Eco-Justice

GOP Breaks With Religious Teachings On Climate Change

As both a citizen of the United States of America and an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, I strongly concur with Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states: ”...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

DB4A6401-BE2C-4E60-9979-89ABF2F47AC9Still, for many people of diverse religious traditions, faith informs our political beliefs. On the issue of climate change, a charged political topic which has lead Oregon Senate Republicans to twice flee the state to deny a quorum for voting on legislation addressing the climate crisis, religious bodies nearly uniformly support measures to protect God's Creation.

Specifically, Oregon Republicans oppose Senate Bill 1530, which ”would set a gradually more stringent cap on statewide carbon dioxide emissions and require polluters from the transportation fuels, utility and industrial sectors to acquire ’emissions allowances” to cover every metric ton of their emissions,” according to reporting by The Oregonian.

The Pew Research Center notes that Christian evangelicals make up a large percentage of Oregon GOP voters. The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is the umbrella group for these churches in the United States, and they have been clear about what they believe the Christian response to climate change should be: (We) ”...are commanded to care for the earth and all its creatures, because the earth belongs to God, not to us. We do this for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the creator, owner, sustainer, redeemer, and heir of all creation,” wrote the NAE in ”Caring For God’s Creation: A Call to Action.”

Sen. Herman Baertschiger, the GOP minority leader in the Oregon Senate, identifies as a Lutheran on his public Facebook page. “Creation groans under the weight of human action and inaction,” states the Lutheran World Federation.

GOP Rep. Cedric Hayden is a vocal opponent of action by the Oregon Legislature to confront climate change. He is also a former Seventh Day Adventist missionary, a church that says: ”The ecological crisis is rooted in humankind's greed and refusal to practice good and faithful stewardship.”

GOP Senator Bill Hansell, one of those who has left his post in Salem to oppose SB1530, is a Baptist Sunday School teacher. Human activity is ”sometimes productive and caring, but often reckless...sinful,” reads ”A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.”

Democrat Betty Johnson is the lone member of her party in the Oregon Senate to support the walkout. Senator Betsy Johnson claims membership in the Episcopal Church, which supports a ”carbon tax and carbon offsets” as part of their Jesus Movement for Creation Care.

Republicans and Democrats both compete for religious voters. Pope Francis has said: "The protection of the home given to us by the Creator cannot be neglected.” The General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted a resolution that declared that the ”vision and urgency of the Green New Deal are what is needed to preserve and restore God’s great gift of creation.”

Leading Jewish rabbis have issued ”Elijah’s Covenant Between the Generations to Heal Our Endangered Earth: A New Rabbinic Call to Action On the Climate Crisis,” which reads in part: ”Our children and grandchildren face deep misery and death unless we act. They have turned their hearts toward us. Our hearts, our minds, our arms and legs, are not yet fully turned toward them.”

The faith-based organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, has declared: ”We have no right to abuse creation or impair it. Our faith commands us to treat all things with care, compassion (rahmah) and utmost good (ihsan).”

GOP leaders in Oregon will tell you they are not defying religious beliefs by refusing to take action to address the climate crisis. Instead, they will claim to be representing rural Oregon. Yet ”rural America has already experienced impacts of climate change related weather effects, including crop and livestock loss from severe drought and flooding, damage to levees and roads from extreme storms, shifts in planting and harvesting times, and large-scale losses from fires and other weather-related disasters, ” notes the most recent National Climate Assessment.

It will only get worse. Both religion and science offer wisdom for our elected leaders to consider when it comes to climate change, and politics could use an infusion of wisdom right now. 


Personal Statement on International Day of Peace and Global Climate Strike

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As we note International Day of Peace and the Global Climate Strike, I personally stand with students at Pacific University and other young people across the globe, including my children who are participating in the Climate Strike, calling for urgent action to address the Climate Crisis.  We need every generation to stand up before it is too late. The proposals in the Green New Deal, endorsed by the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, provide a roadmap forward. Climate change contributes to the international refugee crisis, makes war more likely, and is causing great pain and suffering.  Young people deserve a more peaceful and just world. For people of faith, there is a deeply spiritual connection to this issue. We are called to be stewards of Creation; not exploiters of it.

 

Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

Director, Center for Peace and Spirituality

University Chaplain

Pacific University


Oregon Senate Republicans employee the tactics of segregationists #orpol #orleg

D9jRgD7UwAA8XjKIn Oregon, GOP members of the Oregon Senate have once again walked off the job to deny a quorum. They intend to hold the Oregon Legislature hostage until a bill addressing climate change is killed. In undertaking this action, along with another walkout earlier in the session, the GOP thwarts the will of the voters. It’s a filibuster, of sorts.

In most respects, filibusters are anti-democratic. “In the 20th century, the filibuster enabled southern segregationists to block anti-lynching laws and delay civil-rights legislation. This millenium, it enabled to nativists to block a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers,” wrote Eric Levitz in a recent piece for New York Magazine.

Today in Oregon, GOP senators have twice this session used ability to deny the majority a quorum in an attempt to halt not just climate change legislation, but also a bill to increase school funding. In Oregon, voters in 2018 gave Democrats super-majorities in both the House and Senate, along with the governor’s office. The only way the GOP can influence legislation, besides coalition building and compromise, is to deny a quorum.

Democrats in Oregon have also staged walkouts when in the minority on rare occasions.  Unlike their GOP counterparts, however, they didn't leave the state to avoid the Oregon State Police.  The Oregon GOP Senators are said to be hiding in Idaho.  

There is also a clear moral difference between staging a protest to protect underrepresented communities vs. the coal industry or oil and gas.   

Addressing climate change is the most pressing moral issue of our time. As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I take Jesus’ admonition that we free people from oppression seriously. Slavery and Jim Crow are obvious examples of oppression. Climate change is as well. Without taking steps to address climate change, we sentence young people today to a painful and challenging existence.

The reality of climate change is a responsibility we must accept and address. David Wallace-Wells writes in his “The Uninhabitable Earth” that:

Global warming may seem like a distended morality tale playing out over several centuries and inflicting a kind of Old Testament retribution on the great-great-grandchildren of those responsible, since it was carbon burning in eighteenth-century England that lit the fuse of everything that has followed. But that is a fable about historical villainy that acquits those of us alive today—and unfairly. The majority of the burning has come since the premiere of Seinfeld. Since the end of World War II, the figure is about 85 percent. The story of the industrial world’s kamikaze mission is the story of a single lifetime—the planet brought from seeming stability to the brink of catastrophe in the years between a baptism or bar mitzvah and a funeral.

As the administration of Donald Trump works tirelessly to undermine efforts to address this global crisis, it becomes more and more critical for states to do whatever possible turn the tide. Instead, GOP lawmakers and activists deny the reality of climate change, work to undermine solutions, and take advantage of people, such as the #TimberUnity community in Oregon, by telling them that climate change solutions will impact their jobs (as if growing wildfire seasons won’t).

It gets worse, of course. Under Oregon law, the governor is empowered to compel members of the Legislature to return to work with the help of the Oregon State Police. This led Senator Brian Boquist, in his best segregationist imitation, to threaten the police with gun violence if they attempt to arrest him. Such comments demand his resignation or expulsion from the Senate.

Oregon Senate Republicans employee the tactics of segregationists, using the power of the minority to block efforts to address the common good. Unable to win elections, the party will do anything to stop efforts to address climate change, no matter the cost to future generations.

The so-called Oregon 11 should get back to work, return to Oregon, do their sworn duty, and faithfully execute their oath of office. Or they should resign.

Update:

Personal Reaction From Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie To Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report

IMG_1863Climate change is humanity’s ultimate test. We cannot claim to love our neighbors or God at this point in history without massive changes to protect our children and the future of Creation. As the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded in their just-released report, the changes needed will require an abrupt reordering of the world economy. Still, this is not just an economic or environmental crisis. We also face a spiritual crisis. Climate change now forces us to rethink our relationships with Creation as a whole. Christianity and other faith traditions teach that humans are called to be stewards of Creation; not exploiters of it. Recognition of this sacred role will now determine what the future of all Creation will be. The stakes could not be higher.

Read the report: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

Read The New York Times story: https://nyti.ms/2Cw5MF8


Hurricane Patricia, Climate Change And God's Call To Protect Creation

12108821_10156169768530594_1595065695956125716_nTwo historic events collided this past week: Hurricane Patricia, the most dangerous hurricane in recorded history hit Mexico, and diplomats from around the world gathered in Bonn for UN climate talks meant to produce a new accord to be signed this December in Paris.

Faith leaders, with one eye on Hurricane Patricia and another on Bonn, have been worried about both.

ACT Alliance is "a global network of churches and faith-based NGOs, working with development and relief, in 140 countries around the world." In emergencies, ACT Alliance partners with groups like Church World Service to provide critical aid. Mattias Söderberg, the head of the ACT Alliance's delegation to the Bonn talks, said Friday in a press statement:

"Everybody knows that these negotiations are serious; they are not only about our own future, but also about the lives of poor and vulnerable people who are affected by climate change already today. I am deeply concerned about the slow progress and I urge negotiators to make a final effort to change their approach. All parties need to leave their comfort zones and start to look for agreeable solutions, which can foster a fair and ambitious agreement in Paris."

Söderberg continues:

"There is no agreement about climate finance, the major questions of who should provide the finance, how much, and to who remain unanswered. The poor and vulnerable community remain confident that these questions will be answered in their favour, considering the fact that they are already affected by the impacts of climate change."

We know that hurricanes occur in nature. They are not new. Hurricanes, even very powerful storms, have occurred long before the impact of climate change was felt across the globe. What is new is the size and intensity of the storms faced today. The Washington Post reports:

While one storm is only one storm and can never substitute for a comprehensive statistical analysis, the fact remains that the link between warm seas and strong storms -- the theoretical reason for believing hurricanes will worsen due to climate change -- is starkly apparent in this case...
"As ocean temperatures continue to warm as a result of human-caused climate change, we expect hurricanes to intensify, and we expect to cross new thresholds. Hurricane Patricia and her unprecedented 200 mile-per-hour sustained winds appears to be one of them now, unfortunately," adds Michael Mann, a climate researcher at Penn State University.

For people of faith, this is yet another rally cry for action to combat climate change. Faith leaders have issued a statement to those preparing the Paris accord noting that: "Our religious convictions and cosmological narratives tell us that this earth and the whole universe are gifts that we have received from the spring of life, from God. It is our obligation to respect, protect and sustain these gifts by all means."

Increasingly, the fight to address climate change takes on a sense of urgency as we reach milestones where repair of the environment might be past our ability to control. If this occurs, we fail God and sentence our children and their descendants to a future of hardship that is difficult to imagine.

Standing in our way are those that still deny the science of climate change. "A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon," wrote Pope Francis. Those that deny this solid consensus put the future in jeopardy, often for partisan political reasons, and must be called out by faith leaders for their sin of blocking progress on addressing this great moral issue that impacts all life, God's creation. Religious leaders must also do more to call their communities to take action on climate change. We are all complicit in allowing the present age to unfold as it has.

God is calling us now to restore the natural balance of creation that allows existence.


President Trump And Sec. Palin Vs People Of Faith On Care Of Creation

Sarah Palin wants a cabinet position in any future Donald Trump administration. Specifically, she'd like to be secretary of the Department of Energy. The former half-term Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential candidate said this week:

"I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby, oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the earth for mankind's use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations, for us to import their ... resources."

