Climate Change, Politics and Religion: Australian Churchgoers’ Beliefs about Climate Change

Abstract

Abstract:A growing literature has sought to understand the relationships between religion, politics and views about climate change and climate change policy in the United States. However, little comparative research has been conducted in other countries. This study draws on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey to examine the beliefs of Australian churchgoers from some 20 denominations about climate change-whether or not it is real and whether it is caused by humans-and political factors that explain variation in these beliefs. Pentecostals, Baptist and Churches of Christ churchgoers, and people from the smallest Protestant denominations were less likely than other churchgoers to believe in anthropogenic climate change, and voting and hierarchical and individualistic views about society predicted beliefs. There was some evidence that these views function differently in relation to climate change beliefs depending on churchgoers' degree of opposition to gay rights. These findings are of interest not only for the sake of international comparisons, but also in a context where Australia plays a role in international climate change politics that is disproportionate to its small population.

The Religion-Environment (Climate Change) Connection

“…mostly conducted in the US and European countries), their results have remained inconclusive. For instance, with respect to their results, some of the studies found some denominational affiliations and some Christian doctrines such as the dominion mandate, eschatology or end time or dispensational theology etc that are strongly held by conservative Christians and biblical literalists, to be incompatible with environmental or climate change concern and pro-environmental behaviour among some Judeo-Christians (Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Pentecostals) (e.g Pepper and Leonard, 2016;Carr, 2010;Deemer and Lobao, 2011;Barker and Bearce, 2012;Clements et al, 2014b, Arbuckle and Konisky, 2015, Morrison et al 2015, Arbuckle 2017, Smith et al 2017. Whereas some of them found a mixed relationship between religion and environmental concern or that some religious behaviours (such as frequent church attendance), beliefs, values and other measures of religiosity correspond positively with overall examples of environmental concern and behaviours (e.g.…”

Who are American evangelical Protestants and why do they matter for US climate policy?

“…9 9 Studies such as Aasmundsen (2018), Johnson (2012), Nche (2020), Pepper and Leonard (2016), and Smith & Veldman (2020) suggest that there is a wide range of views about climate change in the global evangelical community, rather than the simple pattern of skepticism that is observed when one focuses on white evangelicals in the US.…”

Beyond Spiritual Focus: Climate Change Awareness, Role Perception, and Action among Church Leaders in Nigeria

“…These findings add important perspectives to the body of knowledge on the factors influencing climate change perceptions and actions. The findings also highlight what seems to be a recurrent pattern in the literature, which is that Catholics are more likely to believe that climate change is real and caused by human activities and to take actions to address the phenomenon than other denominations, especially the Pentecostals (see Pepper and Leonard 2016;Pepper and Powell 2013a,b). While theological differences could partly account for this seemingly consistent pattern with respect to climate change perceptions, the roles of Catholic leaders also seem to be a significant factor.…”

“…As Table 2 shows, there are some religious denominational differences with respect to the perception of the causes of climate change. For instance, more Catholic participants expressed belief in human caused climate change than other participants thereby reinforcing Pepper and Leonard's (2016) finding that Catholics are more likely than those from evangelical and Pentecostal traditions to believe in anthropogenic climate change. This could be as a result of the general level of environmental/climate change awareness and consciousness in the Roman Catholic Church both in Nigeria and globally (see (Pepper and Powell 2013a,b), which found that the Pentecostal churches and their clergy typically occupy last or close to last position on a range of measures of environmental activity, the present study found that the Pentecostals had the highest number of participants who were found to be unknowledgeable about the actual causes of climate change.…”