is the work of God's hands, is being degraded and destroyed. Creations own ability to praise God and worship God is being inhibited through human actions, then what better way to love God than to protect those works of God's hands? What better way to love God than to ensure that the rest of creation can do what it was created to do, which is to give praise and honor and glory to the Creator. Taking care of creation and addressing the climate crisis is a concrete way for us to get better at loving God. And it's a concrete way for us to get better at loving our neighbor. Because we know that the effects of pollution, the effects of the climate crisis are human. In their effect, in their impact. We know that especially black and brown communities are being disproportionately harmed by environmental pollution. We know that poor communities are being disproportionately harmed by climate impacts. So taking care of creation, loving creation, addressing the climate crisis, are actually ways for Christians to get better at following Jesus' command. When Jesus said, this is the most important thing that you can do. This is the center of my ethic. Love God with everything you got and love your neighbor as if their present circumstances and future prospects are your own. We believe in the work that we do. And I certainly believe that addressing environmental pollution that harms people's ability to flourish and thrive on the earth, and addressing the climate crisis, which is killing people right now. Right is a way for us to tangibly get better at obeying that command. I also believe that the outpouring of love when we cultivate love for creation, the effects of that love will mean that we are really practically also expressing love for God and our neighbor at the same time.John FiegeWow, that's really beautiful. So let's talk about language for a moment. Language is important in so many ways, it can unite us and build community or it can divide us along lines of identity. It can quickly signal commonality and just as easily signal opposition. In this country, the environment is often seen as a concern of liberals in cities, and when Christians don't identify with those broad political or cultural labels, they often think that the environment cannot and should not be a concern of theirs. You don't use these broad, nebulous terms of nature, or the environment very often you talk about the creation and creation care. What are your thoughts on the complicated nature of relationship, of language and, and how you can use a word to connect with one group, but at the same time, that same word might alienate or repel another group?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I completely agree. I don't think I can offer thoughts that are any better than the thoughts you can just offer. That's those, that was beautifully put. And that's exactly right. And it's central to the work of anybody who's trying to organize a community around a particular issue or toward a particular action is, first and foremost, you have to understand who you're trying to reach, you have to understand your community, you have to understand what they care about, you have to understand how they perceive their identity, you have to understand what values drive their actions, and then find the language that will connect to those identities to those values. Right, rather than alienate, and creation and creation care. And using those words is one way that we try to do that. But you know, a lot of the research bears out what you shared, which is that language is the the message is critical. How you share the message is critical, depending on who you're trying to reach. And in many ways, the messenger is almost more important than the message itself too. Who is delivering that message? Are they an outsider or do they get us? Do they understand who we are? Do they share important values? And do they share our identity or not? All of that goes into whether or not anyone is receptive to any kind of message. And just like my brother gave me permission to lean more deeply into who I was, and the values that I held dear in my action on this. That's what we try to do with the people we're talking to. Give them permission to recognize how their existing identity and the values that already drives them are exactly the identity and the values that the movement needs and that they can bring to bear on this issue. A lot of people in the Evangelical church, a lot of folks right of the political center, hear a lot of environmental language. And a lot of times they hear it communicated as essentially saying here are all of the ways that you and the community you love are wrong. Here are all of the ways that you need to change the life that you love to be more like us. Doing so will alienate you from people you love. But don't worry, because it'll make you more like us and the world way more like we want it to be instead of hearing here are all of the things about you and the community you love that are great. Here are other people who share your values that are taking action, as a way to deepen those values. When you take action to join them, you become more connected to them, you become more connected to your community. And the world becomes more like you want it to be.John FiegeThat makes me think a bit about the enlightenment and the scientific revolution where, you know, at that time, you know, truth and knowledge came from people. You believed it because this person said it was, so that may be your priest, that might be your king. And that's where truth came from. And one part of the Enlightenment project was to replace that with objectively verifiable scientific knowledge that isn't dependent on who's saying it. And it feels like we're still fighting that battle, sometimes where sometimes I feel like the environmental movement is saying, "Just look at the science! We don't need to have opinions. We don't need to have personalities. We don't need to have identities. We just need to look at the data and it'll tell us where to move." But that is not that simple. And it's not how people work. It's not how the vast majority people work. And even the people it does work for, does it really? Or is it actually cultural things that are predisposing them to accept scientific knowledge?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah. And it ignores such a huge swath of human psychology, right? Like, we are rational beings, but that is hardly all of who we are. We are also cultural and social beings. We're tribal beings. So yeah, so much of the social science and psychological research is bearing out what you're saying, which is that you know that the scientific revolution has done wonders for the human condition. But it has also, in many ways, at least in the project that you just explained, it has issued huge portions of what it means to be human, in its pursuit of communicating truth and ignores that for millennia, humans have interpreted and understood truth very, very differently. And that's not going to go away anytime soon.John FiegeRight, exactly. So in the foreword to beyond stewardship, Bill McKibben writes, in the most Christian nation on earth, the most Christian people have grown ever more attached to leaders in causes antithetical to the idea of taking care of the earth. And here's what you wrote, in a CNN, Op-Ed entitled Young Evangelicals Are Defying Their Elders' Politics. You write, "We've grown weary of the current expression of Evangelical politics stoked by Trump's Republican Party, that seeks to convince us that faithful civic engagement is a black and white, 'us vs. them' proposition where danger to our way of life lurks around every corner and that our overriding political concern should be our own cultural power and comfort rather than advancing the good of our neighbors. Many of our peers have simply left the Evangelical tradition behind, fed up with how selfish, some of the followers of our famously selfless Savior have become." Wow, those are really strong words! I feel like, you know, are you are you channeling the book of Job here?