tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11701754020170873742024-03-05T18:02:07.950+11:00Ethos EnvironmentOfficial blog of Ethos Environment, the environment/creation care think tank for Ethos - www.ethos.org.auMick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.comBlogger198125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-89557519703710049252019-05-16T11:26:00.003+10:002019-05-16T12:07:36.582+10:00The ten commandments of the creation caring Christian<br />
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Recently a friend of mine and thoughtful ecotheologian, Byron Smith, had <a href="https://www.eternitynews.com.au/world/ten-ways-my-family-tries-to-love-the-planet/" target="_blank">an article posted on Eternity News</a>, an Australian based Christian news site. It highlighted ten ways his family tries to love the planet, all grounded in the good news that God is incarnate in Jesus.</div>
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Oftentimes the comments can be 'disappointing.' One response I found curious, if not somewhat enigmatic. One Christian identified the ten commandments as their source of ethics. Did they mean to say that Byron's list was not useful, or biblical, or were they simply looking past the need to care for creation by returning to what they saw as a solid biblical handle for individual ethics? I don't know, but it did inspire me to think a little more deeply about the ten commandments and the creation.</div>
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Firstly, it is always worth remembering that the Law was given to Israel, so we have do some work to make it applicable for the church, a) because we are not members of God's one people within a national boundary (despite what some people think about manifest destiny) and b) we live the other side of the cross. Secondly, the ten commandments were addressed to a nation, not just individuals. It is about public and private, corporate and individual. And thirdly, love sums up all. </div>
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And now to the commandments. This is pretty rushed, but you get the picture.<br />
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You shall not steal</div>
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<i>I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.</i></div>
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God is a saving god. We see in the plagues in Exodus the gods of Egypt powerfully defeated. In them, the Lord is shown to be redeemer, but in mastering the forces of creation, God is also seen to be creator. Genesis 1 for example makes this clear, and indeed in the Garden narrative we see a link between creation, human vocation, sin, punishment, and the need for the undoing of curses between humans, God, and creation. It's this story that moves through Genesis to the genealogy leading to Abram, which then comes down to the Exodus through his family. The calling of Israel then is not just 'to be saved' but to be the agents of blessing to the nations of the world, and working against the curses, including that of the Earth.</div>
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A word on caring for creation then. Often it is said that 'the environment' becomes a god for some Christians. Yet clearly throughout Scripture, to care for creation is to honour the God who made it, and will redeem it, and to fulfil the human vocation.</div>
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<i>You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them</i></div>
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Christians concerned about caring for creation can be accused of making the environment and idol. Yet I have seen full time Christian ministry held up as the highest calling for Christians. An idol much? When you question the doctrine of the church or the opinions of someone's favourite scholar or preacher. An idol much? When you suggest that 'Western civilisation' has some issues with a racist and colonial past but you are being 'unAustralian.' An idol much? When you show that behind western capitalism is the idol of greed, and that this is a major driving of environmental destruction, the ruination of God's good creation, but you are making an idol of the environment? Calvin said the human heart was an idol factory, but this apparently only applies to those who worship the creator by considering the creation of high value!</div>
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<i>You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.</i></div>
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Attaching God's name to things that are our own agendas is a misuse of the divine name (this isn't just about cursing here). C S Lewis warned about 'Christianity and' and it is a warning we must take clearly. But this isn't exclusive to ham-fisted attempts to combine environmentalism to Christianity. Digging into the bible reveals a deep vein of valuing the creation. Same can't be said for the white supremacism that has been attached to the missionary movement in days gone by, Western colonialism, capitalism, Constantinianism, etc, etc. Christians often covet being at the centre of power, are happy the Lord's Prayer is recited in parliament while the same parliament vandalises creation, works hand in hand with crooked coal barons, and locks up innocent asylum seekers indefinitely. But saying the Lord's Prayer makes it all right and 'Christian.' Everyone has an agenda for God's name. Don't think that those who care for creation are the only ones at risk.</div>
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<i>Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.</i></div>
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The rhythm of life is grounded in a seven day pattern of creation. Human beings and domestic creatures rest from toil on the seventh day. Reliance on divine provision runs counter to the culture of endless work and acquisition, the very forces driving the destruction of the planet. Our desire to consume is killing us and everything else. This destroys the family. This destroys our mental and physical health. This destroys our planet. If you worship the creator, you don't run it all into the ground in the pursuit of what the world chases. That's idolatry.</div>
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<i>Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.</i></div>
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The value of family is central to Jewish and Christian thinking. I wonder if we honour previous generations if we trash the planet they enjoyed? Do we honour them if we pass on blindly their traditions and ideas of the good life that are ruining creation? To honour is not simply to follow blindly. And yet when previous generations (like my parents) remember rationing during war, maybe we honour them when we learn those lessons of frugality, self-control in the face of dire challenges, and the need to avoid conflicts at all costs, conflicts climate change might make possible. </div>
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<i>You shall not murder.</i></div>
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Australia has seen years of TV ad campaigns against drink driving. Sure if you kill someone because you were irresponsible you might get off on manslaughter, but they died because of your alcohol fuelled lifestyle right? So if people are dying now and will die in droves now due to our fossil fuelled lifestyles, where's the difference? Plenty you say? But do you really understand the interconnectedness of the global economy and the planetary system? Australia's contribution is small? Not per capita. We are part of a culture of death – and need to change it and ourselves. Want to be pro-life? Be pro-climate, pro-conservation, pro-trees.</div>
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<i>You shall not commit adultery.</i></div>
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Ok, I'm struggling to make this one fit. Social cohesion. Truthfulness. Faithfulness. All good and transferable. But here's one. We have been fruitful, and multiplied. Remember the animals are given the same blessing in Genesis 1. So we can stop being so fruitful – those in the west with the most highly consumptive lifestyles go first!</div>
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<i>You shall not steal.</i></div>
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Dig it all up. Burn it all. Make the planet unliveable. Stealing from our children's future. Somethings are lost forever. You are stealing food, clean air, drinkable water, beauty to enjoy. Oh and in destroying it by land clearing, climate change, pollution, we are also stealing from the creator. Tell me again about having no gods before God or no idols?</div>
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<i>You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.</i></div>
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I have lost count of the number of times Christians who don't understand the science bear false witness against climate scientists, who don't know the heart of those who care for creation but label them as heretical or brainwashed or lefties or any other slur of false witness. So many convenient lies about others because the truth of what we are all doing, particularly the privileged and powerful is too painful to face. </div>
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<i>You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.</i></div>
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Ignoring for the moment this commandment treats women as goods, the whole edifice of advertising seeks to make us dissatisfied. Social media can drive the same thing. Covet. Want. Consume. God wants to bless you materially with money, social influence (but oh it's really for the gospel), etc. And this system is killing us and the creation (see above). </div>
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Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-84282815733033026572019-04-08T14:15:00.000+10:002019-04-08T14:15:04.960+10:00Hope that demands action<br />
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Hope that demands action<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A sermon on Romans 8:19-23 preached by Dr Mick Pope at St
Andrew’s Uniting Church, Brisbane, April 7 2019.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Introduction
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’d like to begin by thanking you for the invitation to
speak to you this morning. But I also have to have to brag at your expense. For
those who follow Rugby Union, the Melbourne Rebels were up here a couple of
weeks ago and beat the Queensland Reds. There is something else Victoria beats
you at, although I am less proud to speak about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We had our hottest summer on record, along with four other states.
However, as a consolation prize it was your hottest January on record, with
rainforest damaged by fire, and record breaking rains in Townsville. All of
this consistent with long term warning trends, and the warmest Australian
summer on record. Now I know that some in the churches are unwilling to accept
that climate change is real, but I want you to suspend your disbelief if that
is you and come along on a journey with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Recently, roughly 150,000 Australian school kids participated in
the school climate strike, and I attended during my lunch break in support. I
was very proud of them. The strike is an expression of their anger at
politicians on both side of the spectrum, whom they believe are not delivering
enough on climate change. This generation is growing up in a different climate
to the one you and I have, and they have fear and anxiety about the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I went home, a friend of mine who writes for Eternity News, a
Christian website, asked me to jump onto their Facebook page and answer some of
the comments on a piece they had published. The article spoke about two
Christian schoolgirls who had attended the strike. After 45 minutes of
responding, I was despondent and had a stress headache. There was so much
outrage, with comments of ‘fake news,’ poorly understood science, and poor
theology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What would you say to the youth of today? Particularly those
within the church? Do you respond with denial, or simply say that God is in
charge and not to worry about it? How does the church become more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pro</i>-active and less <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">re</i>-active on climate change?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our text for this morning reads<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">20 </span></sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,
but because of Him who subjected it, in hope <sup>21 </sup>that the creation
itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of
the glory of the children of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Straight off the bat, Paul
is making two big theological statements that say ‘God is in charge’:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God has subjected creation to futility<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God will set it free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So doesn’t that wrap it all up? Can’t you say ‘Mick, there’s
no more to say, just sit down?’ We I think that this passage begs three
questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What is the nature of this futility?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How will creation be set free?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Is there anything we can do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So let’s look at each of these questions in turn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1. What is the nature of
this futility?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is best to start at the beginning. If ever like me you
have tried to read the bible from cover to cover, you would have started with
Genesis. We learn about the beauty of creation and its great blessing, and
human responsibility in Genesis 1-2. In Genesis 1 we learn that to be made in
the image of God means to be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth, which
means to engage in agriculture and feed ourselves. In Genesis 2 and verse 15,
we learn of our vocation to care, tend, and keep the earth. We have an intimate
relationship with the soil, the pun from the Hebrew being humans from the
hummus. And then in Genesis 3, it all goes pear shaped, or better still apple
shaped. Our relationship with the soil becomes cursed. We see the same thing at
end of the book of Deuteronomy where Moses warns the people of Israel to remain
faithful. Human disobedience leads to broken relationships with the soil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So the subjection to frustration in Romans is due to the
fact that God has let us run it – and what a fine job we’ve done of polluting
the air and water, cutting down trees, warming the climate, and killing all the
animals (60% of all living things in less than 50 years).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In Rome, Paul could also see the devastation that human
misrule brought. He could see the regular silting up of the Tiber River because
all of the trees had been cleared, and it needed to be dredged regularly.
