Agape and The New Climate Movement

"Can I really love Rush Limbaugh?" That's a question climate activists should be asking themselves around the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination on April 4, and the 78th anniversary on April 6 of Gandhi's famous act of civil disobedience, his salt satyagraha or Salt March.

Gandhi and King would have been able to do it, but admittedly, it's tough to love Rush if you're on the frontlines of the climate movement. Almost daily, he mercilessly attacks Al Gore and others who dare to suggest that we need to fight global warming. Last year, he derisively mocked Cheryl Lockwood, a young Yup'ik woman from Alaska, after her emotional Congressional testimony about the impact of climate change on her indigenous culture.

But unless climate activists affirm that they can love Rush, the coal lobby and other opponents of action to fight global warming, I fear that this movement will fail, with dire consequences for our planet.

The climate movement, led by college students, enlightened CEOs, and evangelicals, among others, is strong. This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered on over 1500 college campuses to demand that their elected officials support clean-energy investments, 'green collar' jobs, and a descending cap on carbon emissions.

As a scholar of this movement, I am amazed by the skills of its leaders. Over the last five years, they have successfully framed their arguments, mobilized their base, and taken advantage of political opportunities, having learned from the non-violent strategies of the civil rights movement. Yet I fear that they may overlook that movement's most important lesson: a commitment to agape.

Agape is the special brand of love, described in 1 Corinthians 13, that is 'patient, kind, not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.' For Dr. King and so many other civil rights leaders, belief in agape underpinned nonviolence and was central to their success.

In this King and others were deeply influenced by Gandhi's satyagraha, or "truth force" -- the affirmation that peaceful ends are achieved not by violent means, but with love. "Truth force" also influenced Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. The "force" part is the courage and discipline with which Gandhi's and King's supporters rejected violence at great personal risk. It is what led Americans of all kinds to walk across the Edmund Pettis Bridge, even in the face of Sheriff Jim Clark's whips and clubs. The "love," part, agape, allowed them forgive Clark and his ilk, setting the stage for moving beyond Jim Crow. By aspiring to patience and kindness, eschewing anger, keeping no record of wrongs, civil rights activists literally disarmed their enemies.

Therein lies the Limbaugh test. At a recent rally in Maryland of over 6,000 college students, speakers referred to 'the enemy,' to the 'evil,' of the coal lobby and their allies. Such rhetoric is guaranteed to stoke even more hyper-partisan politics and hinder social change.

By contrast, consider what Mary Lou Finley, a former colleague of Dr. King, calls "the two hands of non-violence: one hand raised, saying no to injustice; and the other hand extended, reaching out to one's opponent, seeking reconciliation and inviting them to join the movement."

Coal-fired electricity is deservedly a prime target for the climate movement. Burning coal not only threatens the planet: it endangers coal workers and destroys local ecosystems. But instead of vilifying the coal lobby, activists should begin by acknowledging their humanity -- and the legitimacy of their concerns. Coal, after all, provides low-cost electricity for millions and jobs for tens of thousands.

Imagine a strategy in which climate protesters not only try to close down new coal-fired power plants, but also invite leaders of the coal industry to collaborate on clean-energy investments for coal-dependent local economies. Imagine them lobbying together for tax credits, let's say, to build solar thermal plants in Wyoming and wind farms in West Virginia. As for Rush, how about a light-hearted fundraiser to buy him a Prius?

It's more or less what Gandhi and King would have done, and no one has been more effective in creating sweeping social change than they. If Dr. King found it in his heart to forgive Sheriff Clark, surely climate activists can forgive those who have forcefully stood in their way, setting the stage for a truly inclusive movement that offers hope -- and a clean-energy future -- for all.

Jonathan Isham, Jr. is the Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics at Middlebury College and is the editor of Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement. He is participating in the free public forum Satyagraha: Gandhi's "Truth Force In the Age of Climate Change" April 13 at New York's Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, details at www.garrisoninsitute.org.