MethodsResultsDiscussionAcknowledgmentsAppendix: Interview Questionsp. 1Examining the Environmental Attitudes of Euro-American and African-AmericanMainline and Fundamentalist Protestant PastorsRomesh AnketellAbstract In recent years there has been increasing attention paid to religion in the United States,particularly to the division between mainline and fundamentalist Protestant Christians. Therehave been relatively few studies that have dealt with this division in regards to how theseindividuals view environmental issues. Existing studies have focused on individual parishionersrather than on the beliefs of individual pastors, who I assume for the purposes of this study are inpositions of influence and leadership within the churches. Understanding the environmentalattitudes of Protestant pastors and therefore the spiritual guidance parishioners receive may leadto an understanding of whether parishioners ultimately turn this guidance into action. This studyexamined the differences in environmental opinions between four groups of pastors: African-American mainline, African-American fundamentalist, Euro-American mainline, and Euro-American fundamentalist pastors. Individual interviews were conducted with each pastor todetermine the level of overall concern for the environment and type of concerns the pastorsexhibited. The mainline pastors interviewed exhibited a greater overall concern for theenvironment than did fundamentalist pastors. Both Euro-American fundamentalist and Euro-American mainline pastors exhibited a greater concern for global environmental problems thanlocal problems. African-American mainline pastors also exhibited a greater concern forenvironmental problems than African-American fundamentalists, but this difference wasminimal. The gap between fundamentalist and mainline was much more apparent in the case ofEuro-American pastors. The clear differences between the fundamentalist and mainline pastorsappeared to be related to the fundamentalist pastors’ strict interpretation of the Bible, while themore uniform responses of the African-American pastors might be a result of the importance oftheir common cultural heritage and experiences.Environmental Attitudes of Pastorsp. 2IntroductionUntil recently, the relationship between religious beliefs and concern for the environment hasbeen studied infrequently. Currently, many issues concerning religion, particularly the ProtestantChristian denominations, have gained heightened interest in the United States. Much of thisattention is due to a split in philosophy within these denominations, between the fundamentalistforces and the more moderate Protestants. The defining characteristic of fundamentalistChristians is that they believe the Bible to be the infallible, inspired Word of God, and believethat it should be interpreted literally (Mayer 2004, Wacker 2000). Moderate mainline Christiansare defined as all non-fundamentalist Protestant Christians. This is a sizeable group, and one thatvaries in their approach to studying the Bible. The one common characteristic of mainlineChristians is that they believe that the Bible is open to some level of interpretation, although thedegree of interpretation allowed differs among denominations.Lynn White’s (1967) thesis has dominated this area of study until recently. White proposedthat the Judeo-Christian faith is the cause of our current ecological crisis. He believed that thesereligious beliefs are fundamentally anti-environmental because they emphasize the needs ofhumanity over nature and treat nature as something to be dominated and subdued. Since then,research has shown that individuals from more fundamental religious groups, mostlyfundamentalist Christians, tend to exhibit attitudes corresponding to lower levels of concern forenvironmental issues (Guth et al. 1995, Hartwig 1999). Since these studies do not distinguishamong types of environmental issues, Schultz et al. (2000) examined the attitudes of Christiansin regards to ecocentric concerns and anthropocentric concerns. Ecocentric concerns are relatedto the intrinsic value of plants and animals, while anthropocentric concerns are related to theeffect environmental damage will have on the quality of life for humans. Schultz et al. found thata literal belief in the Bible was negatively correlated to ecocentric environmental concerns andpositively correlated to anthropocentric concerns. All of the previously mentioned studies dealwith churchgoers, but do not take into account the views of the pastors, who are in positions ofinfluence and leadership within the church. This study will examine the environmental attitudesof mainline and fundamentalist pastors, specifically gauging their overall level of concern for theenvironment and what types of environmental problems they deem to be most significant.Another interesting dimension of the church and the environmental attitudes of itsparishioners can be found when examining the differences between African Americans andEnvironmental Attitudes of Pastorsp. 3Euro-Americans. This relationship is not one that has been studied widely. The prevailing beliefhas been that African Americans were not as concerned as Euro-Americans about environmentalissues. It has been argued that African Americans are more concerned with “survival” issuessuch as housing and jobs (Kreger 1973), however, newer studies have indicated that AfricanAmericans actually tend to exhibit the same, if not more concern for environmental issues thando Euro-American Americans (Commission for Racial Justice 1987, Mohai 1990, Mohai 2003)These studies have focused on the two populations in general rather than particular religiousgroups. Little is known about how different racial groups within the protestant church reconciletheir faith and environmental views.The aim of this study is to find out the overall level of concern for the environment amongfour groups of pastors: African American fundamentalists, African-American mainline, Euro-American fundamentalists, and Euro-American mainline, and to find out what types ofenvironmental problems pastors in each group deem to be most important. This study seeks todiscover why these pastors feel the discussed problems are important and whether they have abiblical basis for these beliefs. Based on the previously mentioned Mohai studies, I believe thatAfrican-American mainline pastors will exhibit the greatest overall level of concern for theenvironment, while the Euro-American
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