Although Paul and the ancients did not understand this, this swampy ground was
the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. In 452 AD, those brave Huns were
afraid to enter Rome because of the bad air, or malaria. There is evidence to
show that malaria was one of the factors that was involved in the collapse of
Rome. The air quality was also poor. Philosopher and Senator Seneca (4BC – 65
AD) wrote that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“No sooner had I left behind the oppressive atmosphere of
the city and the reek of smoking cookers, which pour out, along with clouds of
ashes, all the poisonous fumes they’ve accumulated … I noticed the change in my
condition at once.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Paul was making an observation then not in the abstract, but
in the particulars of how Roman misrule produced damage to the world around
him. In Romans chapter 1, he identifies the root of these problems, that we
make idols out of things like wealth and power. Reformer John Calvin identified
the heart as an idol factory, and Paul would agree, and link that idolatry to
damage to creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In our day, Pope Francis notes in the encyclical <i>Laudato
Si’</i> that “the present ecological crisis is one small sign of the ethical,
cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity.” In other words, the worship of
progress, technology, consumerism and individualism, which may have once been done
in ignorance, is now done in full knowledge of the consequences for our world,
God’s good creation. This is recognised both within and outside of the church. Environmentalist
Gus Speth says “The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and
apathy … to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation …
we scientists don’t know how to do that.” But we in the church do! We know
about repentance. What is needed by the church is to join the dots between sin
and repentance with issues of the environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2. How will creation be set free?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The answer to my second question, how will the creation be
set free, is found in verses 22-23.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For we know that the whole
creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. <sup>23</sup>
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our
bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Creation is suffering now in birth pains, but that suffering
will one day give way to joy. Any woman here who has carried a child will know
what this is like. I can remember watching my own wife with her distended
belly, it getting hard to get comfortable at night. But the suffering is all
worth it when a child is born. What Paul is saying is that creation is longing
for the resurrection of the dead like a pregnant woman groans for the baby to
come out. Renewed humanity at the resurrection means a renewed relationship
with the Earth, and not the abandonment of it. Christianity is not just about
going to heaven when you die like some Christians believe. Anglican theologian
Tom Wright has said that heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the
world. The future of us and the future of the creation are entangled together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What this means is that we have a message of hope to offer
the world. But what does that mean for the here and now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3. Hope comes with responsibility<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My last point then is that
hope comes with responsibility. We might ask that if God has subjected the
creation to frustration under our sinful misrule, and God will save it, why
should we do anything? If the present state of things is God’s will, how can we
contest it? Paul has addressed a similar idea in Romans 6:1 where he asks shall
we go on sinning that grace may abound? He responds with an emphatic by no
means!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We know that sin, idolatry, greed, and wilful ignorance of the harms
we have done will lead to judgment. In Revelation it says that God will destroy
those who judge the Earth. God’s judgment on sin and idolatry leads to more
environmental harms, and people suffering. Why would we not repent of this? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why knowingly do things that hurt others we
don’t know, or our children who will inherit this world, the very school
children who took part in the strike?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If you knew that you were going to receive a heart transplant
after a lifetime of drinking, smoking, and eating badly, would you wait until
after the surgery, or would you start living a healthier lifestyle now? God is
the great surgeon, but we are called upon to be good patients. Or imagine
learning to drive in the old ‘family bomb.’ You are promised a new car when you
turn 18 and get your licence, so you are not going to wait until then to learn
to drive. What Paul is saying is that when we get the new car, we will discover
that it is the old one, renovated to be even better than before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Furthermore, we have a responsibility not only to live more gently
on the earth, but to speak up. Paul wrote his letter to Christians in Rome,
right at the centre of the biggest empire of the day. His letter could not
avoid being political. Paul proclaimed in Romans that Jesus was son of God but
Roman coins read that Caesar was “Son of God, Father of His Country.” Paul
claimed creation groaned in birth pains while the Roman poet Horace said of
Augustus Caesar that “Your age, O Caesar, has restored plenteous crops to the
land.” A Caesar had to keep the crops plenteous to keep people filled,
otherwise they might rebel. So Paul is making a statement that Rome was
engaging in what we would now call greenwashing, that the emperor has no
clothes. So when power contradicts truth we need to speak truth to power -
including on climate change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So the gospel always
opposes powers gone wrong. We have both the right and opportunity to speak out
as the church to call the world to repentance on matters of sin. Many
Christians take a stand on gambling, slavery, medical ethics. Why not climate
change? When leaders, those in business, etc aren’t acting to take better care
of God’s creation, the church has the responsibility to speak out – and dare I
suggest skipping a day of school to do so is ok?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So let me then close by
asking, what are you willing to do to live faithfully as a good steward of
creation until Christ returns to set creation free?</span></div>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-71959372626590931822018-10-16T12:29:00.001+11:002018-10-16T12:29:49.953+11:00Anote's ArkWow, I did't realise how long it had been since I last blogged. Things have been busy, including starting a Masters degree looking at a biblical hermeneutic for the Anthropocene, and writing two books. More of that later. Last night I went to the Melbourne screening of <i>Anote's Ark</i>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/kiribati/map_of_kiribati.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="466" height="240" src="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/kiribati/map_of_kiribati.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anote Tong is the former president of Kiribati, a collection of coral atolls in the western Pacific. He often describes Kiribati as being the centre of the world, since the islands are located on both sides of the equator and the dateline. He has been a tireless campaigner on climate change since taking office, and afterwards, even now the new government have taken a big (and sadly poorly theologically informed) step away from his policies.<br />
<br />
This excellent documentary shows a true statesman, who while acknowledging that even 1.5 C of warming wont save his home in the longer term, it will make a difference in the short term for his country, and in the longer term for others. This is the conclusion too of a <a href="http://ipcc.ch/report/sr15/" target="_blank">recent IPCC report on a 1.5 C world</a>.<br />
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The documentary also follows a young family who choose to start a new life in New Zealand under a migration program (Australia take note). Sermery leaves home to raise funds for the rest of her family to join here in New Zealand. Watching her go through six months without her children was hard to take. We have the privilege of seeing her have a child in her new home, marking a new phase in their lives, but a phase that signals the slow end to their unique culture.<br />
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As Anote reminds us, the people of Kiribati are the canary in the coal mine. If we do not act, their present will be our future. What is all the more galling for me is that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/while-my-island-nation-sinks-australia-is-doing-nothing-to-solve-climate-change" target="_blank">Australia continues to do little</a> for the people of Kiribati. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/10/poor-countries-urge-australia-to-honour-green-climate-fund-commitments" target="_blank">Prime Minister is calling into question commitment to the Green Climate Fund </a>which is designed to help nations like Kiribati to adapt to climate change. Funny how under colonisation we were happy to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/an-island-destroyed-from-tropical-paradise-to-ghostly-mining-town" target="_blank">take their phosphate cheaply in the past</a>, much like Nauru. I guess Kiribati is too far away for offshore detention? Love your neighbour as yourself.<br />
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The event was put on by the <a href="http://www.effa.org.au/" target="_blank">Environmental Film Festival Australia</a>. Well worth your time and patronage.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UE2_maYEqF8" width="560"></iframe>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-90421614239488111292017-06-15T13:26:00.000+10:002017-06-15T13:26:01.644+10:00Pie in the sky? Geoengeering not a fix for our problems<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ag5liC6v5p4XipJXQYIwc85vq51fS8b5uH87IxPrI02-pKj709o_Ul7NKtrtByOU807RGkdQzlakYppxrtTPvdCrZAPCNSr27KWOXEyUMEqPZtuPnbMPtSo65y_ATHpE2YdPUTD2U1dc/s1600/pinatubo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Ag5liC6v5p4XipJXQYIwc85vq51fS8b5uH87IxPrI02-pKj709o_Ul7NKtrtByOU807RGkdQzlakYppxrtTPvdCrZAPCNSr27KWOXEyUMEqPZtuPnbMPtSo65y_ATHpE2YdPUTD2U1dc/s320/pinatubo.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Mount Pinatubo produced enough sulphur to combat a double CO2 scenario, but also declines in global rainfall.</b></div>
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One of the things that has been keeping me from blogging of late has been a journal article on a theology of geoengineering.<br />
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I make no secret of not being a fan. Geoengineering is planetary scale intervention in the Earth system to combat climate change. It is plan B after we have failed to take proper action. A number of the technologies have nasty side effects. None of them will work alone. The effort would be better placed into a massive switch to greater efficiency, renewable energy and restructuring our cities (which will have to move anyway thanks for committed to levels of sea level rise.<br />
<br />
But I also think there are theological issues which address the problems that geoengineering seeks to solve as well. We've lived for too long in the bubble of our own power. Inherited from Francis Bacon, technology and science are seen as a source of power to endlessly manipulate an inert environment. This view should be collapsing in the Anthropocene, but ecomodernism pushes geoengineering. Two theological frameworks can be constructed.<br />
<br />
1. Based on Genesis, particularly chapter 1, creation can be envisaged as a temple, sacred to God. This means humans have a priestly role of service. This is not exclusive of use, but challenges mechanistic views alone of human mastery over inert matter. The Earth is not simply a resources or a laboratory. Add to this Aboriginal theology that sees the Creator Spirit as present in the land.<br />
<br />
2. Based on 1 Kings 16-18, technology like geoengineering can be viewed as a form of Baalism - seeking from the cause of the problem also the solution.<br />
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To read more, see <a href="https://www.academia.edu/33469106/Placating_the_Baals_Towards_a_Theology_of_Geoengineering" target="_blank">the draft on Academia.edu</a>.<br />
<br />Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-25914493232384868512017-04-23T21:49:00.002+10:002017-04-23T21:49:49.505+10:00Of ballet and reefs<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZLs26mEL0j5HQ2o-7FzmGYgfzk1Op651ObWqIQRygisUGSLlgHYcdJW8oEF8VZO0ZTnQ_MA9ulDJif0YZ5KnkRp-ogskrWd_klqgTUNGHWiE4t_QH0Kyx29EWvm3VlFPPw79ZmsA5GAc/s1600/Coral_Outcrop_Flynn_Reef.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZLs26mEL0j5HQ2o-7FzmGYgfzk1Op651ObWqIQRygisUGSLlgHYcdJW8oEF8VZO0ZTnQ_MA9ulDJif0YZ5KnkRp-ogskrWd_klqgTUNGHWiE4t_QH0Kyx29EWvm3VlFPPw79ZmsA5GAc/s200/Coral_Outcrop_Flynn_Reef.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i>Great Barrier Reef. (Toby Hudson, Creative Commons)</i></div>
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I had the pleasure of speaking at Merri Creek Anglican today, following World Earth Day. The audio will be <a href="http://www.merricreek.org/talks/" target="_blank">here</a> soon. I gave one of my standard sermons on creation, following Psalm 104 - a meditation on the beauty of creation, including in its savageness. I've written a paper on this in the EcoCare journal and blogged elsewhere.</div>