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapThere was some pathos in that, yeah!John FiegeSo I pulled this Job 34. "Can someone who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One? Is he not the one who says to Kings, 'You are worthless,' and to nobles, 'you are wicked,' Who shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?" How have American Evangelicals become so aligned with worthless kings and wicked nobles who trade in destruction of the natural world? How do you understand that?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapWow, great question. So I've thought a lot about this, as you might imagine, and I think it's the result of a couple of realities. I think one explanation that's necessary is understanding the history of suspicion around scientific discovery and scientific findings in the white Evangelical Church in America. Much of this goes back to, uh, it depends on how far you want to go back. You know, it exists in the church universal going back to Galileo and Copernicus. But more recently in the American Protestant tradition, you can kind of trace it back to the middle of the 19th century when Darwin's Origin of the Species is published. And the US church is divided on how to respond. Some churches and church leaders say, Look, we can integrate this into our understanding of Scripture, we can recognize that Scripture is not a science textbook. It's It's teaching us something other than what Darwin is explaining. And both can be true. And we can integrate an understanding of evolution into how we believe God created the earth and how God sustains it. And other portions of the church said, No, this is this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, we cannot abide this, we need to reject this because it is a threat to the authority of Scripture. It is a threat to the bedrock of our lives and our cosmology, and how we understand God to be at work in the world, and we have to reject it. These camps kind of solidified into what became known as the modernists and the fundamentalists. The modernist arguing for integration of evolution into Christian life and the fundamentalist arguing for rejection of it. And it kind of came to a head in the Scopes Monkey Trial in the 1920s, when a teacher in Tennessee was put on trial for teaching evolution in school. And it became this national frenzy, the front page of all the papers around the country and Clarence Darrow. And William Jennings Bryan, went head to head and the fundamentalists won! William Jennings Bryan won the case! The teacher was convicted, but in the court of public opinion, the fundamentalists looked backwards, they looked ignorant, and public opinion really turned against those who are arguing to keep evolution out of schools. And the fundamentalists were kind of humiliated. And they, in many ways, went underground tended to their wounds, but didn't disappear. They were building institutions, they were planting new churches. And in many ways, they reemerged with Billy Graham, in the 1950s and 60s. And his movement, which in many ways became the precursor to the Moral Majority, the religious right, the rise of the religious rights in the 80s and 90s. Which, more than Graham, to his credit, Graham always expressed concern about wedding a particular political party to Christianity. Went a step beyond Graham and really wedded Christian faithfulness and Christian discipleship to Republican politics. And created a culture for an entire generation of political participation that said, if you're a Christian, you need to check the box with a "R" next to it, that is what God requires of you. And it was it was connected to arguments around particular policy issues, especially abortion, which which was kind of engineered into a wedge issue. If you look at the history of how that happened.The religious right really has its roots in opposition to federal desegregation efforts at Bob Jones University. But these leaders who are trying to create a constituency, turned abortion into a wedge issue and organize millions of Evangelicals into their camp. And that's the legacy right? And it's rooted in this suspicion of science going back to that fundamentalist and modernist controversy. And it's rooted in what a lot of Christians were formed in, which is this idea that faithful Christian civic engagement means supporting the Republican Party. And somehow, environmentalism got wedded to this suite of conservative Evangelical policy concerns also including gay marriage, LGBTQIA rights, feminism in general, and environmentalism as secularism. Environmentalism became seen as a sibling to the evolution debate. An effort to de-legitimize the authority of scripture to replace it with observable objective of scientific method, empiricism. And so environmentalism became lumped in with this suite of policy concerns that animated the religious right, and the movement of Evangelical conservative Christians in the US. And that was exploited by fossil fuel corporations who stood to lose the most from any sort of policy to curb emissions and documents abound, attesting to the fact that Exxon Mobil all the way back in the 80s was suppressing data. That they were spending billions of dollars to resurrect the playbook of big tobacco to hire their own scientists to commission their own studies with no other purpose other than to cast doubt within public dialogue around this conversation about the severity of the problem, the root causes of it, potential solutions around it. And a lot of that money went to target Evangelical Christians, because they were already primed to be suspicious about environmentalism as an "ism," which is to say, as a system of belief ultimate answers to ultimate questions like, why are we here? Who is governing the world or what is governing the world? So they were identified as a particularly ripe constituency to be misinformed. And then they were misinformed to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. And that's the history we're fighting against. And it's really powerful, and the interests allied against our efforts are strong. Those who benefit from the status quo are very powerful. And so it helps to understand some of that history because it gives me, it helps cultivate some compassion in me. I know a lot of these people. I know, a lot of these people are my family. I have extended family, most of my extended family does not understand why I do what I do. And even comes at me sometimes on social media especially. But understanding all of the forces that have aligned against them understanding this gives me some compassion, and also helps to remember my own journey, right? It took me years to recognize this to break the spell that had been cast on me. And so if it took me years, it's okay if it takes others years to and all I'm called to do is try to be one person on that journey, guiding them toward deeper understanding and deeper action.John FiegeWell, I've never heard a more succinct, more beautifully articulated story that starts with Darwin and ends with Merchants of Doubt.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSuccinct is generous!John FiegeHey, for a reverend, you know!Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI'm rarely described as succint.John FiegeSo what could the largely secular environmental movement learn from Christian environmentalism in the idea of creation care?Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. I hope one of the lessons is that the environmental movement should try not to give up on anybody. Because I think the emergence of the Creation Care movement, the emergence of Christian and especially Evangelical action on climate change, is a great case study, in the fact that constituencies can move. Especially when those constituencies are being reached by effective trusted messengers with messages that resonate with them. So I hope the larger environmental movement can look to the Creation Care movement, as an example of a constituency that shares their ultimate

