Loading...The Rev. Sally Bingham, an Episcopal priest and renowned interfaith environmentalist, told a gathering of religious environmental activists that as a people of faith they can no longer be silent or afraid to speak out on global climate change, which is, she said, “the most important moral issue of our time.”
Climate change is real, happening now and has catastrophic potential she made emphatically clear in the 30-minute talk, but she also repeated that she has found cause for hope and not just “doom and gloom.” Religious leaders and people of faith from all traditions, she said, have an important responsibility and role in responding to the climate challenge.
“We have a rare opportunity and chance to come together in shared purpose … While crisis can mean danger, it can also mean ‘an opportunity to work together.’ This is a call to redefine the human purpose on the planet. Why did God put us here?” she said. “By accepting the challenge of climate change and knowing that it will affect all of us, we share a responsibility to do something to save us from ourselves.”
Bingham spoke to about 65 people at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church Tuesday, April 6 during a fundraising dinner and awards ceremony hosted by Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light, which is part of a national interfaith organization founded by Bingham. It is dedicated to encouraging and organizing religious leaders and members of all faiths to take specific, local actions to address environmental concerns such as global warming. [She also spoke the next day at the church to a group of about 23 at work on a local project called “Greening West Louisville,” devoted to organizing western Louisville churches to address pollution problems in that area. Bingham later that day was the keynote speaker during the Interfaith Paths to Peace annual pilgrimage, devoted this year to environmental concerns.]
Responding to the climate crisis, Bingham said Tuesday night, requires “a cultural shift in the way we think about and use energy” and will bring about a “cultural revolution, similar to the industrial revolution 200 years ago, but this time a clean one.” It also requires setting aside our individual views on what has caused climate change or what to do about it. “It does not matter whether you think that our warming global climate is human induced, or not. We need to put aside our petty differences about how to deal with it and get down to finding creative solutions," she said. She also noted that most people agree that the solutions addressing climate change also will help “save a broken economy because it will create jobs and it will increase our national security.”
Repeatedly she stressed that climate change is ultimately a spiritual issue. “Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and all mainstream religious and moral powers all have a responsibility to serve one another and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves… to love one another and to be good stewards of creation,” she said. “That is probably the most important reason for our involvement at Interfaith Power and Light in energy and climate issues.” The wealthiest nations’ destruction of our climate, she said, “is in direct disobedience to the commandment to love one another.” Quoting a Harvard climatologist, she said, the “people who contribute least to the problem will suffer the most.”
Now is the time to act, she said. “Inaction now will only cost more later. The faith community has an important role now, and we are in a position to have a strong influence on Washington and around the world. Major social changes in America did not happen without the moral voice of religion, and that voice is needed now. I believe that moral voice that pushes us and makes real change happen is going to be the voice that brings the world together with a shared purpose. …. Our moral responsibility to be good stewards of creation sits side by side with our desire to provide a safe and healthy world for our children.”
Working to reduce energy consumption and boost development of sources of renewable energy is the “single best prescription for building up the U.S. economy,” she said. In addition, “you are empowering a global economic recovery not based on the exploitation and degradation of the environment but rather based on a smart sustainable approach that will democratize an energy supply and enrich regional communities and economies. I see the climate crisis as the most important moral issue of our time, and when moral and economic priorities align, as they do now, there is no justification for inaction."
More photos from the meeting may be downloaded here.
