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Transcript:
Shaphan Hestick:
As a child, I was desperately obsessed with wildlife. Growing up, I wanted to be a National Geographic explorer.
SFX: David Attenborough clip
Shaphan Hestick:
I wanted to be David Attenborough. I wanted to go out and see all the animals and video them and photograph them, compile books, do the documentaries and just spread information about the wonder of the world.
I was obsessed with orcas and polar bears and walruses and whales. And the bigger, the more marvellous, the better. But any and every species from charismatic megafauna down to bugs.
My dad always used to laugh at me because I was afraid of bugs. I didn't want to touch them, I didn't want to handle them; frogs, amphibians, you know, smaller creatures like that. Creepy crawlies would literally make my skin crawl, but I was so fascinated with them. I was drawing them in sketchbooks obsessively.
Shaphan Hestick was born and raised in the South American country of Guyana, right on the Atlantic Ocean. Never more than a stone's throw from the water, and so much of what it has to offer.
Shaphan Hestick:
I grew up around manatees. There's water birds, there's the scarlet Ibis, there's the egrets that follow the cows around in the fields.
That proximity to nature explains some of this fascination with the wild world that lived both around him and in his imagination. But there's more to his connection than that. Because there is his relationship with God.
Shaphan Hestick:
You know, maturing in my faith, there's so many scriptures to talk about… the earth belonging to the Lord and its fullness, belonging to him, and just the pure excitement and pleasure that the God of creation takes in the things He's made. And then of course, it also crystallizes with the love he has for us interpersonally and with each and every single one of us. And so for me, I was like, well, if God loves people, then I should love people. That message of the Bible connects to, if God loves creation, then I should also love creation.
It always seemed bizarre to me that we would not want to preserve something God saw as being valuable and vital.
Shaphan is one of many Christians in the States who want to see a message of “creation care” become a part of everyday worship. But in the country’s current political landscape, it’s a complicated wish to fulfil.
Shaphan Hestick:
In the Evangelical church, when pastors have to lead a flock of people and they don't know what could cost them their membership, sometimes it's best to remain uncontroversial.
This is Living Planet, I’m Kathleen Schuster and in this episode, we're getting religious -- asking what role America’s faith leaders could be playing in raising community awareness of the climate action. Particularly at a time when their government is rolling back environmental protection laws.
In case you're wondering, Shaphan did not become the next David Attenborough. But he has been able to see some of the wildlife that had filled his dreams.
Shaphan Hestick:
I did have opportunities to visit Sierra Leone and track chimpanzees at the site of the Ebola outbreak. And then in Alaska, I went on a research expedition and got to see a pod of killer whales in their natural habitat. The world out there is too beautiful, man.
And as you can hear, the awe that drove his childhood fascination remains very much alive and well. So does his faith — and the connection between the two.
Shaphan was an undergrad at a Christian university in upstate New York when he had the chance to formalize the connection between his faith and the natural world. He joined the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, or the YECA.
The YECA is the young adult ministry of the Evangelical Environmental Network – a non-profit that aims to educate, inspire and mobilize Christians in their efforts to care for the Earth.
Shaphan had already lived through Guyana's 2005 floods caused by unprecedented torrential rains in combination with the country's exposure to rising sea levels. That event decimated crops and impacted livelihoods and food supply. It affected almost half the population and caused damages worth almost five hundred million dollars .
Shaphan Hestick:
There were several feet of water just sitting on the land for an extended period of time. And so the fluctuations of ocean water and the inundation and the effect of that on the land where I grew up, is something that always made environmental realities that much more tangible for me.
He'd also seen the erasure of mangrove forests he'd roamed as a child — and how without their protection, the sea could freely rush into homes and farmlands. Realizing he had to take action, he wanted to do it through the lens of his faith. After a one-year fellowship with the YECA, he now volunteers on the group's steering committee. It's an opportunity to work with other young Evangelical Christians across the US who looking to invest in what they refer to as creation care. Simply put, being good stewards of the Earth.
Shaphan Hestick:
Part of the mission of the YECA is to bring transformation to the faith community. In places where people are reluctant or hesitant or suspicious about the science and what it means and where it comes from, and then how they should act given that information. We found that it's really important to, one: work with the upcoming generation to make sure that the values of creation, care and climate change are moving forward and still advancing. And then, two: build young people as intergenerational ambassadors that can walk alongside pastors and parents and grandparents.