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The night before, I took my family to the Shanghai Ballet perform Swan Lake at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. A beautiful dance production with beautiful moves and costumes in a beautiful building.</div>
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And then I was reminded of the unifying theme, that of beauty. The world abounds in beauty. Humans at their best create beauty. Art, ballet, music, poetry, literature. These things are not the frilly bits at the edge of society and theologian Tom Wright points out, but stand at the middle of what society is about. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Civilisation-Blu-ray/dp/B00EP0349U/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1492947140&sr=8-13&keywords=civilisation" target="_blank">Kenneth Clark</a> understood that art was one of the cornerstones of civilisation.</div>
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There is a meme, which is false, circulating that Winston Churchill claimed that part of the point of fighting WWII was to defend ideas like art. Why cut funding to the arts during a time of war. Churchill did however say:</div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4f4f3; color: #201c1f; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">“The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them….Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due.”</span></div>
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This is in contrast to President Trumps cut to the arts, which occurs at the same time to savage cuts to environmental care. Coincidence? I think not.<br />
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You see, I think that capitalism at its worst is all about brutalism in reducing everything to the utilitarian or that which can be consumed (which is not to say socialism is without its faults). The art, like nature, is not consumed. These things are appreciated, related to. And theologically, both and art and nature have artists that lie behind them.<br />
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My thought then is to give the best of myself over to the contemplation of love and beauty, to living lovingly and aesthetically, to preserve both.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-34245163779032537542017-04-06T13:42:00.002+10:002017-04-06T13:42:36.817+10:00Beauty can save the world<i>The following piece made it into the final ten for a writing competition for the magazine New Philosopher and is previously unpublished.</i><br />
<br />
It is becoming an accepted scientific idea that we are
living in a new geological age, the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is
characterised by a profound disruption of the relatively stable climate
humanity has enjoyed over about 12,000 years, during the period known as the
Holocene. We have come to take this stability for granted; it’s the period
where civilisations have arisen, characterised by structured states reliant on
agriculture to feed growing numbers, writing, art, religion, trade, and the
beginnings of science. Few of us can appreciate a time when summer did not
follow spring, when crops were not disrupted for more than a season or so, and
food was not plentiful.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is not to say that the Holocene has been all beer and
skittles. The Little Ice Age in Europe saw the rise of witch trials in
politically insecure states, played a role in the French Revolution, and was a
factor in the writing of Frankenstein. A prolonged change in the state of El
Niño helped drive the collapse of the Mayan Empire. History is littered with
such examples. But the Anthropocene is different; it involves moral agency. Not
only do we remake the world in our ignorance, but we also do so intentionally.
We have released enough carbon dioxide to warm the planet and make the oceans more
acidic, manufactured enough nitrogen based fertiliser for agriculture to
produce dead zones in lakes, rivers and oceans. We’ve filled our oceans with
plastic, cleared vast tracts of land and threaten many species with extinction,
maybe as many as 50% by 2050.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One could make many pragmatic arguments for protecting a
natural world that gives us clean air and water, food and medicines, timber and
other raw materials. But these don’t seem to work. And while an impulsive
survival instinct will drive us in adrenaline driven sprint to protect what we
have, it is neither sustaining nor effective. Instead, I believe beauty will
save us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For some, beauty is ephemeral, subjective, and a luxury at
best, if not a distraction. Philosophy has not always done us favours. How do
we approach beauty? For Kant, our experience of beauty is a “disinterested
delight.” Beauty is something to be catalogued, analysed, and objectified. We
analyse what makes something beautiful and miss the beauty itself. We need to
transcend such analyses.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What seems to me a right reaction to beauty can be found in
the writings of Alfred Russell Wallace. Wallace spent many years in the Malay
Archipelago, collecting species and theorising about their origins. He was the
co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution. His paper was
read at the same time as Darwin’s at the royal society. Wallace’s reaction at
discovering a new species of butterfly is worth quoting at length from T<i>he Malay Archipelago</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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“The beauty and
brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can
understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it.
On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to
beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting
than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the
rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to
most people a very inadequate cause.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Note Wallace’s
reactions. The experience of beauty is indescribable, i.e. it transcends his
training and experience as a naturalist. It goes beyond language, and hence
represents a visceral, emotive response. And yet at the same time, his
expertise is what brings a certain attention to detail, a way of framing this
discovery in the context of the search for true knowledge about the world. He
acknowledges that to some, his strong reaction will seem over the top. Yet this
is not a man who has lost leave of his senses or himself, but has discovered
them in the presence of the other. That other happens to be a species of
butterfly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m reminded of
Keats’ poem about Newton. Keats accused Newton of unweaving a rainbow and
conquering mysteries. And yet any scientist will tell you that the scientific
discipline will never run out of things to probe or objects yet more beautiful
to appreciate. What if we understand laws that govern how light bounces around
in a rain drop, or how natural selection works, do we marvel any less? Are not
the grains of sand under a microscope or dark voids shown to be filled with
galaxies by telescopes, all the more beautiful for our technological wizardry?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beauty is part of
the fabric of what exists, both the things that prompt our sensory,
intellectual and personal experiences as Richard Cartwright Austin noted, but also
the existence of beauty perceivers themselves. Beauty exists for a reason, it
is true in that it exists as a quality or experience meant for creatures other
than us, and is therefore is independent of humans. Beauty is also good, in
that it fulfils the purposes for which it exists. Those purpose might be to
warn off predators that you are protected by toxins. It does no good to die in
the process of killing your killer. Beauty might be to attract a pollinator, or
a mate. It might be the display of fitness that says ‘don’t eat me’ or the
fleetness of foot that escapes the jaws that are also beautiful. Beauty might
be the destructive power of shifting plates in forming pleasing mountains, ice
sheets scraping away to produce deep lakes, forms of beauty quiet independent
of an eye to see.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beauty’s
appreciation is found in the eye of female birds of paradise choosing a mate,
or bower birds admiring their own constructions. It is hard to imagine that the
complex mind of a cuttlefish does not in some deep sense appreciate the
beautiful patterns a mate produces. And what creature does not enjoy the taste
of their favourite food? Is it survival instinct alone or aesthetic
appreciation also? Do humans alone make art? Do we alone appreciate the beauty
around us? Surely our aesthetic senses are finely honed, but let us not miss
the forest of beauty for the tree of objective analysis.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And neither let us
become so reductionist that evolution explains away beauty. Am I back tracking
on my disavowal of Keats’ charge? Not as such. Take for example evolutionary
biologist E. O. Wilson’s idea of biophilia, the contention that we find
beautiful in nature that which reminds us of life in the Pleistocene on the
African Savanna. Our tendency to like habitats that resemble this environment
have been mirrored in observations made by Europeans new to North America and
Australia, who appreciated those landscapes that made them think of orchards or
an English gentleman’s garden. The flipside of this preference was the attitude
toward Australian rainforests, or native fauna, and the desire to import British
wildlife. We can become stuck in our aesthetics, either by biology alone or also
by culture. Surely then we need to transcend either thinking we are, or being
bound by our genes in what we find beautiful.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The flip side of
beauty is ugliness. English theologian John Wesley preached against ugly
predators because he didn’t understand them. Predation might be hard to
stomach, yet the Platonic triad reminds us that what is beautiful is also true
and good. In the Anthropocene, what is not good and therefore not beautiful is
what we have done to planet Earth. Australian politician Tony Abbott find winds
farms ugly, but polluting, greenhouse producing coal fired power stations are
not beautiful, what they do is not good for any creature, and to deny this is
not being truthful.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The future must be one
of pursuing beauty. Humans must live and eat, we seek a good life marked by
truth and beauty in our relationships. Shouldn’t our technology be more
beautiful, not just more efficient? Alain de Botton says that our buildings
should do justice to the land that they occupy and the creatures that they have
displaced. Perhaps even more now, our civilisation can become more beautiful by
displacing less, more being in harmony with its surroundings, like architect Elora
Hardy’s magical houses of bamboo.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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The last word must
be given to love. Austin claims that ‘the experience of beauty creates
and sustains relationships.’ And what are relationships founded on, if not
love? Can we come to love the world, form relationships with landscape and
creature and appreciate their beauty in a manner analogous to the way in which
we appreciate the beauty of a lover or spouse? Surely we must, for while having
an environment that allows us to survive is important, humans long for more
than mere survival. In learning to love the beauty of the world around us, we
will do more than survive, we will thrive.<o:p></o:p></div>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-24525084045038902162017-04-05T13:35:00.000+10:002017-04-05T13:35:32.380+10:00Creation care in the country - my trip to Wagga Wagga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaK1WN8Y7VdAYRGiGgGg7LRYNRxuxu-EaDQ-OEMMptRK1FByTdu4W99ru6prmmQG_vdwnPABVvqbwdVHJeNo1Go6VYyKmb1ZKkY1ZzJQpYLw3sI0PlwEi3aygZmgj0UjScvXCrg_3DzCYB/s1600/17630182_10155366255673814_5152505639807557336_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaK1WN8Y7VdAYRGiGgGg7LRYNRxuxu-EaDQ-OEMMptRK1FByTdu4W99ru6prmmQG_vdwnPABVvqbwdVHJeNo1Go6VYyKmb1ZKkY1ZzJQpYLw3sI0PlwEi3aygZmgj0UjScvXCrg_3DzCYB/s320/17630182_10155366255673814_5152505639807557336_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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From time to time I get speaking invitations, which I relish. Preaching about climate change and other aspects of the Anthropocene is a passion of mine, albeit a mixed passion given the dire nature of where we find ourselves.<br />
<br />
After a friend of a friend visited our church and heard me preach, I was invited to Wagga Wagga, a country town in New South Wales of about 30,000 people, to speak at a morning and evening service at Wagga Wagga Baptist (audio <a href="http://www.wwbc.org.au/multimedia/podcasts/creation-care" target="_blank">here</a>, video <a href="https://livestream.com/waggabaptist/events/7201636" target="_blank">here</a>).<br />
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In the afternoon, I ran a workshop where we discussed a theology of mission in the Anthropocene (after some tech hassles) and practical outcomes. I also had the opportunity to speak to years 9-11 at the Christian school.<br />
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As the photo shows, I spent some time on a sheep farm as well, hosted by the head of their new Creation Care group.<br />
