Majority of US Evangelical Protestant clergy reject scientific consensus on climate change

Notably, the real religious difference among clergy concerns the importance of human actions in causing climate change, not the fact of climate change itself. The vast majority of evangelical clergy (87%) do believe that the climate is changing, but they are much more likely than other clergy to deny that human actions are a major cause. About two thirds of evangelical clergy say that human actions are only a minor cause of climate change, or not a cause at all, compared to only about one quarter of other clergy who believe the same.

 

 

Evangelical clergy stand out for their views on climate change. Interestingly, on some other scientific issues, the percentage of evangelical clergy who agree or disagree with a particular view is similar to that of Black Protestant clergy. On these other issues, both groups stand in sharp contrast to viewpoint percentages among mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy. For example:

• A majority of evangelical and Black Protestant clergy (68% and 79%, respectively) say that scientific findings conflict at least a little bit with their religious beliefs, in contrast to a minority of mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy (36% and 39%).

• Likewise, a majority of evangelical and Black Protestant clergy (75% and 73%) believe that God created the world in six 24-hour days. Only a small number of mainline and Catholic clergy – 17% in each group – believe that.

• Similarly, only very small numbers of evangelical (4%) and Black Protestant (16%) clergy believe that humans evolved from non-human life forms, compared with half of mainline Protestants (53%) and Catholics (47%). The extent to which clergy accept established scientific knowledge depends on the issue, and on the religious group. When it comes to climate change, an issue that cannot be easily connected to longstanding religious differences in how to read the Bible, evangelical clergy are distinct from their peers for reasons that apparently have more to do with politics than religion.

Prepared by Mark Chaves (Duke University), Anna Holleman (Appalachian State University), and Erin Lane (Duke University), 19 March 2025. The percentages reported here all refer to congregations’ primary leaders.

To view a full version of the report, along with previous news coverage of it, please visit www.nationalsurveyreligiousleaders.org