A study from 2022 found that people who identified as non-religious or atheist were more likely to identify as pro-environment, as compared with religious people who tended to be "less committed to the environment." Many of us environmentalists may not look to churches as natural sites for allies. But perhaps we should look a little closer. This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Lauren Kim, an evangelical Christian and recent college graduate, who volunteers for an organization called YECA - Young Evangelical Christians for Climate Action. We talk about the mission of her organization, learn about a faith-based form of environmentalism known as "creation care," and discuss a new generation of evangelicals converting their brethren to help protect the planet.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Lauren Kim (LK) | 00:20 - Regardless if someone leans more conservatively or more liberally, wherever they are on the spectrum, climate change is something that matters for them. And we're seeing this trend more and more with people who would label themselves as conservative. And under the age of 30.

Narrator | 00:37 - A study from 2022 found that people who identified as non-religious or atheist were more likely to identify as pro-environment, as compared with religious people who tended to be "less committed to the environment.” Many of us environmentalists may not look to churches as natural sites for allies. But perhaps we should look a little closer. This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking with Lauren Kim, an evangelical Christian and recent college graduate, who volunteers for an organization called YECA - Young Evangelical Christians for Climate Action. We talk about the mission of her organization, learn about a faith-based form of environmentalism known as "creation care," and discuss a new generation of evangelicals converting their brethren to help protect the planet.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:39 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Lauren Kim. Lauren is the financial secretary and a steering committee member for YECA Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. Lauren, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 

Lauren Kim (LK)| 01:52 - Hi. Thank you so much, Alex, for having me. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:55 - Very interested to hear more about YECA. Why don't you first explain the mission of your organization, if you will?

Lauren Kim (LK) | 02:02 - Yeah, absolutely. The mission of YECA, we exist to equip, empower, and catalyze young Christians to love God and our neighbors. And we do this through climate action in both in churches and communities. And we do this to create a more just and equitable and loving world. And I think we can sum up our entire mission statement through Micah's six, eight, which is do justice. So justice as an act, love, mercy, and walk humbly with our God. So we're a faith-based organization. We're a nonprofit and we do creation care. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:42 - What does that mean, “Creation care?”

LK | 02:44 - So creation care is, in simple words, is environmentalism, but I think we differ from other environmental organizations because our motivation. So a lot of environmental orgs, they revolve around, scientists or people who are passionate about a certain issue, um, or tribal rights or something along those lines. Our interests and the reason why we care about the environment is because of Jesus and because he came down, we take the Bible seriously and in order to love our neighbors and be obedient to the word, we try to advocate for climate action and care for the environment, um, because we're mandated to and it helps people around us.

AW | 03:32 - So give us some examples of some of the climate action that your organization is involved in. How, how do you try to affect change directly?

LK | 03:41 - Yeah, so we actually have three pillars for our work and we base everything around these three pillars. Um,