‘A moral imperative’: how southern ministers are trying to change minds about the climate crisis

Faith leaders in the skeptical south are working to persuade their congregations that climate action is a Christian duty

Robin Blakeman, an eighth-generation West Virginian, has been a practicing minister since 2004. This May, the city where she lives flooded for the second time in nine months. Several inches of rain left roads in disarray, with cars washed out and first responders rushing to evacuate families. The rising flood also damaged one of the city’s churches.

Before that point, local congregations in Huntington, West Virginia, had talked about how the climate crisis was causing flooding. One church had hosted film screenings about global heating; Blakeman herself gave a sermon on Earth Day at another in 2020. But since the flood, they’re talking about it a lot more, said Blakeman.

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