Retired evangelical pastor Tri Robinson of Boise, Idaho, says his faith calls him to protect the climate.
He did not always link Christianity with the need for environmental action.
“I just hadn’t made that connection as an evangelical pastor because of politics, mainly,” he says.
But Robinson says that about 20 years ago, his adult children pointed out that the Bible is full of passages about caring for the Earth.
“They told me at the time that they’d never heard a message from any pulpit on the environment, when it was all over the Bible,” he says. “And so I went to the Bible, read it cover to cover with a green felt tip pen, and started underlining everywhere it spoke of … caring for the creation and the responsibility of it. And so that spawned a whole new world for me.”
It inspired him to start preaching and writing about the need to protect the planet and to help the people most harmed by global warming.
“As Christians, if there is one thing we know, it’s that we are called and commissioned to care for the poor. And climate change and all of these environmental crises will first affect the poor – are now affecting the poor,” Robinson says.
So today, he sees protecting the Earth and those who inhabit it as a Christian mission.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media