I’ll save you The Tales of a Twentysomething Faith Healer (I’m actually writing a a book about it – follow updates here!), but long story short, turns out that saving the world isn’t quite as straightforward as it is in superhero movies.  Through years of traveling, gathering crowds at flea markets, and miscellaneous interesting encounters, I’ve gone through quite a few pivots on my journey of learning what it means to make a difference.  One such pivot was to put this blog into semi-retirement and devote more energy towards my singer-songwriter project.

However, two years ago I started to see something rather ominous on the horizon which I’ve realized I couldn’t fully articulate with my music. I started to wonder if there was, in fact, something I could yet contribute to the topic of saving the world. Coming from a conflict-averse Canadian Mennonite background, I’ve been procrastinating for years about saying something that might be considered controversial. But it feels to me like the situation has grown to such monstrous proportions that, out of respect for my mental well-being if nothing else, I’ve decided to bring my blog out of semi-retirement in order to articulate it.

So can we talk about climate change?

Now, statistically speaking, 20% of you rolled your eyes at the mention.  And if you’re a White Evangelical Protestant, actually, only 28% of you didn’t roll your eyes.

But that’s kinda why I think we need to talk about this.  Just for the record, I didn’t consider myself an environmentalist even just a few years ago.  Like, sure, trees and whales are nice, but as far as topics worth bringing blogs out of retirement for, it didn’t rank super high.

That is, of course, until the 2018 IPCC report came out.

A little background: the International Panel on Climate Change was created by the UN back in 1988, and reports on climate findings every four years.  The 2018 special report was created by 91 coordinating scientists and experts from 40 countries, who analyzed existing research and used 6000 scientific references in the report. 

Here’s the main thrust of the 2,000 pages of data: we have a deadline to get climate change figured out.  And it’s very soon.

Maybe you know this already, but since I’ve heard from more than a few folks who haven’t, I’m gonna run through the details.

According to the report, there’s a temperature threshold earth is approaching, which, if passed, will be irreversible.  That threshold is likely to be 2 degrees, upon which time we’ll see a lot of dramatic things.  Here’s a few definites: 99% of coral reefs die, sea levels rise 3 feet, extreme weather would be exacerbated especially in the Southern Hemisphere, and something like 1 in 8 plant/animal species will go extinct.

Right now, the planet is on track to see fisheries decreasing in catch by 1.5-3 million tonnes; giant populations of plants, insects and vertebrates losing over half their geographic range; 153 million people dying of air pollution alone this century; potentially whole regions of Africa, USA, Australia, Patagonia, and Asia uninhabitable by heat, desertification, and flooding.  Flooding would cause a number of American cities to be uninhabitable in the next 80 years: Miami Beach, New Orleans, Charleston, Virginia Beach, Atlantic City NJ, and large swaths of NYC – especially in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

And it’s not like we haven’t seen preludes to this already.  Whether it’s the disappearing glaciers or record-breaking fires in California and Australia due to drought or the fact that Indonesia is moving its capital away from Jakarta due to the fact that 95% of north Jakarta will be underwater in 30 years, it’s clear something’s up. We are currently on track to heat the world 3.1 degrees – more the double the safety threshold.

The question that’s haunted me is: how is it that nobody from the churches I grew up in seem aware this is even happening? Now that we’re talking about hothouse earth scenarios and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsing and Florida going underwater-type stuff, it would seem logical that a people commanded to steward the earth and care for the poor would be tremendously concerned about something that’s threatening the majority of humanity – especially the people we’re sending most of our missions groups and NGOs to!

Turns out there’s an interesting story behind the church and climate change, and I’m gonna share a little of what I’ve researched.

Of course, with gargantuan claims like “we might be ending the world” (which is not quite what scientists are saying but not too far off), it can be easy to write off as a liberal hoax. And it didn’t really help that An Inconvenient Truth was produced by Al Gore. But the politicization of climate change goes back further than that. From my research, I found that in the 80s and 90s, climate change wasn’t actually a partisan issue. Since Earth Day and Silent Spring helped introduce the idea, global warming was a growing concern among everyone – Evangelicals included. So what happened?

Around the year 2000 a number of conservative think tanks (CTTs) funded by Exxon and other gas companies started publishing books contradicting the general scientific community’s findings.  130 of the 141 books published since 1972 denying the seriousness of environmental problems were created by these CTTs.  For comparison, there were 928 scientific journals published between 1998 and 2002, and zero of these contradicted the idea that humans were to blame.

Evangelicals, of course, were already generally aligned with conservative politics due to the Moral Majority movement in the 80s. Which was long before global warming became partisan.

