Category Archives: Occupy Theology
We need to learn how to talk about the Climate Crisis
What I am trying to say in my previous post is that I think that the UMC, like other mainline denominations, do not know how to talk about the Climate Crisis. This is part of the problem of not having an eco-centered theological education base from which to be formed in that way. One way I think we will begin Continue Reading
The “angry” characterization of Bernie supporters really makes me angry
I’m so sick of “Emo Prog”, “angry” characterizations, which leave me feeling that it is “politically uncorrect” to be angry at what has happened to our bought and sold “Democracy” (and there, I revealed my own ANGER. Please set aside your “measured” position and look at just why this anger exists, and spare me the argument that it is “extreme”, Continue Reading
The denial of Denial in the Church
One could say that it has been 25 years since the world has really begun to hear the most pressing concerns of the Climate Science community. Since then, we really don’t have any excuses for how long we’ve allowed things to simply continue (to continue systematically poisoning the ecosystem in unprecedented ways; “unprecedented” in the history of the planet. Continue Reading
UCC – Mention on 2nd level under “Advocate for Justice”
There’s a menu dropdown titled “Advocate for Justice” which includes “Understand the issues”, so selecting this from the dropdown yields a page that includes “Environment” with two links, compared to 8-12 listings under other areas like “Economic Justice”. All of this sure shouts to me that some serious updating of their categories and thinking about Climate is in order. They Continue Reading
Churches need to bring to the fore the grassroots faith-based Climate message
A study on right wing “studies” article offers this depiction of “the arguments” the Right has vs Climate Change. Seems accurate. three basic messages: (1) Climate change isn’t happening. (2) If climate change were happening, that would still be OK, because climate change is good for you. (3) Even if climate change were happening and it was bad, the solution Continue Reading
The stakes are higher than simply dismissing the folks with their “heads in the sand”
Denial of science is MUCH MORE DESTRUCTIVE today than when the Church in the Middle Ages denied the science of Copernicus. It was an easy matter and of no real consequence for the life of the inhabitants of the planet that so many Christians fell in line with the old world view, “because the Bible.” Now, things are different. Ignoring Continue Reading
“The Middle” is horrible for the Climate
There’s no area of life and politics where “The Middle” is more damaging than in the Climate Crisis. It keeps people staying out of the topic and simply ignoring it, since , in the judgement of “The Middle”, it is “unsettled”. It caused a good friend of mine of 30 years to eventually cut off ties with me (which really Continue Reading
What is “Everything” that has changed for me?
Just now, as I picked up a pile of papers and books to move it aside to make room to set my laptop on some table space near me, one of those books was my hardback copy of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate. And the term “Everything” got me thinking. Just what is included in that Continue Reading
King, The “Inconvenient Hero”, and “The Ecological Thinker”
How often we forget (and ignore) what MLK did and said and wrote AFTER 1963, after “I have a Dream”…..He moved to link the various maladies of society to the larger problem of justice; to a “Cosmic bent toward justice”; to Vietnam and violence, to Economic justice (Poor People’s March, housng in Chicago, Memphis sanitation worker’s strike), and yes, even Continue Reading
Mentioning Climate and then moving on; the usual habit
“NBC could have asked Democratic candidates 1,000 smarter questions on climate change than this.” http://ow.ly/XdLLW And yet, as I look at the article expecting some examples of the 1000, scarcely little more time was spent in the article on this quesiton than NBC gave it.* (See update on this below) I think we have a real problem talking about this, Continue Reading
The Necessary Revolution in Values
What follows is a comment I entered on the UMNS Facebook page under this post that asks the question: People thought President Kennedy was crazy when he shot for the moon. Leaders dream big. So what’s your church’s moonshot? So I offered this: I bet many could guess what I’m going to say. The “moon-shot” is actually a good illustration of Continue Reading