Monday, June 15, 2015

Pope Francis' Leaked Encyclical Draft Attributes Climate Change To Human Activity

Posted: 06/15/2015 1:45 pm EDT Updated: 2 hours ago

A draft of Pope Francis’ long-awaited encyclical on the environment has leaked just days before the Vatican was set to release it to the world.

L’Espresso, an Italian magazine, published the 192-page document on its website Monday. The draft encyclical says that while there may be other factors involved in climate change, "numerous scientific studies indicate that the majority of the global warming in recent decades is due to the large concentration of greenhouse gases... emitted above all due to human activity," according to a Huffington Post translation of the document.

The draft opens by saying climate change is the Earth’s way of protesting “irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God placed in her.”

“We have grown up thinking that we were her owners and dominators, authorized to loot her,” the draft reads, according to a translation by The Guardian. “The violence that exists in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things.”

The document goes on to declare that access to clean drinking water is "an essential human right, fundamental and universal." It describes the disproportionate effects of climate change on poor populations, whose "livelihoods depend heavily on nature reserves." It also accuses those with more resources and greater economic power of "making the problems or hiding the symptoms" of climate change.

“The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions,” the draft reads. "Today we cannot help but recognize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice in the discussions of the environment, to hear the cry of the earth as much as the cry of the poor."

Vatican officials reacted swiftly to the leak, saying the document was not the final version of the pope’s letter and urging journalists to respect a Thursday embargo. However, multiple U.S. publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, reported on the contents of the document Monday.

The Vatican announced on June 4 that the encyclical would not be released to the press until Thursday, June 18. It is unclear how L'Espresso acquired the draft ahead of the embargo.

Joshua McElwee, who covers the Vatican for the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter, tweeted that most other Italian news outlets had decided not to publish anything about the contents of the leaked document.

A Vatican official called the leak a “heinous act” in an interview with Bloomberg.

Pope Francis has spoken often about the moral obligation to protect the environment. His encyclical on the topic has been anticipated for over a year.

On May 15, Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Vatican official who helped write a first draft of the encyclical, emphasized the “all-embracing moral imperative” to care for the environment. He said that wealthy countries, in particular, “are morally obligated... to reduce their own carbon emissions and to help protect poorer countries from the disasters caused or exacerbated by the excesses of industrialization.”

The leaked draft invites people everywhere to participate in the task of environmental protection, though it remains to be seen to what extent the pope can actually influence the global conversation on climate change. A HuffPost/YouGov poll in May found that while 82 percent of Americans and 84 percent of American Catholics believe humans have a “moral duty to protect the environment,” only 52 percent of the general population and the same percentage of U.S. Catholics think climate change is caused by humans. (For the record, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate change is indeed being caused by humans.)

The document offers a word of hope, however, saying the task of protecting the earth should “unite the whole human family.”

“The Creator does not abandon us, he never backed down in his plan of love," the draft reads, according to HuffPost's translation. "Humanity still has the ability to work together to build our common home.”

This article has been updated with translated excerpts of the leaked encyclical.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Fundamentalists Think Science Is Atheism

By Karl Giberson, Ph.D

Posted: 06/12/2015 6:46 pm EDT Updated: 06/12/2015 6:59 pm EDT

Equating science with atheism is one of the most dangerous byproducts of America's culture wars. This strange polarization portends disaster, as the country divides into factions that cannot find common ground on the way the world operates. And it goes without saying that there will be no agreement on what should be done when scientifically significant issues need political action.

I was reminded of this a few days ago when Beacon Press released my book: Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible's First Man to Oppress, Inspire, and Make Sense of the World. The book was inspired by the controversy raging in evangelical Christianity about whether Adam and Eve were actual historical figures. Recent advances in genetics have made it quite clear that the human race never consisted of just two individuals and Christian geneticists have been working overtime trying to convince their respective faith communities they need to pay attention. Most of them are not.

In the book I show how Adam evolved from an obscure character in Jewish literature to the "Central Myth of the West," and now stands as an almost impenetrable barrier to millions of Christians accepting modern science.

