Review of *The Gospel of Climate Skepticism*

The year 2020 has been notable for its natural disasters, including terrible wildfires in Australia and the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite apparently incontrovertible scientific evidence to the efficacy of change in human behavior to avert or at least slow down these events, a sizable portion of the American population continues to resist such change, instead expressing skepticism about scientists and their methods. The question that baffles scientists is why, in the face of seemingly compelling scientific evidence, do many Christians fail to believe that climate change is real? Robin Globus Veldman tackles this extremely relevant issue, specifically, to examine why evangelicals apparently are skeptical about climate change in her enlightening book, The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change.

Veldman’s core question is whether evangelical theological belief in an imminent second coming of Christ prior to the millennium (premillennialism) inevitably leads to skepticism and apathy about climate change. According to Veldman, the assumption among secular society is generally that evangelicals who believe in Christ’s soon coming do not feel a need to care for the world because the world is going to burn soon so why bother to protect it. Veldman traces the origin of what she dubs “the end-time apathy hypothesis” to the 1980s and a statement by James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the interior (28). Watt was well-known for his evangelical beliefs and his anti-environmental stance. Yet Watts himself did not directly connect his anti-environmentalism to his theology. Rather, it was a statement by Watt taken out of context that became the basis for the widespread assumption that evangelical Christians do not care about the environment. Statements by later well-known evangelical preachers, also frequently decontextualized, and, therefore, potentially misinterpreted, reinforced this trope.

In order to investigate this complex topic, Veldman interweaves historical and social science methods, revealing connections between religion, politics, history, and environmentalism in the process. However, social science methods predominate. The nucleus of the book revolves around a qualitative study that Veldman conducted in a small town in Georgia from 2011 to 2012 for her dissertation. In order to test the hypothesis that premillennialism led to apathy about climate change, Veldman extensively interviewed active church members from two groups of churches—those that she determined were premillennialist and others she deemed as amillennialist. She hypothesized that if indeed a premillennialist theology was the driving factor leading to climate change apathy, a significant difference should be observable between those who believed in Christ’s imminent return versus those whose theology did not revolve around the eschaton. Given the complexities of end time theology and the key role this belief plays in Veldman’s argument, this section merited a more in-depth discussion rather than the few pages granted it, especially as Veldman categorized Southern Baptists as amillennial although the Southern Baptist pastor she interviewed classified them as premillennialists (45). More clarity in defining amillennialism versus premillennialism, especially with regards Southern Baptists and the individual interviewees, would strengthen the book’s overall argument.

Veldman’s interviews reveal that many premillennialist evangelicals actually did have concerns about the environment and supported caring for their local environment although the same people often also questioned whether climate change was a human caused phenomenon and sharply criticized environmentalists and scientists. Although a handful connected their beliefs in eschatology to personal skepticism of human created climate change, many offered other reasons. A substantial group expressed an “embattled mentality” (87). As Veldman observes, this feeling of embattlement was not limited to climate change but had deep historical roots in the early twentieth century with fundamentalism and its concerns about secularism. However, climate change has become a flashpoint for this embattlement as many that Veldman interviewed expressed concern that climate change was being used to undermine faith and therefore was inherently anti-Christian. In contrast to most of the premillennialists, Veldman discovered that interviewees from the Seventh-day Adventist Church generally conveyed a positive view of environmentalism and found environmentalism compatible with Christianity. Although displaying many of the same evangelical markers, Seventh-day Adventists were not as tied to the larger evangelical subculture. Veldman, therefore, concluded that the evangelical subculture, rather than eschatology, was the leading cause behind climate change skepticism.

One of Veldman’s most important contributions in her book is revealing how environmentalists and evangelicals fail to communicate effectively. According to Veldman, both sides create barriers that limit their ability to understand one another by failing to recognize commonalities and instead focusing on their differences. Her book echoes concerns by other current scholars and social commentators that populist personalities, rather than evidence-based research, are increasingly forming American opinion. Her final chapter studies an apparently deliberate effort among a sector of the evangelical mass media who actively worked to dissuade evangelicals from environmentalism and to regard environmental activism as an anti-Christian activity. She contends that this effort was largely a reaction to prevent nascent coalitions amongst evangelicals who promoted Christian environmentalism from gaining influence over evangelicals and thus weakening the united power of the Christian Right. Veldman further argues that if environmentalists wish to influence evangelicals and vice versa, each must learn to speak the other’s language and avoid stereotyping each other. Veldman concludes that failure to communicate effectively and othering rather than theology have led to the failure of evangelicals to embrace activism on environmental issues.

As Veldman openly admits, her study is limited to a select number of churches in one town in the middle of the Bible Belt. Her book reveals a need for greater research in other regions of the United States to see if the pattern she observed amongst these evangelicals consistently appears in other areas. A survey of the media consumption of the interviewees also would have further bolstered Veldman’s argument. Additionally, the book would have benefited from a deeper look into the theology of the churches and individuals she interviewed. Since a more careful examination of these eschatological nuances might have provided greater fruit in explaining why some evangelicals were more open to environmental activism than others. Nonetheless, The Gospel of Climate Skepticism is an excellent resource for understanding the sources for evangelical climate change skepticism and rooting out fallacious assumptions about it.

While the book had much in it that would be of interest to a popular audience, it is primarily written for scholars, occasionally reflecting its roots as a dissertation in writing style. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, The Gospel of Climate Skepticism would be ideally suited for a variety of upper division or graduate courses on evangelicalism, contemporary American history, modern political science, and environmental science. Outside the classroom, anyone interested in encouraging American religion, and specifically evangelicals, to become more active participants in environmentalism must read Veldman’s book. In order to reach a wider audience, I hope Veldman considers writing a more popular edition of her research since it has much to say that is relevant for many current issues.