As I’ve watched friends on Facebook debate the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, I’ve been reminded of a study done by Lifeway Research a few years ago.
Here’s a quote from the report of the findings:
Pastors identifying as Democrats are the most likely to strongly agree (76 percent) in the validity of man-made global warming, followed by Independents (20 percent). Just 7 percent of Republican pastors strongly agree. Conversely, Republican pastors are the most likely to strongly disagree (49 percent), followed by Independents (35 percent) and Democrats (5 percent).
Our views on climate change probably reflect our political views in general. If we tend to support Republicans, we’re probably skeptical about climate change. If we tend to support Democrats, we probably think that humans have contributed to global warming.
Personally, I don’t think that’s healthy a bit.
One friend was asking for info on the subject. I started to say, “Find a Democrat that doesn’t believe in global warming and a Republican that does believe in it. They’ll be able to give you reasoned arguments for their beliefs.” But I was afraid I’d be sending them on an impossible quest.
I think our biggest struggle remains definitions. Without knowing what we are talking about, we are simply talk passed each other. Even here, in the next to last paragraph, the words are’ climate change’ and then ‘global warming’ caused by humans. Reminds me of conversations (disputes) about faith and works. Once we can figure out what the other is actually saying, then we can have a real conversation. But this means we have to listen first.