Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is polling in the top five in New Hampshire, made only his third trip to Iowa last week, where he was interviewed on Iowa Public Radio. When asked his views on whether Pope Francis waded too far into politics during his six-day visit to the United States, Kasich said, “I love the Pope. I think he’s fantastic. I think he’s thrown open the doors of the church to talk about the fact that religion, that the Lord is about grace and forgiveness, and that we all have the potential to lead lives greater than ourselves and that what we do here on Earth really matters.”
“We have to be good stewards of our environment,” Kasich added. “We need to take care of it, but we don’t need to worship it. So, I think that making good assessments, proper assessments, accurate assessments, and making sure that we are sensitive about this beautiful environment that we were given from the Lord needs to be respected.”
Kasich was asked if he believes that humans are a factor in climate change. “They’re a factor,” he responded. “But as to how great of a factor, I think the jury’s still out on that. I think that we can have both economic growth and a good environment…we don’t want to do things that damage our environment when there are ways in which we can do it that are consistent with people having prosperity and at the same time protecting our environment.”