Programs and Speakers
Programs and Speakers Available
Many folks want their organization to sponsor a program for their organization to talk about the environmental crisis and what their organization can do about it. Women Thinking Out Loud offers assistance to develop a program for an organization, for a church. Women Thinking Out Loud is a local independent grassroots organization devoted to ensuring a livable planet for children and grandchildren. Members have been trained by the Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light in the “Be The Spark” program. Contact the organization for further information and for scheduling. (womenthinkingoutloud@frontier.com)
A Program will be adapted to the organization’s goals, mission, and needs. It may include:
- An overview of the environmental crisis
- How to have meaningful conversations about the crisis
- What an organization can do
- How we can connect and work with others
- What we can do locally
A program can be developed for all organizations, including faith communities, schools, and clubs.
LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
All organizations are welcome and encouraged to contact us about a one to two hour program for their organizations. The Program can be adapted to your organization as you wish.
The Standard Program is:
- Mingling and connecting
- What do we know about the environmental crisis
- How to have a productive Climate Conversation with family and friends
- What can we do together locally
SPEAKERS
A Climate Reality Leader program is available. This program includes a 30 minute slide presentation, along with a 15 minute mingle and one hour small group discussions on how to have a productive Climate Conversation with family and friends, and what we can do together locally.
FAITH COMMUNITIES
One to two hour programs on Creation Care includes Creation Care Conversations about what we know about the environmental crisis, how it makes us feel, and how does our faith compel us to act to restore God’s Creation. How to start a conversation with family and friends about Creation Care is also available. A small group discussion format is also offered to discuss starting a Creation Care Team at our church.
“I’m a Climate Scientist Who Believes in God. Hear Me Out,” Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, 10/31/19. Global warming will strike hardest against the very people we’re told to love: the poor and vulnerable.
ALL FAITHS believe in, and are working for preserving God’s Creation.
ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
Caring for Creation
“Rooted in our sinful nature (Genesis3:1-7) we trust the earth as a boundless warehouse, we push creation relentlessly. We are also captives of demonic power and unjust institutions; we participate in exploitation of the earth and its resources (Galatians 4:9 & Ephesians 6:12). Together our sin and captivity have contributed to the current crisis: global warming, polluted air and water, food security and human health issues, affecting first and foremost those who are poor and otherwise vulnerable (Amos 5: 6-15.”
United Methodist Church
“One manifestation of our neglect, selfishness and pride is our sinful disregard for creation that has given rise to the injustice of climate change.” Climate Change and the Church’s Response, 2016 Book of Resolution.
“All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued, and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect.” The Social Principles Preamble, Para. 160, Book of Discipline
Unitarian Universalist
“[H]ow can our faith inform our actions to remedy and mitigate global warming/climate change? … we will not acquiesce to the ongoing degradation and destruction of life that human actions are leaving to our children and grandchildren. We as Unitarian Universalists are called to join with others to halt practices that fuel global warming/climate change, to instigate sustainable alternatives, and to mitigate the impending effects of global warming/climate change with just and ethical responses. As people of faith, we commit to a renewed reverence for life and respect for the interdependent web of all existence.” Statement of Conscience
Judaism
“Mobilizing communities to take leadership in bold climate campaigns through education and carbon footprints.” Jewish Climate Action Network
“Humankind has a solemn obligation to improve the world for future generations. Addressing climate change requires us to learn how to live within the ecological limits of the earth so that we will not compromise the ecological or economic security of those who come after us. Genesis 2:15 emphasizes our responsibility to protect the integrity of the environment so that it’s diverse species, including humans, can thrive.” Jewish Values on Climate Change & Energy, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Islam
We “call on the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world to realize the moral imperative of addressing climate change as part of their religious duty…[Muslims must] take action to halt the desecration of nature that leads to destruction of creation and human lives.”
