May 12, 2000,
NEW YORK CITY -- An interfaith campaign designed to help people of faith see global
warming as a religious issue and to encourage individuals, congregations and governments
to do something about it has recently expanded to 16 states.
“The
momentum to proclaim global warming a religious issue has caught on,” said the Rev.
Richard Killmer, Environmental Justice Director for the National Council of Churches. “People are realizing that this is not a dry
or irrelevant policy issue. It is about what
we will give to our children and grandchildren. It
is also about protecting life and about justice for the most vulnerable all over the
world.”
The NCC’s Eco-Justice Working Group,
consisting of Protestant and Orthodox communions, is partnering with Catholics,
evangelicals and Jews for this latest stage in a strategy that was kicked off in August
1998 to organize faith-based support for initiatives on climate change.
An initial campaign was tested in Ohio in
1998 including educational, lifestyle, public policy and media strategies. In 1999, with the Ohio campaign as a model, the
effort was expanded to four additional states - Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and
Iowa. With campaigns still ongoing in those
five states, recently 11 new states began organizing around the climate change issue:
Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South
Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.
The 16-state initiative is being carried out
through state ecumenical agencies. In each
state, local religious leaders form an interfaith planning committee, hold a two-day
training event, develop a Religious Leaders Statement and implement an ongoing interfaith
climate change campaign.
The campaigns, after the training events,
involve educating in congregations and judicatories; enabling congregations to use less
energy, educating the public through the media, and organizing visits with elected
officials, including United States senators.
The Rev. Killmer
emphasizes the truly interfaith character of the campaigns.
“It’s been a priority of the campaigns in each state to include
evangelical Protestants, Catholics, mainline Protestants including the historic Black
churches, eastern Orthodox and Jewish participants. Several
states are beginning to include Muslims in their efforts, and we had a traditional Native
American participant in West Virginia. These
efforts reflect the depth of religious experience and the religious teachings of as many
faith groups as possible.”
In the states
where campaigns have been underway, Rev. Killmer says inroads have been made. In Ohio, for instance, “Members of the Ohio
Interfaith Global Warming Campaign, organized through the Ohio Council of Churches (based
in Columbus, Ohio), testified in the Ohio State legislature against a bill calling upon
members of the U.S. Congress from Ohio to vote against the proposed Kyoto Protocol of the
Framework Convention on Climate Change – a treaty ratified by 160 nations including
the U.S. Senate. Much to the surprise of
legislators, these people of faith ended up being the strongest voice in support of Kyoto.”
In Michigan, the
interfaith campaign has offered energy efficiency seminars for members of the faith
community, partnered with the Michigan Environmental Council and the World Wildlife Fund
and placed five regional coordinators throughout the state.
“Though Michigan is a big and challenging state, we’re being
noticed more,” said Kim Winchell, of Freeland, Mich., coordinator of the Michigan
campaign and an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America layperson. “We will sit down face-to-face with our
legislators to try to convince them that this is a time for bold action on the issue,”
Ms. Winchell said. “Also, it’s an
ongoing challenge to be heard by all corners of the religious community in Michigan, but
those of us involved in this work plan to keep up a steady, and growing, drumbeat, until
we are heard.”
“Since our
training event in December, 1999, we have had good success in getting congregations to do
a Bible study on the issue and to become ‘energy stewardship congregations,’”
said Marcia Leitch, from Talcott, W.V., a Presbyterian educator who coordinates the West
Virginia Interfaith Global Warming Campaign. On
May 22, members of the campaign will meet with U.S. Representative Robert Wise and with
Senator Bird’s state staff person in Charleston, W.V., and West Virginia religious
leaders have already been doing letter writing campaigns around significant issues in the
state.
“Each state
builds their campaign to suit the needs of their area, but everywhere, the constituency
concerned about this issue has expanded and become more motivated,” Rev. Killmer
said. “Now that the theological work has
been done to ground these efforts in many religious traditions, the conversation has
changed and more people are participating in it.”
-end-
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