🌅 Christians Accept but Don’t Discuss Climate Change

Sunrise Stat
May 13, 2025

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Data from a nationwide survey of U.S. religious leaders shows nearly 90% of Christian leaders believe in human-caused climate change, including 60% that also believe humans play a major role in it. Despite the beliefs, roughly half of the leaders say they’ve never discussed climate change with their congregation, while only a quarter report mentioning it “more than once or twice.”

In a separate survey, the researchers found Christian Americans nationwide severely underestimate (by 39-45 percentage points) the prevalence of climate change belief among Christian leaders in the U.S. and within churches like their own. Given the true rate of climate denial among Christian leaders is actually closer to just 1 in 10, the findings suggest Christians overestimate the prevalence of climate denial among church leaders by around fivefold.

The mistaken perception among Christian Americans has real impacts: when the researchers informed churchgoers of the true level of climate consensus among leadership, churchgoers were more likely to believe taking action to reduce climate change was consistent with their church’s values. Churchgoers who received the information were also more likely to feel it would be inconsistent with their church’s values to vote for a political candidate who opposes actions to combat climate change.