Creation Care Blog #1
Happy New Year CWOW!
Thanks so much for supporting me this past month by giving me space to work on what might be the most important writing project I”ve ever undertaken. (So much better than writing a dissertation no one will read! 🙂 )
I just finished the beta version of a seven-session curriculum on the climate crisis. I hope it will empower communities of spiritual friends to effectively, practically, and biblically care for creation in the face of unprecedented threats to God’s good earth.
In some ways, I am an unlikely person to undertake this project. Although I’ve focused the last thirty years of my ministry on trying to do justice in Jesus’ name, I am a newbie to things environmental.
Until quite recently, I never really even considered how my lifestyle was impacting the planet. I grew up eating fast food hamburgers. I have flown as often as I could afford it. I got my drivers’ license the day I turned sixteen. I have thrown away (literally) tons of plastic that I used only once to consume high fructose corn syrup products.
When Al Gore spoke his Inconvenient Truth almost fifteen years ago, I felt overwhelmed, concerned, confused, indignant, and a little guilty. But I did almost nothing. Even seven years ago, when given the opportunity to design an entire Masters’ program on biblical justice at Denver Seminary, environmental justice was the topic of exactly one out of sixty-four sessions in our core classes.
Given my poor track record, I feel rather unworthy to be speaking out on creation care. But God is a God of repentance, and I believe our Creator delights in even much-postponed efforts to turn away from complacency.
Renowned Christian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe loves to say that the most important thing we can do to fight climate change is to talk about it. That’s why each week until Easter, I’m going to share with you in this space whatever hope and insight I’ve turned up lately. If you feel like a newbie like me, perhaps these little blog posts can help us together figure out what it means to faithfully care for creation in this new decade.
Grace and peace,
Gary
