My prior post recounting my experience in a Christian online forum discussion about climate change, engendered the following response from one reader. This, I suggest, takes the discussion a pointed step further. "I am a single creature. I cannot say yes to God on one thing and then give lie to that by my actions on another – all aspects of my life should seek to reflect the same core relationship with God." The above point made in your post on Christian Climate change is crucial to being a believer. We can’t say we are Christ followers if we don’t seek to imitate Him and apply the Bible to our lives; as it is said “Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word of God.” If my doing anything causes another to suffer then I’m not getting my living right. How can I even live a day without adversely impacting anyone? If I use appliances that have parts that have been mined or manufactured by under-paid workers or workers employed in unsafe occupations? Think sulphur mined in India by workers without protective respiratory masks and used in cell phone manufacture, or clothing made of cotton from financially disadvantaged farmers due to trade barriers imposed by western/northern hemisphere monopolies. Or the cocoa stranglehold imposed on the growers by others who don’t even grow cocoa. Etc., etc …… think. Maybe we should be doing an Esther fast like Isaiah? (Esther 4; Isaiah 20) Let us remember that for all of us there is a good that He made us for. There are things we can all do. We need to love God and our neighbour…there is no argument about that for a Christ follower. But not caring about the devastations of forests that destroy the locals’ livelihoods, and pollute the atmosphere, and increase the CO2 levels, to the point that in some cities even a child can recognize the dangers and seek to avoid inhaling the pollution. In our zones of comfort and desire we seem to not practically care about the destruction of the miles and miles from open cast mining, or the damage from tar sands that destroy ecosystems simply to access ancient carbon to further feed our consumption. Living like this denies our faith. How can I say I love God and yet I don’t care about my brother? How can I not care that rivers have stopped following and that deserts are expanding? How can I not see and understand that the rain is falling harder in some places and withheld in others and causing drought, or where the wind is blowing harder and worsening runaway fires and sandstorms of a scale never before recorded? The scientists go to extreme measures to not exaggerate the changes in the global climate and fill their reports with caveats; yet the frequent record breaking weather events around the globe continue to be measured and recorded. Just what are the deniers trying to prove? Why are there so many saying that there is no need to do your small part and minimize our impact on this delicately balanced planet, and not contribute to the suffering of others? Why? And I would add: so then "work out your salvation in fear and trembling." (Phil 2:12)
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Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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