SFX: Rev Bradley Mattson preaching
I speak to you in the name of our loving, living and life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. Please be seated. Well, welcome friends, to this gathering, to this celebration of possibility, of promise and of deeply-rooted… hope.
One pastor who is already working with his congregation to raise awareness of environmental and climate issues is Reverend Bradley Mattson of the Hope Episcopal Church,which is about two hours west of Philadelphia.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
The Episcopal Church where I'm ordained, it's very active in climate advocacy, attends conferences in many governments throughout the world. We are very engaged in reforestation, climate change, watershed restoration and protection. So it's part of our global ministry, but we also see it as a responsibility that we are called to affirm the dignity of every human being, and part of our relationship to God to care for the creation we were called to care for.
On the ground, that mission translates to action in many different ways. But one in particular, involves him and his congregation taking care of the local watershed, the Great Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which is the third largest in the world, stretching across six states.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
So we understand that we have a lot of neighbors that live in that watershed. So whatever we do on Hope Church land — we have 17 acres of land that we steward at my church — so any runoff will eventually find its way into that great watershed and in that great bay. So we don't know those neighbors, but we need to be responsible for how we're planting and stewarding that land. And particularly with soil erosion and runoff because it protects people downstream. People I will never meet. And because we have a prayer life, because we care about what we're doing in the land, we're making an impact, and we ultimately feel that we're responsible to God for that.
Reverend Mattson makes no secret of his views on the need to take care of the environment and climate. And that includes getting the younger members of his congregation involved in understanding they can have a positive impact on the world around them. However small.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
Children will build nesting boxes for birds, bat boxes for bats, pollinator gardens. We send them home with free perennials just because we know we need to take care of the bees. You gotta quote Winnie-the-Poo. 'You never know with bees.' Right? But we need them that we know, right? So I think that's very faithful to teach children about bees and have them plant a couple things that's healthy for them. You could introduce native plants. You don't have to be a purist but you could introduce a few. Or remove some invasive species that are choking out some other things. We do that with the church. We do that with our children's programs all the time.
But according to recent research Reverend Mattson is one of relatively few who are actively sprinkling environmental awareness into their sermons.
A study in 2025 that was conducted by Arizona State University found that almost 90% of all Christian religious leaders in the US representing all major denominations believe in at least some degree of human-caused climate change. Yet only around half have ever discussed it with their congregation. And just a quarter have raised the topic more than once or twice.
If the vast majority of Christian faith leaders agree with the science on why the planet is getting hotter and hotter, why are they not talking about it? Reverend Mattson says this is where things get political.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
I think anybody that has a window on their home or their church can look out and see that we are living on and with the land at the same time, and that there's pros and cons to how we behave and how we live on the land. I would say that political forces in this country and in other countries around the world may work very hard to distance the human impact piece on our climate. And they really have skin in the game. They are working actively to say, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's slash, mow and spray and let's just go ahead and do whatever we want.
I think we need to just be really forthright about understanding that a lot of this has to do with power. Any of us have the capacity to go too far with power, and we need to keep ourselves in check for that. And I think political forces get meddling with power and they'll embody any practice, whether it's healthy or harmful. I think we're seeing a lot of that.
And if you think that sounds familiar...
SFX: Trump statements
In little over a year, President Donald Trump has doubled down on his belief that climate change is a money-making scam. And he has acted on that belief — pardon the pun — religiously.
Pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement designed to stop runaway planetary heating was just the beginning. He has since decoupled the country from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as the UN agencies for water, oceans and emissions connected to deforestation.
At home, his administration slashed funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that tracks human-caused warming. He has sought to throttle the expansion of wind-power infrastructure. He has diluted regulations around mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants, and pushed coal as a primary source of American energy.
Overall, Trump’s administration has undone literally dozens of regulations put in place to safeguard not just Americans, but the rest of the world in the face of environmental destruction.
At the same time, nearly 90% of all US Congress members identify as Christian, which is not uncommon for American politicians.
At this point, certain faith circles might be pointing to a disconnect between the multitude of new policies that undo environmental protections and the word of the Bible. Which for anyone unfamiliar, calls on humankind to be stewards of the Earth.
