Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Deepening the Connection Between Ecology and Faith

Reverend Sally Bingham
March 11, 2007
Palo Alto, CA

Good morning: thank you John for inviting me here today. And thank you to all of you for being here. I bring greeting from the Dean and Chapter of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and invite you to visit us there some time.

You heard John mention that he thinks there may be hope on the horizon when a country priest from Arizona and the Jehovah Witnesses have awakened to the fact that ecology is an issue of faith. That is a perfect entry point for me and is the subject of my sermon this morning. I, too have hope and while John AND the Jehovah Witnesses are good news, I didn’t know about them until this morning. I am very hopeful, too, but for different reasons.

I have been an Episcopal priest for ten years and during those years I have stayed almost entirely focused on one thing: helping people of faith understand our responsibility to care for each other which means caring for our environment. We have to have a healthy environment if we are going to survive as a species AND, as is becoming increasingly clear, if we are going to have a healthy economy we must have a healthy environment, too. For our society to be stable, we need three strong pillars for support. One is the economy, one is social/political stability and the third is a healthy environment. They share the weight equally, so if any one of those pillars collapse, the entire structure will fall. And right now, one of those pillars is on the verge of collapse.

I think you know which one and the threat to our environment is largely due to an unhealthy reliance on fossil fuel for energy in this country and around the world. We are overly dependant on coal, oil and gas for our electricity, our transportation and our heating and cooling. The burning of these fuels is upsetting the balance of nature; the balance that God set into place in the beginning. Scientists agree that humans are the most influential cause of the warming climate. We are witnessing the rise in temperature due to the rise in carbon dioxide that traps gasses from leaving the atmosphere. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is by far the highest in 650,000 years.

Now that it has become clear that this is a human induced problem, it is also becoming clear that humans have the ability and, I add, the responsibility to try and find solutions to the problem.

In many respects when we talk about global warming, it is not just the climate that is rapidly changing, but the attitude towards dealing with it is changing too. It is both good and bad news. They can both be expressed by one sentence. THE ICE IS MELTING, On the bad news, the ice is melting even faster than the scientist predicted just a few years ago. On the good news, the ice is melting in Washington DC and there is evidence that federal legislation that will regulate GHG will pass in 2007. After years of politicians refusing to take action on cutting Green House Gas emissions that are causing the planet to warm, there is a positive shift of conventional wisdom. The recent release of the IPCCI report has even the most skeptical of the skeptics changing their minds. It is my prediction that help is on the way. It is one of my reasons for hope. I see the human potential being realized. We can admit our mistakes, reconcile with them and with each other and get on with solving the problem. Now let me back up and explain, both my concern, but more importantly where my hope comes from.

I used to be enormously concerned that clergy were not addressing stewardship of Creation from the pulpit, so once I was ordained, I decided this was my vocation. I care passionately about the health and welfare of plants and animals. The interconnectedness and DEPENDENCE of humans on others species for survival means, we are part of the environment. The environment is not something out there, the environment is here. This room, the air in here, the electricity being used. You and your neighbors are the environment. Collectively we make up the web of life intimately connected to one another. The more crowded the world becomes, the more important it is for us to realize the effect that our behavior has on the system of life that we religious people call the Creation.

Ten years ago there were very few of us talking about saving creation from the pulpit. I couldn’t understand the lack of concern and decided I was this was my calling and I would have to find a way to convince people of faith that we are the stewards of creation. I started by quoting Scripture, things like “loving your neighbor as you love yourself”. You don’t pollute your neighbors air or water because not only is that not showing love of neighbor, it is an insult to God. I reminded folks that God put Adam in the garden to “til and to keep”. I found ways to connect care for the natural world to every Gospel lesson I preached about. I asked people to listen and hear scientists as if there are the modern day prophets. There was lots of skepticism a few years ago and I had to be so careful about how I worded any discussion on the issue of global warming. But I did beg people not to wait until they were feeling the effects of global warming because then it would probably be too late. People are by nature skeptical and many have waited for the proof.

Over the last ten years the proof has come in. 19 of the last 20 years are the warmest on record with 2005/6 being the hottest. We are watching the permafrost melting, glaciers breaking off, polar bears drowning, snow disappearing from mountaintops like Kilimanjaro. And four weeks ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that I mentioned before came out with proof from 2000 scientist from 100 countries with a single voice blaming humans for global warming.

Another reason for hope and a why I see change on the horizon is that finally enough people seem to be aware of the problem. Enough nations are stepping up to make change happen. The best news of all though is that finally the US is joining in. It looks very likely that we may save ourselves and the planet from catastrophic changes in weather patterns and life styles.

I am truly standing before you with more hope, now that I have had … ever. This is the most important moral problem of our time and I believe that we are on our way to solving it. The political will is being heard and state-by-state, beginning in CA in 2005 but now all over the country, laws are being made to restrict carbon dioxide from reaching too high a level in the atmosphere.

