Saturday I attended the Peninsula Interfaith Climate Action Workshop featuring Rev. Jim Antal as the keynote speaker. Rev. Antal has been a climate prophet within the UCC church community for decades. His preaching is a call to action for all people of faith through his encouragement of activism and his mentoring of other preachers to proclaim the necessity for climate activism. See this YouTube recording of the full talk.
Here are a few of my take-aways from his talk. Climate activism and saving our democracy are inexorably linked. Saving God’s creation requires unified action. All of us are affected by climate change. All of us must work together to move from a culture that prioritizes profit over the common good. Extreme wealth disparity resulting from greed and unbridled exploitation of the earth’s resources and the working class is the root of many problems we face.
Science tells us it is not too late to turn the tide of climate change, but we need the political will to change. All major religions share the Golden Rule, to love one another. People of faith need to unite to lead the movement to reject complacency that accepts climate change, destruction of our environment, and political chaos as the new norm. We must speak truth to power and expose the immediate and long-term impacts of their actions and inaction. We must lead the movement to change. I recommend reading the new edition of Rev Jim Antal’s book Climate Church, Climate World which calls on us to be unified in our shared vulnerability, to respond to the least among us with generosity of caring, and to protect God’s great gift of creation.