Climate Change

      My eye was caught at the fitness center by the TV tuned to that cable news channel I never turn on myself, describing over scenes of the NYC march against climate change, the guest referring to the people there as “wackadoodles.”  The people assembling for the UN climate conference were an incredible cross-section of global concern, and to dismiss them was insulting.  Since the week before I was at a meeting where one of my colleagues needed to leave early to moderate one of the panels of experts, I have first hand familiarity with some of the people involved.  She is the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance coordinator after Superstorm Sandy, helping the presbyteries of northern New Jersey, Long Island, and downstate New York.  PDA, like a lot of agencies, is shifting from recovery mode to “resilience” efforts.  That’s a shift to rebuilding to improved standards, using wetlands to absorb storm surges, providing barriers to flooding, providing evacuation and shelters.  It is also a shift to planning for “when” storms will cause havoc, not whether.  Interestingly to me, much of it is driven by insurance and economics.  At that level, the debate over climate change is irrelevant; those who look at the costs are assuming significant losses will occur based on rising sea levels.  There is no ideology in their calculations, just data.  I personally do not find the alliance of religious organizations, insurance companies, climate scientists, and persons who live in at-risk areas to be “wackadoodles.”

      It seems a prod in the ribs for the Exodus lesson this Sunday to be the tale of water from the rock at Massah and Meribah.  That was an age when people and societies were much closer to nature and felt a greater connection between nature and the divine.  We, in our time, are more insulated from the processes of nature… until something big happens.

      The root text is from Genesis 1:26, what has long been translated as humans having “dominion” over nature.  More recent translators prefer “stewardship” or “management” as being closer to the Hebrew than the haughty superiority suggested by “dominion.”  And, really, until the industrial revolution, it wasn’t that big a deal, predominately because humans really couldn’t do all that much to the planet.  Yes, poor agricultural practices caused problems, but with industrialization came large-scale landscape changes, lots more carbon emissions and pollution, and our hand upon the earth became heavier.

      Actually, from a faith perspective, we kind of are at fault.  By “we” I mean the northern European renaissance and the Reformation which are predominate theoretical drivers of the developed world.  Yep, the oldline mainlines like the Presbyterians and Congregationals.  Individualism, scientific process, the development of technologies, the shift from agrarian to industrial society, the glorification of profit, and the corporation, came along rapidly, literally changing the planet.  The Reformation added a sense of Godly approval to the domination of earth.  Extracting minerals and energy sources replaced the stewardship of the earth so crops could flourish.  Further, Protestantism encouraged “getting ahead” and personal wealth, especially in the circles inhabited by leaders of industry.  Being successful became a moral and theological good, unbridled by a sense of community welfare.  So the variant of Christianity among the successful classes in England, northern Europe, and the United States read that old word, “dominion,” and ran with it.

     So there are days when I believe, in addition to the social and scientific reorientation so clearly discussed, that we of the “successful” Protestant Church have some atonement to do, as well.  Our theology was too willingly co-opted to support poor (to downright dangerous) environmental practices, and it is necessary for us to repent and refocus and return to a right and sustainable stewardship or management of the planet God has placed us upon.  It’s not just a matter of marching, not just a matter of engineering, but a matter of spirituality.

      May God continue to teach us a wiser way!

                                                                        
                                                                            David


Texts For Sunday Worship:
       From the Hebrew Bible      Exodus 17:1-7
       From the Epistle                 Philippians 2:1-13
       From the Gospels               Matthew 21:23-32