But while 2023 research showed about 55 percent of American Catholics and Protestants believe climate change is mainly caused by human activity, it's a different picture among White Evangelical Protestants. Nearly half of this faith group, which helped propel Trump to victory in the last election, think climate change is mostly caused by natural patterns in Earth’s environment. Which would account for a lack of concern around the undoing of protective regulations.
But Reverend Mattson, sees something else at the heart of the current administration's approach to the planet.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
I think certain groups of people use power for unbridled consumption, and there's just no Jesus in that.
He refers to it as a 'second coming capitalism' way of looking at the world.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
Second coming capitalism is the idea that we can simply consume what we need to because eventually God will come back and destroy the earth and make it new, so it really wouldn't matter what trees we conserve and what watersheds we protect, would it? Right? There is a notion just to keep consuming because that's what it's there for. God gave it to us. Have at it.
He believes some of that narrative is rooted in a misreading of the first Biblical passages. The book of Genesis. Originally written in Hebrew, it describes the origins of the universe.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
They may look at scripture and say, well, we are meant in Genesis to fill the earth and subdue it. And their idea of subduing it is like, all right, well let's just plow it down and that comes I think, from an irreverence, both for scripture, but also a misunderstanding of its translations. You know, we are called the steward scripture. That's different than subduing it, plowing it all down so that we can go ahead and do what we want.
But even those who don't subscribe to a brand of theology that believes in extraction over conservation, might be wary of sharing creation care messaging.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
I think faith leaders find themselves in certain places and certain communities pinched between these political forces where sure, they can see we're having an impact, but they're afraid to talk about it because the people they may be serving may be inclined in one way politically that's working very, very, very hard to disassociate human impact from the work that we're doing in the world.
One state away, Brother Ken Taylor has experienced something along those lines. He's been pastor at St Nicholas Lutheran Church in Huntingtown, Maryland for almost a decade. Coming from Colorado, he has a long-felt an affinity with the natural world. And belonging to the Order of Lutheran Franciscans, who follow in the footsteps of their nature-loving name-giver Francis of Assisi, he has woven environment and climate awareness into his faith work. To a varying response.
Brother Ken Taylor:
There's a very loud minority of people who when we have dedicated like a series of Sundays or a teaching series about climate, that say, you know, why are you bringing so much politics into the pulpit?
I've had people tell me they were leaving my church because they thought I was being too overtly like an environmentalist — not just even from the pulpit, but our Creation Care team, regularly has our announcements, we've handed out information sheets of things that you can do in your home, different products that you can shift to that reduce our impact, reduce our carbon footprint, or even just an awareness of hey sign on to this list on this bill so that our senators and our representatives will advocate for the environment. And, whenever that happens that there is a backlash that comes and at first it was extremely surprising because it was like, well, this makes sense, this is where we live, we should really be caring about the place.
Pushback has not stopped him from putting creation care on his church agenda. His congregation plants native species to counter erosion and has set up water dispensers and terracycling bins. But he has eased up a little.
He is also concerned by what he calls the subculture among some Protestant denominations fuelling a belief that there is no need to take care of the planet because God is going to rescue the chosen ones and leave the rest of humanity to perish. This so-called 'rapture theory' is centuries old, but was helped into modern faith circles in part by the New York Times bestselling book series called 'Left Behind'. The first volume is now also three decades old, but Brother Taylor says such writing has made its mark. And impacts how some people interact with the environment.
Brother Ken Taylor:
That is a really pervasive idea and theology in America. And I think that this is where what I would call bad theology leads to bad effects. And what it creates is a group of people who believe that this is a throwaway society and there are throwaway people and that it doesn't really matter about caring for this creation because God is going to destroy it anyway and start this new thing.
There are obviously also plenty of church traditions that remain loyal to the idea of loving people and creation without distinction. But even within them, Brother Taylor says some faith leaders feel out of their depth when it comes to knowing enough about climate to raise awareness of it. Or tackle challenges from the congregation.
Brother Ken Taylor:
For instance, just the way that we've had expanding ice ages and receding ice ages throughout the Millennia that people point to, that we're kind of in the middle of something like that and sort of downgrade the possibility of what we are doing as humans to the climate.
He is grateful to have people in his community who work for government and can blend their faith with data to support his teachings. And says it really is a joint effort.