Politicians, business leaders, and activists from around the world are meeting this and next week in Glasgow, Scotland, to make commitments and urge others to do the same to keep the planet from overheating more than it already is. Earth's global temperature has risen 1.1 C and as the planet has warmed, fires have raged in Australia and California, heatwaves and floods have killed hundreds around the world. So what can be done to keep the temperature from rising .4 or more degrees? Christians have been actively petitioning God for prayer. Believers in Asia, Europe, and North America gathered monthly from spring to fall to offer intercessory prayers ahead of the United Nations climate change conference, in an event organized by Lausanne/World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network, A Rocha International, Youth With A Mission England, Christian Missionary Fellowship International, Tearfund, and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. The Young Christian Climate Network organized about 2,000 people to walk between the southwestern tip of the UK to Glasgow to raise awareness about climate change and the current practices leading the earth's rise in temperature. Philip Summerton is a full time missionary worker with YWAM in Scotland and a marine and terrestrial conservationist who has done work on the restoration of coral reefs in the Seychelles. Summerton joined global media manager Morgan Lee and news editor Daniel Silliman to discuss the goals of COP26, what's impeding us from reaching them, and why the climate movement needs Christians. What is Quick to Listen? Read more. Rate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow this week's hosts on Twitter: Morgan Lee and Daniel Silliman Learn more about YWAM Scotland Music by Sweeps Quick to Listen is produced Morgan Lee and Matt Linder The transcript is edited by Faith Ndlovu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For decades, evangelicals voters have been among the most active forces thwarting government action on the climate crisis. Has that started to change? Alex Morris is a senior writer at Rolling Stone who often covers stories relating to the intersection of religion and culture. A Christian herself, she has been able to look at these issues with an insider's eye. She recently profiled several young evangelicals who have been rallying for climate action as a matter of religious faith. John spoke to Alex shortly after the release of the dire IPCC report on the climate crisis to ask her if the tide is finally starting to turn against a movement that has long stood in the way of climate action. Alex is on Twitter @AlexMorrisNY You can find more of her work at her website: AlexMorris.net

