It’s probably not a big secret that in many ways, American society seems to be getting more and more polarized and partisan, whether that be liberals vs. conservatives, Democrats vs. Republicans, religious vs. non-religious, red vs. blue states, etc. But as CBS News reports, many evangelicals and environmentalists are finding more common ground in their shared efforts to fight against global warming:

Many evangelicals have dismissed environmentalists as liberals unconcerned about the economic impact of their policies to fight global warming. Long-standing distrust between the two camps over issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage has discouraged evangelicals from joining liberals on the environment.

But shared concerns over global warming and protecting the Earth are bringing together the two groups in ways that could make the Republican Party more eco-friendly and lead some evangelicals to vote Democratic. . . . “More and more evangelicals are coming to believe creation care is an integral part of their calling as Christians. It is becoming part of their faith,” said Melanie Griffin, director of partnerships for the Sierra Club and an evangelical.

Dewitt said evangelicals will not call themselves environmentalists. “They are going to call themselves pro-life,” he said. “But pro-life means life in the Arctic, the life of the atmosphere, the life of all the people under the influence of climate change.”

Should liberals like myself find this trend encouraging or troublesome? On the one hand, it is an encouraging trend because it gains more support for environmental causes and efforts to reduce global warming, which is something that benefits all of humanity.

On the other hand, there is a chance that conservatives/Republicans could “take over” this cause and transform it into a “conservative” policy, much in the same way that they’ve been able to frame the concepts of “family values” or “national security” into conservative causes.

It’s too early to tell, but at this point, I am willing to put partisan suspicion aside and applaud these groups of evangelicals for working to fight global warming. This is truly an issue that requires broad-based, bipartisan efforts to address. We can haggle over specific labels different groups may use to characterize their work, but if it eventually leads to a cleaner and safer environment for humanity, I’m all for it.