My mother taught her children never to "toot our own horn." So last year, when Sojourners became the first publication ever (so far as I know) to win the best general interest magazine awards from both the Associated Church Press and the Evangelical Press Association in the same year, we mentioned it, but were quite modest about it. The ACP is mostly made up of mainline Protestant and Catholic publications, and the EPA is the major association of Evangelical magazines and newspapers. To win highest honors at both conventions is a major accomplishment in this era of polarization, not only in politics, but in the church.
From the research we have done in the past 24 hours, no other publication has received both of these awards in the same year -- at least since the days of the early church. (Though I must say, first century records of publication awards are a bit thin.) Apparently, there was a running competition between hand-carried letters (sometimes called epistles) put out by editorial teams in both Corinth and Ephesus.
So I'm sorry, Mom... but since Sojourners magazine won both awards again this year, I have to say a word about why I think this is a big deal, and why it makes me very grateful for our mission and our staff. To be able to speak across the whole spectrum of church life in times like these is very encouraging to me. Our mission statement is "to articulate the biblical call to social justice." And these awards are important because of the way they show how central social justice has become to so many of our churches (sorry, Glenn Beck). In particular, it demonstrates how a new generation of Christians want their faith to make a real difference, both in their lives and in the world. They share our strong commitment to demonstrate God's love for this world and God's compassion for the poor in particular. I meet them all over the country and around the world -- half of our audiences now are under thirty. And many of them are looking to Sojourners to help them put their faith into action. Nothing could make me happier.
Some of the best of this new generation work for Sojourners, and we are lucky to have them. Our whole team deserves credit for these wonderful awards. I have little to do anymore with the day-to-day operation of Sojourners magazine, and I am very proud of the people who do -- a combination of veteran writers and editors along with a core of young communicators for a new age of social media. Watching them do what they do is a great fulfillment of what a few of us envisioned when we were the young writers and editors with a new mission to combine personal faith with social justice.
But enough talking about awards. Okay, Mom -- now back to the mission.
Yesterday, the long-awaited announcement of a new energy and climate bill finally occurred in the United States Senate. On hand were Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, environmentalists, business leaders (including some from the energy industry), and even a few faith leaders. Now we get to see the actual bill, and we can begin to evaluate it. Like all things political, this bill will be full of compromises and concessions to get the necessary support for passage. Nonetheless, it promises to be the beginning, and just the beginning, of a new direction in America's energy future; it could mark a turn away from oil and fossil fuels toward cleaner and renewable energy sources. The attempt is to start mitigating the effects of climate change and to begin the critical process of adapting to a new energy future. For that adaptation, much more help will be needed for the world's poorest people and regions than this bill (in its current form) delivers.
Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation (and a person of faith), raised a prophetic word when he spoke of our "addiction" to oil. Addictions, as many people have discovered, eventually make your life not work anymore. And that is what has happened to the U.S. and the world -- our oil addiction is making things not work. The list of consequences is long -- from critical climate changes, to the loss of jobs, to supplying money for terrorists, to sacrificing the lives of our young people in wars over oil, to watching an oil spill that nobody seems to know how to stop pour hundreds of thousands of gallons each day into the Gulf of Mexico.
At a deep level, what's not working in the U.S. is our lifestyle -- particularly the consumerist energy habits we showcase to the rest of the world. Moving toward a "clean energy economy" will require more than just a re-wiring of the energy grid; it will also take a re-wiring of ourselves -- a conversion, really, of our habits of the heart. We must adjust our expectations, demands, and values.
Jim Ball, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, says this bill is like the starter's gun at the beginning of a race. We have to start running in a different direction, and this bill would allow us to do that. But it will only be the start of a long marathon that will be completed by our children and grandchildren -- a marathon to overcome our addiction and be better stewards of our earth, our economy, our international relations, and finally, our souls.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street -- A Moral Compass for the New Economy, CEO of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com.
Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis
Rev. Jennifer Kottler: Attention Must Be Paid: The Gulf Oil Spill Is Not Over
The minute the spotlight leaves, so will the pressure on BP to make things right for the people and the environment that were destroyed. Attention must be paid.
Jim Wallis: Glenn Beck Attacks Churches on Climate Change
I thought Glenn Beck must have moved on to other things, but the other night, he went back to his attack on social justice churches. This time the issue was climate change.
Jim Wallis: New Economy, New Energy: Lessons from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
The house that Wall Street built has fallen -- and great was its fall! The house that Big Oil built has fallen -- and great was its fall! We need to rediscover some of our old values on which we can build a solid foundation for the future.
Jim Wallis: Testifying in the Gulf (PHOTOS)
Language fails us. This is not a "spill," but a spoiling of God's creation -- of wetlands and beaches, of God's myriad creatures, of lives and livelihoods.
We depend on the environment 100%, not because some nonsensical deity decided this was the case but because this is how reality naturally unfolded.
If we looked at ourselves as the animals we are (and start abandoning the negative connotation associated with calling oneself an animal), maybe we'd start respecting the places in which we live, which we rely on, but do not rely on us.
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Please share with us how you take your own sage advice. How many square feet is your home, for example? How much energy does it use? How big is your own carbon footprint?
Thanks, Rev.