In this episode, Rev. Kate Kooyman talks with Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, who is the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He attended Calvin University and Western Seminary, and has also served as the National Organizer and Spokesperson at the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. They discuss Rev. Meyaard-Schaap's advocacy for climate change throughout his life, what he has learned about his faith through this work, as well as advice for those who want to become involved in climate change advocacy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reformed-journal/message

The percentage of young evangelicals who don't understand God's plan for Israel is rising.   In this episode, Joel C. Rosenberg analyzes the results of two different surveys – conducted four years apart—that reveal this sobering fact and gives us his thoughts on why young evangelicals are changing their view of the Scriptures. Support for Israel among young US evangelical Christians drops sharply — survey. May 20, 2021.   Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel and the Peace Process. December 4, 2017.   Learn more: JoshuaFund.com Make a tax-deductible donation: Donate | The Joshua Fund Stock Media provided by DimmySad / Pond5

For decades, Christian evangelicals were the fastest-growing religious group in this country. Now, some young evangelicals are abandoning the faith. And: There’s a new competitive edge in pro sports — the COVID vaccines. And finally: Tomorrow, July 20, Wally Funk will become the oldest person ever to fly to space. So today, our conversation with Funk on her last day as a non-astronaut. GUESTS: Wally Funk - An American aviator with nearly 20,000 flight hours and a former member of the Mercury 13 program Alex Kirshner - A writer and editor; he co-hosts the Split Zone Duo podcast and co-writes the Moon Crew newsletter Terry Shoemaker - A lecturer on religious studies and American studies at Arizona State University Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israelis are expressing concern over a poll that young evangelical support of the Jewish state has dropped dramatically. Why is this happening? Christine Darg warns that a diluted watered down Bible results in a dangerous generation of Biblical illiterates.

This week, we listen to two powerful young voices in the climate movement: Isha Clarke is co-founder of Youth Vs Apocalypse and Tori Goebel is National Coordinator for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. Although on opposite coasts and from different religious and cultural traditions, the two share in their drive to working tirelessly to bring attention and action to the existential threat of our time. During our conversation, Isha and Tori reflect on why it is critical to create intergenerational cooperation rather than conflict, discuss the dual processes of dismantling corrupt systems and building better ones, and name the visionary young leaders that inspire them. Learn more about: Youth Vs Apocalypse https://www.youthvsapocalypse.org/ Young Evangelicals for Climate Action https://yecaction.org/ +++ Leave a Review! bit.ly/interfaithish Social: www.instagram.com/interfaithish/ www.facebook.com/interfaithish/ twitter.com/interfaithish Email: interfaithish@gmail.com

On this week's Podcast, Laurie interviewed Pastor Roger Diaz from Fellowship Church in Winter Springs, Florida about the recent Barna Research Group poll that saw a 50% decline in young evangelical Christian support for Israel. Laurie and Pastor Diaz discussed the results of survey and the impact it poses to future U.S./Israel relations in the next 10 years and how we must reach this next generation of evangelicals about their biblical responsibility to stand with our Jewish brethren and Israel against the rise of global antisemitism.A native of the Caribbean Island of Trinidad and Tobago, Pastor Roger Diaz moved to Central Florida in 1984. Soon after he gave his heart to the Lord in 1991, God called him to Fellowship Church where he committed himself to the work of ministry, seeking where he might be most effective. In 1996, God called him to be a pastor/teacher. In preparation for this service, he led the discipleship ministry, oversaw a home school co-op, taught the Tzemach Institute Bible Survey Course in Deland, Fla., and developed and taught a Sunday morning Bible Study curriculum. In 2002 he was ordained as an elder.

