Matt Frei's diary: Evangelical and environmental?
If the green movement truly wants to convert America it needs to convert more evangelical Christians. Let me explain.
This week, I spoke to Pastor Tri Robinson from the Vineyard Church in Boise, Idaho, who described to me his journey from scepticism to conviction about the need to tackle climate change via the Bible.
This is a growing trend inside the evangelical movement.
Pastor Tri described himself as both a "tree-hugger and a social conservative".
He is against abortion and for caps on carbon emissions. And he prays that he won't have to choose between the two at the next election.
But that is exactly what awaits him because for now there is no prominent conservative politician on the horizon who is, to put it bluntly, both pro-life and pro-planet.
Remember how the last Republican convention was electrified by the call to "drill baby drill"?
Pastor Tri and his flock are looking for a political home.
The candidate who is able to give them one, who can straddle the divide between social conservatism and environmental activism, who can recruit God in the service of the planet, is onto a winner.