Environmental Public Policy and Advocacy by Mainline Protestant Denominations

Gratitude for the gifts of creation moves Christians to ensure that those gifts are properly cared for and justly shared. For some, this has meant becoming advocates in the realm of public policy, speaking on behalf of those whose needs are often overlooked — the poor, future generations, and the nonhuman creation.

• Congregations provide information and materials to their members for writing letters to their legislators on eco-justice issues.
• Churches and local ecumenical organizations sponsor forums and other forms of public education to engage citizens in discussing and responding to environmental policy issues in their communities.
• Denominations have advocacy offices and networks to reach lawmakers, government officials, corporate executives, and the media with the message of justice and creation care. For example:
  • The Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
  • The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office
  • The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
  • The Episcopal Public Policy Network
  • The United Church of Christ Take Action Center
  (Find additional denominational sites dealing with environmental issues.)

• The National Council of Churches has sponsored environmental petitions and statements by religious leaders and has developed an ecumenical statement of theological and ethical principles for environmental policy.
• Several denominations, along with the NCCC and other ecumenical organizations, co-sponsor Ecumenical Advocacy Days, which in 2005 added an eco-justice track.

Theirs has been a significant voice amid the cacophony of political debate, not only because it represents a large and influential constituency, but more importantly because it speaks out of the nation’s deepest moral and religious values. Those values, not the shifting winds of political and cultural fashion or the agendas of special-interest politics, demand that the churches bear witness to the truth that is in them: that the care of the earth is a moral and religious duty, and that environmental issues are social justice issues.

• Find resources for congregational environmental advocacy.
• Explore mainline denominations’ perspectives on specific environmental issues.

For this church, environmental policy advocacy is a way to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God."