Palin has long argued that the world's resources are a gift from God to be plundered. Climate change? Palin doesn't believe that humans could impact the climate. When world leaders gathered in Copenhagen in December 2009 to discuss ways to better protect the environment Palin famously tweeted:

This puts Palin at odds with the scientific community, Pope Francis, the World Council of Churches, the World Jewish Congress, the National Association of Evangelicals in the United States, and Islamic scholars across the globe. All argue that humanity has a role - no, an obligation - to protect the environment and to do everything possible to reverse the impact of human caused climate change. Pope Francis recently wrote:

"We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man 'dominion' over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God's image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to 'till and keep' the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). 'Tilling' refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while 'keeping' means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature."

Palin's views on the environment might not be in line with the thinking of world religious leaders but she does share a common philosophy with Donald Trump and nearly all the GOP contenders for president. Trump believes that climate change is a hoax.

People of faith, regardless of politics, need to be at the forefront of a world-wide movement that makes action on climate change not just politically possible but political suicide for those who would oppose such action. This is not about partisanship or party. We can and should applaud President Obama's overall climate change proposals, which move us in the right direction, but oppose President Obama when he takes such counter productive steps as allowing drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Too many Democrats are timid on this issue while too many Republicans deny there is an issue to be concerned about.

We fail God if we do not respond to the crisis of climate change. After all, we created this crisis. The gift of creation is at stake. We leave for those who are younger a world in peril that will only become more dangerous and fractured over time without corrective action. All the people of the Earth have a responsibility to be - to borrow a term from the Hebrew Scriptures - restorers of the breach.

God did not "dump" the wonders of this planet on us to be exploited.

People of faith have a special responsibility here because we are charged by God to be stewards of creation and thus far we have failed to live out our responsibilities. Our sins will most certainly be visited on our children and their children. Still, action taken now to repent of those sins by doing whatever is necessary to restore the earth to the balance which God created would be a gift for future generations that would prove our worth as a species.

As for Palin:

"I think a lot about the Department of Energy. And if I were head of that, I'd get rid of it. And I'd let the states start having more control over the lands that are within their boundaries and the people who are affected by the developments within their states."

No one with her philosophy should be allowed during these times to hold public office. The world is literally at risk.


Personal Testimony Before Portland City Council On Pembina Propane Terminal

Good morning.

My name is Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie. I am a resident of NE Portland and serve as a minister in the United Church of Christ, currently in the capacity of the Director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality and University Chaplain at Pacific University.

I can share with you this morning theological concerns to projects such as this one under consideration. Like the Audubon Society of Portland, I believe this project is inconsistent with Portland’s Climate Change Action Plan.

In 2005, I joined over 1,000 religious leaders across the United States in signing a document called “God’s Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States.” We declared:



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Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie & Rev. Kate Lore at Council hearing
The imperative first step is to repent of our sins, in the presence of God and one another. This repentance of our social and ecological sins will acknowledge the special responsibility that falls to those of us who are citizens of the United States. Though only five percent of the planet’s human population, we produce one-quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, consume a quarter of its natural riches, and perpetuate scandalous inequities at home and abroad. We are a precious part of Earth’s web of life, but we do not own the planet and we cannot transcend its requirements for regeneration on its own terms. We have not listened well to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
The second step is to pursue a new journey together, with courage and joy. By God’s grace, all things are made new. We can share in that renewal by clinging to God’s trustworthy promise to restore and fulfill all that God creates and by walking, with God’s help, a path different from our present course. To that end, we affirm our faith, propose a set of guiding norms, and call on our churches to rededicate themselves to this mission. We firmly believe that addressing the degradation of God’s sacred Earth is the moral assignment of our time comparable to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, the worldwide movement to achieve equality for women, or ongoing efforts to control weapons of mass destruction in a post-Hiroshima world.

In that spirit, I urge you to reject the proposal before you.

* as prepared for delivery

 


People of Faith Should Consider Cornilles' Views On Climate Change #OR1

As voters cast ballots in Oregon's First Congressional District it is particularly important for people of faith to weigh the issue of climate change. 

Rob Cornilles, the GOP nominee, has declared that he is running for Congress and not "scientist" but that he believes that there is still serious scientific debate over the issue.  There isn't.  Climate change skeptics have become the moral equivalent of birthers, who despite all the evidence believe that President Obama was born on Mars, or wherever.

The National Council of Churches USA (mostly mainline and orthodox Christians), the National Association of Evangelicals (mostly conservative Christians) and the U.S. Conference of Bishops (Roman Catholic) have all issued statements in recent years supporting the science behind climate change and arguing from a Biblical perspective that we have an obligation to protect creation. 

In 2005, more than 1,000 mainline Christian leaders from across the United States (including many from Oregon) issued a statement entitled God's Mandate: Care for Creation that read, in part:

To continue to walk the current path of ecological destruction is not only folly; it is sin. As voiced by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has taken the lead among senior religious leaders in his concern for creation: "To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation ... for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands ... for humans to injure other humans with disease ... for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances ... these are sins." We have become un-Creators. Earth is in jeopardy at our hands.

For Christians and other people of faith, this is one of the most serious issues of our time.  Sadly, when God presented humanity with dominion over the earth many believe we were given control over creation to do as we please -- for the benefit of humankind above all else.  That's where you get the "drill-baby-drill" mentality. "We have interpreted the 'dominion' granted to humankind as giving us raw power to exploit and abuse the rest of creation, rather than as requiring mature responsibility of us to show respect and loving care for creation," writes The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. in his book Whose Gospel? "Like rebellious adolescents, we have been inclined to see the gifts of God as ours to use as we choose."

Rob Cornilles might not be running for scientist but members of Congress are charged with passing laws that set environmental policy.  It takes an informed and curious mind to deal with complex issues that have such important moral implications.  Will we leave the world better for our children and generations to come or will greed - and yes, sin - allow us to continue on the current path of ecological destruction that is already having profound impacts across our globe and right here in Oregon?

I do not believe that God endorses candidates and not all Democrats get this answer right, but Susan Bonamici does.  Voters should take that into account.   

Disclaimer: As a minister in the United Church of Christ, I trust deeply in the Constitutional principle of separation of church and state and my endorsement is therefore a personal one and does not reflect on my denomination. But as a citizen I believe that all Americans must engage in the political process as individuals for democracy to thrive. So I choose to participate in the political process as an individual when appropriate.  This is one of those times.


"Christian" Talk Show Host Bill Post: "Is there a line for peeing on Taliban?" #gomarines #peeontaliban @bpradioshow

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In response to a recent tweet of mine about Christian support for environmental protections, I received a series of unsolicited tweets from Oregon radio talk show host Bill Post.  He's against environment protections and upset that the National Council of Churches (mainline and orthodox Christians), the National Association of Evangelicals and the U.S. Conference of Bishops (Roman Catholic) have come out in strong support of such protections and have defended the science that proves climate change is caused by humans:

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So Mr. Post disagrees with the majority of Christians across the globe.  Based on what?  Not sure.  He was particularly upset with the idea that evangelicals support climate change protections:

BillPost4
Mr. Post was apparently unaware that his own church is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.  I found that somewhat surprising for someone who is an "elder" in the church but when I asked he said he had no theological education so perhaps that explains his confusion.

But he wanted it clear he was a real Christian and belonged to a true Christian church - Salem Evangelical Church -  (unlike, apparently, the vast majority of other Christian churches):

BillPost1
Well, clearly Mr. Post at least is missing the idea that God gave us stewardship over creation not to exploit creation but to protect it.  I think it is pretty fair to say Mr. Post is missing that part of Christianity.  Whether or not his entire congregation - in which he serves as an elder - believes as he does, I just don't know.

But I saw another tweet from Mr. Post today that gave me pause and made me think he was missing something even more fundamental about Christianity.  He tweeted:

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This international news story has been making the rounds.  The New York Times reports:

The United States Marine Corps has identified the four Marines shown in a video urinating on what appear to be dead Taliban fighters, without releasing any names, and has named a lead investigating officer to decide whether they should be charged, Marine officials said Friday...

The top American general in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen of the Marines, expressed his disgust over the video on Friday, saying the images “are in direct opposition to everything the military stands for.”

His comments echoed those of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a day earlier, when both promised a thorough investigation. “Such acts violate the sanctity of the dead and are deplorable and must be condemned in the strongest manner possible,” the general said. “We will support the investigation of these acts in every way for a swift determination of the facts.”

Yes, Mr. Post missed something in Sunday School.  And I fear anyone in a church in which he serves as an elder might miss it as well.  It's called the Greatest Commandment:

Matthew 22:36-40

36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ 

And perhaps Mr. Post might benefit from this lesson as well:

Matthew 5:43-45

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

What passes for Christianity in his tweets is impossible to recognize.  

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Oregon's Shadow Lake Fire

“To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation . . . for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands . . . for humans to injure other humans with disease . . . for humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances . . . these are sins.”

- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 2005

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We spent the early part of the Labor Day weekend at Suttle Lake where we had spectacular views of the Shadow Lake fire raging in the Mt. Washington area.  500 people were evaucated from Big Lake last night as the fire grew.  It began over a week ago after a lightening strike.

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We witnessed helicopters taking water from smaller water bodies in the area they then used to dump on the fire.  As of today, however, the fire is reported as 0% contained.  At Suttle Lake - besides the view - the only impact we felt was the occassion smell of smoke.  Suttle Lake Lodge, part of the complex we stayed at, has burned down three times in the past.  The most recent fire at Suttle Lake was six years ago.  

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Fires are hiting Oregon very hard right now.  Part of this is the natural cycle of life in the Pacific Northwest, of course.  Yet the impact of fires have been made worse in recent years - and this point has to be stressed - because of on-going climate change. 

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell recently told Congress:

"Throughout the country, we're seeing longer fire seasons, and we're seeing snowpacks that, on average, are disappearing a little earlier every spring," he said, as well as devastating droughts. As a result, fire seasons have lengthened by more than 30 days, on average.

"Our scientists believe this is due to a change in climate," said Tidwell.

We can pretend this isn't true but we do so at our peril.  I cannot say that the Shadow Lake fire is a direct result of climate change or not but it is clear that climate change is increasing the severity of forest fires across the globe.  It is a sin to ignore our responsibility to act as stewards of creation.   


JPANet: Raise the Debt Ceiling & Protect our Communities

United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries Action Alert

The debt ceiling sets the maximum size of the federal government debt and Congress needs to periodically raise it. Some members of Congress are refusing to support an increase in the debt limit unless huge spending cuts are also part of the "deal."

American GirlIf reductions in spending follow the pattern established in the House of Representatives’ recent proposal for the federal budget, the cuts will target programs for low- and moderate-income people and essential government functions. The cuts would further harm people who are already suffering and prolong (and possibly worsen) the economic downturn.

Any conditions that are attached to an increase in the debt ceiling should target reductions in the deficit, not just cuts in government spending. Shrinking the deficit must be done through both spending cuts and tax increases on wealthy households and corporations. Tax increases as well as spending cuts must be part of any effort to reduce the deficit.

Tell Congress: raise the debt ceiling and if a “deal” is made to require spending cuts, it must also include tax increases.


