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I stumbled onto an incredible little factoid while doing some research. Apparently there are two human-made structures that can be seen from space. One of which you may have guessed: the Great Wall of China. The other, you likely will not have guessed. It’s the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York. So when the angels look down upon us, they see one of our great ancient achievements and one of our greatest contemporary failures.

Unfortunately, our record doesn’t look to be improving on this count. As our garbage output increases, the amount of landfill space has decreased to about 80% of its capacity 30 years ago. Many states – including Oklahoma – only have about 20 years of landfill space left, and that’s only if our waste production rates continue to increase at a constant level – leaving no room for population growth or other factors. Furthermore, the landfill practice of dumping and burying waste actually creates an environmental problem for organic materials. When plant waste is buried, it will break down, but only very slowly and will ultimately create large amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas more potent that carbon dioxide.

However, the art of gardening offers a potential solution: composting. Large amounts of plant waste that we throw away – vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, and the like, can be safely and quickly composted to create nutrient rich soil for growing next year’s vegetables. This not only reduces the amount of waste going into landfills, but also decomposes the waste in a faster manner that doesn’t produce methane gas. A little effort to separate plant waste from the rest of the trash could save land, help save the atmosphere, and grow healthy food all at the same time.

In a way, it’s resurrection x 3 (that’s multiplication if it didn’t make sense at first). Plant waste is composted back into new plant life, landfill space needs are reduced, and greenhouse gases are diminished. We are already considering a compost project for our community garden at First Christian, which includes the possibilities of getting everyone involved in composting efforts to make it more successful in the long run. And I’d love to hear your thoughts about it! So pull me aside on Sunday morning or send me an email and let me know what you think. Christians are in the business of resurrection, and multiplying it by three sounds like gospel to me! What say you?

Walking the Lenten journey of justice,
Clint

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All of our recent work in worship relating to providing safe water for those who lack (Aug. 8 ) and thinking about our place in the mission of the gospel as working toward a heavenly kingdom here on earth (Aug. 15) has led me to think about the idea of sustainability. This term has been kicked around more frequently in light of the BP oil spill and other shortages – including water – and it occurs to me that as a Christian community, perhaps the place for us start is in our community. So I’d like to share some excerpts from a blog by David Rhoads and Andrea Orcutt that was originally published at the Sojourners Magazine website.

The church is the largest grassroots organization in the country. If people of faith are to contribute significantly to environmental sustainability, then care for creation needs to be brought to the center of congregational life and mission. For Christians, the deep and enduring passion for creation comes from two sources: our original calling as human beings “to serve and to preserve” the Earth, and our redemption in Christ as “new creations.”

Christian commitment to environmental restoration is inseparable from the quest for human justice. Only a holistic vision of “ecological justice” will adequately inform the identity and mission of our churches. Here are some ideas for greening your congregation.

·    Worship. Make creation care an integral part of services—liturgies, hymns, confessions, prayers, sermons, blessings, green worship space…
·    Learn. Become informed about the ecological state of the planet and what we can do about it… Draw on creation-care resources from Bible study, theology, ethics, and spirituality. Study the social statements on the environment from your tradition.
·    Buildings and grounds. Lower energy use, get off nonrenewable energy, use green cleaning products and lawn processes, limit water use, use earth-safe practices at coffee hour and meals, offer locally grown foods and fair trade products, use post-consumer paper products, coordinate earth-friendly transportation, limit trash, reuse/recycle.
·    Cooperate/advocate. Cluster with other faith communities in your area… Rally your city or county to go green….Act together with wider networking organizations. Multiply your efforts with others.

Father Thomas Berry has called “ecological restoration” the great work of our time. It is time for churches to get on with that work—and in ways that are visionary, adventuresome, prophetic, grace-filled, inviting, and celebratory of creation.

Seeking the path of God’s justice,
Clint

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The ongoing news of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to be a source of consternation for me. As I listen to the ever-growing reports – 1,000 barrels per day leaking into the ocean has managed to grow to over 5,000 barrels per day – I am greatly concerned for the long term damage that this disaster will cause. The resulting oil slick, now estimated to be over 130 miles by 70 miles (roughly the size of the state of Delaware), could potentially cause an even greater disaster than the Exxon Valdez incident that coated Alaska’s Prince William Sound with roughly 250,000 barrels of crude oil.

I was heartened to see that Week of Compassion has already spoken on the issue of the oil spill. Sharing advice from a representative of our partners in the United Church of Christ, they asked people not to rush to Louisiana to volunteer their services, but instead to contact local agencies as to how they might best help. The expertise and specialized equipment required for oil spill cleanup makes it difficult to plug in volunteers without specialized training. It’s also a somber reminder of just how difficult the task will be as this massive oil slick continues to plague the ocean waters and drift toward our coastline.

