Way We Got Here isn’t the Same Way Out
Sunday was the hottest day recorded on planet Earth.* It’s dangerous territory with how all of this impacts the world’s most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the world’s least vulnerable (roughly speaking, people who look like, talk like, act like me) have, by and large, convinced themselves that environmental issues aren’t important; that the world is fated for a giant apocalyptic “reset.”
It’s almost incomprehensible, but the general Western-Christian “reset” has to do with our “prince of peace” being cool with such a violent catastrophe (of course, only after whisking his people away). This idea has everything to do with the false dichotomy of spirit and matter. It has led millions of adherents to think that the real mission is to help people find post-mortem peace and happiness, all of which ignores JC, who said, “The kingdom of heaven is here.”
The Western-secular idea around “reset” isn’t much better. It, too, has spent a lot of energy absolving itself from coming up with any real solutions, but, ha, at least the secular group doesn’t suggest that a God of Love would author apocalypse.
What can we do? Idk, maybe …
Repent (the Greek word is metanoia, which means to choose a new way of thinking) and celebrate love amid the reality of plurality.
Find some politicians who care about the oceans, forests, and mountains.
Find some preachers who care about such things, too.
Walk across the street and meet someone who looks, talks, and acts differently from your people group.
Give to organizations doing something for the world’s most vulnerable people.
Normalize having conversations about “carbon footprint.” This is true individually, yes, but even more with which corporations were invested in. (literally, for wouldn’t it be duplicitous to talk about the environment while buying stock in some corp. that has a track record of pollution?)
Change our religious doctrine so that our grandkids have a chance to develop robust and interesting ideas around love; ideas that keep consent, empowerment, plurality, and non-violence at the heart of the discussion.
*tho as someone pointed out on tiktok, not hotter than when the planet was molten rock. Haha, tiktok feedback is something else.