JPANet: Protect God's Creation

United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Action Alert

On January 1st new regulations went into effect aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant and long-lasting greenhouse gas. State environmental agencies began regulating large stationary sources like coal-fired power plants and refineries, requiring them to be more efficient, thus reducing their carbon footprint.

Far from rejoicing about this effort to improve air quality and reduce gases associated with climate change, some members of Congress seek to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

As people of faith we are called to protect God’s creation and those sisters and brothers who are first and mostly affected by climate changes. Sadly, it is those who have little influence and power who are the most vulnerable to the ravages of climatic phenomenon.

Ensuring the availability of clean air for people and creatures to breath is central to our calling, as people of faith, to be good stewards of God’s creation and to seek justice for all people. So is preventing further deterioration of the Earth’s climate due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Act Now! Ask your elected officials to oppose any efforts to limit the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Air Act.

 


Global Weirding: Man Made Climate Change Brings Big Snow Storms

From Chicago January 2011

It snowed in January in Chicago (as evidenced by this photo I took while at Chicago Theological Seminary).  This week it is snowing again but the snow is breaking records.  That has brought climate change deniers out in full force.  Former Vice-President Al Gore answered one of those deniers, FOX News climatologist Bill O'Reilly, directly today:

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.

As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:

“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”

People like O'Reilly and Sarah Palin actually make a living off ignoring scientific truth.  Unfortunately, they have influence and that influence puts our planet in peril.  As stewards of God's creation, our collective inability to address man-made climate change is simply a sin.  That is why mainline Christians, evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims have all called for action to save creation in the face of crisis.     


Ark Building Instructions Included

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I'm a preacher, not a meteorologist.  But I'm thinking this radar image from KGW.com doesn't look good.

On the other hand, we might want to just sit back and appreciate the rain.  Climate change, as The Oregonian noted in a story this week, might be bringing big changes to the Beaver state:

Global warming will likely change Oregon substantially, two new reports released Tuesday conclude, lengthening growing seasons on the upside but lowering summer water supplies, heating up salmon streams, increasing wildfires and heat waves, and squeezing crops optimized to fit a narrow temperature niche -- including the Willamette Valley's prized pinot noir wine grapes. 

At just over 400 pages, the first legislatively mandated report from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute attempts to spell out the likely regional effects of projected warmer temperatures and sea level increases, exacerbated by expected population growth. It drew on contributions from 70 university and government researchers throughout the Northwest. 

Full story.

It is worth remembering today what religious leaders said in 2005:

To continue to walk the current path of ecological destruction is not only folly; it is sin. As voiced by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has taken the lead among senior religious leaders in his concern for creation: “To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation . . . for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands . . . for humans to injure other humans with disease . . . for humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances . . . these are sins.” We have become un-Creators. Earth is in jeopardy at our hands.

This means that ours is a theological crisis as well. We have listened to a false gospel that we continue to live out in our daily habits-a gospel that proclaims that God cares for the salvation of humans only and that our human calling is to exploit Earth for our own ends alone. This false gospel still finds its proud preachers and continues to capture its adherents among emboldened political leaders and policy makers.

The situation in the last five years has only deteriorated.

In the meantime, you can find ark building instructions here.  

Related Post: God's Mandate: Care for Creation 


"Tell your senators: protect the Clean Air Act!"

Action Alert from Interfaith Power and Light

Not only has the Senate failed to take up comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, now, incredibly, senators are trying to stop the EPA from doing its job.

Sen. Rockefeller of West Virginia has introduced a bill to block the EPA from protecting us from global warming pollution. In 2007 the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to take action — to decide whether global warming pollution was harmful to public health. The EPA found that it does indeed present a threat to public health, and issued the "endangerment finding" which was adopted with overwhelming public support including 300,000 comments. Hundreds of you also supported this action, but now, senators want to overrule the voters and the Supreme Court and stop the EPA's crackdown on polluters.

It's time for people of faith to stand up to the polluters, and stand up for our families, neighbors, and future generations, and tell our elected officials what we think about their dirty air acts.

Click here to send your message.

Related Post: "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action"  

Related Post: God's Mandate: Care for Creation


Fall In The Columbia River Gorge

This afternoon we left Portland and made the short trip up the Columbia River Gorge to Multnomah Falls and the Vista House at Crown Point.  We had thought that today was the Salmon Festival at the Falls but it turns out that happens tomorrow.  The salmon didn't seem to care.  They were swimming away.  So I recommend going tomorrow (after church, of course...I'll be preaching at Forest Grove United Church of Christ at 10am, btw) and seeing what the festival has to offer.  Looks like a fun time for kids.  

In any event, the Columbia River Gorge is perhaps one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth - a real treasure that must be protected.  Learn more about ways to be a good steward of the Columbia River Gorge by visiting the Friends of the Columbia Gorge.  Below are some photos of this breathtaking place that we took today.       


"Jesus healed the sick, you can stop the cause"

Action Alert from National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program

Interfaith Statement for Chemical Policy Reform

Toxic chemicals enter and harm our bodies, plants and animals, and natural systems through air and water pollution, and chemicals in household products including cleaners, personal care products, plastic food and drink containers, textiles, and children’s toys.  Yet these chemicals are poorly understood and inadequately regulated.  The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that only 200 of the more than 80,000 registered industrial chemicals have been tested . Existing chemical policies fail to protect the web of Creation, including the human community.

Bpa kids While all people are at risk, some are more vulnerable. Communities of color and low-income communities suffer disproportionately from pollution caused by current and past industrial activity, waste disposal , heavily-traveled transportation routes, and consumer products containing toxic chemicals.  Researchers also warn that toxic chemicals negatively impact children, expectant mothers, and workers. Chemical workers suffer from chemical exposures because of the lack of public data on chemicals they use, unsafe workplaces, and lax enforcement of regulations.

As religious leaders and people of faith and conscience from diverse traditions, we affirm that reforming current chemical policies is vital to protecting people and life on God’s Earth.

Our Shared Call: Four Religious Values

The world’s faith traditions share values which serve as a foundation for ethical decision-making regarding toxic chemicals.  Four core values shared by the world’s great traditions are as follows:

  • All life is to be respected.
  • People of faith must ensure that air, water, and land – which belong to the Divine - sustain life on Earth.
  • Society owes justice and care to its most vulnerable people and communities, and to future generations
  • Our faith traditions call us to protect and promote the health of the human body.

This statement contains references to religious teachings that reflect these shared values. Sadly, existing chemical policies fail to respect these values.

The Principles: Strong Toxic Policies to Sustain All LifeOregon

Government policy on chemicals can and should protect people and all life on Earth. Chemical legislation should:

Protect People and All Life on Earth

  • Remove the most dangerous chemicals, such as chemicals that persist, bioaccumulate, or are acutely toxic (PBTs), from use except when no safe alternative is available.
  • Hold companies accountable for demonstrating that chemicals are safe.

Protect Vulnerable Populations

  • Reduce the disproportionate burden of chemical exposure placed on workers, low-income people, people of color, indigenous communities, pregnant women, and children, and other vulnerable groups.
  • Expand government biomonitoring, particularly in at-risk communities, to measure people’s toxic exposure.
  • Invest in research to understand and protect children’s health from chemical harm.
  • Provide chemical health and safety information to workers and the public.

Promote a Sustainable, Healthy Economy

  • Fund “green” chemistry and engineering research to create safer chemicals and industrial processes.
  • Promote a “green” economy that will allow all life to flourish and bring green jobs to low-income communities and communities of color.

Click here to add your name.


Did Obama White House Misled America over BP Spill?

Barack Obama campaigned on the promise not to play politics with science (something his predecessor was often accused of).  

But now it appears that this White House, according to the bi-partisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling that the president created to investigate the spill, "blocked government scientists from warning the American public of the potential environmental disaster caused by BP's broken well in the Gulf of Mexico."  

The Washington Post reports

A commission set up by President Obama to scrutinize the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has released preliminary reports that say the administration created the impression that it was "either not fully competent" or "not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem."

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released four "working papers" Wednesday that said the administration's response was marked by confusion about the spill rate, slowing the federal effort immediately after the oil exploration well blew out April 20.

The commission staff's preliminary papers also said that Obama's Office of Management and Budget later delayed a report by government scientists that would have included a "worst-case" estimate of the rate of the spill, weeks before the government revised its own official estimates upward.

The reports delivered a harsh assessment of the administration's later contention that most of the spill was "gone." They point to comments by Carol M. Browner, Obama's climate and energy czar, who in a television interview mischaracterized a report as saying that three-quarters of the spill had disappeared.

Anyone found to have been involved in misleading the American public in the matter, including Carol Browner, must be removed from their position immediately.

As someone who has defended the president's response to the BP spill, I am appalled at the findings of the commission.  However, I assume that this will be corrected and moving forward mistakes like this will not be made. 


JPANet: Face the Heat on Climate Change!

Action Alert from Justice & Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ

We have seen some dreadful images from the Gulf Coast in the news during the last several weeks: oiled pelicans being scrubbed by wildlife experts; tar balls washing ashore on Pensacola Beach; thousands of people out of work, desperate and facing the prospect of uncertain future. Many of us have reached the point where we cannot watch, consider, nor absorb any more terrible news about the BP oil spill. 

The House of Representatives has passed a climate and energy bill that addresses emissions reductions, energy efficiency standards and renewable energy sources with an eye toward reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Although far from ideal, the House bill is much stronger than versions being discussed in the Senate. This week the Senate takes up their long-delayed consideration of climate and energy legislation, and there are troubling signs that the Senate will settle for a much more narrow energy bill that does not include sufficient provisions to reduce emissions through the cap and trade provision or significantly address dependence on fossil fuels. 

Even though BP may have successfully capped the well in recent days, the millions of gallons of oil which have already escaped will continue to cause incalculable damage to countless species and habitats as the oil drifts in ocean currents; covers coastal mangroves, coral reefs and beaches; and sinks to the ocean floor. The vast economic impact to fisheries, tourism and other industries will go on for an untold period of time. Consequently, the affected communities will remain in dire need of government assistance and of the prayers and support of people of faith. Naturally, there is no guarantee that another disaster like this won’t happen in the future, which is why we must have an energy bill that leads us away from our dependence on fossil fuels. 

The scientific data is before us, creative and visionary business and entrepreneurial leaders are eager to find sustainable solutions for our energy needs – what is needed is leadership from Congress. 

Tell your senators we can’t afford another Deepwater Horizon disaster. Urge them to pass a strong climate and clean energy bill that truly addresses the need to end our dependence of fossil fuels.

Click here to send a message to Congress.


Sarah Palin: President Obama Holding BP Financially Accountable Akin To Nazism

Palin_nazi President Barack Obama is insisting that BP be held financially accountable for the on-going disaster in the Gulf.  That prompted GOP congressman Joe Barton to claim that the corporation was the victim of an unethical "shakedown" by the administration.  He quickly apologized.  But many Republicans seem to agree that the needs of corporations come before the needs of actual Americans.  Now former half term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - defender of a drill-baby-drill theology that says God gave humans dominion over the Earth to exploit as we please - has compared President Obama's attempts to hold BP accountable to Nazism.  If it were up to Palin and the GOP you can bet BP would get away scot-free.  After all, this is the same crew that fights tooth and nail against environmental protection and who during the Bush administration put oil executives in charge of monitoring the oil industry.  