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One thing that impressed me about the church was the number of keen and capable people with a solid theology of creation care and practical skills in farming, geography, etc. They already have solar panels, and give away their savings in electricity bills to people who suffer the impacts of climate change overseas. Plans include a garden, involvement in Clean up Australia Day, and a number of other activities. They are taking to heart the suggestion that creation care ministries should be Public, Practical and Proclaiming the gospel.<br />
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I look forward to keep track of where they are at in years to come.<br />
<br />Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-70422621566794751682017-03-11T12:12:00.000+11:002017-03-11T12:12:46.062+11:00Partnership or enslavement? Human-bird relationshipsHumans have multiple and complex relationships with all species on the planet now, as we have entered into the age of the Anthropocene. But then again, even before we reached the level where we have dominated all of the natural cycles and threaten all of the planetary boundaries that support us, we have had relationships with other animals that are complex. Take for example cormorant fishing in China.<br />
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This clip from the BBC series <i>Wild China</i> looks at this old practice, and describes the cormorants as slaves. Is this a fair assessment? Are all forms of domestication best understand as enslavement of animals, or partnerships? When and what the birds can eat is limited, but eat they do. In fact, as opposed to a caged bird, the cormorants get to enter their natural habitat. They are trained, and not fully wild, intelligent and able to bend the rules. </div>
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The relationship is exploitative, but not just one way. The birds are employed to hunt for food, but are not themselves food. This kind of relationship may not extend much further into the 21st century, but it's a fascinating example of how humans can relate to non-humans in a non-consumptive fashion (except of course for the fish!)</div>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-89185324574557996442017-01-29T18:02:00.000+11:002017-01-29T18:02:45.545+11:00Don't look down Donald - climate and political change<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia16GsTGMe1xllz7whCcY4EqrZrwqxKb1lWovgMcPV9MxXz1KDHOjDGwf5qPpPsBShkytgOGkmoi7eUxONAfR4AHszhUF4VZMf8_MczC8Nd_dDHxgKlRK07LNWkt3VFpeHPgYxOCq0ILT4/s1600/cartoon+gravity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia16GsTGMe1xllz7whCcY4EqrZrwqxKb1lWovgMcPV9MxXz1KDHOjDGwf5qPpPsBShkytgOGkmoi7eUxONAfR4AHszhUF4VZMf8_MczC8Nd_dDHxgKlRK07LNWkt3VFpeHPgYxOCq0ILT4/s320/cartoon+gravity.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
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<br />
Have you ever watched cartoons where the character doesn't know that they are about to fall under the influence of gravity until they look down? I remember once watching a cartoon (I was sure it was Ren and Stimpy but can't find the episode) where the laws of gravity are held in the local court house. Someone accidentally rubs them out and gravity fails.<br />
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The equivalent of this appears to be happening in the US at the moment with climate change either <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/the-white-house-websites-page-on-climate-change-just-disappeared.html" target="_blank">being removed</a> or <span id="goog_45505617"></span><a href="https://www.cnet.com/au/news/trump-orders-epa-to-remove-web-page-on-climate-change-says-report/" target="_blank">planned to be removed</a><span id="goog_45505618"></span> from government webpages. This, together with planned sackings etc in the US (and indeed what has happened in Australia with the Climate Council which now is publicly funded and CSIRO) is the equivalent of trying to erase the law of gravity.<br />
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Now you might protest that climate change science and gravity cannot be equated, but hear me out.<br />
<br />
Firstly, both may be observed by anyone. Drop a brick on your foot, or keep track over the years when flowers first open or birds migrate. Keep a record of rainfall on your farm. A friend who worked in aid and development in Nepal for many years said there were no climate change skeptics there - because they could see it.<br />
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But secondly, both need some more careful observation. When Newton said that a body continues at a constant velocity unless acted upon by a force, he knew that in the absence of air that a pound of feathers and a pound of lead would fall at the same rate due to gravity (a fact someone I once worked with denied), but this is a level of abstraction since none of us lives in a vacuum (at least in the literal sense). Likewise, careful longterm datasets help us understand how natural change cannot fully explain the warming we see.<br />
<br />
Thirdly, while Einstein came along, and quantum gravity might yet arrive, Newton is still valid for everyday. Likewise, while we learn more about aerosols, the role of the oceans, the sun, etc in natural variability, the basics of greenhouse gases - depending on the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics and radiative transfer are also still valid. It really is warming, it really is our fault and it really will get bad if we don't act.<br />
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Trump's lies (sorry alternate facts) will not change the real facts - except they will become worse through inaction. Tell the truth and shame the devil my mum sometimes says. Or as it says in the ten commandments, don't bear false witness. Tell the truth about climate change during this era of Machiavellian, oligarchic lies.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-56353890160625756782016-12-17T10:01:00.000+11:002016-12-17T10:01:40.545+11:00Nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground. Adani and Australian coal<br />
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And some have sailed from a distant shore</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And the company takes what the company wants</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And nothing's as precious, as a hole in the ground</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Blue Sky Mine. Written by James Moginie, Martin Rotsey, Peter Garrett, Robert Hirst, Wayne Stevens • Copyright © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I've been a Midnight Oil fan for a number of years, and this lyric sticks in my head when I think about the issue with Adani in Australia. </span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">We know that to keep climate change below really dangerous levels - and it is worth noting with about a degree of warming already that the world is undergoing significant impacts (see for example </span><a href="http://theconversation.com/infographic-climate-change-and-2015s-year-of-wild-weather-70485" style="font-family: roboto, arial, "noto sans japanese", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">) - that we need to </span><a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081648" style="font-family: roboto, arial, "noto sans japanese", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" target="_blank">stop further fossil fuel exploration and extraction</a><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">. This is a no brainer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And yet in Australia we see a state government wanting to <a href="http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2016/10/9/queensland-government-steps-up-to-progress-adani-mine-project" target="_blank">fast track the Adani Carmichael mine as critical infrastructure</a>. With the previous concept, how in any reality is a new coal mine critical to anything other than wrecking the planet? </span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">At the same, the Australian Prime Minister wants to lend </span><a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2016/12/05/australian-government-giving-1-bn-loan-gautam-adani-carmichael-coal-mine" style="font-family: roboto, arial, "noto sans japanese", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" target="_blank">A$1 billion to build the needed rail links</a><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">. At a time when the poor and vulnerable are being targeted, and big companies pay little tax, how does such a loan in any way support the Australian economy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">India is also pushing ahead with solar power, set to <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/india-to-touch-15-gw-solar-power-production-by-march-2017/articleshow/53966358.cms" target="_blank">add another 6 GW</a> by early next year. <a href="http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/rooftop-and-off-grid-solar-to-soar-in-india-in-2017--says-bnef_100026722/#axzz4Sxwqqk8S" target="_blank">Roof top solar is growing</a>, with<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36681112" target="_blank"> the rural poor leapfrogging coal</a>. India is moving away from coal - so why is one rich man giving tax payers money to another rich man to fund a damaging product? </span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">And don't forget all the issu</span><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/decision-on-coal-mine-defies-reason-20160403-gnxbc6.html" style="font-family: roboto, arial, "noto sans japanese", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" target="_blank">es with the Great Barrier Reef. The</a><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"> impacts of a new port and emissions all directly impact the Reef, which is already suffering (forget Pauline Hanson's deliberately obscurantist stunt). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">A theology which sees the picture of Genesis 1-2 as portraying the Earth as a temple-cosmos (see the work of John Walton or any of the relevant talks on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+lost+world+of+genesis+one+" target="_blank">YouTube</a>) is not incompatible with the idea of mining (see Genesis 2:10-14) anymore than the idea of a temple precludes use (the priests in the Jerusalem temple ate part of the meat for example), but gets us to rethink the idea of resource (a big topic for another time). Michael Northcott for example points out it was medieval neo-Platonic Christians who had an issue with mining.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "noto sans japanese" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">My point is that a simple minded extractionist model is not suited to the world the way it is now, not in a warming climate. This mine is not needed, nor wanted by those of us who want a future for our children, this planet, and who see our care of the Earth as a sacred duty from God.</span></span>Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-40637146428387661912016-12-16T10:04:00.001+11:002016-12-16T10:04:30.210+11:00Truth tellers in a post-fact worldWe really should call a spade a spade. A post fact world is one of lies, spin, hype and ignorance as bliss. While science isn't perfect (it's done by finite and fallen humans), it does reveal things about the world. The relentless pursuit of the Socratic method in a systematic way yield results about cause and effect in the real world.<br />
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I think post modernism has something to answer for in eroding ideas of truth, but plain Machiavellian political cynicism, conservatism and fear of change seem to dominate politics in the West. This means climate change is given the poor treatment we see in the US and Australia. It is an 'inconvenient truth' for Donald Trump, a pragmatic, business minded demagogue.<br />
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When we understand something to be true, anything as Paul understands in Philippians (see my blog on Philippians 4:8 <a href="http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/gods-whatevers-a-meditation-on-philippians-4-8" target="_blank">here</a>), we need to weigh up how important it is. It is true that the capital of England is London, but most of the time that isn't all that important to me. That God exists or that human beings are warming the climate are far more pressing, worldview informing truths than mere facts.<br />
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The church are meant to be truth seekers, truth speakers - not giving false testimony. It is nice to see that the US political system hasn't given up on that yet, with California Governor Jerry Brown <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/california-governor-brown-challenges-trump-on-climate-change-1481770078" target="_blank">recently saying to climate scientists</a>:<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Chronicle SSm", serif; font-size: 16px;">“It’ll be up to you as truth-tellers, truth seekers to mobilize all your efforts to fight back,” the governor said. “This is not a battle of one day or one election. This is a long-term slog into the future and you are there, the foot soldiers of change and understanding and scientific collaboration.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Chronicle SSm", serif; font-size: 16px;">Christians are also committed to the future. Given the hope for global transformation then, our work now is to try and transform our politics, science, economy and ecology as we wait for that future. Don't give up on truth.</span>Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-91047488661159539702016-12-13T09:24:00.002+11:002016-12-13T09:24:52.821+11:00Studying Ecomission onlineWhen I started thinking in the area of ecological concern from a theological perspective, I had no idea really where it would take me, or who would end up reading what I wrote. I'm often running into people who have heard me speak or read what I've written (well not often but increasingly so) who have kind words to say.<br />