A religion in the news roundup with some surprising stories. Mother Theresa a cult leader. Interpreting the Torah. Your face will become a skull. Rachel Hollis is out of touch. Zaprudurian. This UFO thing is not going away and Brian is getting excited. A lot going on. Links below to each story. Some covered more in depth, and some in the lightning round. Was Mother Theresa a cult leader? https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2021/5/25/another-trial-by-media-in-defense-of-mother-teresa-why-she-is-a-saint-not-a-cult-leaderRachel Hollis who is something of a guru is saying dumb things: https://aninjusticemag.com/the-rachel-hollis-drama-is-why-i-dont-trust-influencers-586eef3c2a15 White evangelicals, Hispanic Protestants, Mormons most likely to believe in QAnon: https://religionnews.com/2021/05/27/survey-white-evangelicals-hispanic-protestants-and-mormons-most-likely-believe-in-qanon/The 18 mile secret wire above Manhattan: https://historyofyesterday.com/why-theres-a-secret-tiny-wire-above-manhattan-4dc3f364330e How pop culture set the stage for coming ufo report: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/how-pop-culture-set-stage-coming-ufo-report-better-or-n1268673Nun telling us we are goin to die: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html Mark Driscoll / Mars Hill podcast from CT: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/teaser-trailer-mars-hill-podcast.htmlProud to be an American: https://religionnews.com/2021/05/27/king-james-saves-the-god-bless-the-usa-bible-lee-greenwood-elite-source-kirkpatrick/Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory (Leah’s choice): https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000780650/every-possible-explanation-for-covid-19-should-be-investigated-expert-saysWuhan lab leak conspiracy (Brian’s choice): https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57267729 Remembering the Satanic Panic re: D&D: https://medium.com/belover/the-1980s-hoax-that-dungeons-dragons-killed-kids-d6e1559390621984 happening in 2024 now: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57122120Atheist says let’s get rid of BC/AD and BCE/CE: https://ephromjosine.medium.com/atheist-against-c-e-3446e0c05069 Young Evangelicals have changing views on Israel: https://religionnews.com/2021/05/26/survey-young-evangelicals-largely-backed-biden-and-have-shifting-views-on-israel/ God told me to put money down: https://www.wsj.com/articles/god-told-me-to-put-money-into-hertz-how-small-investors-are-upending-wall-street-11622113200

Meet Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, plus Climate Mayors webinars open to public. Oakland's city fleet celebrates two years running on recycled cooking oil, and Interior green lights a 350MW solar farm in California desert.

Research found in an article by Glenn Stanton shows more than 50% of evangelicals believe it is okay to live together without being married. This used to be called "living in sin." But it appears with young evangelical Christians, it is viewed more like "business as usual." Tom and Tabi talk about the implications - for our hearts, and for the future. Mornings with Tom and Tabi, 6am to 9am Eastern on 88.9 Moody Radio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martin Luther King, III on the Chauvin Verdict in Minneapolis. Is this just an aberration? Or a sign that the times might finally be changing? Also, Texas Freedom Network’s Angela Williams on shocking new anti-Trans legislation making its way through the Statehouse. And Earth Day 2021: what have we learned? We’ll get a briefing from Tori Goebel, National Organizer and Spokesperson at Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.

In this episode, Phil is joined by Tori Goebel, the National Organizer and Spokesperson for YECA – Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. Tori and Phil discuss climate change and why Christians should care about this central issue. It turns out that climate change doesn’t only affect the creation, but is linked to issues of justice, […]

