GIPL in the News: Shining Light Into Dark Places
Hannukah has begun for our Jewish brothers and sisters, as has Advent for our Christian ones. And Mawlid al-Nabi, the observation of Muhammad's birth, is coming soon for our Muslim brothers and sisters. All of these holy days, in their own way, remind us that light comes into dark places.
- Photo credit: Emma Cassidy, Survival Media Agency
That's helpful to remember as we look to Paris and the climate talks, wondering how much world leaders can accomplish. It is also important to remember as we continue to see entrenched forces determined to deny the reality of climate change and/or argue that we cannot really do anything about our changing environment and so we should focus on other things. Yet light shows best against a dark backdrop, and these shortening days are a good time to look for light.
- In his November 16 article in Forbes Magazine, GIPL friend and UGA Professor of Atmospheric Science Dr. Marshall Shepherd gave us a very nice shout-out in his article, "How Pope Francis is Changing the Climate Conversation." You can see his article here, but let me steal Dr. Shepherd's thunder by summarizing: studies show that more and more people are concerned about climate change and there are good reasons to think that people of faith (particularly Pope Francis) are the cause of that growing concern. The light is growing and GIPL is one of the sources feeding it.
- In their November, 2015 national report for New America, "Spreading the Gospel of Climate Change: An Evangelical Battleground," researchers Lydia Bean and Steve Teles explore some of the political reasons that the environmental movement has not caught on in Christian evangelical circles like in other faith communities. While focusing on the failures of some evangelical environmental organizations to do enough grassroots organizing or anticipate the political backlash from some prominent (and well-funded) evangelical leaders, this article notes that some faith-based organizations have been more successful at working with evangelicals on climate change by dealing with them at immediate and local levels, especially on issues of shared concern. GIPL features prominently among those successful faith-based organizations. The report ends hopefully, recognizing that,
"[t]he original instinct that there is an untapped potential for environmental activism in the world of evangelical Christianity is certainly the case. While the most visible evangelical leaders, who have deep partisan commitments, are unlikely to join the cause, the movement is much larger and more diverse than its most notorious standard-bearers."
One source of that hope? GIPL's demonstrated success. Again: the light is growing and GIPL is one of those sources feeding it.
There are even strange signs of the growing light:
- Marita Noon, who writes books on Christian living while working for Energy Makes America Great, a fossil-fuel funded advocacy group, published a November 27 editorial responding to the New America report in which she accuses GIPL of "smuggling" climate policy into evangelical churches. She claims that GIPL first entices evangelicals with offers to help them save money and operate in more sustainable ways and then, seemingly, tricks their ministers into writing letters to the Georgia legislature opposing building new coal plants in the state. We at GIPL have more respect for evangelical leaders, apparently, than Noon does. We not only didn't trick them into writing such letters (unless what counts as trickery is presenting scientific consensus on air pollution and highlighting costs like heavy metal contamination to local areas caused by coal burning counts). We don't think that evangelical pastors are nearly so gullible as Noon supposes. Heck, some of us at GIPL are evangelical Christians! "Where, though, is the light in all this?" some of you may be asking. Our answer: Noon's editorial, which you can see here, appeared in The Current-Argus, a Gannett newspaper for part of New Mexico! That's right: GIPL's influence is apparently so great that we have the fossil fuel industry in New Mexico worried. There's definitely light in that!
One of the primary concerns with the climate talks in Paris is that participating countries' pledges are voluntary. No organization has been empowered to enforce them and those pledges are, therefore, viewed as weak by some. Religious voices might remind onlookers that "voluntary" doesn't equal "weak." In much of the world, religious engagement is voluntary and yet religious organizations do an immense amount of good in the world on voluntary bases. What religious voices remind us is that voluntary actions, when joined to deep and sustained levels of commitment can do great good. And, to judge from this article in The Guardian, that seems to be exactly what religious groups are now doing.Is GIPL shining? The press we're getting suggests that we are. But we are shining only because so many persons of faith in so many parts of the world are doing so. We're just fortunate to be among those organizations that can shine because so many of those people are supporting us. So as we enter into this holiday season, we wish everyone happy holidays and encourage all of us to shine on!Dr. Mark Douglas is Chair of the Board of GIPL, and Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary
We can't do this work without your support. Donate here to help GIPL continue to be a light for Creation!