Many Christians, unfortunately believe their faith requires a "first man" who sinned and brought trouble on the world (feminists can thank two millennia of patriarchy for getting the "first woman" off the hook). The central Christian theme is "Creation-Fall-Redemption": God creates a perfect world; Adam "falls" by sinning, wrecks everything, and God curses the creation with death and suffering; and Christ redeems the world. In this picture Adam and Christ function as symmetrical "bookends": Adam breaks everything and Christ fixes it.

Adam and Eve thus stand on the bullseye of the controversy about evolution -- a controversy that has taken on new urgency over the past few decades as the human genome has been mapped. This progress has established with near certainty that humans are closely related to chimps and bonobos, with whom they share a common ancestor; that the human race originated in Africa millennia before the events in Genesis took place; and that the human race never consisted of only two people. The conclusion is clear: The couple described in the opening pages of the Bible never existed -- and thus could not have precipitated the disaster known as "The Fall."

Without Adam, the traditional formula that has long defined Christianity must be reinvented and many Christians are convinced that this is impossible. Millions of Americans would prefer to reject science, rather than bid farewell to the first man: "The denial of an historical Adam and Eve as the first parents of all humanity and the solitary first human pair," warns the influential and widely followed Southern Baptist theologian Al Mohler, "severs the link between Adam and Christ which is so crucial to the Gospel."

I was reminded of the starkness of this division this week when the first discussion of my book began to appear. The journal Books & Culture ran an interview with me discussing the book and the first comment to appear was the following:

"All this is a good example of believing man's word instead of God's Word. That is, making a compromise with atheists."

If this were a single voice it could be ignored. But the sad reality is that this view runs through much of evangelical Christianity in America. It has taken up residence in the GOP, where denying various sciences -- evolution, geology, climate science -- has become a de facto requirement for election. Many evangelical colleges have it in their faith statement. Public school teachers find themselves embroiled in controversy simply teaching the material in the Biology text. Ken Ham's entire Answers in Genesis project is based on it. The starting point for so many Christian has become the absolute truth of a particular interpretation of the Genesis creation story. And any alternative viewpoint is now understood to be a "compromise with atheists."

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Why Mike Huckabee Fails His Christian Duty By Mocking Transgender People

USA Today | By Kristen Powers

Posted: 06/11/2015 8:43 pm EDT Updated: 06/11/2015 8:59 pm EDT

How should Christians treat transgender people?

The answer seems obvious: With respect and love. Yet former governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite of Christian conservatives, took to mocking transgender people at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention as he criticized city ordinances that allow people to use public restrooms based on how they identify their gender.

The website Buzzfeed unearthed a video of the February comments in which the former Baptist minister quipped, “Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE. I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’” As the presumably Christian audience clapped and giggled, Huckabee said, “You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

Yes, it does. But not for the reason they think. What’s ridiculous — and sad — is that Huckabee, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and his audience appear to believe that transgender people are perpetrating some sort of hoax so they can gain access to public restrooms or locker rooms. Or that they’ve chosen to identify with a particular gender on a whim. This disregards the actual lives of transgender people, some of whom (though not all) have described feeling trapped in the wrong body from a young age. What’s so funny about that?

Worse, the butt of this joke are people who are already too frequently marginalized by society. According to the Human Rights Campaign, transgender people are nearly four times more likely to have an annual household income of less than $10,000 and twice as likely to be unemployed compared with the general population. The 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that “78 percent of those who expressed a transgender identity or gender non-conformity while in grades K-12 reported harassment — harassment so severe it led 15 percent to leave school.”

The majority of the youth surveyed by HRC in 2014 reported they lacked a supportive family member to help them face the harassment and ostracizing at school.

One twentysomething transgender person told Religion News Service columnist Jonathan Merritt in 2013, that his growing up in the church was damaging. He felt he couldn’t talk to his parents or his pastor. Instead, the then-she, prayed God would help her become a boy.

Yet when Huckabee was asked about his cruel joke — a version of which he has told on a few occasions — he dismissed the query, saying, “Nobody ever asks me about it except the media. They’re the only ones who seem to be stirred up about it.” While attempting to indict journalists, Huckabee was in fact indicting those who surround him who he seems to be suggesting are indifferent to Christian unkindness toward transgender people.

