A huge problem is that we have a large amount of energy being required from existing ecologically sensitive and aware people who are finding themselves pulled toward protecting and supporting their brothers and sisters, “who they HAVE SEEN”* (see note below)
. The result of this is that we expend all this energy for this “fake crisis” (I call it “fake” because the GLBTQ inclusion would damage no one and be a danger to no one) and thus “neglect” the actual ecological crisis, that is hurting millions, and will only hurt more. But these are things that very few can claim that they are “seeing” as clearly as their hurting GLBTQ friends and family.
And this is completely human. And I support standing up in this way. But that doesn’t lessen the ecological crisis and the need for “all hands on deck”. My anger is that there are those who are seeking exclusion (and “living it” as well) who are making this defense necessary. We should be not be getting “distracted”, but we are also called to be a community of love and so we are being “forced” to take our eyes off the ball (the real threat) to support others , who are being rejected and their gifts rejected, due to the contrived threat (that to “allow” GLBTQ marriage and ordination wouild be actually “harmful”.)
In 50 years, after we’ve seen what we will have seen in terms of ecological disaster —and we WILL see a lot of it; it’s just up to us as to just how much; I pray every day that enough us will have enough something to say and teach and preach and do about it — we will look back and say to those of us who are still around and say “You thought THAT was a big enough problem to spend all that time on when you could have been working to prevent THIS?”) And again, “THAT” is the creation of a “Biblical/BOD” “problem” on which to hinge EVERYTHING, when, actually, EVERYTHING ***is*** actually and truly at stake (life in this world as we know it), and we do VERY VERY little about it, considering the magnitude of the consequences of not getting our a***s in gear.
(* ref. to
I John 4: 19-20 : “We love[a] because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”
I invoke this passage here because the writer is making the point about the immediacy of human relationships being our first and up front test of our “loving God”. The immediate needs of those around us (ie “whom we have seen” and , thus, are seeing every day in the course of our lives) will often jump to the front of the line of our priorities, especially those which it can be easy to “put out of our mind” in order to meet an emergency or urgent need. Ecologically sensitive people will be no different in this way. The protective instinct will bring immediate urgent needs of our immediate communities into priority in front of our “regular work” or ministry. )