So correct me if I’m wrong, but to me it seems that climate change denial somehow crept into the church – not because “we’re not into pagan earth worship”, or “Jesus is coming soon anyway”, or “God’s in control, He can figure it out” – but largely because it just happened to be part of the political package deal (for more info, check out the helpful 20-min doc The Climate and the Cross!)

We all, to some degree, have beliefs that are simply convenient to us. It’s unavoidable. I wrote a blog on this here. And often the way we come to those beliefs is through factors that have nothing to do with the actual truth behind them. I wrote another blog on this here. I’m not sure how to fix this, or if it can be fixed, or even if it needs to be fixed. But I’d at least like to make sure we don’t get this one wrong. Because if the science is right, what we do in the next decade is going to have irreversible impact on every generation to come.

Of course, I’m far from the first (or most qualified) to be sounding the alarm on climate change. Two weeks ago was TED Countdown, where we heard from the Pope to Priyanka Chopra Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Don Cheadle, Cynthia Erivo, Prince William, and the heads of Apple, Amazon, IKEA, and TED sharing a desperate need for action. Also, David Attenborough just released his witness statement on Netflix. And there are plenty of organizations speaking up – from Extinction Rebellion to 350 to even some Christian organizations like Climate Caretakers, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and C4.  Not to mention millions of other less famous folks whose opinions matter no less, and who will be much more affected. But we’ve still got a lot ways to go.

And what exactly are we being asked to do? The IPCC report says that in order to stop the worst effects of climate change, we must limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. And the only way we can do that is by tackling our CO2 emissions. The report calls for a 45% reduction by 2030, and to reach a net zero by 2050.

If you haven’t heard that statement before, I’d encourage you to read it again. 45% in a decade. Net zero by 2050. That’s a tall order. For reference, the USA alone is going through 37 billion tonnes a year right now, and while emissions have dropped slightly, we’re still nowhere near close to being on track. In fact, only two countries are currently reaching the goals set in the Paris Agreement.

So what would it take to pull this off? Well, that’s the zillion-dollar question. On the one hand, it involves doing things we’re mostly familiar with already. Recycling. Driving less. Changing our diets. Buying more locally. Joining organizations. Supporting climate legislation. Helping fossil fuel companies change how they operate. And, as Christian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says, “Talk about it!” There’s plenty that can be done.

But at the same time, I honestly don’t know of many people who are confident we can reach our goals and avoid the hothouse earth scenario. To actually have victory over global warming would take worldwide mobilization larger even than WWII. It would be unlike anything we’ve seen before in history. All for future generations that we likely won’t get to see. In short, we need a miracle.

And that’s why I’m writing this to the church.

I started this blog ten years ago to show the world that anything was possible. You, the church, made me believe that. You taught me that what’s seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. You taught me that the whole world was my neighbor, to care for “the least of these”, to fight for our children, to follow the truth no matter how weird it sounds. You taught me to believe in miracles.

So I’m coming back to ask this. For those who are passionate about healing the sick, could we perhaps see the opportunity here to bring healing to the millions who die of air pollution every year? For those who are passionate about foreign aid, could we see the logic allowing Africa our carbon budget to help them develop?   For a people called to not store up for themselves treasures on earth, but instead to take up their cross and offer themselves as a living sacrifice, could we learn to reduce our food waste?  Our dependence on plastic? Our need to consume things in general?

No matter what – even if we this somehow ends up being an overreaction – I somehow don’t think we’ll apologize to future generations for making a cleaner, healthier, and more equal world. Sounds to me like it could be another step towards making earth a little like heaven!

Of course, nobody is doing this perfect – myself included. A lot of my journey has proven to show me how little I know. But I was sent out from Bethel to make a difference, and I hope this article in some way is still contributing to that end – even if it is just the beginning of a journey we take together. After all, history has proven time and again that when people collectively recognize a need and take action, anything is still possible.

Ten years after starting this blog, I’m still contending for miracles. Only this time, it’s for us to not set the world on fire. May we, together, rise for such a time as this.

Podcasts:

No Place Like Home

Outrage and Optimism

How Screwed Are We? from Ask Science Mike (this is the episode that began my reckoning with climate change)

You never quite know where a coffee conversation can take you.

A few years back, Belle and I met at the Barnes and Noble coffeehouse at Temple University to talk about something she’d been struggling with.  As artists and leaders at a Christian organization on campus, we had gained a level of trust at that point where it was pretty comfortable to talk about what was on our minds.  However, I’m not quite sure I expected what she had to say.

