Dr. Judith Curry, Georgia Tech professor and climate modeling expert, shows projections of the coming climate shifts during the opening session of Mercer's conference "Caring for Creation: Ethical Responses to Climate Change," on Feb. 27.
At the opening session on Feb. 27, Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns of the Church of God Theological Seminary noted that humans are feeling profound disconnect from their roots in nature, whether through urbanization, the increasing reliance on science to explain the world or the increase in the amount of technology in their lives. People who wish to confront global climate change have to get through to people who are suffering “enchantment deficit disorder,” she said. Humankind’s divorce from nature and from God’s creation – and the wonderment and enchantment from that creation – is part of the struggle for religious and moral leaders in confronting climate change, Dr. Johns said.
“I believe that we can re-enchant the world,” Dr. Johns said. “As a person of faith, I believe I can live an enchanted life of faith, a spirited life, where I see, sometimes as the ancient Celts, that the veil between this world and the world that is to come, getting very, very thin in certain places. And sometimes I see that in nature and it’s a glorious expression of that which is to come.
“So Creation care and caring for Creation, to me, means that we become enchanted, we become re-enchanted,” Dr. Johns said. “We can be great scientists and wonder. We can be astute physicians and wonder. We can be wonderful people, who are teachers and lawyers and pastors, and wonder,can’t we? So that we can teach our children … it’s a beautifully enchanted world, it’s a verdant place, it’s a mysterious place. Walk softly because the spirit of the Lord is here.”
The two-day event included more than 200 students, faculty and staff from the Atlanta campus, as well as a contingent from the Macon campus. Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer and one of the event’s organizers, connected the conference around his work with a group of scientists and evangelical leaders examining whether the two groups could “come to a common mind on issues of climate change.” The Mercer event was the first full-scale event on a college campus highlighting those issues as a part of the scientist-evangelical effort, which began in 2006.
The opening session also included a presentation by Dr. Judith Curry, a professor at Georgia Tech and an expert on climate modeling and climate change, who laid out the mounting evidence of climate change and its human causes. Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also presented on the need for public health planning and response as climate change continues to affect our increasingly urban populations.
On Feb. 28, the conference broke into sessions focusing on climate change, as well as ways it could be addressed, including public health, greening the campus, lifestyle changes, and environmental policy.
In their session on ethical responses to climate change, Dr. Johns and Dr. Gushee lamented the lack of evangelical engagement in the issue of climate change. Dr. Gushee noted a number of factors have contributed to that, including the distrust of the environmental movement, lack of science education, distrust of the mainstream media, distrust of science, a misinterpretation of God’s sovereignty over the world and a loyalty among many evangelicals to President Bush.
“I’ve written about the powers and dangers of political loyalties for Christians,” Dr. Gushee said. “I’ve argued that we are to be loyal to God, to follow the evidence wherever it leads, and not be in the hip pocket of any political party, left, right, center, Green Party, whatever. And I think the Christian Right in America lost that and realizes it to some extent.”
Additionally, Christians need to focus their energies on Creation care because it goes along with their care of life, both human and animal, particularly in light of their role as stewards who were given power over the Earth by God, Dr. Gushee said.
“Climate change is an example of a moral issue, where even paying attention to the well-being of humanity requires some address of this problem,” Dr. Gushee said. “I think we are in a time where we need to re-read sacred scriptures to see the connections, for example, between human beings and other creatures, to see the web of life that was already set up as revealed in the early chapters of Genesis. We need to reinterpret rule as stewardship and care. We need to see the way in which the Bible teaches us the covenant relationship between God and the other creatures and between us and the other creatures.”
Dr. Gushee concluded: “I think that all people of faith need to do things like what we’re trying to do at this conference: take seriously the best scientific resources, bring them into conversation with the best theological reflection that we can do in all our different faith traditions – and its something that’s going on in all the different faith traditions, not just Christianity – and try to discern what it means to live responsibly before God today,” he said. “In light of how much is at stake on this issue, I think personally, from my own context, there is a special urgency right here in Red State America, with a strong evangelical Christian presence, that, in general, thinks that climate change is not a big deal and resists any kind of engagement with it.”
Dr. Johns also highlighted the stewardship called for by faith and, even with end times prophecies that seem to indicate that global warming may hasten the return of Christ. Christians should focus on making the world like it will be on the day He does return, rather than on hastening His return through indifference to climate destruction, she said.
“Let us not live with our eschatology out there. … Let us live with the eschatology of the day here, and that’s a very different theme, because if we live with that day here, that day will judge this day,” Dr. Johns said, holding her hand close to her face. “That day will judge how I live, so if that day is going to be a day of beauty and creation, it’s judging this day in which I live. So eschatology to me doesn’t hinder Creation care, as much as it facilitates Creation care.”
The conference’s breakout sessions and interdisciplinary discussions energized participants, as well as calling them to action.
“The conference delivered,” said Brad Schwarz, clinical associate professor and director of the Physician Assistant Program in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “The quality of the presenters and the impartiality of the views shared was thoughtful and provocative. We are all a part of a larger community who must care for our beloved earth and its inhabitants. It is my hope that this conference will one day become an international symposium where we all join together to make the ethical decision to care for the future of our world.”
Developed as part of the University’s focus on ethics in its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the QEP is meant to enhance interdisciplinary reflection on ethical issues at Mercer through seminars and other events. Previous QEP seminars in Atlanta had focused on dimensions of moral decision making. This year’s conference marks a departure from past events, with its sustained attention to one issue: the environment, and, in particular, climate change.
Plans are under way to extend the partnership with Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, as well as the theme of the conference, to a similar QEP event in Macon, said Dr. Peter Brown, senior vice provost, who attended the conference.
“Mercer has an extraordinary opportunity to bring religious leaders and top scientists together to address one of the most profound and complex issues of our time — climate change — and its implications for future human well-being,” Dr. Brown said. “We are grateful that the Center will continue to partner with Mercer to expand this dialogue next fall.”