This event should serve as a wakeup call to us in our country. In an interview on NPR, I heard about how oil spills have taken place in the Niger River delta of Nigeria on a yearly basis since 1969. If the connection to this being our problem isn’t immediately clear, the fact that the U.S. is one of Nigeria’s largest oil export partners should bring things into focus. Our nearly insatiable need for gasoline and other crude oil products indirectly contributes to the regular destruction of our earth’s already fragile ecosystem.

It’s one more reminder that our calling as Christians isn’t just to be, but to be good stewards. Our continued failures to extract and utilize the earth’s resources in a safe and responsible manner should sound a clarion call to more environmentally responsible practices and lifestyles. It’s never too late to start making a difference by limiting your vehicular travel or carpooling on trips with your neighbors, coworkers, and friends. Plain and simple: environmental justice is Gospel justice.

Living the hope of resurrection,

Clint

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As many may recall, this past weekend I attended the annual meeting of the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies. This gathering includes the regional chapters of several academic associations, such as the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Association for the Scientific Study of Religion. Now that I’ve thoroughly established the religion “nerd” credentials for this gathering, let me establish my own: I have to admit that I really enjoyed the conference. There was a wide variety of papers presented ranging from the history of the Spiritualist movement at Camp Chesterfield in Indiana to a discussion of the various religious positions on abortion as a paradigm for exploring social and cultural worldviews. So if that run-on sentence doesn’t convince you that I learned something, you’ll just have to take my word that I couldn’t help but be engaged during this conference. Even the breaks for food and drink turned into another opportunity to discuss the most intriguing presentations!

One of the intriguing presentations was a discussion on the nature of covenant in the Hebrew scriptures, and its place in helping Christians establish a more environmentally friendly understanding of the faith. Drawing examples from the covenants God made with Abraham, Noah, and with the Israelite people at Sinai, the presenter showed how God’s covenants included the protection of animals, plant life, and the care of the earth alongside the wellbeing of humans. It was a fascinating exploration of the language of our texts and how we tend to read them with certain ideas in mind that obscure what’s really written on the page.

Yet what struck me about this presentation was what it spoke about the idea of atonement, a concept that we have been exploring throughout the season of Lent. Recalling that atonement can literally break down into at-one-ment, I find it striking that these references to the inclusion of earth, plant, and animal in the Divine covenant mean that they also have a place in atonement. Thus far, all of our theories of atonement have focused on human beings. This coming Sunday, when we look at atonement through the lens of Catherine Keller’s theology, we will see how atonement can be understood to include the entirety of all Creation.

I’m looking forward to being back in church for study and worship with you!

Walking the journey of Lent,

Clint

Watch the video here and then click over to Repower America to learn more.

The “Obama Effect”

This is such a multi-faceted catch phrase that it’s hard to pin it down.  Whether it relates to the effect Barack Obama may have had on African American test scores, the progression of the civil rights movement, or even the current cultural milieu, these words have been tossed around from the moment Obama became a figure on the national stage.  The latest evolution of the “Obama effect” is to speculate on the foreign policy ramifications of the 44^th president.

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And while you’re at it, if you’d like to check out my other daily news updates, you can link to them all right here:

• News for June 17
• News for June 18
• News for June 19

Congress is hard at work on historic energy and climate change legislation. The House of Representatives plans to vote on a bill in the next few weeks, with the Senate to follow in early fall.

The bill is full of worthwhile provisions: investment in green jobs, modernizing our energy systems, and new pollution regulations. It also contains some less than desirable pieces like plans to give away the majority of pollution credits to industry in the initial years instead of auctioning them to create revenue for clean technology and assisting low-income consumers.

In my five years in Washington I’ve learned that supporting large pieces of legislation can be tricky. At Sojourners, we try to filter all of our policy work through the lens of caring for the most vulnerable, both in our country and around the world…

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Green jobs growth outpaced other-colored job classifications by nearly 250 percent over the last decade, growing 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, versus 3.7 percent for the overall job market.

There are now 770,000 green jobs spread out among 68,200 businesses, according to the new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. While that’s a tiny slice of the overall American jobs pie, it is already approaching the same scale as the traditional energy sector — coal mining, utilities, big oil — which employs 1.27 million people. As a job creator, it stacks up even better against biotechnology, which (despite a longer history and greater investment) employs only 200,000 people…

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