"Losing paradise"

WCCViwa Approaching the boat landing of the fishing village on Viwa Island off the coast of Suva, Fiji, it is hard to imagine a more idyllic setting than this South Pacific paradise filled with one stunning island view after another.

On the hillside overlooking the village sits a memorial church dedicated to the memory of a Methodist translator, John Hunt, who translated the Bible from Greek into Fijian more than 150 years ago and who still is revered by the villagers.

In the evening dusk the chapel glows like a beacon across the water. Nestled on the lush slopes leading down to the shore are the homes of the 110 hearty souls who call Viwa home.

 

It is here in late May that a four-person World Council of Churches (WCC) Living Letters delegation were hosted by the villagers of Viwa who shared with the group their growing concerns in regard to how the shifting global climate and rising sea levels from melting polar ice packs are impacting this small community.

 

The island itself is small, taking the delegation no more than 15-20 minutes to circumnavigate in an eight-seater boat with an outboard motor. Climatic changes far from here are having an impact on places such as this, and that is why the Living Letters came to listen and show solidarity with the community.

 

The WCC Living Letters are small ecumenical teams that visit a country to listen, learn and examine approaches to problems and help confront challenges in order to overcome violence and promote peace. In the context of Fiji, the group was exploring how violence against nature through CO2 emissions, land misuse, pollution and other development and lifestyle issues have impact on the world’s climate. In addition to spending 24 hours on Viwa, the team also met with church and government leaders in Suva, the capital of Fiji.

Full story.


Government Is Good #BP #oilspill

The president got something absolutely right in his address tonight:  the need for strong government oversight over industry.  Since Ronald Reagan the conservative governing philosophy has been that all government is bad.  But, as President Obama noted tonight, government could have been and should have been a positive influence over BP.  Instead, regulations were lax and those in charge corrupt:  

Over the last decade, (the federal Minerals Management Service) agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility — a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.

When Ken Salazar became my Secretary of the Interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency. But it's now clear that the problems there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow. And so Secretary Salazar and I are bringing in new leadership at the agency — Michael Bromwich, who was a tough federal prosecutor and Inspector General. His charge over the next few months is to build an organization that acts as the oil industry's watchdog — not its partner.

So one of the lessons we've learned from this spill is that we need better regulations, better safety standards, and better enforcement when it comes to offshore drilling. But a larger lesson is that no matter how much we improve our regulation of the industry, drilling for oil these days entails greater risk. After all, oil is a finite resource. We consume more than 20 percent of the world's oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean — because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked — not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight. Countries like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be right here in America. Each day, we send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil. And today, as we look to the Gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude.

We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny.

The lesson over the need for a strong and engaged government can be applied to more than just off-shore drilling.  This current crisis should serve as evidence that the conservative philosophy of limited government (even libertarianism) is a failed philosophy even as it is advanced today by many in both political parties but particularly but the GOP and their tea party allies.  You would have thought the lesson would have been learned after the economic collapse in 2008 (caused by lax oversight of Wall Street) but the Republican Party is running in 2010 on a return to the governing style of George W. Bush.  We're still paying the price for his presidency today.

In the wake of this current disaster the U.S. Senate needs to follow the led of U.S. House and pass a strong energy reform package.  Click here to send your senator a message.

President Obama, who has more on his desk than any president since FDR, needs to make passage a real priority.  An opportunity exists for a lot of good to come from this tragedy.  


"Drill, Baby, Drill" - The Gulf Coast - And Human Sin

Prayers for the Gulf

We continue as a nation to watch in horror as the Gulf Coast region is devastated by the oil rig explosion and on-going leak. The costs will be monumental. Some are comparing the scope of the disaster to Hurricane Katrina (and while those comparisons are meant largely to embarrass President Obama politically by comparing his response to this crisis with President Bush’s inept response to the hurricane as people were dying) the reality is that the ecological impact may very well rank as one of the worst human caused disasters in American history. 

At the heart of this story, in theological terms, is human sin. Consider this story from CNN which chronicles the federal Minerals Management Service, the agency charged with oversight of off-shore drilling:

(CNN) -- The Minerals Management Service, a division within the Interior Department, was a troubled agency long before the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent revelations of employee misconduct. 

The agency -- which oversees U.S. offshore drilling, including the Gulf of Mexico -- has come under fire for mismanagement, questionable conduct and cozy relationships with industry officials. 

The MMS issued permits for the Deepwater Horizon drill rig -- contracted by BP -- which exploded on April 20. The explosion killed 11 people and resulted in an oil spill that is threatening parts of the Gulf. 

Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar, during an appearance Wednesday before the House Committee on Natural Resources, said he was trying to change the agency's culture and its structure, which some critics say leads to mismanagement. 

"My belief is that most of the employees of the MMS are good public servants," Salazar said. He, however, acknowledged some of the past conduct was "scandalous" and "reprehensible."

Salazar said some people have been fired and others referred for prosecution.

When talking about sin we most often refer to personal sin. The Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament, however, talk about societal sins as well as personal ones. We are called, as an example, to be stewards over all creation in Genesis 1:26-27 (NRSV). 

26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ 27So God created humankind* in his image, in the image of God he created them;* male and female he created them. 

Some have argued (incorrectly) that dominion gives us control over creation to do as we please – for the benefit of humankind above all else. “We have interpreted the ‘dominion’ granted to humankind as giving us raw power to exploit and abuse the rest of creation, rather than as requiring mature responsibility of us to show respect and loving care for creation,” writes The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. in his new book Whose Gospel? “Like rebellious adolescents, we have been inclined to see the gifts of God as ours to use as we choose.” 

The sin in this crisis was not the explosion that caused the massive spill – that was an accident – but rather the arrogance we have shown in drilling for oil in sensitive areas using a system of oversight ripe with corruption all for the gain of humanity without concern for the plant. 

“Drill, baby, drill” has been the mantra. Such thinking has led us to this moment: where the interconnectedness of humanity and all creation is once again in jeopardy immediately in a large region of this planet while we still struggle with the reality of global climate change. 

Our actions (or inactions) place us into a place of conflict with God. In other words, we as a people are in a perpetual state of sin. The consequences will be grave this time. The immediate concern in stopping this seemingly never ending underwater volcano of oil is legitimately our top priority. 

The only way to reconcile with God, though, will be to stop this madness and act like the true stewards we are called to be. God is calling us to stop acting like adolescents and act like grow-ups should: with responsibility, with justice in our hearts, and a mature understanding of the difference between right and wrong.

Prayers for the Gulf from The National Council of Churches

PRAYER OF CONFESSION 

Creator God, author of life, source of all meaning, you made a universe of infinite complexity and beauty and entrusted us humans with the care of a tiny jewel called Earth. With the passing of time we came to believe we were owners, not fellow creature dwellers, of this bountiful planet and its extravagant web of life. We have used God’s creation without regard for the impact our rapacity had on the other creatures with whom we share our earthly home. We have acted with craven disregard for complex ecosystems we barely understand. Our self-deception has led us to assume we have the capacity to manage environments we exploit to sustain lifestyles that defy the intrinsic interdependence of all life. Now we face the consequences of our idolatry. We thought we were gods; but our recklessness has brought us to our knees, to ask for your mercy and forgiveness for the chaos we have brought about. We pray for the oceans and all the creatures that dwell in it. We pray for the forests and the abundance of life they nurture. We pray for the very air we breathe, now laden with the toxic gases we produce. We pray for our children whose earthly home we have so imperiled. Loving God, have mercy on us, grant us forgiveness and the strength to make amends. 

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS 

There are no sins so great that the mercy of God cannot forgive. Go with God’s grace to make amends. Embrace lifestyles that will help restore balance and harmony to our Earthly home. Care for those whose environments have been destroyed by our actions and inactions. Amen.


"If the winter glove won't fit, you must acquit."

The perfect analogy from Dr. Bill McKibben: 
In recent years, every major scientific body in the world has produced reports confirming the peril of climate change. All 15 of the warmest years on record have come in the last two decades. And Earth's major natural systems are all showing undeniable signs of rapid flux: melting Arctic and glacial ice, rapidly acidifying seawater and so on. 

Yet because of a recent onslaught of attacks on the science of climate change, fewer Americans now believe humans are warming the planet than did just a few years ago. 

The doubters of climate science have launched an enormously clever -- and effective -- campaign, and it's worth trying to understand how they've done it. The best analogy is perhaps the O.J. Simpson trial. 

The "dream team" of lawyers assembled for Simpson's defense had a problem: The evidence against their client was formidable. Nicole Brown Simpson's blood was all over his socks, and that was just the beginning. So Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Kardashian et al. decided to attack the process, arguing that it put Simpson's guilt in doubt -- and doubt, of course, was all they needed. Hence, those days of cross-examination about exactly how Dennis Fung had transported blood samples and which racial slurs LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman had used....

...They made convincing mountains from the molehills they had to work with. 

Similarly, the immense pile of evidence now proving the science of global warming beyond any reasonable doubt is in some ways a great boon for those who deny that the biggest problem we've ever faced is actually a problem at all. If you have a three-page report, it won't be overwhelming, but it's also unlikely to have many mistakes. Three thousand pages (the length of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)? That pretty much guarantees you'll get some things wrong....

The skeptics also have taken advantage of lucky breaks that have crossed their path, such as the recent record set of snowstorms that hit Washington. It doesn't matter that such a record is just the kind of thing scientists have been predicting, given the extra water vapor global warming is adding to the atmosphere. The doubters simply question how it can be suddenly super-snowy if the world is actually warming. ...

...These are the things that stick in people's heads. If the winter glove won't fit, you must acquit. 

In the long run, the climate-deniers will be a footnote to history. But by delaying action, they will have helped prevent us from taking the steps we need to take while there's still time.

Click here to read the full story.

For people of faith the debate over how best to treat this planet comes down to a question over how we best act as stewards of God's creation.  Only the far-right fringes of the Religious Right (political groups like the Institute on Religion and Democracy) argue against the reality of global climate change and fight against the common sense measures the world should take to protect the future of the Earth and all that inhabits her.

On the side of protecting creation:  mainline Christians, many conservative evangelicals, the Vatican, and the World Council of Churches.

Our children - and God - are counting on us to do the right things in this moment of history and we cannot fail.  

For more on Christianity and the environment visit the website of the National Council of Churches.


Sarah Palin's Arrogance

046

Sarah Palin wrote on Twitter back in December: 

"Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature's ways.MUST b good stewards of God's earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature" 

That's not how most of the world's religious leaders think.  From the Vatican to the World Council of Churches the message has been the same:  climate change is real, created by humans, and a threat to God's creation.  Even in conservative evangelical communities this reality - backed by science - is growing in acceptance.

The so-called "climate-gate" controversy has given skeptics new cause to question climate change but the science and the reality is clear.  Only the politics - driven by under-educated leaders like former Gov. Palin - are in question.  

We're here on Mt. Hood this weekend.  There has been record low snow fall and the average world temperatures have risen dramatically.

What is truly arrogant is Ms. Palin's belief that she and others can do anything they please and profit in anyway they want regardless of the cost to all that God has created and given us stewardship over.