Though Huckabee might believe that being transgender is sinful, that’s not a uniform position. Pat Robertson acknowledged in 2013 that “I think there are men who are in a woman’s body. It’s very rare, but it’s true. Or women that are in men’s bodies.” Robertson added, “I don’t think there’s any sin associated with” transitioning to the other gender.

The church should be the safest place in the world to discuss personal struggles. Huckabee could help make it so by saying two simple words: I’m sorry.

(Kirsten Powers writes weekly for USA TODAY and is author of the upcoming “The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.”)

Friday, June 12, 2015

In the Boat Together

Sunday, June 21
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Focus Theme
In the Boat Together

Weekly Prayer
Keeper of our lives, you know the hardness and gentleness of human hearts. You call your people to faithful living. Through the storms of life that bring suffering and fear, joy and laughter, teach us to turn to you for all we need, so that we may come to know your presence even in the midst of the trials that surround us. Amen.

Focus Reading
Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Reflection by Kate Matthews (Huey)

In last week's reading, the Gospel of Mark recounted the parable of Jesus about the tiny mustard seed growing into a mighty tree. This week, the story continues but seems to take a sudden turn, from quiet and promising to things much more disturbing and dramatic. The disciples are in a boat with Jesus, in the midst of a storm that frightens even these seasoned fishermen. In spite of the powerful things they have already seen Jesus do, they are certain that they're headed for destruction. Their question, "Don't you care that we are perishing?" (v. 38) is ambiguous: it may indicate that they lack confidence that Jesus could act, but it may also indicate their concern about whether he would act in the midst of this crisis. "Don't you care?" they ask. Instead of trusting Jesus, they "feared a great fear," as verse 41 is more accurately translated. Mark writes for the early church, tossed on the stormy seas of persecution, but his message is for us today, that God is with us always, even in the face of powers that might overwhelm us. There is much to consider here, including the mysterious reality of God's love and presence with us in every circumstance. Thus, we can faith that this power at the heart of the universe, at the heart of all reality, vibrates with love and goodness, and, in the end, will allow all things to unfold in justice and peace, making all things right, including our small but immeasurably precious lives.

For Further Reflection

African Proverb
"Smooth seas do not make for a skillful sailor."

Dean Smith, 20th century
"If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you'll die a lot of times."

Woody Allen, 20th century
"I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Eleanor Roosevelt, 20th century
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Jews And Muslims Work Together

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Jews And Muslims Work Together At Salaam Shalom Kitchen To Serve Nottingham's Needy

Muslims and Jews in the United Kingdom have teamed up to work toward a common goal -- eradicating hunger in their city of Nottingham.
The Salaam Shalom Kitchen, or SaSh, is a project of the Nottingham Liberal Synagogue and Himmah, an Islamic social justice group. Members of the two worship centers are joining forces on Wednesdays to serve meals to the city’s needy.
The pop-up kitchen runs out of The Bridge Centre, a community center located in the basement of the Boulevard United Reformed Church in Hyson Green. It’s a free community cafe open to anyone in need of a hot meal or a good conversation, and both adults and children volunteer there.
soup kitchen

Salaam Shalom volunteers.

According to Karen Worth, social action lead for the synagogue, the project has fed about 70 people over the Wednesdays since its May 20 launch. She said the Jewish community’s bonds with Himmah have been growing stronger.
“So far we are already making friends between the [two] groups and this can only get better,” Worth told the Huffington Post in an email. “Doing practical tasks and eating together are really good ways to connect and get to know people.”
According to the country’s Office for National Statistics, Nottingham had the highest unemployment rate in the U.K. in 2013. About 30 percent of households with adults of working age had members with no paid employment.

Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich of the Nottingham Liberal Synagogue and Sajid Mohammed, co-founder of Himmah.

Himmah’s co-founder Sajid Mohammed said Salaam Shalom is also meant to address a rise in both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism he’s seen over the past year.
“Nottingham for the most part has been quite sheltered but we felt that now is the right moment to give hope and demonstrate our communities' values of compassion, dignity and care to others,” Mohammed told The Nottingham Post.