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So imagine my surprise recently when I received an email asking if I'd like to be involved in an online university dedicated to preparing people for mission work in all walks of life - and that I would be using my meteorology and climatology background as well as the theological thinking I had done? Enter <a href="http://missional.university/" target="_blank">Missional University</a>.<br />
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This organisation 'is legit' as they say. Starting up its courses in 2017, this is a long term vision of Curt Watke, to be able to train people to do mission in a variety of contexts. What is exciting is how holistic the vision is, and that it includes the idea of eco-mission - that the reconciliation of God and the world happens at multiple levels and this includes the way we relate to the rest of creation. This is a development I'm sure the late Ross Langmead of Whitley College would have been pleased to see,<br />
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So watch this space as I keep you up to date with what I'll be doing. I'll be Professor of Environmental Mission, Ecotheology & Ecomissiology Specialist in the Department of Environmental Sustainability in the School of Ecological Mission, and be part of the Department of Cultural & Contextual Theology in the School of Theological Studies.<br />
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The website is still a work in progress but check out: <a href="http://missional.university/ecologicalmission/" target="_blank">http://missional.university/ecologicalmission/ </a><br />
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You can see my mugshot <a href="http://missional.university/ecologicalmission/index.php?cID=292" target="_blank">here</a>.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-75946132896021825612016-12-11T22:25:00.001+11:002016-12-11T22:25:22.024+11:00How do we love our neighbours in a warming world? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleUHQRCrz-1Oo6Heeq5gD-RmRTtqBPKf3sOjVbYsYehVUoGl-Ciq5QcBE4J9cK8IrTEY7kZltVq37lpwCXNYXUJH-s7Vk-wgYuFEqDgyDJ6bpWpSaU7D1fPJc6IAEBk6Sl8Yhh4yCJGhM/s1600/15326471_10157999913410571_3819519395188678177_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleUHQRCrz-1Oo6Heeq5gD-RmRTtqBPKf3sOjVbYsYehVUoGl-Ciq5QcBE4J9cK8IrTEY7kZltVq37lpwCXNYXUJH-s7Vk-wgYuFEqDgyDJ6bpWpSaU7D1fPJc6IAEBk6Sl8Yhh4yCJGhM/s320/15326471_10157999913410571_3819519395188678177_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The following is the text of an address that I gave at the Salvation Army Festival of Mission here in Melbourne. Thanks to sister Brooke Prentis for this action shot.<br />
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I’m sure many of
you are familiar with Micah 6:8 “And what does the Lord require of you. But to
do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” For some, this
passage forms a key part of their faith – that God is a God of justice and
wants followers who are shaped by this. Justice should be part of the DNA of
the church because it lies at the heart of God. Sadly, not all Christians see
this as a priority.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want to tell you
a couple of stories, and then draw a common thread. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m a TEAR rep at
my church. You might be familiar with the work that they do, partnering with
aid and development agencies around the world. One of the things they have done
for years is the <i>Really Useful Gifts</i> catalogue,
where you purchase a present for someone in the developing world, and give the
card as a present to a friend. One of the things you used to be able to buy was
a mosquito net. Malaria is a major problem in some parts of the world. There
were over 400,000 malarial deaths in 2015, and yet that represents a 60%
reduction in mortality since 2000.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Yet people are
catching malaria in some places where they have not previously been exposed to
it. Take for example the story of Nicholas Hakata. Nicholas is an elder on Han
island, part of the Carteret group near PNG. He describes life in the Carterets
as a holiday island paradise of fishing, checking on your banana crops, or
sitting around and relaxing. However, over the past few years, life has become
more difficult. Pools of fetid water left over from inundations of the island
have come breeding grounds for mosquitoes. There are many more mosquitos than
there used to be. All the children have become sick with malaria. This combined
with irregular delivery of food from the mainland producing widespread hunger,
has kept them from school.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Malaria is not just
a problem in the Pacific. World malaria expert Andrew Githeko grew up in the Kenyan
highlands on a coffee plantation. When he was a kid, no one in his village got
malaria because there were no mosquitos where he lived. Imagine his surprise
when he received a phone call to tell him that his niece had a fever that
wouldn’t go away. She had been diagnosed with malaria, which she caught in the
very same village that Andrew grew up in.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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On a different
note, William Wilberforce and the Clapham sect are heroes to some Christians for
their opposition to slavery. Sadly there are now more people in slavery around
the world than there was at the height of the slave trade to the Americas. In
the Indian state of Assam, ethnic tension and natural disasters leads to internal
displacement. In recent years, flooding of the Brahmaputra River has washed away
crops and villages, caused erosion and covered rice paddies in silt. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Women suffer
disproportionately in such situations, women like 16 year old Uma Tudu. After
floods destroyed her village, she traveled more than 1600 km to Delhi to find
a job and a new life. Instead, she found herself sold as a slave. Girls like
her are deliberately targeted by slave traders after violence or floods, and
can end up as domestic help, forced labour or even in forced marriages.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The common factor
in all of these stories is climate change.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rising sea levels
threaten the Carteret Islanders, as well as people across the Pacific, in
Bangladesh, and the Torres Strait, where people have taken to sandbagging
graves to prevent them from washing away. Higher sea levels make small islands
more vulnerable to erosion or inundation due to storm surge from tropical
cyclones. Water left over from inundation due to a tropical cyclone that has
provided the breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes. In Kenya, increasing
temperatures have led to a spread in the range of malarial mosquitoes. Meanwhile,
the flooding of the Brahmaputra has been caused by rising temperatures melting Himalayan
glaciers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All the justice
issues that Christians are concerned about, health, education, and slavery, are
all made worse by climate change. Even the huge crisis in Syria has been
complicated by climate change. A five year long drought contributed to failed
crops, economic hardship and internal dislocation. To preach the gospel in the
modern world is to proclaim God’s kingdom of peace and justice, and to deal
justly in the modern world means dealing with climate change.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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The Parable of Good
Samaritan is our guide for justice in a warming world. We need to recognise
that we live with one atmosphere and a globalised economy. Greenhouse gases
know of no national boundaries. In this world, everyone is my neighbour. So how
do we love our neighbours in a warming world? <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Firstly, the gospel
is the ultimate message of restoration. Justice means restoring people to a
place of dignity. As Eugene Cho notes, people are not projects. They are
individuals made in the image of God. The Good Samaritan goes to great lengths
to see that the victim’s wounds are tended so that he could be restored to full
health. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In a warming world,
there are many ways we can help people maintain their dignity, by assisting
them to adapt to climate change. Aid works when people become involved in their
own restoration and are enabled to carry on their lives as before. But aid also
costs. The Good Samaritan realised that returning the man to full health might
cost more than he initially laid out, and promised to return later with more if
needed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It seems that many
politicians in the West are not willing to count this cost. Australia’s aid
contribution is less than its 0.7% commitment, and just this year our giving
was cut by $200 million. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is threatening to withdraw
funding for climate change adaptation. Christians need to continue to campaign
on aid and debt relief in the same way we have done for decades. There also would
be more to give if large corporations weren’t given a free break, so we also
need to continue to campaign for tax fairness.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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It’s not a good or
moral use of money to lock asylum seekers up in detention and deny them any
possibility of seeking asylum in our country. The relative trickle that we
experience now will become a flood in future years as drought, floods, sea
level rise and political instability lead to more people being displaced. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is a violation
of a person’s dignity when they are forced to leave behind their homes and way
of life because of violence or climate change related environmental disasters. We
must then show refugees hospitality, not as an act of charity but as an act of
justice. Our God is a hospitable God, and we cannot share the gospel of divine
hospitality without ourselves being hospitable. Our approach to asylum seekers
must change.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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So far I’ve spoken
as if all justice was restorative and we were always the Good Samaritans. But
climate change should make us pause to reconsider this. The character who is
often ignored in the parable is the bandit. Often we might be tempted to think
of bandits as simple thieves, a foil in the story. Yet the back story is far
more complicated and far more interesting. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Roman Empire was
supported by heavy taxation and slavery. There was a steady supply of goods
flowing into Rome, and out to feed their vast armies which protected the
borders and enforced Roman rule. Harsh taxation in an agrarian society could to
lead to debt and loss of ancestral lands in Israel, with the Jewish religious
elite ready to profit by buy up the land cheaply. People were left with the
choice of being tenant farmers, day workers, or bandits. In addition, there was
also a temple tax to pay, which benefitted the Levites and Priests. Perhaps
their reticence to come to the man’s aid in the parable was less about ritual
purity and more about self-preservation?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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When it comes to
climate change, we are not just engaged in restorative justice, but in
repentance. We must recognise that we ourselves are part of a system, an empire
of consumption that has produced the conditions under which other people
suffer. Western economies have benefited from outsourcing the impacts of our
wealth onto others; by dispossession of Indigenous people – remember, always
was, always will be Aboriginal land, poor environmental and labour laws, and
the impacts of climate change on the developing world and future generations.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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So do we stand with
empire or against it? Are we to acquiesce to the Babylonian Captivity of the
church, or resist its idols? As privileged westerners, we have much power to
both preach the justice of the kingdom of God and to work for it. We are near
the centre of power, in Pharaoh's court. Our votes can carry power, but so can
our protests. Campaigns like divestment from fossil fuels are more than just
symbolic, because not only do they declare our desire to change the way in
which we obtain our energy as consumers, but it should also be a statement
about the whole nature of power itself (pun intended) and our relationship to
it.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Our mission as the
church is to proclaim the gospel and embody it. Our acts of justice as we face
a rapidly changing global climate are not optional. They are both acts of
restoration in respect of the dignity of others, but also acts of repentance.<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-39513629981392678242016-12-07T09:36:00.001+11:002016-12-07T09:36:32.965+11:00E O Wilson, ecology and Christian hope<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQl73eMCCLdIOMo2y_OeSirjl7sopo3PmEJkhwKRSUqehQdkZEqwQb2OABp7syVrmg1AD9UxEk4h8KwQhROiUYfms43qe4pO4nJHCetspHt1dPgWxUt4t6dP4CCSH0tNxFLZUVZXDlDKuG/s1600/Wilson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQl73eMCCLdIOMo2y_OeSirjl7sopo3PmEJkhwKRSUqehQdkZEqwQb2OABp7syVrmg1AD9UxEk4h8KwQhROiUYfms43qe4pO4nJHCetspHt1dPgWxUt4t6dP4CCSH0tNxFLZUVZXDlDKuG/s200/Wilson.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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I recently received out of the blue a Facebook message from a concerned Christian mother about her daughter having to watch a video by Harvard Emeritus Professor E O Wilson. Her concern was that Wilson's views don't line up with a Christian value of hope in preserving our environment. It's question worth pursuing for a blog post.<br />
