Climate Change

Isn't this issue decided upon yet? Seriously. How can we still be so arrogant and senseless to think that the prohibition of one man being able to marry another man is more important than dealing with the fact that the world's rich- including Christians- are contributing to the killing tens of thousands of poor people every single day due to our insatiable consumption?

I'm not sorry for taking this time to rant, because the entire reason why I am in Burundi, surrounded by undignified poverty, is to help mitigate the effects of changing weather patterns and otherwise deteriorating environmental conditions, caused in large part by global warming. Last year in Burundi, thousands and thousands of people died of starvation when the country was struck by drought in the main producing regions. And so we prayed for rain. This year, we're getting rain: relentless rain that has so far destroyed 50-80% of the country's crops. Hundreds of people have died hunger-related deaths already, and the food shortage has only just begun. In the West, we have the resources to adapt, but here that is not the case. Thus, the poor majority are the ones who suffer the most when the rich minority can't curb their consumption.

The reason I rant is because Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry with widespread following, has written a formal letter to the National Evangelical Association attacking their recent stance, a stance which united tens of millions of (American) Christians in agreement that action to counter global warming must be taken soon, and that it's a major moral issue of our time. What follows is a statement from Dobson's letter, and a rebuttal posted on the blog of Jim Wallace, the leader of Sojourners, a major non-partisan movement founded on social justice for home and abroad.

Dobson:

"More importantly, we have observed that Cizik [of the NEA] and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."

He goes on to suggest, “he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.”

Wallis:

That is indeed the key criticism, and the foundation for the real debate. Is the fact that 30,000 children will die globally today, and everyday, from needless hunger and disease a great moral issue for evangelical Christians? How about the reality of 3 billion of God’s children living on less than $2 per day? And isn’t the still-widespread and needless poverty in our own country, the richest nation in the world, a moral scandal? What about pandemics like HIV/AIDS that wipe out whole generations and countries, or the sex trafficking of massive numbers of women and children? Should genocide in Darfur be a moral issue for Christians? And what about disastrous wars like Iraq? And then there is, of course, the issue that got Dobson and his allies so agitated. If the scientific consensus is right - climate change is real, is caused substantially by human activity, and could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths - then isn’t that also a great moral issue? Could global warming actually be alarming evidence of human tinkering with God’s creation?

Or, are the only really "great moral issues" those concerning abortion, gay marriage, and the teaching of sexual abstinence? I happen to believe that the sanctity of life, the health of marriages, and teaching sexual morality to our children are, indeed, among the great moral issues of our time. But I believe they are not the only great moral issues, and Dobson says they are.

And further,

A statement last year by the Evangelical Climate Initiative, signed by 86 national evangelical leaders, including 39 Christian college presidents, noted that “we are convinced that evangelicals must engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or humanity's responsibility to address it.”