The intersection of faith and climate
Faith and the environmental crisis do indeed intersect, or at least should intersect. Sadly, comparatively few faith leaders seek to address environmental issues, despite humans clearly being tasked by God as being caretakers of the planet.
I recently watched the Hook Lecture for 2021 by Dr. Carmody Grey, which addressed the intersection of faith and climate. It's fairly long, but worth the watch, even if you have to watch it in bits.
This lecture made me really think. Dr. Grey posed the question "What is it that we want to sustain?" which is a fundamental question that all too often gets ignored.
It's true that if no-one actually talks about what it is we are sustaining, we won't all be rowing the boat in the same direction.
Her answer to this question was humanity itself, which made sense to me. Yet I can see how some people would not have given this answer. Some people are wishing to sustain the status quo above everything else, while others are seeking to sustain economic growth above all. Both of these are incompatible with sustaining humanity itself at this juncture - the planet will heat up far too much and become unable to sustain human life.
Dr. Grey also gave the example of World War II. With that, everyone agreed what it was that they wanted to sustain (what their country, England, stood for). The things we look at on Remembrance Day, she pointed out, that is what it looks like to want to sustain something.
At times it is hard to have hope for the climate crisis, and for me this is not because of the climate crisis per se, but rather our inability to agree upon what needs to be done for the climate crisis. Merely glancing at COP26 shows that we agree there is a problem but we can't agree what to do to solve it.
Indeed, Dr. Grey points out that the issue is not a lack of data - we have a lot of data. Rather, the issue is the motivation of this data. She says that humans are not like robots, that we need some sort of emotional connection to the data in order to act upon it. So more data will not help.
Yet, I reflected, in any situation, no matter how difficult or seemingly hopeless, we can and indeed should call on God for guidance. In the Bible, there are many examples of when when people were truly seeking God and truly trying to make changes, that God listened to them. Likewise, God did not punish the next generation for the sins of a previous generation; see the words of the prophet Ezekiel below:
Yet you say, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?” When the son has done what is lawful and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The person who sins shall die. A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own.
Ezekiel 18: 19-21
There were certainly consequences if a sin happened where multiple generations were together, for example in the exodus from Egypt. In that situation, the younger generation wound up walking in the wilderness longer than was originally planned, but they did get to the promised land - but only after the older generation who had sinned against God had died, as shown in the passage below:
When the Lord heard your words, he was wrathful and swore: “Not one of these—not one of this evil generation—shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his descendants I will give the land on which he set foot, because of his complete fidelity to the Lord.” Even with me the Lord was angry on your account, saying, “You also shall not enter there. Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, shall enter there; encourage him, for he is the one who will secure Israel’s possession of it. And as for your little ones, who you thought would become booty, your children, who today do not yet know right from wrong, they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it. But as for you, journey back into the wilderness, in the direction of the Red Sea.”
Deuteronomy 1: 34 - 40
As yet another example of God listening to people who are seeking Him, God would not have destroyed Sodom if there had been some people there who were seeking Him:
Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”
Genesis 18: 23-32
Can we as a species, by seeking Him and praying, gain wisdom and discernment for how to proceed with solutions to the climate crisis? I think we certainly could, based on all the examples I mentioned from the Bible.
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