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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(This experience followed my writing about "Why are Christians so silent on Climate change" and the discussion that followed. The original post has the reasoning, this post is about the subsequent experience. See also UPDATE at the end) I posted in a Christian on-line forum the question: “Why is there so little Christian voice on this”, referring to Climate change. While I expected there would be a range of opinions I was not expecting the hard line skeptic views. Perhaps that was naive of me, but nonetheless, it caught me by surprise, and I felt I needed to write this simply as therapy. As a Christian I expected that everyone would be equally concerned about societies actions which are contributing to the suffering of others, especially where there is multi-generational consequence. There are, of course, many ways society hurts others - systemic evils - many of which are implicitly endorsed by Christians through their apathy. However, climate change seemed to particularly be a touchstone for passionate reaction. The responses in the forum generally fell into one of three categories; an individual commenting on their lifestyle choices to indicate their personal caring for the environment, a politicization of the issue implying hidden and not-so-hidden agendas on the parts of governments, the use of very simplistic theology to say climate change is not something to be concerned about, or else straight out denial that climate change is of any concern. The denial responses were perhaps the most vocal, even to the extent of suggesting fraud on the part of the scientific community, that it was all a hoax (for unspecified purposes), or that it was a tool of Satan to delude people (to what end was unclear). Comments included the suggestion that man is unable to damage God's creation, that God is fully in control of it all, and that our primary purpose is in any case to save people from hell so we should not worry about climate change. Even young earth creationism and anti-evolution remarks crept in to the accumulation of responses. I confess that much of this caused me varying degrees of face-palm moments! I struggle to see how people partition their lives and say climate change is not an issue because of other Christian responsibilities. Denial of climate change I can almost understand, although even there I see an unwillingness to face up to facts. Yet, the partitioning of responsibilities is one of the most concerning aspects. 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. I tried to be objective in the discussions, but I'm not so sure I succeeded. Yet my concern for society's response to climate change, and for Christians to be vocal on this front because it contributes to suffering around the globe, seems to be taken by some as indicative that I have not focused on more essential Christian living, and by some that I am deluded by Satan. I'm left with two thoughts. First that it is very difficult for Christians with diametrically and strongly held opposing views to objectively discuss matters -- the retreat into unreasoned theology should not be a defense, and I suspect no ground can be made without extensive face-to-face time. For example, this morning I was discussing with some people the difficulties around the use of climate information and the consequent coupled ethical-epistemic problems: that is, the ethics which steer one's actions are often in conflict with those of other people, and that one's epistemology often needs careful and frequent re-examination. It took time and much discussion, and left some quite disturbed, which I think is a good thing (http://jcs.biologist...21/11/1771.full) Second, the forum comments have made me re-examine the reasons for which I hold climate change as an important Christian concern. I live in Africa, was raised in Africa, and through working with the development, policy and decision making sectors I see how closely coupled the vulnerability of the poor is with the vagaries of climate and the observed changes of recent decades. This, and that climate change is multi-generational, is a strong motivator that as a Christian I need to be vocal about what society is doing.
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Why?
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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