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Anyone who has read <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Creation_An_Appeal_to_Save_Life_on_E.html?id=g3tp2L24XgYC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y&hl=en" target="_blank">The Creation</a> knows that Wilson grew up a Southern Baptist, but abandoned that faith. The book is an attempt to draw common ground between Christians of this tradition and related and non-Christian scientists like Wilson. I think it is an admirable aspiration. We share one planet regardless of what we believe about its origins on future fate. It is full of a biological richness which exists for both its own sake, but also of which we are a part.<br />
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Christians of course believe more than this, and we can bring more to the table than a narrative of random processes (see more below). E O Wilson is an evolutionary biologist and the founder of sociobiology, the evolution of values, ethics, etc from simpler origins, based on his work with ants. Now while I don't share his world view, when someone of his importance speaks of the need say to <a href="https://eowilsonfoundation.org/half-earth-our-planet-s-fight-for-life/" target="_blank">set aside half the planet to save biodiversity</a>, I'm going to listen to him because of his expertise, not his world views. The same goes for when I visit the doctor; thanks to our public health care system I don't mind which doctor I see so long as they have a medical degree and a track record of not misdiagnosing, etc.<br />
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So what is a Christian hope of preserving the creation? It is articulated in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A18-25&version=NASB" target="_blank">Romans 8</a>, where using the language of the Exodus, where our bodies will be redeemed (from slavery to sin as Paul talks about in Romans 7) and the creation will be set free from bondage to decay (again, slavery/redemption language). I've <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ecotheology-Humanities-Interdisciplinary-Understanding-Ecocritical/dp/1498527930/" target="_blank">written elsewhere</a> about how this is best understood as a response to the claims by Rome that "Thine age, O Caesar has brought back fertile crops to the fields".<br />
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So a Christian hope is that Christ will return, the dead will be raised and (I infer) because humans will be redeemed in their natures, so the rest of creation will not be misruled by us. This provides us with an incentive. Just as our natures are being renewed so we do not go on sinning (Romans 6:1), so given the future is one of harmonious relationships with the rest of creation, we should be getting on with this now. And if our wisdom comes from a non-Christian scientist, so be it and thank God for their knowledge as he is the source of common grace.<br />
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Now given the state of the world, the Christian hope is both a) it will all be sorted out when Christ returns and b) at least in part that people of all faiths will be faithful to our creation care task (see Genesis 1-2), but does not exclude things becoming really bad in the mean time. As Paul points out in Romans 1, idolatry, be it of idols of stone or wood, of money, success, nation etc mean we are given over to our sins. This is no less clear in the current extinction or climate change crises, to name but two.<br />
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So my own 2 cents is that regardless of what Wilson thinks about "creation vs evolution" (and this is a topic for another time, but does call us to listen critically), I think he is worth listening to on a variety of issues, cooperating with where needed on the important task of "saving the planet" (more on this another time). We share one planet, and we're called to live in love with one another on it.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-39943630073225581402016-12-06T14:10:00.003+11:002016-12-06T14:19:01.405+11:00Living Adventurously<div style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 42.55pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">O come, O come, Emmanuel</span></em><em></em></div>
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<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">And ransom captive Israel</span></em><em></em></div>
<div style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 42.55pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">That mourns in lonely exile here</span></em><em></em></div>
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<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Until the Son of God appear</span></em><em></em></div>
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<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel</span></em><em></em></div>
<div style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 42.55pt; margin-top: 6pt;">
<em><span style="verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Shall come to thee, O Israel.</span></em><em></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Advent is the time we remember the mystery of the incarnation. Among some people I know, it’s a time to reopen debates about Christology, the nature of that incarnation. For those of us willing to take it as a given and think about the implications, it should be a time to jump to the end of the book of Revelation and pray, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Of course, there is all manner of debate and confusion over Jesus’ ‘second coming’ as there is over his first, but it’s always worth grounding the later in the former. And I mean so quite literally. We are used to thinking of Jesus as a man. And he was (is) a male human. Sadly, often in our imaginations and movies it is a blue-eyed Jesus we see, rather than a dark-skinned Galilean Jew. We can all too readily press Jesus into whatever mould we want. Scholars as well as laity are not immune from this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt;">John’s Gospel goes to great lengths to affirm Jesus’ divinity. More particularly, he is identified with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not some abstract conception of deity that might find home in the debates of philosophers, less still the rain-sending ‘Hughie’ of popular thought. For John, Jesus is the One who pitches his tent, or tabernacles, among his people, just as God did in the wandering in the wilderness. He is the Word who was present at creation, through whom all things were made. The echoes with Genesis 1 are quite clear.</span></div>
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For the rest of this blog piece see <a href="http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/living-adventurously.">http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/living-adventurously.</a></div>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-47886780862922079812016-12-02T16:12:00.001+11:002016-12-02T16:20:18.809+11:00Nature of Things - New Ecotheology book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASQ_jTbXr_kQUjmGLgKzJgqCUIIa3KFe5uFCX3OIVXNNrCRkjyTCN_qqBFlIy7bSoTR9fKeakXvWlEg4WvfWIMmzvCHXZldQnsTC1vLAq17bMwR-bg0L4Hxe3uOh6Q7WPMbllZGqtVCz2/s1600/natureofthings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASQ_jTbXr_kQUjmGLgKzJgqCUIIa3KFe5uFCX3OIVXNNrCRkjyTCN_qqBFlIy7bSoTR9fKeakXvWlEg4WvfWIMmzvCHXZldQnsTC1vLAq17bMwR-bg0L4Hxe3uOh6Q7WPMbllZGqtVCz2/s320/natureofthings.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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Early last year I traveled across to Adelaide to give a paper at a conference at the Serafino winery on a theology of wilderness. The conference was an amazing one with a variety of speakers, an Aboriginal smoking ceremony (something I found profoundly moving) and some great views and company. The edited volume has finally been released by Wipf and Stock and is available online <a href="http://wipfandstock.com/the-nature-of-things.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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The forward reads:<br />
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"In 2015 a conference on “Rediscovering the Spiritual in God’s Creation” was held at the Sera no winery complex in the McLaren Vale region of South Australia. The aim of the conference was not to seek consensus but to survey the landscape with a view to intentional responsible action in caring for God’s creation. Delegates were challenged to recognize their own worldviews and to widen their horizons to encompass the enormity of the transcendence and immanence of God’s presence in all creation. A group of leading international scholars and experts in the fields of science, ecology, theology, and ethics participated in a multidisciplinary conversation on the spiritual in creation, with the aim of discovering fresh horizons with regard to creation care, liturgy, justice, and discipleship within the Christian community. The chapters in this volume reflect the diversity of perspectives summarized in the Sera no Declaration, which was created towards the end of the conference. This declaration (which opens the volume) outlines a range of views relating to the presence of the spiritual in creation, views that are both traditional and radical. This volume highlights the current concern over ecological destruction and finds sources of inspiration in the deepest roots of our traditions and forms of spirituality to sustain efforts towards custodianship of the land and care for God’s creation."<br />
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The list of contributions is impressive with international names such as Paul Santmire, Celia Deane-Drummond and Ernst Conradie. There are many Australian contributors too such as Mark Worthing, Anne Elvey and Vicky Balabanski.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-12890479389330445962016-10-24T09:25:00.001+11:002016-10-24T22:32:37.601+11:00At the end of the pipeline: decolonising creation and climate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">With </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/columbus-day-sparks-debate-and-controversy/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Columbus
Day</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> having recently just
passed, the issues of colonialism and national identity will be fresh in many
people’s minds. Columbus wasn’t the first European to arrive in the Americas,
and indeed no European can be said to have discovered it given the thriving
Indigenous peoples. Americans will be much more familiar and better equipped
than I to talk about the vision of America’s </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/osulliva.htm"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">manifest
destiny</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">. It was arguably a noble vision for a new nation. However, it is clear
how far short of that vision the US has fallen, so that even in </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Nature-Alexander-Humboldts-World/dp/038535066X"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Alexander
Humboldt’s</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">, upon visiting America in 1804, could express such disappointment that
revolutionary fervour didn’t yet extend to the emancipation of slaves. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The theological
underpinnings of oppression are nothing new, and not unique to the US. However,
in the “new world”, such ideas were given fresh impetus, running counter to the
revolutionary spirit of freedom. As Alfred Cave notes in his paper,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjV8PWqiOPPAhVX52MKHTuoCacQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F1184402&usg=AFQjCNEEKDGDdkNi6W5ph2KpHmuceDdpsQ&sig2=_rGsW3mX01NH5KmJK3crNA"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <i>Canaanites
in a Promised Land: The American Indian and the Providential Theory of Empire</i></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">, Old Testament ideas of Canaan, the
Promised Land and the conquest, were used to oppress and dispossess the first
peoples. English settlers were cast in the role of God's new Chosen People,
whereas the first nation peoples were cast as the Canaanites, and seen as
idolaters, devil worshippers and savages. It was easy enough to justify
violence and extermination.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What’s often less
appreciated is the role the spread of diseases played in the invasion of the
“new” world. In the journal Nature in 2015, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v519/n7542/full/nature14258.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Simon
Lewis and Mark Maslin</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> examined a number of definitions of the Anthropocene, the age of human
domination of the Earth’s major support systems. They document that estimates
of the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">regional
population of the Americas in 1402 range from 54 to 61 million people. Numbers
plummeted to about 6 million by 1650 due to introduced diseases, war, enslavement
and famine. Such a fall in population led to a collapse in agriculture and a
measurable drop in global carbon dioxide levels. Such a meeting of “old” and
“new” worlds demonstrates the connection between environmental destruction,
empire, colonialism and genocide.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The
conquest of Australia, my home country, lacked the narrative of chosen people
and promised land, but instead suffered under the myth of <i>terra nullius</i>.
