Rev. Fletcher Harper is executive director of GreenFaith, an international, interfaith organization helping people take action for Earth in the face of the climate emergency.
Posts By This Author
The Future of Climate Action Is Bleak, But Don't Tune Out
A wildfire impacts several forests in the area on Sunday morning in New York State on Nov. 10, 2024. Photo by Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The next four years will be a climate train wreck. Trump and his ilk will dismantle as many policies and regulations as they can. Autocrats and newly influential far-right parties the world over will be emboldened to “drill baby, drill.” More parts of the world will burn, flood, and turn into desert. Refugees — who are treated with God’s passionate care in the Hebrew Bible — will be scorned, vilified, detained, and deported at borders and in global northern countries around the world. It will be painful. And yet, based on the patterns already in place, the world will do its best to look away.
In the Bible, Smoke-filled Skies Demand Attention
A man stands in the Empty Sky 911 Memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey looking towards the One World Trade Center tower in lower Manhattan in New York City shortly after sunrise as haze and smoke caused by wildfires in Canada hangs over the Manhattan skyline on June 8, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Some insurance companies still use the phrase “act of God” to describe fires or other natural disasters for which no human agent can be held responsible. But we need to stop putting God on the hook: These disasters are happening because governments are drunk on the fossil fuel industry’s deadly Kool-Aid.
Stop Preaching About ‘Being Good Stewards of the Earth’
Religious leaders should stop saying things like, “We must be good stewards of Creation” or “Our faith teaches us to protect the Earth” and instead getting comfortable saying things like: “ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and other oil and gas companies are systematically destroying the planet — and financial giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, and Vanguard are bankrolling the destruction.”
If All Votes Are Not Counted, We Will Take to the Streets
Demonstrators take part in an interfaith rally in Philadelphia in 2017. Photo: Michael Candelori / Shutterstock.com
People of diverse faiths have a moral obligation to protect the integrity of the election. Right this minute, people all across the country are voting early or by mail, or making plans to vote in person. As religious and spiritual leaders, we are prepared to take to the streets peacefully if it becomes clear that votes are not being counted or if a legitimate election outcome is being subverted.
For God's Sake, Strike for Climate
Feb. 15, 2019: Protestors with banners at a Youth strike for climate march in central London. Credit: Shutterstock.
On Friday, Sept. 20, driven by our faith and by our profound concern about climate change, we will be joining young people from around the world in a climate strike. We will join with youth who, frightened by the impact that a hotter planet will have on their lives and angry that adults have done so little in response, are demanding that world leaders take transformative action to address the emergency that we face. Millions of us will take to the streets to demand a right to a future for generations to come.