A Prayer for Copenhagen

A Prayer for Copenhagen

Creator God,

You gave us stewardship over creation In The Beginning.
Over the plants.
Over the soil.
Over the animals.
Over the earth.

Our sin is that we have failed your trust.
Over the plants.
Over the soil.
Over the animals.
Over the earth.

Man-made climate change threatens the sacred balance of life.
Temperatures are climbing.
The arctic is melting.
Entire species are perishing. 
Even the future of humanity is at risk.

Help us, O God, to reconcile with the earth and with you.
Let wisdom come to our leaders and to all people.
Give us the courage to act during this time of decision.
Sustain us with Hope as we wrestle with the consequences of failure. 
May we once again earn the trust you gave humanity so long ago.

For this – for the future of all creation - we pray.

Amen. 

- Rev. Chuck Currie
http://www.chuckcurrie.com 

Note: World leaders begin discussions today (Monday, December 07, 2009) in Copenhagen on how to address the climate change crisis. More information on their efforts can be found at from the United Nations.

A Podcast Sermon For Earth Sunday 2008

Earth_1_apollo17This morning I had the opportunity to preach at Portland's First Congregational United Church of Christ for Earth Sunday as part of a pulpit exchange with The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ross.  Dr. Ross took my place at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ for the morning.

Our Scripture readings at both congregations included Gensis 1:1 - 2:2 and Acts 17-24 (NRSV).  Use the below link to download the podcast of the sermon for your iPod or personal computer.

Download FCCEarthSunday.m4a

(click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

Now On ITunes


You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes. Just open the ITunes application and use the search function to find

"Chuck Currie"

then click on the "Subscribe" button.


Ministers Will Exchange Pulpits For Earth Sunday

Here's a release my office sent out this morning. All are welcome.

Earth_1_apollo17The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ross and The Rev. Chuck Currie will exchange pulpits for a day on Sunday, April 20th. Both will be preaching on the environment and God’s call that we be good stewards of all creation.

Ministers in the United Church of Christ (www.ucc.org) have been encouraged to set aside a Sunday before Earth Day (Monday, April 21st) to preach on environmental stewardship issues.

Rev. Currie is the interim minister at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in NE Portland (4715 NE 106th Ave). Dr. Ross will preach at his church during the 10 AM service. Additional information on the church can be found by visiting www.parkroseucc.org or calling 503-235-5457.

Dr. Ross is the senior minister of First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Portland (1137 SW Park Avenue). Rev. Currie will preach at her church during the 10:25 am service. Additional information on the church can be found by visiting www.uccportland.org or calling 503-228-7219.

“On April 8, the Collegium of Officers of the United Church of Christ released a significant theological statement, ‘And Indeed It Is Very Good – A Pastoral Letter on Faith and Environment: Living in Community with God’s Creation.’ The letter offers a new prophetic word about the need to celebrate the beauty of the earth and engage in faith action on behalf of the interrelated components of creation. We want to make clear the UCC's extravagant hospitality with evangelical courage that extends to the environmental and the social, the local and the global,” states a news release issued by the UCC national offices.

More information on the UCC and environmental issues can be found at: http://www.ucc.org/earthcare/.

I'm excited to have the chance to be back at First Congregational UCC this coming Sunday morning.


Blogging In The Dark

We turned off most of our lights at 8pm to take part in the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour US.  Events like this are symbolic, yes, but also educational.  Most nights our house is lit-up as if we were trying to direct ships to shore.  Did turning off the lights cause us any hardship?  No.  Maybe we'll remember the lesson tomorrow night. 


"This far and no further: Act fast and act now!"

For additional background on this issue visit the United Church News Blog.

Statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC)
to the High-Level Ministerial Segment of the
13th Session of the Conference of the Parties – COP13 to the UNFCCC
3rd Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol – CMP3

Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

Friday, December 14, 2007

Mr. President and fellow participants in this UN Climate Conference:

A Change of Paradigm is needed

It is our conviction as members of faith communities that a Change of Paradigm from one way of thinking to another is needed if we are to adequately respond to the challenge of climate change. It constitutes a transformation, a “metamorphosis”. This kind of movement just does not happen on its own; it must be catalyzed by agents of change. The world Faiths could be one of those catalysts. 

A change in paradigm appears as mandatory in the prevailing economic strategy of promoting endless growth and production of goods and a seemingly insatiable level of consumption among the high-consuming sectors of our societies. Such economic and consumption patterns are leading to the depletion of critical natural resources and to extremely dangerous implications with climate change and development. 

Societies must shift to a new paradigm where the operative principles are ethics, justice, equity, solidarity, human development and environmental conservation.

In our traditions, we believe that the earth was entrusted to us but we simply cannot do whatever we want with it. We cannot make use of nature using it only as a commodity. We must bear in mind that our liberty does not allow us to destroy that which sustains life on our planet.

We Must Act Here and Now

Much has been said and written about addressing climate change. However, a tangible result is not yet on the horizon. The First Commitment Period within the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. Time is running out to reach equitable and sustainable targets for post-2012.

Are we ready as human beings, as members of the global society, as members of our faith communities and our organisations, as sovereign nations, to meet what is expected from us? Or are we going to implement new delays, new strategies to avoid our ethical and moral duties? In doing so it would be no less than suicidal, jeopardizing the diversity of life in the earth we inhabit, enjoy and share.

It is time to adopt legal mechanisms that adequately respond to the gravity of the situation as documented by the IPCC and which have enforcement provisions with sufficient strength to compel full compliance.

The Statement adopted by the World Council of Churches Executive Committee on occasion of the “10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol”, among other issues, clearly reminds us of our responsibilities and points us toward the future:

  • The Kyoto Protocol sets out targets and a schedule for industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It is an important first step towards a just and sustainable global climate policy regime. However, in the last ten years, it has become clear that carbon emissions are still far above sustainable levels and still increasing. Much more radical reductions are urgently needed.
  • The Kyoto Protocol came into force only in 2005. 175 countries have now ratified it… There is also a trend to convert the protocol into a market-based instrument for minimizing economic damage to national economies and business opportunities instead of stressing its purpose of limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
  • After 2012, when the first commitments of the protocol end, a more principle-based approach is essential for achieving an effective and equitable global policy on climate control. Principles that should be taken into account include the principle of equal entitlements to the use of the atmosphere and equal rights to development; the principle of historic responsibility the precautionary principle (prospective responsibility); the principle of priority for the poorest and weakest; and the principle of maximum risk reduction.
  • …the need for a broader and more radical timetable of action against climate change will be high on the agenda.  The Bali conference must make concrete progress in this regard.
  • The need now is for more comprehensive policies to support and promote adaptation and mitigation programmes in countries severely affected by climate change, particularly in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

We have arrived to the point where we know what is causing climate change. We have expressed all our concerns, cleared our doubts and affirmed what took us to the inequitable situation where the poorer carry the burden of the irresponsible waste of resources, energy and extreme consumerism of the richer. It is time now to start taking the positive actions that will lead us to find practical solutions to the problems of the great majority of today’s world population.

The eyes of the world are on us. Hundreds of millions of people, women and men, young and aged, have placed their hopes on us. We have to realize that we are kept in their prayers, every one of them following their own religious tradition. And this we cannot forget. Our mission is not to deceive or disappoint them.

Our willing participation in these great changes is required today, now, and not tomorrow. There is no time left for endless words. There must be no more delays. Once more we cry out:

“THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER: ACT FAST AND ACT NOW!”


Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

SPEECH BY AL GORE ON THE ACCEPTANCE

OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

DECEMBER 10, 2007

OSLO, NORWAY

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen.

I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life’s work, unfairly labeling him “The Merchant of Death” because of his invention — dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace.

Seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name.

Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken — if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose.

Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, “We must act.”

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures — a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst — though not all — of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.

We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.

Last September 21, as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented distress that the North Polar ice cap is “falling off a cliff.” One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years. Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as 7 years.

Seven years from now.

In the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter. Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water due to massive droughts and melting glaciers. Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods. Peoples in the frozen Arctic and on low-lying Pacific islands are planning evacuations of places they have long called home. Unprecedented wildfires have forced a half million people from their homes in one country and caused a national emergency that almost brought down the government in another. Climate refugees have migrated into areas already inhabited by people with different cultures, religions, and traditions, increasing the potential for conflict. Stronger storms in the Pacific and Atlantic have threatened whole cities. Millions have been displaced by massive flooding in South Asia, Mexico, and 18 countries in Africa. As temperature extremes have increased, tens of thousands have lost their lives. We are recklessly burning and clearing our forests and driving more and more species into extinction. The very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed.

We never intended to cause all this destruction, just as Alfred Nobel never intended that dynamite be used for waging war. He had hoped his invention would promote human progress. We shared that same worthy goal when we began burning massive quantities of coal, then oil and methane.

Even in Nobel’s time, there were a few warnings of the likely consequences. One of the very first winners of the Prize in chemistry worried that, “We are evaporating our coal mines into the air.” After performing 10,000 equations by hand, Svante Arrhenius calculated that the earth’s average temperature would increase by many degrees if we doubled the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Seventy years later, my teacher, Roger Revelle, and his colleague, Dave Keeling, began to precisely document the increasing CO2 levels day by day.

But unlike most other forms of pollution, CO2 is invisible, tasteless, and odorless — which has helped keep the truth about what it is doing to our climate out of sight and out of mind. Moreover, the catastrophe now threatening us is unprecedented — and we often confuse the unprecedented with the improbable.

We also find it hard to imagine making the massive changes that are now necessary to solve the crisis. And when large truths are genuinely inconvenient, whole societies can, at least for a time, ignore them. Yet as George Orwell reminds us: “Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

In the years since this prize was first awarded, the entire relationship between humankind and the earth has been radically transformed. And still, we have remained largely oblivious to the impact of our cumulative actions.

Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now, we and the earth’s climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: “Mutually assured destruction.”

More than two decades ago, scientists calculated that nuclear war could throw so much debris and smoke into the air that it would block life-giving sunlight from our atmosphere, causing a “nuclear winter.” Their eloquent warnings here in Oslo helped galvanize the world’s resolve to halt the nuclear arms race.

Now science is warning us that if we do not quickly reduce the global warming pollution that is trapping so much of the heat our planet normally radiates back out of the atmosphere, we are in danger of creating a permanent “carbon summer.”

As the American poet Robert Frost wrote, “Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.” Either, he notes, “would suffice.”

But neither need be our fate. It is time to make peace with the planet.

We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war. These prior struggles for survival were won when leaders found words at the 11th hour that released a mighty surge of courage, hope and readiness to sacrifice for a protracted and mortal challenge.

These were not comforting and misleading assurances that the threat was not real or imminent; that it would affect others but not ourselves; that ordinary life might be lived even in the presence of extraordinary threat; that Providence could be trusted to do for us what we would not do for ourselves.

No, these were calls to come to the defense of the common future. They were calls upon the courage, generosity and strength of entire peoples, citizens of every class and condition who were ready to stand against the threat once asked to do so. Our enemies in those times calculated that free people would not rise to the challenge; they were, of course, catastrophically wrong.

Now comes the threat of climate crisis — a threat that is real, rising, imminent, and universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing, and at some near point would be unsustainable and unrecoverable. For now we still have the power to choose our fate, and the remaining question is only this: Have we the will to act vigorously and in time, or will we remain imprisoned by a dangerous illusion?