In truth, Indigenous land use was many and varied, including permanent
settlements, aquaculture and extensive fire management. Bill Gammage in </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Estate-Earth-Aborigines-Australia/dp/174331132X"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia </span></i></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">observes how often
Europeans admired how much like a gentleman’s garden the land appeared, but
totally ignore the gardeners. <i>Terra nullius</i> has been consistently used
to deny first peoples land rights and right to self determination.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The
colonialisation of land use and of national identity in both the US and
Australia continues into our management, or better still, mismanagement of
creation and continued ignoring of the wishes of First Peoples. In the US, the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/standing-rock-pipeline-fight-draws-hundreds-north-dakota-plains-n665956"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Standing Rock Pipeline in the North Dakota Plains</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> once more
highlights how ideas of progress and growth trump the rights of Indigenous
people. With threats to drinking water and sacred sites, Dakota has become a
focus of discontent with the colonialisation of creation. The response has been
predictable, with dogs, pepper spray, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/17/dakota_excess_pipeline_standing_rock_protectors"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">strip searches</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> and attempts to silence the
media. In Australia, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/australian-national-university-students-arrested-in-maules-creek-mine-protest-20160313-gni2hh.html"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">criminalisation of protest</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> is also used as a
tactic to protect unnecessary mining. This development affects </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/07/09/3798888.htm"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">indigenous artifacts</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> and the site is the continued
subject of </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3762999/indigenous-men-lock-on-at-maules-creek-mine/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">indigenous protest</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It
seems to me that there are various narratives that the gospel needs to undo.
The first is that of endless growth, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">fueled</span> by our addiction to fossil fuels.
Bill McKibben has shown that </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://350.org/why-we-need-to-keep-80-percent-of-fossil-fuels-in-the-ground/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">most of the remaining fossil fuels need to be left in the
ground</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">. This means that in order to stay below 2 C of
warming above pre-industrial levels, there needs to be no new coal mines and no
new pipelines. Our path into the 21st century and beyond needs to be marked not
simply with a shift to renewable energy. We also need to focus less on growth, as
Jesus said to focus less on the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A13-32&version=NASB"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">building of bigger barns</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">. Likewise, with a
country like </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjjyvbhiuPPAhUC7WMKHT0ZDA8QFghBMAc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fenergy-environment%2Fwp%2F2016%2F10%2F02%2Findia-ratifies-global-climate-agreement-on-gandhis-birthday%2F&usg=AFQjCNHpAXoI6jjHn09GmL4tlfmTSFdP8g&sig2=AZLYjhHJTtxXOhh7Qj2Y8w"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">India signing on to the Paris climate agreement</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">, we might give more
thought to how be </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A25-37&version=NASB"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">better neighbours</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> to a country that is facing its
climate responsibility, and yet has to lift millions out of darkness by
connecting them to electricity. [<span style="color: red;"><i>Upda</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="color: red;"><i>ted 24/10/16</i></span>] </span>The </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.livemint.com/Industry/dPX7vDr1SaGmzoT2X1wDPI/Indias-appeal-against-WTO-solar-ruling-rejected.html"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">WTO’s ruling against India’s domestic cont<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ent </span>requirements for solar panels</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> is in my view, and example of not being a good neighbour. Surely at<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"> this point addressi<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">ng</span> climate change is more <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">important tha<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">n insisting upon forcing <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">open markets. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We
also need to decolonialise our theology, and listen to indigenous voices on the
sacred nature of creation, particularly indigenous Christian voices. We tend to
read Genesis 1 through Francis Bacon, and view creation as a resource. John
Walton has helped us see </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiZh7a4i-PPAhVP-2MKHfAyC08QFggqMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FLost-World-Genesis-One-Cosmology%2Fdp%2F0830837043&usg=AFQjCNH-bniV_VyYuWIdogO8Df1pXKMv7w&sig2=hDEYhWNFC6pOUNPUWhRKag"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">creation as a sacred temple</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">. It’s time to hear
more from the world’s first peoples on how they see creation as sacred. I’m
most aware of what has been done in Australia with </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Spirit-Theology-Australian-Aboriginal/dp/1920691804"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rainbow Spirit Theology</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">, and imagine that
similar exists in the US. We need to have “ears to hear”, because we are not
dealing with the Canaanites we are called to destroy. We are dealing with those
whom God has placed in their places so that they might seek and find him (</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+17%3A22-31&version=NASB"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Acts 17:22-31</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">) and with whom we share a common world. If we’re
to honour these people as made in the image of God, this world as God’s good
creation, and God as creator, we need to listen to them, to protest with them,
and to speak truth to power with them.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>This blog piece has been submitted to another site, but since I haven't heard back I'm putting it up here</i>. I've updated the text on the WTO ruling, which previously read that it was against the Indian solar industry, rather than the amount of local components.]</span></div>
Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-22834946319751018552016-10-23T21:35:00.001+11:002016-10-23T23:58:44.704+11:00Post Justice Conference Melbourne 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So it's Sunday night and I am still on a high after the Justice Conference. Chance to catch up with a few friends, make some new ones, and be inspired by some amazing and faithful Christians who believe that justice is at the heart of God. I think a few people must have provided feedback after last year's conference, because climate change was more prominent this year. Kuki Rokhum from EFICOR in India spoke powerfully about the impacts of climate change in India. Did you know that there is a direct connection between slavery and climate change? People forced off their lands by failing rains become vulnerable to all sorts of abuse, including slavery. Kuki noted that "While we are debating about climate change, people are dying." As I noted in our workshop together with Claire Dawson, my co-author (or I'm hers) on <i>A Climate of Hope: Church and Mission in a Warming World</i>, denial is part of while male privilege.<br />
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Our workshop was ably led by Jo Knight of TEAR. We talked about what brought us to being so concerned about climate, basic science and impacts, framing theology and directions forward. In an hour it was impossible to be comprehensive in all of this - I teach a 12 hour course at Eastern College here in Melbourne!<br />
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I am motivated to do more, write more and speak more - where my strengths are. Hopefully that translates into more regular blogging.<br />
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There will be talks online soon on the Justice Conference website. So much goodness, so make sure you get a hold of them when you can. And don't lose hope!Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-91665297306486317512016-10-04T22:45:00.002+11:002016-10-04T22:45:55.246+11:00Justice Conference Melbourne 2016This blog has been too quiet. It's not that I haven't been busy, but more of that soon.<br />
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I will be at the <a href="http://www.thejusticeconference.com.au/" target="_blank">Justice Conference</a> in Melbourne, speaking on a panel on climate justice. I will be with Claire Dawson, my co-author on <a href="http://aclimateofhope.com/" target="_blank">A Climate of Hope</a>, and Kuki Rokham who works with EFICOR, TEAR's partner in India.<br />
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Reflections on our workshop will follow. Hope to see some of you there!<br />
<br />Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-63542447011386963312016-06-04T13:16:00.001+10:002016-06-04T13:16:02.767+10:00Harambe, politics and the social media echo chamber<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the echo chamber that is social media, ideas quickly blow up and become polarised. This week, a 17 year old western lowland gorilla was shot when a three year old boy fell into the enclosure. It appears that experts largely agree this was the only course of action. Thank God the child was largely unhurt. One can only wonder what would have happened had Harambe the gorilla not been shot, of if the child had fallen into the enclosure of a carnivore like a big cat.<br />
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Now one cannot have an issue that the gorilla was shot to protect a child's life. However, much of the social media echo chambering and political footballing concerns me.<br />
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Early on, people were asking why it was the the gorilla was shot - could there have been another way, like tranquilizing? It seems this would have been too slow. Others questioned whether or not the gorilla needed shooting at all. Was Harambe being protective of the child as Jane Goodall thought it might? Anyone who has seen David Attenborough's footage with mountain gorillas knows that they are capable of great tenderness towards each other, and humans. And yet a male's first responsibility is to protect his own. No, we must accept what happened. No doubt in time, the questions will be answered about the enclosure, and whether or not it was sufficiently safe for the child, and the gorilla. Likewise, we need to be very slow in blaming the family.<br />
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But I'm concerned about the polarisation that has occurred. There are some who are quick to mock those of us who show genuine concern over the fate of non-humans, for political and or religious reasons. To care for a gorilla is not to care less for the child, or for refugees as some would contest, using this incident as a political springboard. Yes, coverage of moral issues is skewed, but do we belittle one set of issues (non-human moral status and extinction risks) for another (our concern over refugees). I'm not convinced two wrongs make a right.<br />
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I saw recently a blog that said that one human was of more value than a million gorillas - the image of God theological argument. My response is, what kind of calculation is that? Isn't that providing the wrong answer to the wrong question in this case? Doesn't this kind of approach feed exactly into the predicament of this species being endangered in the wild?<br />
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The other kinds of responses are equally silly. Calling the killing of a non-human murder , even one as closely related to us as a gorilla, is wrong headed. We do not have to directly equate the death of a gorilla and a human as morally equivalent to understand that this was a tragic event. Would those people rather that the child died instead? Maybe Peter Singer might make this argument, but not a Christian thinker like myself.<br />
