I disagree with most things Rev. Deb Walker stands for belief-wise. However, we agree here. We need everyone in together on climate action. Her article “I’m attending COP28 as a faith leader” is succinct and important.
She opens, “Religious teachings are full of lessons about caring for the planet. Christian Scriptures are full of detailed examples of God’s revelation in nature; from the first story of creation in the Book of Genesis, to Leviticus, where we are reminded that the land, too, must sometimes rest.”
Religious traditions’ scriptures, certainly, remain open to interpretation and the proliferation of denominations within religions attests to this. However, if their readings of purported holy texts aligns with practical goals for global stability, e.g., environmental stability, then this seems like a pragmatic good. Not a truthful good, but a moral truth by derivation from a falsehood, i.e., the religious text.
In all practical terms, I’ll take it.
Her sense of “wonder and mystery” from the natural world does mirror aspects of a wonder or marvel about the natural world. Yet, the extension of this in a humanism would be a desire to understand as reinforced by this sense of wonder or marvel at mystery.
Where, mystery, in many cases, becomes a puzzle to solve for, not a solution but, a codification of nature’s rules in human linguistic representation for comprehension. Rev. Walker and I agree. Thank you, Deb.
She provided further thoughtful reflection on COP28 or the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai “as a Christian climate observer.” I would compliment her more than she lets on here. She is a climate activist. She is active in gathering information and partaking of this movement.
“The Church is the perfect body of stubborn, hopeful humans. As a minister in the United Church of Canada, I serve a faithful, struggling congregation in Vancouver. We are struggling because the world has already been changed,” Walker said, “and the church with it. We struggle with the stains of our history: the participation in residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. Yet, here we are at the crossroads of our reconciliation work and climate justice. And this time, we are poised to make a difference.”
I love this and like her so much for this. This simple humility and recognition of an authentic need to steward nature and mistakes of the Church in the past relative to the United Church of Canada contributions in particular or the Christian Church more generally means so much. In observing Residential School survivors, the admission is precursor to apology. Apology includes admission. Time does not heal all; institutions and individuals can help, though.
Thank you for being part of this leadership the country so dearly needs when denialism and inappropriate skepticism is prevalent in several sectors of the country, I appreciate you. Walker noted something unfortunate and unfair. There hasn’t been a faith pavilion in the UN’s climate summits, at least “in the heart oft he Blue Zonem where meetings and negotiations take place.”
It’s the United Nations. People have equal right to represent their faiths and their beliefs, and their expressions of these faiths and beliefs. It’s a nuanced touch to provide this for faiths. It would be a good touch for the next to be inclusive of the non-religious ‘faiths’ – if they can, indeed, be titled that – for further representation.
It’s akin to inter-religious diablogues needing an extension, by titular definition, to inter-belief dialogues for an inclusion of the panoply of the non-religious. It’s not about conservative or liberal religions, or irreligion or faith. The idea is cosmopolitanism in a globalized world. Whether nationalistic or globalistic, cosmopolitan orientation permits conversation beyond these differentiations.
Walker continued, “And for the first time, this meeting of the parties is hosted by a Muslim nation in a venue that declares we submit to a higher power, where we will stand shoulder to shoulder, listening to stories of transformation and hearing from communities that are bending towards healing and hope. But this is also a place where the fossil fuel industry holds great power and is continuously looking to lock down business deals.”
In these environments of trade and global commerce, we can note the interplay of faith and national economies. In largely Muslim societies, whether by law or demographics, or both, faith plays a subtle and pervasive role in every facet of a person’s life.
Even if non-believing, the contingency in personal narrative is a religious one. We cannot escape this. Therefore, the language of advocacy for a climate conscious, environmentally sustainable, future should be nuanced and incorporative of the metaphors of so-called holy texts.
In a sense, a construction of a religio-linguistic thought vis-a-vis the environment will be necessary for change on policy and trade impacting the environment, ultimately, due to anthropomorphic climate change.
“I am here because faith leaders have an important role to play in the environmental movement and the future of climate justice — we have circles of influence, we work with communities that value beauty, that care deeply for others, and we are people who believe in reciprocity across the generations,” Walker said.
That’s the key. Those are secular communal messages about intergenerational responsibility, compassion for others, and stewardship of the environment. One group believes in an intervening theity who answers prayers and inspires written codifications of its thoughts, and another adheres to the best scientific approximations of a naturally arising cosmos.
The translation of her statements into traditional religious language can communicate using a common language – religious grammar – for universal action on a common concern: the climate. It is a common concern expressed in different lenses. It’s not a moral relativism inasmuch as a relative perspectivism on a more universal moral frame. Walker gave a detailed paragraph abotu her path and how faith communities can be common cause allies here.
“It’s not surprising to me that my path to this Christian Climate Observer Program has been meteoric. I attended one meeting last January that was hosted by Sierra Club BC, which led to another meeting where I met Dr. Suzanne Simard, an author and professor at UBC’s Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences,” Walker said, “This led to a series of workshops with local faith leaders who made up the inaugural cohort of Sierra Club BC’s Mother Tree Local Leaders Program. Now I am in Dubai. I believe I have been summoned.”
She concluded on a note of needing to work with faith leaders around the world. I agree with her, but I would make a call for a more universal vision of the billion or so others who have no formal faith. They have a non-faith, an irreligion, a non-religion, a sense of meaning without God, a sense of duty without religion.
It is in a similar manner for an argument for a unifying vision as with a small change from inter-religion to inter-belief. We can do inter-belief unity on common goals for decent life survival of the species with a care and concern for stewardship of the environment sustaining us.
As Walker notes, “In my community of faith, we accept that we are all on the journey. I want to stand side by side with women from Mauritius. I want to meet youth from Kenya and Indigenous leaders from Aotearoa. I have an entire community of active climate justice seekers following my experience and ready to take action together. In these stressful times of climate grief, we need community more than ever. That’s why I am here.”
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Photo credit: Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.