As director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, Karenna Gore has carved out her own unique path while building upon the environmental legacy of her father, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
While she shares his passion for climate advocacy, she’s quick to note her journey took its own distinctive turn through theological education.
“My parents have 10 grandchildren now and they love the role as grandparents,” Gore explained. “My mother always loved photography, which is a big hobby of hers, and she lives a quiet life, so she’s spent a lot of time doing that. My father, on the other hand, is all over the place working on many projects, all almost climate-related things.”
Karenna Gore
Gore’s path to seminary education echoed her father’s brief time at Vanderbilt Divinity School, although her experience proved transformative.
“My dad went to Vanderbilt Divinity school for a year,” she said. “I didn’t plan or intend any of this. I really feel quite blessed to have been in the right place in the right time for what really feels like a movement. I went to Union, at a turning point in my life, really looking for direction on multiple levels, spiritual and vocational. I studied under James Cone and other great seminary professors.”
The decision to enter seminary came at a crucial juncture in her life. “It was just a circumstance of my life that I was in. I’d gone to law school, and I had worked in nonprofits, and I had gotten involved in politics a bit and got my heart broken,” Gore said. “I was really thinking deeply about this country and knew about Union Theological Seminary because I had been there to an event. I looked around at the time and I thought, there’ve been some interesting thinkers and movements that have come through here. I came to this juncture in my life where I was a bit heartbroken and not sure which way to turn. I had a very transformative experience at Union.”
Having grown up in both Southern and American Baptist churches, Gore understood the power of theological training.
Having grown up in both Southern and American Baptist churches, Gore understood the power of theological training. “I was just always very aware that there was this message and this powerful force that drew on teachings in the Bible,” she said. What began as a single assignment at the seminary eventually led to creation of the Center for Earth Ethics.
“The Center for Earth Ethics draws from the world’s faith and wisdom traditions to reconnect people and nature and to face and resolve the ecological crisis,” she explained. “Meaning, stop climate change from getting worse and protect species who are going extinct, make sure the animals and plants have a place to live.”
Although not considering herself a preacher, Gore passionately advocates for environmental stewardship through a faith-based lens. “I’ll just unpack it a little bit to say there’s so many teachings in every faith tradition about the sacredness of nature, and the importance of the community, over individual selfishness and competitiveness and greed. Now’s the time to really bring those forth so we can protect what’s of real value, which is not necessarily what the stock market says, or whatever new thing they’ve invented to assign value to, but actual value, the water, the air, the soil, the things we know for our future generations are of real lasting value. It’s time for us to draw from our faith and wisdom traditions to protect the real value.”
Her Baptist upbringing remains a source of inspiration.
“I remember my experience at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, and I’m grateful to my father for taking me to that church and for the encounter I had there. It was completely authentic; the way people were moved emotionally in that room. They were moved to care for each other’s concerns when they were being lifted. I increasingly felt I couldn’t find what that church offered in the rest of our culture very readily.”
Gore’s current work represents a natural convergence of her family background, religious roots and commitment to environmental justice, she said. “I love bringing people together. I believe basically in the power of community and culture and the ways people can reflect each other back to each other in ways that generate positive energy that can feed us all, feed our spirits and lessen the sense of isolation. And I think we live in a time, particularly with the new technologies, where people get too isolated and lonely in our culture. We can create spaces that bring the best of what faith communities have always been about where we have support and communion.”