Brother Ken Taylor:
I have leaned heavily on them and in many of these instances to actually do sort of a temple talk in front of the congregation about different things that we can do personally in our own lives, but also collectively for advocacy as far as like writing letters to our senators and representatives. It can't be a single person's lift. It has to, we have to lean on the full community of people who care about this in order to have to move the needle at all.
Shaphan Hestick says all these things make a difference, but he would like to see pastors across the country taking bold action. As would many of the young people he meets through the Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.
Shaphan Hestick:
I find that young people, by the time they come to us, they're 20, 21 years old, they've observed the status quo within their faith communities for however long and realize that they have some critique to offer. Be that about climate change or whatever else, we help them develop that language and an approach, that would be winsome rather than alienating. So there are a lot of young people confronting their faith communities about climate change and climate activism and saying, well, there's things that we could do, we could be doing more.
Another part of Shaphan's role with the YECA is to help young people find ways of approaching the issue with pastors that doesn't alienate them. That might be suggesting talking to a congregation about a local extreme weather event, adding a line about creative care into a prayer, picking climate literature for a book group or organizing time in the great outdoors.
Shaphan Hestick:
Once you have a summer camp about environmentalism or creation care, nature walks, liturgy, that takes the church outside and that becomes part of the church's culture and it's successful and it's received, then of course it's going to be activated. That generation of young people, the kids that benefit from a camp like that, move into the future thinking wow, those were the great days. I remember when we went out into the woods, I remember when with church we were singing in the woods and, we did prayers or guided meditation or whatever it is, and creating those positive attachments to creation is something that benefits everybody.
Reverend Bradley Mattson also sees the outdoors as a place for many faith communities to get active in creation care. However humble the beginning.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
We started with tomatoes, cucumbers that we can leave on the front porch for people that are hungry. And then we did pollinators, and then we did herb gardens. And then we started to talk to some granting organizations around environmental work and expanded into land stewardship, watershed protection. But I think you start somewhere they can respect that speaks to them and who they are already, rather than coming in and imposing a climate agenda onto them so that they join the work rather than have it put upon them.
There are no definitive figures on how much land is in church hands. Either in the US or worldwide. But whatever the exact amount, Reverend Mattson puts the emphasis on A LOT. And that translates to opportunities for action.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
We can be very intentional about how we steward land, and that can make an enormous measurable impact. The Episcopal church itself stewards 6,000 congregations all over the world. If every last one of them made a small decision that was manageable and meaningful on their physical plant campuses, that would make a measurable environmental impact to the good. So I think faith leaders can do a lot with what they already have.
He has been at Hope Episcopal Church for six years now and is grateful that his congregation has accepted him and his ways, which include a passion for carpentry. And an understanding that preaching is not the best approach when it comes to climate and the environment.
Rev. Bradley Mattson:
We tend to approach the life of faith from a position of running towards light, not away from darkness. That is speaking the gospel in a way that our presiding bishop would describe as winsome, and so that can be less polarizing, right? I didn't tell you to not run your gasoline lawnmower, if that's all you have. I didn't tell you that you were evil because you had a gasoline lawnmower. What I said was: think about pollinators. You know, Jesus said: consider the lilies of the field right? Consider them. Just think about it.
For Shaphan, it's really all about getting the conversation going as quickly as possible. Because the climate is changing and communities are being impacted. Not just in far-away places, but in the US. where 276 people lost their lives in climate and extreme weather disasters last year. And he believes less formal faith settings can offer great opportunities for getting the ball rolling to talk.
Shaphan Hestick:
Some conversations don't need to happen in the pulpit. Creation care conversation works best when it's done similarly to the methods we use with discipleship. You create a small group, you bring people together, you sit down and then you talk. You engage with the issue and you allow the conversation, you allow the person's mind to be renewed. Slowly and over time.
At the same time, he sees huge potential for faith communities to become much more strident in how they integrate climate and environmental issues into their work. He would like to see them help to reshape an understanding of how the country meets the challenge of rising temperatures.
Shaphan Hestick:
There are small things that a lot of churches are doing, but I can see that the ceiling is a lot higher than the floor when it comes to environmental work.
One individual has so much potential, so much agency that they don't recognize, much less a group of people, like a church that comes together every week. You know how many politicians in the United States, and I think across the world, would love it if all of their supporters could come together every week to sit down and listen to them speak about issues so they could then go and take action? The church is a marvellous thing. I think that we take it for granted. Sometimes. Many times. Most of the time.
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