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The calls for gorillas not to be kept in zoos is a more complex one, but also a knee jerk reaction here, as they are endangered in the wild. If zoos can help keep this species alive (and that includes obviously providing a safe space for them), then there they should stay. Releasing any zoo animal back into the wild is not that simple.<br />
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To summarise then: I'm grateful the child is alive, though I'm saddened it has come at the loss of a creature both endangered and a magnificent work of the creator God. The reactions on both ends miss the point and just seem like an exercise in stone throwing across the divide. Once more, social media seems incapable of supporting a reasoned discussion or reaching some kind of understanding between people. Perhaps I'm just ranting, but it's only that I care about three year old children, displace refugees, and a natural world that's dying. And all these things matter.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-26479547917498711502016-03-23T13:09:00.001+11:002016-03-23T13:26:14.800+11:00Still two cultures: Reflections on Bird SenseI've been busy writing for various book projects and a lecture course, so it's been a while. After enjoying <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-Octopus-Exploration-Consciousness/dp/1451697716" target="_blank">The Soul of an Octopus</a>, I've followed up with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Sense-What-Its-Like/dp/1620401894/" target="_blank">Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bir</a>d. And I'm mildly annoyed before finishing the preface!<br />
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Firstly, Birkhead refers to <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwirl-TF2tXLAhVG0GMKHdfgCiYQFggmMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Forganizations.utep.edu%2Fportals%2F1475%2Fnagel_bat.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEZDF0O3imthBISKFKJEssRh0Elyg&sig2=DmlHtzT5XG40at0lGG9Dfw" target="_blank">Thomas Nagel's paper</a> about what it is life to be a bat. Birkhead is waving the flag of science (fair enough, it's a book on science and looks at what we know about animal perception, etc), but in the process he wants to relegate philosophy (how trendy). While science he thinks can tell us quite a lot about how animals perceive things by extending our perception using technology (his pragmatic approach), Nagel's understanding that we can't know <i>exactly</i> what it is like to be a bat is "subtle and pedantic." Is it too subtle for a scientist or science journo? That reflects badly on Birkhead.<br />
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As for pedantic, once more we see the view of science offering us a better way and relegating issues of meaning, significance, etc to the scrap heap. Actually, science contains a lot of subtly, and anyone who's tried to publish a paper will know about its pedantic nature. More than that, understanding perception tells you little about qualia, and claims of epiphenomena assume a lot. Nagel's gone a step further to challenge materialism. As well he might.<br />
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A second annoyance is the statement "our behaviour is controlled by our senses." Isn't it the case that our senses inform our behaviour? Control seems too strong a word. But then I'm being pedantic.<br />
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Thirdly, he argues that "natural selection ... provided a much better explanation for all the aspects of the natural world than the wisdom of God." Sigh. Anyone who's read any history knows that even Christians found much of Paley's natural theology as suspect. Darwin was reacting against this, after having formally embraced it. There's a world of difference between rejecting Paley's laboured design arguments, and complex pneumatological (Spirit), perichoretic (Trinitarian) and kenotic (self-emptying) arguments about creation/evolution. [Addition] He actually discusses Paley in more detail in chapter one, making the above statement all the more ironic!<br />
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I think Birkhead needs a history, philosophy and theology education. I'm expecting his science to be much better.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-31981725428032331262015-12-02T13:36:00.001+11:002015-12-02T13:42:14.121+11:00Why I marched with a multifaith group at the climate march<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In sense this should be a big non-issue, but it is also an excuse to blog (it's been a while). I'm there on the left holding a multifaith banner. The other in a circle is meant to catch anyone else not captured by the logos.<br />
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As a Christian from the Evangelical tradition (I won't try and identify myself on the spectrum except to say the label is broader than some will allow for), I place a premium on the person, deity and uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth, the one called Christ (Messiah, anointed king). But this was not an opportunity for covert prosletysing.<br />
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Because I come from a religious tradition, I believe in Earth as sacred space, sacramental if you like. This derives from an understanding of nature as creation, of the Genesis accounts as using temple language. It doesn't represent the entire of the Christian tradition, but I think it's biblical. It isn't a view at odds with some idea of stewardship, or fair use, but stretches it to see the Earth as value to God, home to all of humanity and all of Earth-bound life.<br />
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All of the people there hold to some idea of the sacred, and it's a concept that even secular people can identify with, from Stuart Kaufmann's attempts at constructing a secular sacred to the rapturous language of Richard Dawkins in his writings on evolution, captured in music by the symphonic metal band Nightwish in their album <a href="http://nightwish.com/en/lyrics/endless-forms-most-beautiful/shudder-before-the-beautiful" target="_blank">Endless forms most beautiful</a>.<br />
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Regardless of what we believe, we share one world. Denialism to me is bearing false witness, breaking one of the 10 commandments. Call it what you will. I marched with these men and women for God, for creation and for humanity, to love my neighbour as myself. Here's praying good things come out of COP21 in Paris.<br />
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PS: Here is a blog I wrote for <a href="http://www.redletterchristians.org/prophesy-in-paris-apocalyptic-climate-change-the-voice-of-the-church/" target="_blank">Red Letter Christians</a> on why I was marching. Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-24260971277541561012015-10-04T21:32:00.002+11:002015-10-04T21:32:34.442+11:00St Francis and the preaching of the birdsOctober 4 is the feast day of St Francis. Now of course there are a lot of church traditions who don't recognise the concept of sainthood or feast days. And yet, an increasing number of people are adopting Francis because of his attitude toward the non-human part of creation.<br />
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This image shows Francis preaching to the birds. Now while it has been demonstrated that certain birds (some corvids, African Grays, etc) are intelligent, they require no sermon or conversion. The fault of environmental damage lies at the feet of humans alone, rooted in uncontrolled and unbounded growth and desire.<br />
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Perhaps this feast day is more a reminder that we need to hear a sermon from the birds. Once, the Passenger Pigeon occupied the skies for days, now it is extinct. Once, birds were threatened from DTT thinning their eggs, at least for now the use of this substance is controlled. Rising temperatures stress birds - <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/03/12/3711481.htm" target="_blank">one heat wave in Western Australia killed half the population of an endangered parrot</a>. Rising sea levels are causing some countries to think about building sea walls that would cut off coastal flats that matter to migrating birds. The birds are preaching to us and telling us we are out of control. They are quite literally, the canary in the coal mine.<br />
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In my favorite psalm, Psalm 104, we are told:<br />
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<span class="text Ps-104-12" id="en-NRSV-15584"><sup class="versenum">12 </sup>By the streams<sup> </sup>the birds of the air have their habitation;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-104-12">they sing among the branches.</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-104-12"><span class="text Ps-104-16" id="en-NRSV-15588">The trees of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> are watered abundantly,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-104-16">the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-104-17" id="en-NRSV-15589"><sup class="versenum">17 </sup>In them the birds build their nests;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-104-17">the stork has its home in the fir trees.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-104-12"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-104-17"> </span></span> </span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-104-12">We learn here that there is a place for everything and everything has a place - though this is in a time before virsuses, bacteria and disease was understood, so this isn't everything that could be said, although lions also have a place in this Psalm, and hence the picture isn't all rosy either. </span></span><br />
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<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-104-12">That caveat aside, here we see the birds preaching to us. Why don't we start listening?</span></span>Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-28847132159818476032015-09-11T14:32:00.002+10:002015-09-11T14:32:56.779+10:00Dutton's disdain in a drowning worldI've recently been reading <i>Field Notes from the Edge: Journeys Through Britain's Secret Wilderness</i> by Paul Evans. In chapter 5 entitled <i>Flood</i>, he talks about eldritch places, those places that feel eerie and sinister. He visits the old town of Llanwddyn, which now sits at the bottom of Lake Vyrnwy, which provides water for Liverpool. In the 1970s, a drought uncovered many of the buildings of the old town in a phenomena that people found disturbing. Besides the buildings, Evans wonders what else drowned down there.<br />
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This eerie feeling will become a common one as IPCC projections of about 60 cm of sea level rise by end of century seem quaintly optimistic. Even this is enough to condemn some <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/impacts/sea_level_rise/" target="_blank">island nations</a>, but given the proportion of people living close to sea level, the impacts will be real and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/cities-exposed-to-rising-sea-levels-2014-4" target="_blank">far reaching</a>. Long term, several metres, if not 10s of metres are in store if we don't act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. No, coal is not good for humanity.<br />
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The disconnect between those currently affected and the rich and powerful is summed up well in a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-11/dutton-overheard-joking-about-sea-levels-in-pacific-islands/6768324" target="_blank">recent slip up by Australian Minister for turning away the boats, Peter Dutton</a>. In a conversation with colleagues, he commented that "time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door."<br />
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Now given the current Australian policy of tight borders, tow backs and imprisonment in offshore detention centres, such a comment indicates how climate change refugees would be treated. It belittles a coming catastrophe and a profound disregard for human life. No, it's not simply a joke, it's a symptom of an inability to "love your neighbour as yourself." Given the number of politicians who flash Christian credentials, I'd like to see this biblical saying of Jesus embodied in climate change, energy and refugee policies ASAP. To say nothing of attitudes towards the victims of our success.Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170175402017087374.post-89287865622105612342015-07-13T16:29:00.000+10:002015-07-13T16:29:07.078+10:00Responding to Laudato SiLast Thursday at a meeting of the Social Policy Connections, I spoke about the Papal Encyclical Laudato Si' for about 20 mins with Professor Joe Camilleri.<br />
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An <a href="http://www.ethos.org.au/Online-Articles/Engage-Mail/pope-on-the-pope" target="_blank">online article for Ethos</a> has just gone up which is closely based on what I said.<br />
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There are also two snippets now on YouTube.<br />
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Mick Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350141366747415908noreply@blogger.com0