CBS Saturday Morning correspondent Adam Yamaguchi took the idea that climate activism is a religion literally when he hyped activist and 2021 college graduate Elsa Barron’s efforts to “help spread the gospel” to the unconverted Evangelicals who are not onboard with the abolition of fossil fuels.
Co-host Jeff set the scene by reporting on “a Pew Research poll from November found that 53 percent of Americans say human activity is responsible for a warming planet. However, only 32 percent of Evangelical Christians agree, but as Adam Yamaguchi found out, a new generation is trying to make believers of skeptics in the church.”
Yamaguchi, formerly of Al Gore’s Current TV, began his report with a voiceover recalling that, “Ahead of this month's U.N. General Assembly in New York, youth activists flooded the streets calling to end the use of fossil fuels. Among them, the group Faith Hub and member Elsa Barron… The climate research fellow more than hopes that this summer's weather could help change the minds of climate skeptics. ”
Trying to make the whole effort seem less radical, an old clip of Barron was shown of her claiming, “My faith tradition calls me to stewardship or responsible care for this beautiful world we inhabit. “
Yamaguchi followed up by declaring that “Elsa's made it her mission to help spread the gospel within her own community of Evangelical Christians who are, as a group, the most skeptical Americans when it comes to climate change.”
The distasteful comparison between the Gospel and solar panels and wind mills aside, Yamaguchi asked her, “What sort of tension do you feel within that community?”
Barron lamented, “There's a lot of emphasis on sort of God's divine care for the world and his good plan for the world, and so some people kind of take that and say, you know, if you think the world is at risk, then maybe you don't have enough trust or faith in God.”
After a clip of Barron and some others discussing Genesis 2:15, which says “then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it,” Barron asked, “What does loving our neighbors really look like in a world where the sorts of decisions we're making are directly impacting people's ability to live in their homes across the world or to manage their crops or have food or water to drink?”
One could ask the same question about pursuing energy policies that make life more expensive while questioning attempts to tie fossil fuels to bad drinking water. CBS also didn’t expand on the Scripture reading, which would be necessary because obviously, even in Old Testament times, people lived in cities.
It should also be asked why the media only seems to promote religious people when they are trying to push progressive policies on generally conservative audiences.
Here is a transcript for the September 30 show:
CBS Saturday Morning
9/30/2023
8:19 AM ET
JEFF GLOR: A Pew Research poll from November found that 53 percent of Americans say human activity is responsible for a warming planet. However, only 32 percent of Evangelical Christians agree, but as Adam Yamaguchi found out, a new generation is trying to make believers of skeptics in the church.
FEMALE PROTESTOR: Your polluting system’s got to go, hey, hey.
ADAM YAMAGUCHI: Ahead of this month's U.N. General Assembly in New York, youth activists flooded the streets—
[chanting]
YAMAGUCHI: -- calling to end the use of fossil fuels. Among them, the group Faith Hub and member Elsa Barron.
ELSA BARRON: People are praying for big stream heat to end.
YAMAGUCHI: The climate research fellow more than hopes that this summer's weather could help change the minds of climate skeptics.
BARRON: My faith tradition calls me to stewardship or responsible care for this beautiful world we inhabit.
YAMAGUCHI: Elsa's made it her mission to help spread the gospel within her own community of Evangelical Christians who are, as a group, the most skeptical Americans when it comes to climate change.
What sort of tension do you feel within that community?
BARRON: There's a lot of emphasis on sort of God's divine care for the world and his good plan for the world, and so some people kind of take that and say, you know, if you think the world is at risk, then maybe you don't have enough trust or faith in God.
YAMAGUICHI: So, Elsa's speaking to her community the best way she knows how -- by quoting from the Bible.
BARRON: Probably the most commonly, you know, referred to, and cited and maybe even debated single verse really to climate and environment is right there in Genesis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Genesis 2:15 says “then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
BARRON: What does loving our neighbors really look like in a world where the sorts of decisions we're making are directly impacting people's ability to live in their homes across the world or to manage their crops or have food or water to drink?
