c. 1999 Religion News Service
DEWITT, Mich. _ Does God care about global warming?
It’s a question increasingly raised by religious activists across the nation. Here, more than 70 people representing 19 faiths gathered at a Roman Catholic retreat center recently answered that question with a resounding”yes”as they plotted strategy for what they hope becomes the civil rights movement of the 21st century.
Liberal and conservative Jews, Roman Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians sought to undergird what they see as a scientific consensus on global warming with a moral one.”We don’t agree on lots of things, but on this one we sure do,”said the Rev. Richard Killmer, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) minister and environmental justice director for the National Council of Churches.”What brings us together is an absolute commitment that people of faith have a responsibility to protect and restore God’s creation.” Global warming refers to emissions from burning fossil fuels _ oil, coal, gasoline _ to power cars, factories, utilities. These greenhouse gases trap heat, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise.
There is no doubt that average global temperatures are rising, said Bob Huggett, vice president for research at Michigan State University.”The debate now is whether this warming we’re having is due to human activity. The vast majority of scientists believe it is.” The consequences of global warming _ sometimes called climate change _ are hotly debated. The concerns include severe weather, the spread of disease, habitat destruction, flooding, increased poverty and hunger.
Even faith communities unaware of global warming care about hunger, refugees, poverty, human health and jobs, said Paz Artaza-Regan, national director of the United Methodist Church’s environmental justice programs.”If they care about these things, they’d better care about climate change.” Scientists and environmentalists can argue the economics and science of the issue, said Michael Sklar, a Jewish resident of Ann Arbor and one of those attending the meeting.”The people in faith-based communities bring to the discussion a more important question: `What is the right thing to do?'” Frederick Linsell, from Traverse City and a member of the United Methodist Church, said his line of thinking on the environment starts with the peace issue.”Global warming has a big economic impact, and I think economic survival has a lot to do with nations raising hell with each other,”Linsell said.
A scientist, an economist and a theologian spoke at the retreat. Information on dealing with the media, creating global warming Bible study groups, and making churches and temples energy-efficient was distributed.
The effort was the result of a coalition of four national religious networks. A similar event _ the first of its kind _ was held in Ohio last year; others are slated this year in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Iowa. Organizers said it is part of a yearlong interfaith campaign designed to develop support for international treaties such as the Kyoto (Japan) Protocol that would limit greenhouse emissions.
Religious leaders last year testified before the Ohio Legislature against a resolution opposing the 1997 Kyoto treaty, Killmer said. The treaty, backed by President Clinton but as yet not ratified by the Senate, requires the United States and other heavily industrialized countries to restrict greenhouse emissions.
Michigan religious officials recently sought to testify against a similar resolution in Michigan, but were told there wasn’t time, said the Rev. Steven Johns-Boehme, director of the Michigan Ecumenical Forum, a coalition of churches. Instead, the committee debated the merits of a license plate to finance the cleanup of road kill.”They stiffed me royally,”said Johns-Boehme.
But the committee did hear the testimony of the Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan, which believes the Kyoto cuts are too drastic, too costly and unnecessary. The cuts also are unfair because they don’t apply to China, India, Brazil and Mexico, said John Griffin, the API’s director.
The faith-based counter to that argument is that the United States is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gases, Johns-Boehme said.”From a Christian perspective, we’ve got to get the beam out of our own eye before we take the splinter out of our neighbor’s,” he said.
The anti-Kyoto resolution passed the Michigan House, and a similar measure is expected to be taken up by the Senate in the fall.
So how effective is a political force that can’t be heard over road kill legislation?”We are called upon to be faithful, not necessarily successful,”said Killmer, commenting on the failure to sway lawmakers in either Michigan or Ohio.
Indeed, that faith is a key to political power and one used effectively in the civil rights struggle, said the Rev. Lynn Jondahl, a minister with the United Church of Christ and a former lawmaker who unsuccessfully ran for governor.”To make progress, there has to be those who hold us to a high standard of faithfulness,”he said.”Then let those who are the strategists worry about success.”
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