“God – whom we know as Allah – has created the universe in all its diversity, richness and vitality: the stars, the sun and moon, the earth and all its communities of living beings. All these reflect and manifest the boundless glory and mercy of the Creator … We recognize the corruption that humans have caused on Earth in our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption. We recognize that we are but a miniscule part of the divine order, yet within that order we are exceptionally powerful being and have the responsibility to establish good and avert evil in every way we can. We also recognize that – 1) we are but one of the multitude of living beings with whom we share the earth; 2) we have no right to abuse the creation or impair it; 3) intelligence and conscience should lead us, as our faith commands, to treat all things with care and awe of their Creator, compassion and utmost good.” Islamic Declaration on Climate Change
Catholic Church
“Pope Francis urges the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and all people of good will to take urgent action against the injustice of climate change and the ecological crisis, to protect the poor and future generations.” Global Catholic Climate Movement
“The Paris Agreement clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground … Civilization requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilization.” Pope Francis to fossil fuel executives
Tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit. Egoism and self-interest have turned creation, a place of encounter and sharing, into an arena of competition and conflict. In this way, the environment itself is endangered: something good in God’s eyes has become something to be exploited in human hands…In effect, we have forgotten who we are: creatures made in the image of God and called to dwell as brothers and sisters in a common home.” Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, September 1, 2019
(Care for Creation, CST 101:Care for Creation You Tube)
Hindu
“The Earth is my mother, and I am her child!” Atharva Veda (12.1.12) Rapacious exploitation of the planet has caught up with us. We are servants of the Divine, all our actions, including those in protection of the world around us and all the being therein, becoming acts of worship.
Climate change creates pain, suffering, and violence. Unless we change how we use energy, how we use the land, how we grow our crops, how we treat other animals, and how we use natural resources, we will only further this pain, suffering, and violence. On a personal basis, we can reduce this suffering by beginning to transform our habits, simplifying our lives and material desires, and not taking more than our reasonable share of resources. …
Through this combination of meaningful action, personal transformation, and service done selflessly and as an act of worship we will be able to make the sort of inner and outer transitions that addressing climate change requires. In doing this we are acting in a deeply dharmic way, true to our Hindu ethos, philosophy, and tradition. Hindu Climate Declaration, 2015
Buddhist
Global warming is intimately related to the gargantuan quantities of energy that our industries devour to provide the levels of consumption that many of us have learned to expect…To survive the rough transitions ahead, our lifestyles and expectations must change. This involves new habits as well as new values. The Buddhist teaching that the overall health of the individual and society depends upon inner well-being, and not merely upon economic indicators, helps us determine the personal and social changes we must make.
The four noble truths provide a framework for diagnosing our current situation and formulating appropriate guidelines – because the threats and disasters we face ultimately stem from the human mind, and therefore require profound changes within our minds. If personal suffering stems from craving and ignorance – from the three poisons of greed, ill will, and delusion – the same applies to the suffering that afflicts us on a collective scale. Our ecological emergency is a larger version of the perennial human predicament. Bot as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not ony from other people but from the Earth itself. The Time to Act is Now, A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change, David Loy, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, John Stanley, 2015
CREATION’S CHALLENGE TO HUMANS
Creation in Crisis: Responding to God’s Covenant – Shantilal P. Bhagat, 1990, Brethren Press, Elgin, Illinois.
With the Decade of the Environment – the 1990s – just beginning, we who believe in the value and purpose of Creation are challenged. Because we believe the Creator has given us responsibility to be ‘stewards’ and ‘caretakers,’ we must face squarely the problems of severe environmental degradations that surround us today. They threaten the ecosphere’s future and therefore our own future.
To the Creator who has entrusted us with the responsibility of caring for Creation and to coming generations, we owe a response. Can something be done soon enough to make a difference? The crises of our times are not occasions for doom-saying pessimism nor a chance to peddle empty-hope optimism. Every crisis is a judgment, a call to see where things have gone wrong and to seek to set matters right. The environmental crisis, the economic crisis, the crisis of faith and of militarism – are symptoms not only that humanity has not yet become what it has to be, but also that it is on the wrong track.