Mahatma Gandhi awakened the largest democracy on earth and forged a shared resolve with what he called “Satyagraha” — or “truth force.”

In every land, the truth — once known — has the power to set us free.

Truth also has the power to unite us and bridge the distance between “me” and “we,” creating the basis for common effort and shared responsibility.

There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We need to go far, quickly.

We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer. They can and do help. But they will not take us far enough without collective action. At the same time, we must ensure that in mobilizing globally, we do not invite the establishment of ideological conformity and a new lock-step “ism.”

That means adopting principles, values, laws, and treaties that release creativity and initiative at every level of society in multifold responses originating concurrently and spontaneously.

This new consciousness requires expanding the possibilities inherent in all humanity. The innovators who will devise a new way to harness the sun’s energy for pennies or invent an engine that’s carbon negative may live in Lagos or Mumbai or Montevideo. We must ensure that entrepreneurs and inventors everywhere on the globe have the chance to change the world.

When we unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true, the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us. The generation that defeated fascism throughout the world in the 1940s found, in rising to meet their awesome challenge, that they had gained the moral authority and long-term vision to launch the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, and a new level of global cooperation and foresight that unified Europe and facilitated the emergence of democracy and prosperity in Germany, Japan, Italy and much of the world. One of their visionary leaders said, “It is time we steered by the stars and not by the lights of every passing ship.”

In the last year of that war, you gave the Peace Prize to a man from my hometown of 2000 people, Carthage, Tennessee. Cordell Hull was described by Franklin Roosevelt as the “Father of the United Nations.” He was an inspiration and hero to my own father, who followed Hull in the Congress and the U.S. Senate and in his commitment to world peace and global cooperation.

My parents spoke often of Hull, always in tones of reverence and admiration. Eight weeks ago, when you announced this prize, the deepest emotion I felt was when I saw the headline in my hometown paper that simply noted I had won the same prize that Cordell Hull had won. In that moment, I knew what my father and mother would have felt were they alive.

Just as Hull’s generation found moral authority in rising to solve the world crisis caused by fascism, so too can we find our greatest opportunity in rising to solve the climate crisis. In the Kanji characters used in both Chinese and Japanese, “crisis” is written with two symbols, the first meaning “danger,” the second “opportunity.” By facing and removing the danger of the climate crisis, we have the opportunity to gain the moral authority and vision to vastly increase our own capacity to solve other crises that have been too long ignored.

We must understand the connections between the climate crisis and the afflictions of poverty, hunger, HIV-Aids and other pandemics. As these problems are linked, so too must be their solutions. We must begin by making the common rescue of the global environment the central organizing principle of the world community.

Fifteen years ago, I made that case at the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro. Ten years ago, I presented it in Kyoto. This week, I will urge the delegates in Bali to adopt a bold mandate for a treaty that establishes a universal global cap on emissions and uses the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reductions.

This treaty should be ratified and brought into effect everywhere in the world by the beginning of 2010 — two years sooner than presently contemplated. The pace of our response must be accelerated to match the accelerating pace of the crisis itself.

Heads of state should meet early next year to review what was accomplished in Bali and take personal responsibility for addressing this crisis. It is not unreasonable to ask, given the gravity of our circumstances, that these heads of state meet every three months until the treaty is completed.

We also need a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store carbon dioxide.

And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon — with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.

The world needs an alliance — especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where earth is in the balance. I salute Europe and Japan for the steps they’ve taken in recent years to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia, which has made solving the climate crisis its first priority.

But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 emitters — most of all, my own country —- that will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before history for their failure to act.

Both countries should stop using the other’s behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment.

These are the last few years of decision, but they can be the first years of a bright and hopeful future if we do what we must. No one should believe a solution will be found without effort, without cost, without change. Let us acknowledge that if we wish to redeem squandered time and speak again with moral authority, then these are the hard truths:

The way ahead is difficult. The outer boundary of what we currently believe is feasible is still far short of what we actually must do. Moreover, between here and there, across the unknown, falls the shadow.

That is just another way of saying that we have to expand the boundaries of what is possible. In the words of the Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, “Pathwalker, there is no path. You must make the path as you walk.”

We are standing at the most fateful fork in that path. So I want to end as I began, with a vision of two futures — each a palpable possibility — and with a prayer that we will see with vivid clarity the necessity of choosing between those two futures, and the urgency of making the right choice now.

The great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote, “One of these days, the younger generation will come knocking at my door.”

The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: “What were you thinking; why didn’t you act?”

Or they will ask instead: “How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?”

We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource.

So let us renew it, and say together: “We have a purpose. We are many. For this purpose we will rise, and we will act.”


Biking For God’s Creation: Why I’m Taking The Bike Commute Challenge 2007

ClipartbikeWe recently purchased a Honda Fit – one of the most fuel efficient vehicles on the market (one small step for the environment). In September, I’m going to take another small step that will help reduce the release of pollutants into the air and perhaps slow the ever expanding size of my waistline: I’m going to take part in the Bike Commute Challenge 2007. During the month of September I’ll try and ride my bike as often asCross_lent possible to Parkrose Community United Church of Christ, where I serve as the interim minister. My office is less than five miles from our house and so I don’t really have an excuse. For most of my twenties I didn’t even have a car and so a bike was my main form of transportation. I need to return to that (as much as you can with 3-year old twins and pastoral responsibilities that often require a car). This for me will be as much of a spiritual exercise as a physical one. As a minister, I believe and preach that what we are doing to the earth is a sin. God called God’s people to be stewards of creation and we have messed this planet up. What will be left of the world for our children and their children if we don’t stop and take that responsibility seriously? One small way I can help is to take my bike out of the garage and get it on the road.

Related Link: A Podcast Sermon On Psalm 8: Stewardship And Creation


"Summer time, and the water is sacred"

Statement from the National Council of Churches

Washington, August 3, 2007 – During the hot and dry months of August and September, the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program is asking churches to use water wisely as part of their Adamah Congregations quarterly action program.

The NCC hopes to reach people in the pews through organizing bible studies on water across the nation. Churches can register to host a bible study at www.nccecojustice.org/adamahh2o.html.

“The sacredness of water in our faith tradition is stated clearly throughout the Bible," says Cassandra Carmichael, Eco-Justice Programs Director.

"The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. We pray that as congregations study the scripture that they will be moved to protect this precious gift.”

The Adamah Congregations program started in January 2007 as a way to engage congregations in taking simple actions to “green” their church.

Previous actions include asking churches to switch to a fair trade coffee hour and replacing incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

The Eco-Justice Programs office of the National Council of Churches works in cooperation with the NCC Eco-Justice Working Group to provide an opportunity for the national bodies of member Protestant and Orthodox denominations to work together to protect and restore God's Creation. 


"Let's Get Real on Climate Change"

Action Alert from United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries

In the coming weeks, your senators will have an opportunity to sharply reduce our country's dangerous oil dependence and slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. On June 12, 2007, the Senate began debating a massive energy reform bill that includes important initiatives to improve energy efficiency, increase gas mileage for vehicles, and reduce carbon emissions.

But to be effective, the Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act of 2007 (H.R. 6)  needs to be strengthened in several critical areas. For example, the legislation would increase the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks in the U.S. to 35 miles per gallon. Yet the bill would also allow the administration to waive this modest increase in fuel economy in certain circumstances.

Write your senators and urge them to support amendments to this energy bill that will strengthen the fuel economy provisions to make certain that the standard is actually increased and fully implemented and that it covers all cars, light trucks, SUV’s and minivans.

Click here to send your senators a message.


Religious Leaders Urge Action On Global Warming

Today a United States Senate committee heard testimony from religious leaders on global warmingRepresenting the National Council of Churches was Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts of the Episcopal Church USA.  Presiding Bishop Jefferts (a former Oregonian we proudly note) told the committee:

Before my ordination to the priesthood, I was an oceanographer and I learned that no life form can be studied in isolation from its surroundings or from other organisms. All living things are deeply interconnected, and all life depends on the life of others. Study of the Bible, and of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, made me equally aware that this interconnectedness is one of the central narratives of Scripture.  God creates all people and all things to live in relationship with one another and the world around them.  At the end of the biblical creation account, the writer of Genesis tells us that "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."

I believe that each of us must recall ourselves to the vision that God has for us to realize in our own day.  It is a vision in which all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation. While many of the faith communities represented here today may disagree on a variety of issues, in the area of global warming we are increasingly of one mind.  The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness, interconnectedness, and sanctity of the world God created and loves.  This challenge is what has called our faith communities to come here today and stand on the side of scientific truth. As a priest, trained as a scientist, I take as a sacred obligation the faith community's responsibility to stand on the side of truth, the truth of science as well as the truth of God's unquenchable love for the world and all its inhabitants. 

The Church's history, of course, gives us examples of moments when Christians saw threat, rather than revelation and truth, in science.   The trial and imprisonment of Galileo Galilei for challenging the theory of a geocentric universe is a famous example of the Church's moral failure. For his advocacy of this unfolding revelation through science, Galileo spent the remainder of his life under house arrest.  The God whose revelation to us is continual and ongoing also entrusts us with continual and ongoing discovery of the universe he has made.

As one who has been formed both through a deep faith and as a scientist I believe science has revealed to us without equivocation that climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant part by human activities.  They are a threat not only to God's good creation but to all of humanity.  This acknowledgment of global warming, and the Church's commitment to ameliorating it, is a part of the ongoing discovery of God's revelation to humanity and a call to a fuller understanding of the scriptural imperative of loving our neighbor.

Global warming is real and a threat to God’s creation (the theme of my sermon this past Sunday).  Unfortunately, despite the scientific reality of this crisis and the theological and social implications of our actions (or inactions) to stop global warming there are still those who insist there is nothing to worry about…or even that global warming is not real.  President Bush has largely adhered to that viewpoint.  And today representatives from the Southern Baptist Convention and the Institute on Religion and Democracy, two groups known for parroting White House views, testified before the Senate and argued quite tragically that the climate change crisis we face is not the problem it is made out to be.  IRD president Jim Tonkowich told the committee:

The kind of radical fideism that some evangelical Christians are exhibiting toward catastrophic global warming is a betrayal of science and a betrayal of the Christian intellectual tradition…. The refusal to engage in thoughtful debate about global warming, while choosing instead to make dubious assertions about the debate being over or all scientists agreeing, is not a Christian approach to the issue—particularly when the livelihood and lives of the global poor are at stake.

IRD and other conservatives have argued that environmental protections will somehow hurt those living in poverty (an ironic position since IRD opposes anti-poverty programs both within the US and abroad).

Presiding Bishop Jefferts offered the committee a more honest reflection on the linked problem of climate change and poverty:

I join many of my colleagues and many of you on this committee in sharing a profound concern that climate change will most severely affect those living in poverty and the most vulnerable in our communities here in the United States and around the world. I want to be absolutely clear; inaction on our part is the most costly of all courses of action for those living in poverty.

The General Convention, (the governing body of the Episcopal Church), the National Council of Churches, and many Christian denominations have called on Congress to address both climate change and the needs of those living in poverty in adapting to curbs in fossil fuel use.  On their behalf, I would like to offer into the record their own statements.