Belle told me that she had been building a new friendship with someone who, though not a Christian, was open to a conversation about faith.  However, in the process of evangelizing as she knew it, she found herself having to face intimidating but honest questions; questions like: why is there so much suspicion about exploring ideas outside of the Christian subculture?  How can we have true faith when we only know God in part?  What does it actually mean to say “Jesus is the only way”?  She had gotten to the point where she was examining why she believed anything at all. It was as though the anchor of faith that she had felt throughout her life no longer felt so steadfast, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

If she had had this conversation with me a few years prior, I would have had a lot of great advice for her – verses about the assurance of salvation in Christ, theology blogs, and an intimidating array of podcasts.  The problem was, I had been quietly been going through a faith struggle myself. 

I had realized by my junior year that my expectations for what faith was supposed to do in college were not being met.  Instead, I was seeing a lot of weird parallels between the church world and the theater world, and the answers to life’s problems that I had been taught in Bible school somehow didn’t feel adequate to solve the problems I was observing in the diverse metropolis where I now lived.  More often than not, I found that when I went to church, I would just want to journal angrily about all the problems I saw.   This is why, a month prior to our coffee meeting, I secretly word-vomited into a journal every doubt and complaint about Christianity that I had previously been unwilling to face.  Unexpectedly, instead of my head exploding, I actually felt a lot of peace, like “the peace that goes beyond understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

I still hadn’t shared this experience with any Christians up till that point, but Belle’s honesty about her own struggle gave me the opportunity to share a bit of my own.  Having come to the shocking realization that neither of us apparently had it figured out, we didn’t reach any hard conclusions about Belle’s immediate set of questions.  However, we left that coffee shop having experienced something that felt like new territory for both of us: community that was ok with “not knowing”.

As we’ve continued to grow and learn about what exactly this all means, it’s been fascinating to discover that the narrative we’ve experienced is far more common than we had realized.  We’ve met many who grew up in church, went to college, then got hit with big questions they couldn’t answer, now feel spiritually homeless.  We even started a group that met weekly to discuss spirituality in a non-exclusive way.  Of course, the group was kept on the downlow; we know that there can be a lot of fear associated with asking big questions without having the answers at hand.

If you also grew up Evangelical, you might know what we’re talking about.  Many of us have been taught that expressing doubt or asking questions about things we’ve been taught is a sign that we aren’t truly dependent on God.  We’ve learned to be suspicious of exploring other religions or even other denominations, and throughout history we’ve seen Protestantism fractured by theological disagreements.  Celebrity pastors denounce one another’s credibility in toxic, divisive ways over social media, and people use Twitter and Facebook to argue about what is most Biblical in order to persuade your convictions to land a certain way.

It’s because of all this, in fact, that we wanted to write this article.  This is not a diatribe against Christianity or a complaint from angsty millennials about why life is hard.  In fact, both of us are currently part of a church, and our lives are pretty good.

We just wanted to encourage people who are on their authentic journey.  We don’t believe that God is waiting with a lightning bolt for the Doubting Thomas, and we don’t have fear about where that journey might lead, whether “inside the church” or “out”. We think a more accurate representation of Divine Love is one that would rather have people express what they’re actually thinking, doubts and all – even if if’s not the whole picture – than going through the motions because they’re afraid of punishment or rejection.  In fact, Jesus was actually a lot harder on the Pharisees because they claimed to see – “If you were blind you would not be guilty of sin, but since you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41).

We understand that the formative period of doubt can be a scary thing at first, but we now feel like our spiritual expressions are more faithful than they’ve ever been.  Since we realize that God is bigger than what our own human understandings can hold, we have seen a shift in the emphases of our faith journeys.  For us, it’s less about doctrinal statements on eternal salvation, and more about a sense of belonging to the family of God and participating in a movement where all things are being reconciled to the original good intentions of the Creator (Colossians 1:20).

Having shed new light on our faith journeys, we’ve been able to show up in Christian, interfaith, and secular spaces and feel like we can truly live out our faith in practice.  Belle feels most complete in this expression when she shows up for justice and advocacy work and when she puts her creativity in practice as an artist; I feel most complete in this when I make music, films, and theater work that tells authentic, inspiring stories.

We hope that by being more open about our journeys, we can cultivate communities where people have permission to ask questions and share thoughts without fear of being labeled “blasphemous” or “syncretistic”; where people don’t get emotionally excommunicated for openly exploring other religions or worldviews; and where there aren’t lifestyle expectations that prevent people from discovering who they are.  We think Jesus is ok with dialogue.

Like Belle and I realized about each other at that Barnes and Noble, maybe answers to life’s deep questions aren’t a prerequisite for community.  Maybe, in some ways, community can become our answer.  Could this be part of what Jesus spoke of when he talked about creating the kingdom of God on earth?  We’re not sure, but we think that by encouraging more of this open dialogue, we can find out together.

Resources for further conversation:

Podcasts:

The Liturgists by the band Gungor

The Unravel by musician Brady Toops

On Being by Krista Tippett

Books:

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor

The Divine Dance by Richard Rohr

Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar