The Tipping Point of Faith and Climate Change

The Tipping Point of Faith and Climate Change
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

In recent years, our nation’s scientists have issued increasingly stark warnings about the risk that the excessive use of fossil fuels poses to us all. Numerous polls show that the American public now wants strong U.S. action on global warming, but several arms of our government remain dangerously intractable on the issue.

This week’s publication of a new federal report on climate change provides even further scientific confirmation of the scale of the challenge we face. Temperatures rise, storms are more destructive, droughts and wildfires are more common. No U.S. state is unaffected, but many are considerably more at risk than others. If we don’t do more today to address this crisis, including marshaling our water resources and reducing our emissions, these American scientists say we could reach an irreversible tipping point akin to their worst-case scenarios.

Coming months after the United States withdrew from a global agreement that sought to halt this trend - and just weeks after the Administration announced new plans to expand oil, gas and coal exploration in the U.S., this report provides a salutary moment for reflection about where we are now as a nation with respect to the climate crisis, where we need to go next and how fast we need to get there.

We seem to be at a crossroads in our country’s understanding of and response to the perils that lie ahead, more imminent than we care to believe. Where do we in the faith community stand amid all this?

The undeniable power of religious faith to galvanize people around a moral call was in evidence on the day of the People’s Climate March this past April in Washington. I had come from New York to lead CWS’s interfaith climate vigil on the steps of the United Methodist Building, and then march with the faith community down the mall. There were thousands of us, representing many religions and denominations. Months of behind-the-scenes organizing between various faith led groups led to coordinated action and messaging. Our banners and chants were unified and unequivocal: climate change is a moral and ethical issue, inextricably linked to social justice. Most at risk are the poor around the world who have not caused the problem and are least likely to benefit from market-driven solutions. As believers, we were unanimously called to care for them – the most vulnerable - and to build bonds of solidarity and community that would protect us all and preserve God’s planet. The energy of the day was palpable.

Not palpable enough, though, to shift U.S. climate policy, currently being reversed. Nor strong enough either to allay scientific concerns that we may not change our actions quickly enough to avert greater harm to the planet and ourselves.

Faith communities have always been at the forefront of incredible social, political and cultural change. We can do so again. The global climate and humanitarian crises we now face require us all to make a clarion call in favor of the common good. I believe we are up to the task, and have begun what will necessarily be a long journey. But to face this challenging political environment, we must be bolder, more ambitious and persistent. We must actively aim to win over hearts and minds. It is incumbent upon us in the faith community to understand - and therefore communicate to our congregations and others of good conscience - the urgency of the times. Our actions must be guided not only by a theology of God’s love, justice and mercy, but also one that is prophetic, hopeful and determined.

The Rev. John L. McCullough is President and CEO of Church World Service, a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster. Learn more about the work of CWS and get involved at cwsglobal.org.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot