Ben Lowe, the national spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, spoke in a lecture on Feb. 18 in the Robinson Teaching Theatre. In the lecture, Lowe addressed issues such as caring for creation and climate action.

In addition to speaking at various events, Lowe has published two books, Green Revolution and Doing Good Without Giving Up. He is co-authoring a third book as well with Ron Sider, tentatively titled, “A Faith for All Generations.”

A Faith for All Generations is an intergenerational dialogue between Lowe and Sider that informs about American Christianity. They each have four chapters, at the end of which they ask questions and interact with each other’s questions, Lowe said.

“A difficult question I am often asked is: ‘How do you Christians fight so hard to claim your God made the world, but then you treat it like it doesn’t matter?’” Lowe said at the beginning of the lecture.

He then discussed the lack of support from the Christian Church when it comes to actively confronting the problems of climate change.

Caring for the environment has long been a blind spot in the church, Lowe said. Christians must serve and protect God’s creations. If they come together and address climate change as a whole, as the Christian church, political leaders will follow suit. However, political leaders are not going to move until others move, he said.

Freshman Rachel Olson, attended the lecture said she liked Lowes approach on climate change, which is a hard subject to talk about.

There is such a divide on if climate change is actually occurring or not, Olson said. She believes people need to stand up and recognize the issue and find a way to solve it. Lowe had some good points on how to do that.

In the lecture, Lowe said individuals can combat climate change by mobilizing this generation, encouraging senior leaders in the Church and holding government officials responsible.

There are others who claim to have witnessed the effects of climate change first hand.

“I grew up near the Great Salt Lake, and every year I watched it drop more and more,” freshman Garrett Hillman said.

There is not a lot of Christian perspective on the subject of climate change. Lowe’s approach was a good way to see in which ways the church can help, and with the church’s help, it does not have to be a strictly political matter, Hillman said.

Freshman Courtlyn Knowlton said she was also tired of the inaction she has seen from our political leaders concerning climate change.

“I grew up in Arizona, where we are forever in a drought. Everyone wants to fight and argue about it. They want to argue about how we are going to fix it, instead of just coming together and fixing it,” Knowlton said.

In his lecture, Lowe calls upon the Christian Church to lead the fight against climate change.

Contact Lee Morgan at [email protected]