EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Fourteen, Number Five September / October 2005 The Blame Game By Greg Todd Hudson Valley Bioregion In a column appearing in the New York Times on September 27, Nicholas Kristoff draws a parallel between the paralysis on the issue of slavery leading up to the Civil War and the paralysis we are in now regarding global warming. According to Kristoff, Thomas Jefferson in 1820 described the extension of slavery in the Missouri Compromise as a "firebell in the night" and a mortal threat to the United States. Yet this threat lay ignored for forty years through a series of ineffectual and floundering presidents, until Lincoln finally forced us to face up to our responsibilities in 1860. Have we been any better at facing up to global warming, Kristoff asks? Now that Katrina and Rita have forced us, if ever so briefly, to confront global warming, whom do we blame? As a Christian I see this as a moral dilemma. In 1992, in his book Earth in the Balance, Al Gore minced no words. "We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization" he wrote. We sit calmly in our pews as our pastors speak passionately about Jesus, our spiritual leader, who deplored hypocrisy, demanded honesty above all else and insisted that we care for the poor and disadvantaged. Yet who is being hurt most by our prideful refusal to confront the reality of global warming? Is it not the poor and disadvantaged? Why don't we want to face the reality of global warming? Is it because we might have to give up our "American lifestyle"? Most of the major communities of faith have written strong statements demanding action on eco-justice issues. Until these statements are regular topics of sermons, and debated in church councils, I expect to see a lot more blaming going on. Home     Table of Contents