It’s important to talk about climate change. But how do you talk about it with friends and family who don't believe it's real, or don’t think we can do anything about it? We hear from a father and son who successfully navigated this conversation, and we bring you step-by-step tips from an expert on how to have a conversation where both sides actually hear each other. Maybe try it out this socially-distanced Thanksgiving! For more details, sign up for our newsletter. Here are the six steps outlined by Steve Deline with the New Conversation Initiative on how to have difficult conversations about climate change. Step 1 – Set realistic expectations for yourself! Your initial goal should be to lower the temperature around this issue. Even if you just succeed in attempting to talk to them one on one, or expressing a DESIRE to do so, that’s an important step forward! Do NOT set yourself an expectation that you will change how they feel about climate all in one go!  Step 2 – Find a buddy! Find someone you trust and feel comfortable with who’s down to be your support before and after having a challenging conversation with a friend or family member. Talk to them about what your fears are, and name some goals for what you’re doing to make this one go different.  Step 3 – Find a quiet moment to talk to your family member Ideally do it when you can be one-on-one, NOT surrounded by the whole family at the actual Thanksgiving table! Be direct and say “Hey, I’d love to find a time to talk more about this.” So that they have a chance to opt in. Step 4 – Listen! When the time comes to talk, start by letting them know that you really want to understand how they feel about climate change. Listen, and ask follow up questions “Tell me more? Why do you feel that way?” But importantly, DON’T RESPOND. Don’t engage with the parts that you disagree with. Just give them a chance to talk it out and be heard, you want to let them get the crux of their feelings on the subject off their chest.  Step 5 – Acknowledge that you disagree Let them know what you think. For example “Got it. So you’re probably not surprised to hear it but I think climate change is real and human-caused.” But then most importantly, say “BUT I really want to find a way to talk to you about it openly, and better understand what each other thinks, even if we don’t agree.” In other words, name the elephant in the room – that you disagree – and name it without being upset about it! Step 6 – Make it personal. Turn the conversation away from dueling facts, and towards life and experiences. For example, I might share a story about my friend Laurel, whose sister lost her home to a wildfire in Paradise, CA, and how hearing her story was the first time I felt a knot of fear in my stomach, that my own community could be in danger of the same thing. The key here is to share vulnerably, and then talk about how it made you FEEL. And then (most importantly) invite them to do the same – bring emotion explicitly into the conversation. Some more resources that we recommend: The Secret to Talking about Climate Change, from the Alliance for Climate Education How to Talk About Climate Change at Thanksgiving Dinner feat. Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, by Young Evangelicals for Climate Action Bob says to send your conservative family members to RepublicEN.org, where they can talk to them in the language of conservatism A few of the research papers telling us that climate conversations matter: Discussing global warming leads to greater acceptance of climate science Children can foster climate change concern among their parents The influence of personal beliefs, friends, and family in building climate change concern among adolescents If you have a conversation about climate change, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at howtosaveaplanet@spotify.com. We might use it in an upcoming episode.

A few announcements and then at 13:00 Jon talks about an article and Facebook post trying to explain why young evangelicals are leaving the church. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/worldviewconversation Subscribe: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-that-matter/id1446645865?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Like Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldviewconversation/ Follow Us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/conversationsthatmatterpodcast Follow Jon on Parler: https://parler.com/profile/JonHarris/posts Follow Jon on Twitter https://twitter.com/worldviewconvos Follow Us on Gab: https://gab.ai/worldiewconversation Subscribe on Minds https://www.minds.com/worldviewconversation More Ways to Listen: https://anchor.fm/worldviewconversation --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/worldviewconversation/support

In this interview, Rachel Lamb discusses her faith, research and activism in the context of creation care, specifically focusing on climate change. Rachel is currently a PhD Candidate in Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. And before this she served as the National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and in 2015 was recognized as a “Champion of Change” by the Obama Administration for her work on climate action in faith communities. RESOURCES: 1) Au Sable Institute - https://www.ausable.org 2) A Rocha – https://www.arocha.org/ 3) Love Your Place - https://www.loveyourplace.org 4) Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) - https://yecaction.org 5) Blessed Earth - https://www.blessedearth.org 6) Twitter @rachel_l_lamb If you would like to watch the video version of this presentation, you can go to www.andrews.edu/podcasts and look for the show notes for this particular episode. CREDITS ------------ THEME MUSIC: “Onward” by Podington Bear (Free Music Archive) SACRED SPACES MUSIC: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/59721 PRODUCER: Jeff Boyd, Office of Research & Creative Scholarship EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Gillian Panigot & Stephen Payne (University Communications) COPYRIGHT: ©2020 Andrews University

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Kaleb, originally from McMinnville, Oregon, graduated university in 2012 with a dual degree in Global Studies and Conflict Transformation. Kaleb is a public policy professional specializing in addressing "wicked" collective action problems (e.g., climate change, democratic gridlock) through rigorous data analysis, and more. Kaleb has also served on the steering committee of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.   More from Religica at religica.org   Facebook: www.facebook.com/Religica.org/   Twitter: twitter.com/religica   YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuwufds6gAu2u6xmm8SBuw   Soundcloud: @user-religica   Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3CZwIO4uGP1…mwTkuTQC2rgdGObQ   iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/relig…d1448005061?mt=2   Religica is a comprehensive online platform at the axis of religion and society that provides non-sectarian, coherent, integrated and accessible awareness about the role of religion in society, with a focus on strengthening local communities.

