Trojan Horses Facing the Mirror

Abstract

We examine the appropriations of stewardship ethics by religious anti-environmental movement organizations (RAEMOs). Based on a qualitative analysis of promotional materials, we highlight similar framing alignment processes carried out by two RAEMOs in different contexts: the US Cornwall Alliance and the Brazilian Institute Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (IPCO). We found that, despite their different theological inspirations and target audiences, the RAEMOs use the same general master counter-framing to stimulate a sense of battle in which ‘genuine stewards’ must resist anti-Christian ideologies camouflaged as environmentalism, restricting themselves to a pasteurized care for creation, symbolized by the concept of gardening. As for the framing variations, we suggest that they are driven not so much by distinct religious beliefs as by political and economic coalitions, mainly linked to the fossil fuels sector in the North American case, and agribusiness, in the Brazilian case.