INTRODUCTION

Northland Church's morning service started right on time as the three movie theater screens across the back of the stage lit up with thousands of stars. With the heavens speeding by on the screens, at least a dozen singers cried out repeatedly “Lord of all creation … the universe declares your majesty!” In the midst of the stars, several names for God appeared in series (Jehovah, Elohim, Yahweh, and others, finally concluding with “LORD” in all capitals). The song went on to recall the immensity of the universe together with the unity of the Creator God and the cosmos, concluding with God's admonishment to Job “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” A “cosmocentric” perspective, one that takes the cosmos itself as the unit of moral considerability, was at least implied in the imagery and words. This sort of language is increasingly common, although its use by evangelicals should be clearly differentiated from the sort of cosmophilia endorsed by many scientists and scholars in Chapter 6. Such an expanded sense of moral obligation may be rare among evangelical Christians, but some high profile evangelical leaders are attempting to create a large-scale shift in values among conservative Christians in the United States.

This chapter focuses specifically on the emergence of environmental advocacy among evangelical Christians in the United States, the political structures they have formed around this development, the partnerships they have brokered with others outside their faith tradition, and their local and national impacts.