The Climate Gospel

[Valin]

Juicy Ecumenism:

Matthew Maule

Mar. 26 2015

 

he Episcopal Church, and especially Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, are currently focusing on global climate change and on condemning those who would question the science behind the doomsday claims. Bishop Jefferts Schori recently gave an interview with the Guardian on the subject of global climate change and gave the keynote address at the Climate Change Crisis forum at Campbell Hall Episcopal School in California. This forum was the kickoff for the Episcopal Church’s “30 Days of Action,” culminating on Earth Day, which will involve “a range of activities developed by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society… for individuals and congregations to understand the environmental crisis.” One of the Episcopal Church’s “Five Marks of Mission,” which purports both to explain the mission of the church and the mission of Christ, is “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”

 

In her interview with the Guardian, Jefferts Schori compared to the climate change movement was “much like the civil rights movement,” and that “It is certainly a moral issue.” She also asserted that there is consensus on global climate change and that “to deny the best of current knowledge is not using the gifts God has given you, in that sense, yes, it could be understood as a moral issue.” Jefferts Schori noted that the evangelical community is also beginning to address the issue of climate change particularly because of its effects on the poor. In her keynote address, Jefferts Schori alluded to “Eucharistic Prayer C” – often mocked as the “Star Wars prayer” – which references “this fragile earth, our island home,” saying that, though Episcopalians have been praying it for over forty years, some people are only now seeing the problem of global climate change. She then went on to recite a litany of actions that cause climate change and the catastrophic effects of those actions.

 

The forum was moderated by climatologist Fritz Coleman of KNBC 4 television news. The first panel included Dr. Lucy Jones, a seismologist, and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, former executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee – an indigenous non-profit group in Alaska that focusses on the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Dr. Jones focused on the increase in the frequency and severity of extreme events like earthquakes, hurricanes, and flooding. While she supported the call to change actions allegedly causing climate change, she also stressed the importance of preparedness. Disturbingly, she returned again and again to the idea of population control. She argued that without suitable population control, humans would overwhelm the earth. She asserted that the education of women was the best source of birth control and that, without it, population would continue to spiral out of control. Dr. Jones also argued that focusing on the problem of global climate change is especially difficult for Americans due to our individualism, our inability to see (or care) that our actions effect those around us.

 

(Snip)

 

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