What would John Wesley say about a Christian approach to climate change? What does personal piety and justice have to do with it?

Climate Action for Everyone

On Wednesday, October 12, our United Women in Faith (UWF) hosted “Climate Action for Everyone” in the Wesley Center. One of the ongoing missional priorities of UWF is climate justice. We know we must do more than recycling and composting to move towards justice, but we don’t always know what other steps to take to affect change on a larger scale. So, we invited Deaconess Irene DeMaris, the Executive Director of Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, and Tamara Marcus, the Linn County Sustainability Director to offer their expertise.

Iowa Interfaith Power & Light is a faith-based non-profit that encourages and facilitates climate action from a standpoint that caring for our earth is a tenet of faith. They focus on sustainability in farming, a huge area we can and should make a difference in as a farming state. Linn County Sustainability assesses and makes plans for moving our county towards environmental sustainability into the future.

Over 40 people were in attendance, including our youth group and youth leaders. Our UWF Vice-President Genny Yarne coordinated and hosted the event. I assisted Genny in planning. UWF women provided hospitality. Both speakers shared for 15-20 minutes and then answered audience questions. A lot of good information was shared, such as recent and upcoming climate-beneficial policy and advice for getting involved in local groups. There were also invitations to volunteer for Linn County Sustainability, or attend an Iowa IPL field day and see for yourself what possibilities can take place on Iowa farms.

If you attended, what are your “highlights” or takeaways? What did you leave thinking about? What would you like to keep talking about in the church?

Reflecting on what we learned

I hope that we will continue to explore the information and opportunities brought up at this event as individuals and as a church. There are two things I want to reflect on here.

One is climate anxiety, which Deaconess Irene brought up. This is something many people, especially young people, are feeling. I know it well. A heavy weight, a sense of doom, and hopelessness because there is so much bad news and very little good news when it comes to climate. Irene’s advice was to go through it, not around it. Feel your feelings, don’t avoid them. An upcoming opportunity about this topic is the October 29th Calm in Climate Chaos: Let's Talk About Climate Anxiety, Iowa IPL’s Called to Climate Action webinar. Find out more and register here: https://iowaipl.org/2022/08/17/save-the-date-called-to-climate-action-2022/

The second thing is the Wesleyan approach to climate action, shared by Irene. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, preached piety and justice. In the context of climate, personal piety can look like recycling and composting–examples that Irene mentioned. But I take that to mean all of our personal choices. 

Think of our consumer choices: are the products we buy harming the environment, through their extraction, production, and disposal? Are people being exploited to make them or harvest them? Are we buying more than we need, and from unethical companies? 

When it’s time to replace something in our home, what about choosing the most energy friendly option, even if it costs more? Like a heat pump instead of a gas furnace? Or adding solar panels? Or planting native plants or low-maintenance “eco-grass” (like this one) instead of turf lawn? 

When we invest money, are we willing to choose ethics over profit? 

Our personal consumer choices connect to the justice side, but justice requires more than that. Climate justice starts with the acknowledgement that the climate crisis does not affect all people equally. The poorest and most vulnerable people are already being hit the hardest by climate disasters. This will only get worse. To work towards justice means that those with privilege and those from societies that contribute the most to climate change must fight against it. This is where we might find ourselves writing letters, supporting a campaign, joining a protest, and more to actively fight for justice.

What is the right thing to do?

When a question about climate anxiety was asked at the event, what came to my mind was a sermon that I heard online by Chris Hoklotubbe (Choctaw), an Assistant Professor of Religion at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. He was preaching at Sanctuary Community Church in Coralville in 2019. The title of the sermon was “It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel…”, and it was about what we are to do when the world is ending. Looking at Christians of the past who believed the end was coming in their lifetime, what did they do? The answer was, to keep doing what is right. “We never give up on beauty, never give up on justice, and never give up on goodness. The radical hope of life in light of the end of the world, in light of new creation, is that we continue to do what we are always supposed to,” he said.

“We continue on, knowing not the success of our efforts, not whether or not we will reach the promised lands, but having sure confidence that our efforts matter. That our relationships to each other matters in light of eternity. [...] We find eternal solidarity and the possibility of joy amid labor, amid the uncertainty of what lies ahead, amid the uphill battle against climate change and pollution. We know that whatever lies before us, we as the Body of Christ, interconnected with our created world, through the power and love of an all pervading Holy Spirit, can rise to meet the challenge of serving others and stewarding [God’s] created order until the very end.”

Amen.

If you’d like to continue conversations about climate action, one option is to join Be Healthy. Be Green. Committee. Contact me at stephanie.heifner@gmail.com.