I just returned to the United States from a clergy conference I was invited to address by Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool. As a leader in the Church of England, he has also become a global leader in the Christian responsibility to "serve and preserve" the earth. In a recent lecture he said:
Just as we look back on previous times with incredulity and wonder how people, especially believers, could have not only condoned but succored the slave trade and slavery, so in later years I think subsequent generations, who will live consciously with the reality that the earth is not a limitless larder, will find it difficult to understand how we could have described ourselves so uncritically as: "consumers."
A convert to this belief himself, Bishop Jones, without equivocation, calls for conversion of our hearts, our places of worship, and our public policy.
This Friday, HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, is scheduled to go to the House of Representatives for a vote. As we seek to "serve and preserve" the earth on personal and communal levels, this legislation represents a great step forward for our entire country to do the same.
This bill will create incentives for our largest polluting industries to reduce harmful emissions; has the opportunity to create up to 1.7 million new "green" jobs; and has protections for some of the world's poorest people to help them adapt to the ongoing consequences of climate change. The costs of inaction are already being felt across the globe, and this is the opportunity to mitigate the effects of our consumption and pollution. Leadership from the United States in this area is crucial as the world looks forward to December and the international climate treaty discussions in Copenhagen.
It is clear that to love your neighbor is to love the earth, and we all need to take steps on personal and communal levels to do just that. This means setting priorities and being willing to make sacrifices in our own life, but the same needs to happen on a national and global scale.
This legislation is a start and still far from perfect. But, it defines priorities for policy moving forward and demonstrates substantive changes that can provide global leadership for a challenge we must all face together.
I urge you to call your representative's office today and ask him or her to vote to pass this climate change bill. You can find your rep's phone number here, or you can call the congressional switchboard at 202-225-3121 and ask to be forwarded.
Make your voice heard and ensure that history does not remember us just as "consumers" of the earth and its resources, but as people who take seriously the God-given mandate to "serve and preserve" the earth.
Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening
Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis
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Marian Visions and misguided minions
An icy pall awaits to descend
You can feel a presence
Sense foot steps comin
Nothing it touches
Is the same again
It's in granite and plaster
That times movin faster
To that destinatio
Where this mystery began
It's on the drums of Africa, The Tora, The Quran
The Bhagavad gita, the Bible
Those handbooks of man
That salvation is singular
For each individual
There's no crossing that threshold
Holding anyone's hand
But there's footsteps to follow
All short cuts ring hollow
The Krelim and The Pentagon
Are both built on sand
So go tell your brother
You're in the charge of each other
From India and Pakistan
Israel and Iran
So go tell your brother
We're in the charge of each other
Every father and child
Woman and man
Marian visions and misguided minions
An icy pall awaits to descend..
Marian Vision by me
Copyrighte
Use by permission
TJ...
"Is all of this economic pain justified by gains against global warming? Higher energy prices dramatical
http://www
Make sure you realize what you are voting for.
It stimulates American innovation in energy technology
It doesn't help oil companies or Saudi Arabia. Oh, darn.
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
some think that means they can do whatever they please to G-ds creation. instead it is a fiduciary responsibi
lets not forget
Numbers 35:33
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
a little more esoteric quote
“When the Holy One Blessed be He created Adam, He took him and caused him to pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden. He said to him, ‘See how beautiful and praisewort
It takes religion to actually convince one's self that we humans have "dominion" over the animals. How arrogant and self-impor
I do as well, but I don't criticize others when I do such things myself. But of course, don't expect consistenc
God is an idea. We made it up. And it's time to wake up from our own creation.
One must wonder just where the idea comes from that they have any better idea than anyone else does?
And then after God got done with that little exercise, he apparently forgot all about it, for in Genesis 2:5 we observe that "there was not a man to till the ground," and that's what got Adam created in Genesis 2:7. All kind of peculiar.
But more to the point: are human beings capable of doing anything without invoking God? Can't we just decide for ourselves to do the right thing without the need to please some deity? Is it not enough to treat the earth, and all the creatures upon it, with respect and dignity and kindness? What good are we if we are motivated only by fear of the wrath of God, the stick, or an afterlife in heaven, the carrot? Really, do we need all this God stuff to act responsibl
There is more than enough to feed and cloth and serve us all it is the distributi
Bankers have a lot to do with this internatio
Nothing has changed in 6,000 years nothing...
Recently here it was reported rare miniature elephants were slaughtere
People are being shot in their churches, and reverends are asking people to bring their guns to a church as would be objects of worship...
Reverends have become political hacks, such as Pat Robertson and that zealot baffoon Falwelland so many more...
The biggest churches preach materialis
Man is a failed species...
There is no salvation for mankind, only if at all the individual
Now watch how those who have no faith attack like hyenas..
We are in the final days and there is no Rapture none, that too is heresy..so get ready to reap what we've sown...
I'm resigned to it, are you...
Jesus replied, "Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me."
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possession
And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
I'm guessing the vast majority of American Christians won't be attendance at the pearly gates?
In fact I agree..
As Nietzsche said:
"There was only ever one true Christian, and He died on the Cross..!"
Do you really want to live on a planet with no life forms left other than human beings and insects? Because that's where we're headed Reverend. BTW: Why didn't Noah save the dinosaurs? I thought he was supposed to save all the animals two by two? I actually had a Jehovah's Witness tell me that they drowned in the great flood.
I have bad news for you Reverend: There really aren't any Bogey Men.
Sorry . . .
it does not say "Go forth and multiply" it says
Genesis 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
the key words are fruitful and multiply.
as anybody who has fruit trees will tell you to make them fruitful you need to constantly pruning them.
as a mathematic
sorry you had a bad experience with a jw who didnt no the bible. if they had read the bible they would know that the sun wasnt created till the 3rd day. this means we are not talking about a 24 hour day but a day in the life of G-d. when the story of creating is read as it is suppose to be read it follows the scientific view of creation.
of course it is deliberate
The people who made up these fables had no idea how the universe came to be, or that there was a universe beyond the small part of the earth where they dwelled. Hence the thousands upon thousands of different stories of creation, all of them invoking some kind of supernatur
Please let us not torture the words in the Bible into coinciding with scientific theory and knowledge, but instead let them stand as primitive explanatio
That God made the Heavens and the Earth and made all of us.
That's it period.
What's so hard about that?
I just hope they don't remember that slavery itself is sanctioned in the bible by Abraham himself.
Taking history out of it's original context..
IS ALWAYS A BAS IDEA...
We need to keep the planet hospitable
If you are a Christian, the Bible says man is given dominion over the planet. Dominion doesn't mean "the right to destroy its life-suppo
But don't expect conservati
If Jesus came back to Earth, conservati
WRONG. Jesus was the first character in the bible to introduce hell. He was the first to introduce damnation and eternal fire for failure to worship him. He made it crystal clear that following him was more important than family, world peace, brotherly love, or even food and water. He spoke once or twice about loving your neighbors, and even your enemies, but mostly he said, "believe in me or burn for all eternity." He said it over and over and over again. It's the primary theme of his wretched book. THIS is what Christians love so much about it. No common sense or reasoning can penetrate it. Trying to use scripture as a communicat
You can't even do your own homework:)
One of the last lines of one Gospel says that the author wrote these things so that we may believe...
Wha...?
Its interestin
Secondly, i think you will find that ALL european countries understand climate change to be an unfortunat