“The dream of ‘costless mitigation of climate change’ has been a constant … in the climate change debate …. We prefer certain, decisive action free of politics to messy, indeterminate responses that affect the way we live. We will avert our eyes from reality as long as a simple solution seems just over the horizon.”
Dale Jamieson
Reason in a Dark Time
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our order of worship. Yes, really! In particular, I’ve been drawn to the practice of confession, which I experience as an intrusive, weekly moment of honesty—intrusive in the sense that I prefer not to think of myself this way. I’ve never been in jail. I pay all my debts and show up for work on time. I even brush AND floss! On the great balance beam of life, not so bad.
Beyond the weekly ritual, there is, of course, one’s original confession. We often gentrify that moment now and refer to it as “joining the church.” Perhaps that’s OK. One shouldn’t hold on to the raw edge of a broken relationship. Christian life isn’t so much about moving on as it is about moving closer.
Nearer. Closer. Those are meaningless words unless you have a point of reference. So, I’m back to confession, which measures me against my starting point. The question is whether or not I’ve moved closer to Christlikeness. I’m back to intrusive, in the sense that I’ve lost my edge and working my way back is painful.
I’m not arguing for a constant state of crisis. Life needs regular, predictable, routine and reassuring ritual. I am increasingly conscious, however, of the costliness of living in habituated space—places so familiar as to be invisible. This isn’t a hard concept. Let me ask: What’s the wallpaper pattern in your bathroom? How many light bulbs are in your house? How many miles do you drive in a year? I’ll bet you can’t tell me.
Habituated space becomes dangerous when you lose the capacity to see and hear the warning signs that are essential to your wellbeing: Yes, you’re going to trip over that rug; “We don’t talk anymore”; Ottawa County is short 15,000 affordable housing units; the icecaps are melting.
I prefaced this essay with a quotation from Dale Jamieson. I did so because I believe that the mitigation of climate change is the essential issue of our time; and because, as the subtitle of his book—Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed—And What It Means for Our Future—indicates, we, at our peril, have failed to heed critical signals. Jamieson suggests a reason for this behavior. Evidently, we are wired to prefer illusion: “We will avert our eyes from reality as long as a simple solution seems just over the horizon.”
We don’t want “responses that affect the way we live.” But, the way we live is exactly the problem. Wendell Berry has said that we don’t have an environmental problem, we have a way of living problem. The decisions we make on a daily basis, the values we hold, and the policies we pursue accumulate in such a way as to create a broken world. Nobody wants that, yet we lack one thing: the capacity to turn around.
I hope that in the reverberations of this discussion, you’re sensing Christian language. The Church is the one place that knows something about turning around. This is in fact our story. Each one of us confessed that in some way our lives were lost and out of control, that God’s grace turned us around, and that we found a way of letting go of those things that endangered and encumbered us.
The Church is, in fact, the only place where the climate change issue can be met. Only here, will the difference between appropriation and willing sacrifice be understood. Only here can we address the question: “How much is enough?” Only here can we genuinely define what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.
What are the specifics? What does climate change mitigation look like? In what way do we need to change our daily habits, values, and public policy? There’s no shortage of suggestions and, quite frankly, nobody knows it all. But I believe that there will be no reconstruction without confession. Change begins with honest confession and ultimately, joy will be its verification.
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Upcoming Caring for Creation Event:
August 5, 11:30 AM: Bike Ride –
Tunnel Park to Rosy Mound
Bring bikes to church with you and a trailer will transport bikes from church to Tunnel Park.
~Peter Boogaart, Caring for Creation Ministry Co-chair