ZZZZZ…
Here’s something interesting and by “interesting,” I mean boring. Three heads of some ecclesial entities that don’t matter in the slightest to much of anybody anywhere have issued a Really Important StatementTM on the environment. I wonder what it’s going to say. Let’s take a look:
The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) meet in Washington, DC this Easter season to celebrate our commitment to hope in the face of climate change.
Well that sucks. In the last year and a half, I’ve learned more about despair than most of you will discover in your entire lifetimes. Not to brag or anything but I do more existential angst before 9:00 AM than most people do all day.
As Christians, we do not live in the despair and melancholy of the tomb, but in the light of the Risen Christ. Our resurrection hope is grounded in the promise of renewal and restoration for all of God’s Creation, which gives us energy, strength and perseverance in the face of overwhelming challenge.
Some wiseass blogger might make fun of us, for example. But we’re ready to face even that terrible ordeal sinceWE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!
We must be clear: the scientific data is stark, as even today we experience the effects of climate change with catastrophic floods, lengthy droughts and historic rainfalls. Scientific research shows that climate change affects nearly all aspects of life. This includes the world’s food security and humanity’s ability to grow crops to feed a growing world population. Likewise, biodiversity is being destroyed and ecosystems undermined in many parts of the world as species become extinct. Water will continue to become scarcer, causing regional conflicts. Indigenous people will be forced to leave their traditional lives, as the poorest among us will bear the greatest burdens of the changing climate.
We’re not blaming anybody, mind you.
Our goal as Christians is not to ascribe blame but rather to examine our own actions and how they relate to God’s will for us and for the created order, and to challenge our communities to a new way of being.
Ah, who are we kidding? Of course it’s all the fault of the United States.
We are painfully aware that those of us living in the northern hemisphere are responsible historically for the majority of greenhouse-gas emissions, the major contributor to climate change.
So we’re going to do what we usually do. Pretend to repent.
We confess that, even as God has entrusted the care of the world to human hands, we have treated this sacred trust as a license to consume rather than build up, to reap rather than to sow.
We confess that we have placed the interests of our own comfort and lifestyle before the good of creation and the wellbeing of others, particularly the most vulnerable among us.
We confess our own indifference to the wellbeing of the countless future generations who will bear the brunt of the choices we make today.
For these things and all else we have done to contribute to the desecration of the world God so loves, we repent and ask forgiveness.
As you may remember, “we,” in LibProt jargon, actually means “you.” Cold day in hell before we give up our barns and worship anywhere we can find the space as if we were common Protestants or something.
At the same time, we draw hope – and a grounding for amendment of our own lives – in the growing body of evidence that a transition to a low-carbon society is both feasible and economical, and may help foster a good life.
Sell your car and your house, move your family into an apartment, depend on public transportation to get to school, work or to the market and we’ll see how it goes.
Specifically, we commit to:
1) Advocate for national and international policies and regulations that enable a swift transition from dependence on fossil fuels to clean, safe, renewable energy, and for economic systems that are fair and just.
ANNNNNNNNNND there it is. I guess that’s the good thing about leading ecclesial entities like these. Since nobody anywhere gives a damn what you say or do, you can advocate the stupidest crap in the world.
The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) meet in Washington, DC this Easter season to celebrate our commitment to hope in the face of climate change.
Well that sucks. In the last year and a half, I’ve learned more about despair than most of you will discover in your entire lifetimes. Not to brag or anything but I do more existential angst before 9:00 AM than most people do all day.
As Christians, we do not live in the despair and melancholy of the tomb, but in the light of the Risen Christ. Our resurrection hope is grounded in the promise of renewal and restoration for all of God’s Creation, which gives us energy, strength and perseverance in the face of overwhelming challenge.
Some wiseass blogger might make fun of us, for example. But we’re ready to face even that terrible ordeal sinceWE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!
We must be clear: the scientific data is stark, as even today we experience the effects of climate change with catastrophic floods, lengthy droughts and historic rainfalls. Scientific research shows that climate change affects nearly all aspects of life. This includes the world’s food security and humanity’s ability to grow crops to feed a growing world population. Likewise, biodiversity is being destroyed and ecosystems undermined in many parts of the world as species become extinct. Water will continue to become scarcer, causing regional conflicts. Indigenous people will be forced to leave their traditional lives, as the poorest among us will bear the greatest burdens of the changing climate.
We’re not blaming anybody, mind you.
Our goal as Christians is not to ascribe blame but rather to examine our own actions and how they relate to God’s will for us and for the created order, and to challenge our communities to a new way of being.
Ah, who are we kidding? Of course it’s all the fault of the United States.
We are painfully aware that those of us living in the northern hemisphere are responsible historically for the majority of greenhouse-gas emissions, the major contributor to climate change.
So we’re going to do what we usually do. Pretend to repent.
We confess that, even as God has entrusted the care of the world to human hands, we have treated this sacred trust as a license to consume rather than build up, to reap rather than to sow.
We confess that we have placed the interests of our own comfort and lifestyle before the good of creation and the wellbeing of others, particularly the most vulnerable among us.
We confess our own indifference to the wellbeing of the countless future generations who will bear the brunt of the choices we make today.
For these things and all else we have done to contribute to the desecration of the world God so loves, we repent and ask forgiveness.
As you may remember, “we,” in LibProt jargon, actually means “you.” Cold day in hell before we give up our barns and worship anywhere we can find the space as if we were common Protestants or something.
At the same time, we draw hope – and a grounding for amendment of our own lives – in the growing body of evidence that a transition to a low-carbon society is both feasible and economical, and may help foster a good life.
Sell your car and your house, move your family into an apartment, depend on public transportation to get to school, work or to the market and we’ll see how it goes.
Specifically, we commit to:
1) Advocate for national and international policies and regulations that enable a swift transition from dependence on fossil fuels to clean, safe, renewable energy, and for economic systems that are fair and just.
ANNNNNNNNNND there it is. I guess that’s the good thing about leading ecclesial entities like these. Since nobody anywhere gives a damn what you say or do, you can advocate the stupidest crap in the world.
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