Activists of Faith, Betwixt and Between
Faith-Based Ecological Resistance in the Environmental Movement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.20456Keywords:
faith-based, religious radicals, activists of faith, evangelicalism, religious environmentalism, religious environmental movement organizationsAbstract
Recognizing the entangled nature of religion and public activism, this article proposes a new category for individuals operating at the intersections of activism and faith communities: activists of faith, an umbrella term for activists who work in secular activist spaces while also ascribing to particular religious traditions. I propose three categories for understanding these individuals: religious outliers, organizers of faith, and evangelical activists. Drawing from eight years of ethnographic fieldwork, I offer detailed examples of each type within Florida’s environmental movement in order to provide a robust understanding of faith-based ecological resistance in a religiously conservative region of the United States. Such activists go unnoticed as they belong to secular environmental groups, often without overt connections to their religious traditions. While their personal activism may set them at odds with conservative members of their religious communities, faith is a vital part of their work and quest for justice.
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