Adam Rosenbalm and Austin Ramsey study at East Tennessee State University (ETSU.) After the 2016 election it seemed the country was more polarized than ever. Conversations quickly became debates that led to arguments. Both Adam and Austin wanted to do something about the partisan divide between Conservative and Liberal Americans. Fortunately they learned about a new group called Better Angels. After attending a Better Angels’ event, Adam and Austin decided to bring the Better Angels’ style of debate to the ETSU campus. They hosted the first-ever Better Angel’s debate on a college campus. They chose a hot button topic that drew a large audience: guns on campus. Throughout the debate students were given space to share their feelings about the topic and raise questions. What often becomes a heated debate where people walk away angry and further divided instead became a space of deeper understanding and friendship. Because of skillful facilitation and clear guardrails that kept the conversation moving forward, the ETSU Better Angels gun debate was a huge success. After that initial success, Adam and Austin organized debates on other topics. They share with Citizens Climate Radio host, Peterson Toscano, some of the insights they have learned that help them to foster civil discourse that results in genuine understanding and appreciation of people on the other side of an issue. They also talk about climate change and the challenges that must be overcome when organizing an effective dialogue between Conservatives and Liberals. The Art House Being a climate advocate can be very difficult. How do you maintain hope in the face of bad news and apathy from those around you? Where do you find encouragement and inspiration? What role can faith play in our climate work? These are the questions Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade and Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas the editors of a new anthology of essays by climate change faith leaders, wanted to answer. They bring together 21 climate leaders in the book, Rooted & Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis. Contributors include Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Rev Fred Small, Cristina Leaño, and Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman. In the Art House the editors speak briefly about the book, and then contributors, Dr. Nathasha DeJarnett, a research coordinator at the National Environmental Health Assocation reads a portion of her essay, “The View from My Window. Corina Newsome, from Young Evangelicals for Climate Action shares how her hope was rekindled through the process of writing her piece, “The Thing with Feathers.” Once she received her copy of the book and read the other essays, she found even more hope. Get your copy here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45834238-rooted-and-rising Puzzler We hear answers to last month’s puzzler: System Change, Not Climate Change. What does that even mean? New Puzzler Question You are talking to your neighbor, Darren. You explain the many possible ways of we can address climate change. One proposal is to charge energy companies a fee when they extract fossil fuels. The money collected then goes to households. You say this carbon fee and dividend plan will serve as an incentive to switch over to cleaner sources of energy. Darren replies, “Well that’s stupid. People will just use the dividend they get to continue paying for fossil fuels. Giving them money enables them to stay in their fossil fuel lifestyles?” What do you have to say to Darren? Send Peterson your answer by December 15, 2019, along with your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)

Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, takes stock of how the church is doing in addressing climate change and describes how young Christians are leading the way, finding refugia through intentional action. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/refugia/message

Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, national organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action explains to other evangelical Christians that it was his faith that led him to a life advocating for the planet. 

Three American Evangelicals consider faith, theology, and global warming. Kyle Meyaard Schaap, National Organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) and Corina Newsome, YECA steering committee member on the diversity and civic engagement subcommittees, along with Rev. Josh Gibson, pastor of Emmanuel Bible Fellowship Church in Sunbury, PA, chat with host, Peterson Toscano about the Bible, stewardship, loving our neighbor, heaven, and earth. Discover how these Evangelicals approach the often political topic of climate change, and learn how to connect with Bible believers, who may not be environmentalists but care very much for what happens to people and to our earthly home.  Here is a listing to the various Bible passages referenced in Ep 30. You can look up these verses at BibleGateway.com Genesis 1:26, Genesis 2:15, Leviticus 25:4, Pslam 24:1,2, Psalm 104:10-15, Colossians 1:15, Revelation 21, Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 8:19-21 Art House In response to the question, What Does the Bible Say About Climate Change? Tony Buffusio from the Bronx, NY (a comic creation of Peterson Toscano) tells the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph lives in Egypt during a time of temporary regional shifts in the climate. Not only does he predict changes in weather patterns, he developes a plan of how to look after the people. Peterson is a Bible scholar with a passion for looking after the welfare of people who are affected by extreme weather events. Puzzler Question We hear from Jay Greene in Salisbury, England. She tells us what her faith has to do with climate change.  Since this is such a rich question, we want to keep it open another month.  Louis, someone you know from your faith community asks why are you involved in climate change work. You say, Lots of reasons, but a big part is because of my faith. Louis looks puzzled. He asks, Climate Change? What’s faith got to do with it? So what do you say to Louis? How is climate change connected to your faith or religion or spiritual practice? How is climate change connnected to your faith or religion or spiritual practice? What do you have to add to this topic? Send your answers to Peterson by December 10, 2018. Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)  You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, right here on SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.