Remember when the tobacco industry told us that smoking wasn’t harmful to our health, or the auto industry said, seat belts won’t make any difference or a hundred years ago when we were told that slavery was good for the economy. These were moral issues that our country addressed and did something about. And today, Global warming is the equivalent issue. To ignore its effects compromises what it means to be human.

Besides the political will, each of us has a role in finding the solutions and increasingly I see people making changes. From the time that Rachael Carson in the 1960’s asked “who among us is not diminished as a human being if we continue on our present course?” I am asking the same question today. There will be suffering and loss of life in many major cities worldwide when sea levels rise. The loss of hundreds if not thousands of species as habitats are totally changed with the three degrees of warming that will occur by 2040. But changes are all around us. And it’s not sacrifice, its simply not wasting. It’s driving fuel-efficient cars, turning of lights you don’t need and appliances not in use. Little things that give you a sense of giving back to the planet and your fellow human traveler. We must stay in communion with all of life.

If you are wondering about the relevance of climate change to faith, the answer is that how we behave as human beings matters. How we treat each other is a moral value. This is a religious issue because how we behave towards each other matters to God. Each of us matters and our behavior matters. We are called to serve God and one another. That is what loving one’s neighbor means. It is not an act of love if we waste water, electricity or anything because what we waste could be beneficial to someone else or in many cases, our waste harms someone else. If we did nothing else, stopping the waste would solve a portion of the warming trend. This is THE moral issue of our time. It will affect everything and all of life and it will define the future.

People of faith have a responsibility to live fully into the human potential. That means being the best we can be and moving towards God: getting closer and closer throughout our journey until we are actually walking with God at our side. Everything changes when that happens.

Think of the night sky and the vastness of the universe. Abide in me as I abide in you. Doesn’t that take on new meaning in light of the vastness of all that God created? We have potential far beyond our understanding. When we find ourselves in strange undiscovered waters or standing in the center of uncertainty, as we are today, look for God and walk with God beside you. We can do amazing things and accomplish so much. We can love beyond ourselves and our small world. Recognizing the full glory of God gives us huge opportunity and optimism. Civil rights have been and are being addressed, we got lead that poisons the minds of children out of gasoline. We have removed the bald eagle from the endangered species list. We have conquered diseases and flown people to the moon. We have new and spectacular technology to address our carbon emissions. We just need to use them.

When the moral aspect of slavery reached the religious community, immediately we changed the coarse of a culture. We can do it again and we are.

There is real hope on the horizon. Look around you when you drive and notice the hundreds of fuel efficient cars on the streets. Notice the solar on roofs, Notice that several large companies, oil and otherwise, are cutting carbon emissions, implementing green practices AND making profits.

Religious institutions are the moral voice of society and we need to address this issue from a faith perspective and take a leadership role. And, you know, it really doesn’t matter whether the planet is warming or not. God called us to be stewards of the earth. It is our moral responsibility. It is an obligation for us to care for Creation and every mainstream religion has that mandate. It is highly unlikely that the scientist are wrong, but if they were what could be wrong with reducing pollution, saving money and creating jobs with the creation of clean energy. We could have another industrial revolution, but this time with clean fuel, clean cars, energy efficient appliances.

Do you think we can love nature again? Can we open our hearts to the wonder and life-giving source that lies there? There was a time when we were so acutely aware of nature. The days when we lived on the land and were dependent on routine weather and loyal seasons for crops. We understood much better than today, how important clean air and water are for our health. We could drink water from streams and walk in the woods for silence and solitude and, very often, emotional healing. Nature is good for one’s health. It is in our own best interest to protect our natural resources. Without them the other pressing issues of today will seem insignificant.

There are a great many thing to consider when you wonder … what can I do?

You can put in compact florescent light bulbs, energy efficient appliances, drive a fuel-efficient car and where possible purchase green energy. Conservation is crucial and every one of us can turn off what we are not using. But the single most important thing we can do at this point in time is call, write, email or fax your representative in the house and Senate and say that you’d like to see him or her support reductions in Green House Gas emissions. Many of the bills in Congress now are calling for caps on GHG and you want your representative to support the most stringent law, because while all the little things are important and each person and behavior matters, caps on GHG at the federal level will have the most healing effect and bring us to the point that we maybe able to stabilize the climate and reverse the warming trend.

I know things are changing for the better and you will be a part of that. Make a commitment today to become aware of how your behavior affects your neighbor. Walk with God and you can make the adjustments in your life that we must make in order to save this fragile earth, our island home. We are all in this together, one family with a shared purpose. One body, one spirit, one hope in God’s call to us.

 

Reflection by Rev. John Beverly Butcher