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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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My understanding is that in Greece the church is not particularly mobilised, politically. There is a vague, general sort of sense that it leans right, but pretty much every major party in Greek politics at least puts on a show of being pious, prays publicly, respects priests, and so on.

In Russia, it's obviously a complicated mess, partly due to the communist legacy, partly due to Patriarch Kirill's ties to Putin, and more. Certainly today the Russian Orthodox Church is in alliance with Putin and the larger 'right', but there are significant contingent factors there.

In general it is absolutely correct to say that Christianity, as a whole, has a strong environmentalist message.

Going back to the Pew Religious Landscape Study, one of the questions it asks is whether people agree with the statement "God gave humans a duty to protect and care for the Earth, including the plants and animals". 97% of Evangelical Protestants either completely, mostly, or somewhat agree with that, compared to 90% of Mainline Protestants, 90% of Catholics, 89% of Muslims, 84% of Orthodox, 75% of Hindus, 56% of Jews, 56% of Buddhists, 24% of agnostics, and 3% of atheists.

Obviously the lower numbers are modified heavily by the number who don't believe in God at all - the Jewish number is only so low, I'd guess, because 28% of Jews don't believe in God. Likewise the Orthodox number looks worse than the other Christians, but I'd guess that's because 9% of Orthodox either don't believe in God or did not answer a question about believing in God.

(This is probably because Orthodoxy is an 'ethnic faith' in many cases? There are people who say "I'm Orthodox" but all that means is "I'm Greek" or "I'm Russian". Like the professor or grandfather in this story - "You can't convert from being Greek!")

(I am also comfortable saying that the lower numbers are just because of atheism because Pew also asks people if they support government regulation to protect the environment - Jews support that at 72%, Buddhists at 68%, agnostics at 83%, and atheists at 87%. This is not a perfect measure, because it's possible to believe that humans must protect the environment but that government regulation is not the right way to do it - presumably this is what's going on with evangelicals, who only 44% support environmental regulation laws - but it is nonetheless indicative.)

Anyway, I would be comfortable asserting that among Christians who believe in God, it is overwhelmingly consensus, at 90+% agreement, that God gave humans a duty to protect and care for the Earth. We must kindly steward this marvellous creation.