Dennis Prager explains how young evangelicals are now more influenced by the ideology of the Left than the teachings of the Bible.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Mykal Shupe. I am going to be a senior at Malone University double majoring in Zoo & Wildlife Biology and Environmental Studies with a minor in Psychology. I have been a Christian since I was seven years old and I continue to love and serve Jesus in everything that I do. This past year I was a Climate Leadership Fellow with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. I was challenged this year to make a change on my campus. I decided to create an environmental club from scratch for the Malone community to become involved in and to have a way to be a part of climate action. I am excited to see where this takes Malone as a community and how Jesus is going to work through this club to help the Canton, Ohio community as well. 

Today I talk to Rob Barward-Symmons about his research on Young Evangelicals and social media use, ethics in the online field, and the lack of distinction between online and offline.Email Rob: rmb50@kent.ac.ukFollow him on twitter: @robsymmonsFollow me on twitter: @vivianasimosEnjoy!

Today I talk to Rob Barward-Symmons about his research on Young Evangelicals and social media use, ethics in the online field, and the lack of distinction between online and offline.Email Rob: rmb50@kent.ac.ukFollow him on twitter: @robsymmonsFollow me on twitter: @vivianasimosWebsite: god-mode.orgEnjoy!

Climate Change—what’s faith got to do with it? To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and respond to a rapidly changing planet, people of faith and religious leaders play essential roles. Citizens’ Climate Radio host, Peterson Toscano, introduces you to two people of faith who are active climate advocates. Main Section Rachel Lamb, an American, is the national organizer and spokesperson with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. David Michael Terungwa, a Catholic from Nigeria, is a leader in the African GREEN Movement and Africa Regional Coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Both Rachel and David Michael stand as witnesses to their communities about the dangers of climate change and the need to act. The Art House In the Art House we conduct an audio brain experiment. What will they be saying about us in the future? We take a trip to the future to look back at the present day about the role that Christian missionaries can take as witnesses to their churches at home about how climate change affects the people in the countries where they serve. Citizens' Climate Puzzler Also, we review listeners' answers to the Citizens’ Climate Puzzler and introduce a new puzzler. Citizens Climate Puzzler. Check it out and and send us your best answer. You are talking to someone who you think could be an effective climate advocate. This may be a lawmaker, a faith leader, or a friend. After sharing your passion and what you are doing to address climate change, the person you are talking to, let’s call him Simon, shrugs and replies. What difference does it make if we do something in our country when it’s China that’s doing most of the polluting? Now Simon’s answer sounds to me like a very American reaction. If Simon does not live in the USA, he might instead ask: Why on earth should we do anything when the USA has done much of the polluting and is doing so little to act? In addition to his actual question—why should my country do something when others do not--what do you hear in Simon’s words? What emotions, fears and beliefs might his question reveal? How might you answer Simon’s question while also addressing what is unsaid. Get back to Peterson by September 15th, 2016. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org You can also text leave a voicemail at 570.483.8194. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.) He will then share the best answers in our next episode which airs September 26, 2016. Help Spread the Word! Citizens’ Climate Radio is available on podbean, iTunes, and Stitcher Radio. Please rate and review. If you like what you hear, please share the show with your friends. Citizens’ Climate Radio is a project of Citizens’ Climate Education. All music is royalty free and purchased thorough PremiumBeat.com and AudioBlocks

How are we called to be stewards of God's creation? '07 Alumnus Ben Lowe, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, addresses the Wheaton College community on the importance of climate conciousness and environmental stewardship, especially in the context of the church and of our Christian lives. Ben points out that environmental problems are people problems—they are justice issues. Using stories from his own life to illustrate the need for widespread environmental stewardship accross the globe, he shows how many of these problems stem from sin: greed and pride. If we are to be faithful in our gospel calling as witnesses of Jesus Christ, we must be faithful stewards of the planet that God has given to us.

Bishop Willimon speaks to Candler School of Theology Evangelical Students Fellowship group about young evangelicals in today's church.