Overrun by war and uncontrolled greed
Our world becomes more dangerous each day.
Dishonest politicians, criminals and the media
Survive by their falsehoods at play.
Bible believers preach, that the end is near
Our world as a whole is beyond reform.
God will eradicate all, which is wicked
By His fire of eruption and storm.
To evil’s victory, I will never concede
May its supporters anguish in hell.
By the grace of God and the power of faith
The goodness of man will prevail.
What greed has done, Heaven will measure
As patriots respond to the blunders of man.
Protect and defend what we love till death
As tar balls pollute the air, sea and land.
Free To Use To Teach
By Soldier For The Lord
Tom Zart
Most Published Poet
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And Your Friend Tom
Thank You For Your Friendship.
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http://internetvoicesradio.com/Arch-TomZart.htm
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Our men and woman who serve in harm’s way,
Are the armor of what the free world depends on.
Without their sacrifice of body and soul,
All that we stand for is gone.
Come to Tom Zart’s Facebook friends page and unite with soldiers in field and visit with some of the worlds most beautiful women and Christians.
Some particularly memorable lines:
"Dishonest politicians, criminals and the media
Survive by their falsehoods at play."
"To evil’s victory, I will never concede
May its supporters anguish in hell."
"Protect and defend what we love till death
As tar balls pollute the air, sea and land."
I can see why you're the most published poet on the web!
When property is destroyed by energy companies, file suit.
We don't need a NEW government energy policy further distorting the market in any direction. Stop taxing us for imperial mis-adventures and grandiose political and legislative designs and just see what happens! That alone would be enough to release the creative potential of the American people in the arena of energy supply.
Politics is not the solution.
I agree, however, that we need a change of heart. That comes from a sense of justice in the hearts of the citizenry, not in the hearts of politicians and their crooked bankster supporters.
http://www.hemp4fuel.com/page.php?2
My friends crack jokes about how I carry 2x4's home from the hardware store three at a time for a project rather than ask a buddy to take me in his pickup. I tease them back about how they don't think twice about carrying a backpack through the mountain trails for vacation.
I'm 52, 6'3", and weigh 170 lbs. I start my day with mocha breve's loaded with whipped cream, I drink whole milk from the carton, and sit around at night squirting whipped cream on strawberries for snacks.
A lot of people could move to a similar kind of neighborhood where one could walk almost everywhere. This would reduce America's need for oil and reduce America's waistline at the same time - a win/win. Make your kids walk to school or ride a bike. The city I grew up in laid their schools out so that every child in city limits was within walking distance of a public school. We all walked to school everyday.
(disclaimer - I make medical marijuana butter and I want to be buried in THAT)
So we trudge on, and without a major federal investment in a national energy grid we will trudge on for the next 50 or 100 years.
We in Amerika have, as Dick Cheney said, a "non-negotiable lifestyle"- which means we (as a nation) would rather die in a heap of mercury laden, oil soaked, radiation saturated, e-coli contaminated pile of crap than do anything a bunch of dirty hippies, scientists, or clergy suggest.
Demand destruction is the only way that conservation will be implemented.
I can remember seeing brown snow from coal ash. Most people thought Nuclear was a much better and cleaner solution. This was way before anyone talked about CO2.
The so-called environmentalists fought Nuclear; they said use Natural Gas and Coal “it’s natural” or “if God wanted us to use Nuclear he wouldn’t have gave us coal and gas and oil”! Never mind we dig uranium out of the ground just like coal or oil or iron.
Environmental groups TOLD US to put all of the CO2 from Coal and Gas used in power production in the air for the last 40 years.
And now that environmentalists are concerned about CO2, instead of just saying we were wrong, lets build Nuclear, many are still fighting it. (In fairness many environmental groups, and even Al Gore, are now supporting Nuclear or at least not opposing it.)
And one environmental group or another is fighting every other solution.
Environmental groups fight wind farms because of birds or “sight pollution”.
Environmental groups fight solar farms in the desert that harm desert life.
Environmental groups fight biofuels as not “clean enough” or “compete with food for cropland”.
But even today the extreme environmentalists are STILL trying to stop Nuclear power, and they don’t seem even to realize that means more coal, or electric bills at least 5 times higher.
That’s the joke!
I hope you have seen the error of your ways now like Al Gore and many mainstream environmental groups.
And the groups fighting the Comanchee Point nuclear plants, which I saw with my own eyes, held signs saying use natural gas instead.
I don't mind the message. It's the hypocritical lifestyles of the messengers.
Take Jim Wallis, for example. I read elsewhere on HuffPo that the public record shows he lives in a house worth 1.3 million bucks.
Or Al Gore - who now has not one, but TWO humongous homes - one in Tennessee, and the other in California.
The list of eco-celebrities doing the same sort of thing would be - well - endless.
There's a saying from my old neighborhood: PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS.
If you want to talk about reducing our energy dependence, having a smaller carbon footprint, stopping global warming or whatever, SHOW US BY EXAMPLE HOW TO LIVE.
As one who lives very simply, I feel a wave of disgust anytime one of these rich bigwig HuffPo pundits tells me to do more. Uh huh.
Hypocrites, the lot of 'em.
Answer: Nothing.