Over the past five years, Americans have become increasingly aware of the phenomenon of global poverty – poverty that kills 30,000 people around the world each day – and have supported Congress and the President in making historic commitments to eradicating it.  We cannot triumph over global poverty, however, unless we also address climate change, as the two phenomena are intimately related.  Climate change exacerbates global poverty, and global poverty propels climate change.

Let me give you a few examples.  As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe weather events around the world, poor countries -- which often lack infrastructure such as storm walls and water-storage facilities -- will divert resources away from fighting poverty in order to respond to disaster. A warmer climate will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and tax the ability of poor countries to respond adequately. Perhaps most severely, changed rain patterns will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only four percent of cropped land is irrigated, leaving populations without food and hamstrung in their ability to trade internationally to generate income. By 2020, between 75 and 250 million Africans are projected to be exposed to an increase of water stress due to climate change.

Conversely, just as climate change will exacerbate poverty, poverty also is hastening climate change. Most people living in poverty around the world lack access to a reliable energy source, an imbalance that must be addressed in any attempt to lift a community out of poverty. Unfortunately, financial necessity forces many to choose energy sources such as oil, coal or wood, which threaten to expand significantly the world's greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects of climate change. This cycle—poverty that begets climate change, and vice versa—threatens the future of all people, rich and poor alike.

This relationship between deadly poverty and the health of creation was not lost on the world's leaders when, at the turn of the 21st century, they committed to cut global poverty in half by 2015. Their plan, which established the eight Millennium Development Goals, included a specific pledge of environmental sustainability. This year marks the halfway point in the world's effort to achieve these goals, and while progress has been impressive in some places, we are nowhere close to halfway there.  Addressing climate change is a critical step toward putting the world back on track.

Climate change and poverty are linked at home as well. We know that those living in poverty, particularly minorities, in the United States will suffer a disproportionate share of the effects of climate change.  In July of 2004, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation released a report entitled African Americans and Climate Change: An Unequal Burden that concluded "there is a stark disparity in the United States between those who benefit from the causes of climate change and those who bear the costs of climate change."  The report finds that African Americans are disproportionately burdened by the health effects of climate change, including increased deaths from heat waves and extreme weather, as well as air pollution and the spread of infectious diseases. African American households spend more money on direct energy purchases as a percentage of their income than non African Americans across every income bracket and are more likely to be impacted by the economic instability caused by climate change, than other groups.  That report makes a strong case for our congressional leaders to propose legislation to reduce carbon emissions that does not put a greater share of the cost on those living in poverty.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts was joined by “John Carr of the department of social development and world peace at the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops; Jim Ball, director of the Evangelical Environmental Network; and Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center,” in urging action to stop global warming before it is to late (according to ENS).   

You can add your voice to those religious leaders trying to save creation by clicking here


Oregon Center for Christian Values Presents Caring for Creation

Press Release from Oregon Center for Christian Values

BEAVERTON – The Oregon Center for Christian Values is presenting a conference called “7 Days of Creation Care” at Oak Hills Church in Beaverton, on Saturday, April 14. The conference is a response to the rapidly emerging Christian movement to care for the environment not only out of ecological concern for nature, but also out of a desire to follow the biblical call to care for all God’s creation.

Scripture tells Christians that not only was the earth created by God (Genesis 1), but that “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -his eternal power and divine nature -have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Caring for creation is part of honoring God.

The purpose of this conference is to bring together local Christians to discuss and reflect on the biblical response to concerns about the environment as God’s creation. The keynote speaker for the event, Peter Illyn, a minister and the founder of Restoring Eden, has been a leading figure in the national movement for creation care. He says of the emerging Christian voice for the environment: “There is a revolution happening. We see it on campuses and we see it in churches. For many, many years we have spent our time defending the fact that Christians should care for creation. It’s no longer a question of why should Christians care, but how should Christians care.”

One of the most compelling aspects of “creation care” is that it provides a Christian voice for a traditionally secular issue. Numerous pastors, theologians, politicians, business leaders, and students have joined together to form the Evangelical Climate Initiative, calling on action to reduce global warming. Most recently, Richard Cizik, the head of government affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, has made national headlines and appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC and PBS calling on Christians to make environmental advocacy a part of Christian ministry.

The conference will be a full day, including worship, the keynote address, a panel on both the theological and ecological aspects of creation care, and breakaway sessions that will give Christians practical tools for environmental stewardship. The event will kick-off with 7 days of Christian meditation on creation, ending with a Creation Day celebration on Sunday, April 22. Participants will be given “7 Days of Creation” prayer guides with scripture and meditation for each day.

The creator of the event, the Oregon Center for Christian Values, is a network of active Christian citizens, working together to promote Christ-centered values for the common good, such as care for the poor, care for the sick and care for God’s creation. They are hosting the event in collaboration with a local partner, Oak Hills Church.

Other featured speakers at the event include Jenny Holmes, director of environmental ministries at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Pastor Les Zollbrecht, founder of the Mountain Leadership Institute, Gene Dykema, a Christian economist and author of several books on creation care, Maureen Beezhold from the Northwest Earth Institute, and Brian Swarts, Program Director of the Oregon Center for Christian Values.


John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry Talk About Their Faith, Oregon

KerrybookcoverJohn Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry will be in Portland on Monday promoting their new book This Moment on Earth: Today’s Environmentalists and Their Vision of the Future.

Today I had the chance to talk with them both on a conference call with a small group of bloggers. You can listen to a podcast of the call where I have the opportunity to ask the U.S. senator from Massachusetts and his wife, a noted environmental activist, about how their faith informs their decisions on these issues.

I was also able to ask the senator to rank Oregon’s congressional delegation on their dedication to the environmental cause.

Use the below link to download the podcast for your IPod or computer.

Download KerryBookInterview.m4a

(click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

Click here for more information on the Portland event being held Monday, April 2nd at 7pm.

Related Link:  John and Teresa Kerry Speak With Bloggers

Related Link:  Chatting With John and Teresa Heinz Kerry about ‘This Moment On Earth’

Related Link:  Your mother needs you -- please help her now

Related Link:  Moral leadership needed to stop global warming: Q & A with the Kerrys


World Council Of Churches Calls For Action On Climate Change

This past week the United Nations held a conference on climate change.  Stewardship of God's creation is a primary obligation of all people of faith.  At the UN gathering were representatives of the World Council of Churches. Dr. Jesse Mugambi, a member of the WCC’s Working Group on Climate Change, spoke to those assembled to offer the council’s views on this critical topic:   

Mr. President and fellow participants in this UN Climate Conference:   

We believe that caring for life on Earth is a spiritual commitment. People and other species have the right to life unthreatened by human greed and destructiveness. 

The World Council of Churches is present at this 12th Conference of the Parties as we have been at every other COP. Our ecumenical team includes representatives of Christian faith communities around the world and ecumenical relief and development agencies.   

Science and the experiences of our members around the world confirm the reality of human-induced climate change. Pollution, particularly from the energy-intensive wealthy industrialised countries, is warming the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere is leading to major climate changes. The poor and vulnerable communities in the world and future generations will suffer the most. Though we have concerns about all regions, we focus in this statement particularly on Africa and the Pacific.   

Kenya is my home. The impacts of climate change are radically altering this land in which we are meeting. As you know, Mt. Kenya means “mountain of whiteness”. The snow and glaciers that covered the mountain for generations have almost disappeared. We depend on the snow and glaciers of Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro as critical sources of water for growing our food and quenching our thirst. The rains are becoming much less predictable. Drought and severe storms alternate making agriculture less sustainable. 

Faith-based organizations in Kenya are responding. We have formed a partnership through the All Africa Conference of Churches and Caritas and have sponsored a number of public awareness and advocacy events here in Nairobi during COP12. In conjunction with some of our partner ecumenical relief and development agencies in developed countries, we are working on a variety of community-based projects that address impacts of climate change, particularly water-related problems. 

In the Pacific, churches and communities cannot wait any longer for the world to agree on the effects of climate change and its consequences on isolated communities and hence have taken initiatives to address the issue of climate change in their own ways and within their own means. We commend them and note with appreciation those nations that have contributed human and financial resources to address adaptation and resilience measures. The position of Australia only adds insult to injury for the Pacific as it continues to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Pacific churches are thankful for the ecumenical solidarity of churches in Australia to look at ways of addressing the issue in the Pacific region. 

Faith-based organizations in Africa and the Pacific are mindful of the link between climate change and disasters in these regions. We call for more resources to be directed at the linkages between climate change impacts and disaster preparedness. emergency relief, rehabilitation and development. We are grateful for the increasing response of ecumenical agencies working on disaster relief and development and encourage them to intensify their focus on climate change as a significant cause of disasters.   

As the World council of Churches, we issue a life-affirming call to delegates at COP12/MOP2:

  1. listen to the scientists and the cry of the Earth and address the reality of climate change with the extreme urgency that it demands;

  2. governments of the rich industrialised nations must keep the promise that they made in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The world is rapidly approaching the point of “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The rich nations bear the primary responsibility for causing climate change and must adopt strategies to drastically reduce their emissions.

  3. the Kyoto Protocol must be fully implemented by all those who ratified it and industrialised nations that did not ratify must meet targets at least as strict as those included in the Protocol. The emissions of some industrialised countries have risen rather than fallen since the 1990 baseline year. This means even greater reductions are required than the Kyoto Protocol targets and reinforces the urgency that actual reductions start now. We dare not wait.

  4. the rich industrialised nations use far more than their fair share of the atmospheric global commons. They must pay that ecological debt to other peoples by fully compensating them for the costs of adaptation to climate change.

  5. drastic emission reductions by the rich are required to ensure that the legitimate development needs of the world’s poor can be met.

  6. all countries must agree to and participate in a climate policy framework for post-2012 that ensures equitable development for all while maintaining greenhouse gas concentrations within limits that keep a warming of the global mean temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

The World Council of Churches believes that the whole Earth community deserves to benefit from the bounties of creation. Equitable development for all is possible while maintaining the ecological integrity of the biosphere. Faith communities are addressing climate change because it is a spiritual and ethical issue of justice, equity, solidarity, sufficiency and sustainability. The situation is critical. We must all act now. We pray that you will demonstrate leadership in responding to the cry of the Earth. 

Thank you.

Related Story:  WCC says rich countries must face reality on climate change


At The Lord's Table: Everyday Thanksgiving

Oregonian Chloe Schwabe, now working as an Ecojustice Specialist for the National Council of Churches Ecojustice Program in Washington, D.C., sent along this information earlier today:

Image002Thanksgiving evokes the tastes of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. As we thank God for the glorious bounty of the harvest, we can look at ways to be good stewards of farms and farming communities. For Thanksgiving and the harvest season, the NCC Eco-Justice Program is offering a new resource entitled, At the Lord’s Table: Everyday Thanksgiving.

This resource highlights the need for justice for the land and farming communities and includes sermon starters, liturgical pieces, adult and youth education materials, and ideas for action.

Sign up through the NCC Eco-Justice Network to download your free copy at www.nccecojustice.org/network from the NCC Eco-Justice network site.

There is perhaps no greater cause right now than the protection of God’s creation.


Institute on Religion and Democracy Fights Evangelical Environmentalists

One of the best developments this electoral season has been the growing bi-partisan consensus (not to mention ecumenical consensus) over the importance of sustaining our environment.  Americans, fueled by Al Gore's superman-like crusade, have come to see the Bush Administration's environmental policies as shortsighted.  Republicans are starting to turn green and that is good for the planet.  Those who aren't on board won't be around after November. 

