oil companies

Tomás Insua 10-22-2020
Illustration by Michael George Haddad

Illustration by Michael George Haddad

THE CLIMATE CRISIS is a moral crisis. What else should we call the willful choice to inflict hunger, disease, and suffering on those in the poorest circumstances?

At the same time, the climate crisis is an opportunity to allow God’s healing grace to enter our lives. As with every great failure of our collective conscience, the way forward begins with each of us standing up in faith and love to right the wrongs of the past. Around the world, faith communities are doing just that. As national governments fail to show the decisive and visionary leadership we need, faith communities are taking up the mantle of justice. Under the banner of the U.N.’s “race to zero” initiative, many faith communities are committing to meaningful changes in the way they operate to build a healthy, safe world that protects everyone.

It’s hard work, but it is the way of the future. In 50 years, the Earth’s fossil fuels will be depleted, and the world will no longer run on oil and gas. The only questions are how quickly we can make this change and whether we can make it well. Many faith institutions have chosen to put their pocketbooks to greater service by divesting from fossil fuel companies and reinvesting in clean renewable energy. To date, nearly 400 faith-based institutions have divested, constituting the single largest source of commitments in the global divestment movement. Committed institutions range from huge international networks to small communities of women religious, around the globe. It’s a big movement that is successfully pressuring oil companies to think beyond the status quo.

Bill McKibben 12-01-2011

The real work has been done for years by indigenous leaders on both sides of the border.

Rose Marie Berger 9-02-2011

As of yesterday, more than 1,009 Americans have been arrested to bring national attention to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. This is what church looks like. Liturgy means "the work of the people" in service of the common good.

If President Obama permits the Keystone pipeline, thousands more will sit on his doorstep and in front of bulldozers. This movement doesn't have money to match the influence of oil companies, lobbyists, or politicians with conflicts of interest, but we do have our bodies and we are putting them on the line.

Here are what people of faith -- Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Quakers, Unitarians, and more -- are saying about why they have been or will be arrested to stop the Keystone XL pipeline:

We had a very hot ride in the police van, but the Park Police processed us very quickly. We were released from custody and greeted outside with water, granola bars, and hugs. What could be better?

But the point was not to get arrested. The point was to make of our lives a living witness. To make it clear that climate change has gone too far and we are no longer going to stand idly by while our sisters, brothers, and home planet are torn apart by oil companies. Here are a handful of photos from the event yesterday:

Jim Wallis 8-02-2011

The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation's economy and future. In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the battles. But there are two casualties in such political warfare: the common good and the most vulnerable.

So how will vulnerable people fair under this deal? "The Circle of Protection," a diverse nonpartisan movement of Christian leaders, has been deeply engaged in the budget debate to uphold the principle that low-income people should be protected. But it is hard to evaluate a deal that averts a crisis when the crisis wasn't necessary in the first place. Over the past few weeks, our economy has indeed been held hostage as politicians negotiated the price of the release. Ultimately, I think most of us wish that no hostages had been taken in the first place, and this was no way to run a government or make important budget decisions.

Jim Wallis 4-07-2011

The hunger fast for a moral budget has gone spiritually viral. Ten days ago, we announced at the National Press Club that the budget debate had become a moral crisis.

Jim Wallis 2-11-2011

I hope that somehow, through the vast network we call social media, this gets to you in Tahrir Square, even on this momentous F

Andrew Simpson 2-09-2011
Ten months have passed since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and by now most of the nation has shifted its focus away from the gulf to more recent and pressing topics.
Jim Wallis 2-01-2011
It's time to be a little more honest about Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak is a dictator, and has run a brutal and corrupt police state for three decades.
Majora Carter 7-15-2010
Before the Gulf Coast's 100-percent-human-made oil spill disaster, there was Katrina. That hurricane wasn't the strongest to hit New Orleans.
Jennifer Kottler 7-14-2010
Yesterday, like most mornings, I spent 33 minutes on the elliptical trainer in my apartment exercise room. As a way to distract myself and multi-task, I watched the morning news.
Bill McKibben 6-24-2010
I'd say Barack Obama's long and often tenuous honeymoon with progressive Americans took what looks like a lethal blow in spring 2010.
Dave Allen 6-21-2010
In early June, a week-long gathering at the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School brought together a diverse group of Ch
Jim Wallis 6-10-2010
We are counting the days now: the 49th day of the oil spill, the 50th, the 51st. We now know more every day, too.