Over the last three decades mainline churches (the historical Protestant churches) have been addressing the environmental crisis through various ways.  These days even some prominent conservative evangelical leaders are joining the movement.

A coalition of Green Democrats and Green Republicans alongside mainline churches and evangelicals concerned about the care of creation could be a force that literally changes the world.

That scares the Republican Party aligned-Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).  IRD spends a lot of time attacking mainline church leaders and "liberals" but now they have also turned their guns on conservative evangelical leaders who have broken from the White House over the state of the environment.  IRD and their allies are so close to George W. Bush they routinely confuse his policies for the Gospel. 

If pro-environmental candidates and ballot measures win across the U.S. this November the winners will be generations to come.  The losers will be those finally unmasked who have tried to question the science behind global warming in an effort to pump up their struggling campaigns and fading electoral chances.    


Religious Right: Profit Over Creation

As the Faith in Public Life Blog noted, conservative evangelical Christians gathered this week to promote their view that global warming is not the result of human actions and that American economic interests trump environmental concerns. 

Their event, hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, was held to announce that the new Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (ISA) would release their document:

...Call to Truth, Prudence and the Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming. Endorsed by more than 100 leading evangelical scholars, theologians, scientists, economists, pastors and others, this paper is a direct response to the Evangelical Climate Initiative's "Call to Action" released earlier this year. The ISA paper lays forth solid scientific, economic, ethical, and theological arguments against mandatory carbon-emissions reductions called for by the ECI to mitigate global warming, identifies unintended consequences that would be of serious harm to the world's poor, and articulates a reasoned approach to environmental stewardship.

The Evangelical Climate Initiative is a group of conservative Christians which broke with the Bush Administration earlier this year by claiming that global warming was in fact caused by humans (which they note is the conclusion draw by the world scientific community) and that:

Christians must care about climate change because we love God the Creator and Jesus our Lord, through whom and for whom the creation was made. This is God's world, and any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God Himself (Gen. 1; Ps. 24; Col. 1:16).

Christians must care about climate change because we are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and to protect and care for the least of these as though each was Jesus Christ himself (Mt. 22:34-40; Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46).

Christians, noting the fact that most of the climate change problem is human induced, are reminded that when God made humanity he commissioned us to exercise stewardship over the earth and its creatures. Climate change is the latest evidence of our failure to exercise proper stewardship, and constitutes a critical opportunity for us to do better (Gen. 1:26-28).

Love of God, love of neighbor, and the demands of stewardship are more than enough reason for evangelical Christians to respond to the climate change problem with moral passion and concrete action.

The Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) helped to form the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.  It is worth noting that the Heritage Foundation is a think-tank closely aligned with the Bush White House.   

Greed clearly motivates the work of the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.  There is no real scientific debate anymore over global warming and despite their claim they care little for the poor.  Many of the people involved with ISA - including IRD and the Hertiage Foundation - have supported economic policies that benefit the weathly at the expense of the "least of these." 

But truth matters less to these folks than God's call for us to be responsible stewards of creation.  The release of this statement from conservative evangelicals is really a sign of desperation on the part of Republicans concerned that their political reign in Congress may end come November.  History will remember the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, IRD and the Heritage Foundation as groups that have abandoned God in the pursuit of profit.    


"Making a Democratic Ass of Jesus"

Another attack against progressive Christians came out today and it wasn't from the Religious Right.  It was the Rolling Stone magazine blog.  Tim Dickinson wrote:

CBS has an intriguing story about the growing momentum of the "Religious Left."

It quotes Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, as saying:

"Jesus never said one word about homosexuality, never said one word about civil marriage or abortion."

Adds the Rev. Tony Campolo:

"We are furious that the religious right has made Jesus into a Republican. That's idolatry. To recreate Jesus in your own image rather than allowing yourself to be created in Jesus' image is what's wrong with politics."

So what's the Religious Left's answer to this `idolatry'? Why, to turn the Lord into a liberal Democrat, of course:

The Christian left is focusing on:

Fighting Poverty
Protecting the environment
Ending the war in Iraq

Did I miss the gospel where Jesus said, "No Drilling in ANWR"?

The remarks show more ignorance about the Christian faith than anything else.  Dickinson is correct that Jesus never mentioned drilling in ANWR but the Scriptures are filled with God's call for us to be responsible stewards of creation and to be peacemakers. 

The risen Christ still speaks to us today as we attempt to discern God's will on contemporary issues through Scripture, reason and our own experiences. 

It would be wrong if the "Religious Left" turned Jesus into an instrument of partisan political warfare in the way that the Religious Right has done for the Republicans. 

But as far as I know no one in the progressive Christian has suggested such a thing. 

It isn't liberal or conservative to talk about fighting poverty, protecting the environment or ending wars.  All we are doing is articulating how we understand Jesus' teachings.  The Religious Right (which is a political movement more than a religious one) by and large argues against environment protections, supports U.S. military campaigns without questions, and argues in favor of economic policies that abandon the poor to market forces. 

Anyone who places emphasis on Jesus' teachings on the environment, poverty and peacemaking would seem to take Scripture more seriously than those who argue the Bible is simply a manual on sexual relations.   

Dickinson and his colleagues at Rolling Stone would better serve their readers if they spent more time studying Scripture instead of mocking those who attempt to faithfully follow the teachings of God.   

Read the comments on this post from Street Prophets


Oregon Evangelical Seminary Professor Writes About Environment And Politics

Paul Louis Metzger, a professor at the conservative evangelical Multnomah Biblical Seminary, writes today in The Oregonian:

Many younger evangelical Christians today -- especially those known as "emergents" -- are troubled by the reduction of their movement's moral vision to nothing but the issues of abortion and gay marriage. For these young people, a more expansive frame of reference is emerging, which among other things includes concern for the environment, particularly global warming.

These younger evangelicals reflect a wider trend in our culture. Harvard University's Institute of Politics recently released a poll that concludes that many college and university students today are religious centrists. They don't fit neatly into traditional political party classifications. The study contends that these religious centrists will likely be the most influential group in American politics for years to come. Republican and Democratic candidates alike risk losing out if they don't take these religious centrists seriously.

Religious centrists vote their morals, which include environmental stewardship. Politicians should not assume that championing traditionally conservative stances on abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage will attract the young evangelical vote. While some evangelical leaders have raised doubts about global warming and initiatives to reduce it -- even appealing to science in their arguments -- their young evangelical critics often wonder if such leaders actually care about the breadth of creation. For these critics, the question is not, "Does global warming exist?" The questions are, "What are the causes -- human, nonhuman or both -- and what are the long-term risks if global warming continues unabated?"

The environment - care of creative - ought to be an issue beyond partisan politics for Christians.  Even the conservative Southern Baptist press hailed Al Gore's recent movie - despite their political views.

Too bad the president, majority party in Congress and the political leaders of the Religious Right aren't getting the message.   


Dillard University: A New Orleans Resurrection Story

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Dillard University, the United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church related school destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, held commencement exercises yesterday back on their own campus. 

The Times-Picayune reports:

Standing on land that drowned under 6 feet of floodwater last August, 354 members of Dillard University's Class of 2006 returned to the Gentilly campus Saturday to receive their diplomas in the first ceremony there since Hurricane Katrina plowed through. 

They had fled the campus two days before Katrina struck, and they spent the fall semester on 200 campuses around the country before returning in January to temporary headquarters in the New Orleans Hilton. In recognition of their diaspora, the graduates marched down the Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks with pennant-like banners bearing the names of the schools where they had found temporary academic homes. The school names and colors differed, but each had this in common: the words "Thank You."

"They were very welcoming, but I'm glad to be back. I feel great," said a beaming Victoria Johnson, whose banner showed she had landed at Harold Washington College in Chicago.

As the graduates marched toward Kearny Hall on a muggy morning to the strains of the triumphal march from "Aida," they were surrounded by hordes of camera-clicking relatives and friends. Among them was Idalene Williams, who was waiting to spot her daughter, Jenna Marie Williams.

"I'm going to cry," she said. "I'm very excited. I'm blessed that all three of my children have graduated from college, especially Jenna, considering the temporary setback from Hurricane Katrina."

The Williams family lives in Omaha, Neb., and Jenna enrolled at the University of Nebraska campus there last fall.

"She was determined to come back to Dillard," her mother said. "This is so special because of the disruption that happened, yet almost all of the seniors came back because they were focused on getting their degrees -- not just from any university, but from Dillard University."

Bill Cosby was the commencement speaker.  "It's not the first time devastation ever hit, according to the Bible, according to history. Some of it is made by nature, and a great deal of it is made by human beings," Cosby said according to Reuters.  "Look at this event as you sit to leave as an important, prophetic event," he said. "This is God's garden, and you are in charge of it."

Everyone who watched the events of last summer knows of the heroism of those who fled New Orleans.  The students who graduated this weekend did so under enormous circumstances.  We can learn much from their perseverance. 

Let us continue to pray for the Gulf Region and do our part to both support the recovery and to be responsible stewards of God's earth.      

Related Link:  UCC Related-Dillard University Evacuates

Related Post:  Update On Dillard University

Related Post:  "Dillard University Announces Plans to Commence Classes as Early as January 2006"


An Inconvenient Truth

EarthafrOne of the critical moral and political questions facing Christians today is the care of creation (or the environment).  Mainline Christians and some conservative evangelicals have called on the United States and other world bodies to do more to stop global warming (use these links to see how the Christian community is addressing these critical concerns).  But is anyone listening to that message?  They might after seeing Al Gore's new film.  An Inconvenient Truth opens soon in selected theatres:

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we may be reaching a tipping point - and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life - convinced that there is still time to make a difference.

How important is this film?  Big oil (friends of GWB) is running television advertising attacking the claims made in the film.  They reject that global warm is caused by human actions.  Scientist disagree and Gore's film provides a platform for their voice to be heard.

This is a film everyone should see.

Check out the film's blog for more.


Earth Day 2006

Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day.  This Sunday congregations across the nation will mark the occasion with special worship services and prayers.  We are the stewards of God's gift of creation.  The National Council of Churches USA reports:

Earth Day Sunday is being celebrated across the nation in more than two thousand congregations this weekend.  Nearly 2,500 worship resource materials, entitled Through the Eye of a Hurricane: Rebuilding Just Communities, were downloaded or mailed by the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches USA. [www.nccecojustice.org] "While the 2006 [Earth Day Sunday] resource describes the devastation of the Gulf Coast region in particular, the issues raised of environmental justice and racism, toxics, and consumer lifestyles poses a challenge to people of faith around the world," says the resource. "It is critical that we do all that we can to keep the victims and survivors of the hurricanes in the hearts and minds of Americans and others around the world," said Cassandra Carmichael, NCC Director of Eco-Justice Programs. Congregations were encouraged to use this resource to re-energize ongoing hurricane relief efforts by planning a special worship service, study groups, a day of action, a fund drive for hurricane survivors or any event that resonates with congregants and the church's mission.  Typically congregations have observed Earth Day on the Sunday closest to April 22.

Click here for more.

For examples on how congregations can get involved with this issue on a local level checkout the website of the Oregon Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns

Related Post:  "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action"

Related Post: God's Mandate: Care for Creation