With her self-deprecating honesty and trademark blond dreadlocks, writer Anne Lamott connected her story of Christian faith to the nearly 1,000 people gathered for the Pacific Northwest Spirituality Book Fair in Seattle, Wa. "We must recognize ourselves in each other and break the cycles of isolation that keep us oppressed and from understanding the search for meaning," she said.
In the geographic region often described as the most unchurched part of the country, Lamott spoke about her relationship with God to a packed auditorium at the Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry. The theme of the gathering -- the Search for Meaning -- brought together a diversity of believers from Muslims to Mormons, Evangelicals to Episcopalians.
So how are believers finding meaning in this most secular region of the country? For one, religious communities are connecting their belief in loving their neighbor with caring for God's creation. Through the organization Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light, people of faith are working as partners with the leading environmental groups in the state to close its one coal-fired power plant and provide a transition to a clean energy economy.
Surprisingly, the state of Washington has found a voice through faith that may set a precedent for climate action amid paralysis in the "other Washington." Last fall, the U.S. Senate failed to act on national climate legislation. Congressional Republicans have questioned the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, which would have serious implications for clean air and public health.
Meanwhile congregations in Washington State are moving forward, bringing their prophetic voice, organized networks, and moral imperative to the campaign to reduce coal pollution, protect families' health, and strengthen the state's economy. Earth Ministry and the Sierra Club are the lead organizations for the Coal-Free Future for Washington bill (H.B. 1825) in the state legislature.
Earth Ministry is a partner in the Environmental Priorities Coalition, a network of 25 environmental groups that selects priority issues for each legislative session that affect the public health and welfare of the state. Once the priorities are set, every organization gets on board to lobby state legislators around these issues. This year, the Coal-Free Future for Washington bill aims to eliminate the state's biggest source of mercury, air, and climate pollution at the TransAlta coal plant by 2015 and support the local community during this transition.
Last Sunday, the Vancouver Columbian printed an op-ed entitled "Coal-burning plants defy covenant with Creator," written by Bishop Greg Rickel of the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Olympia and the Rev. Hunt Priest, a board member of Earth Ministry. "In the New Testament, Jesus told his followers to care for the poor and the least of these among us. Coal is a dirty and dangerous fuel source which poisons our air, water, and our own health," they wrote.
On a national level, these religious leaders called for strong performance standards under the Clean Air Act, so that the oldest coal-fired power plants must comply with health regulations. And on a state level, they asked that leaders be given the grace to make good choices for the health of the state, the local economy, and the future of Washington's children.
When religious leaders preach innovative action to protect the climate at a regional level, that's good news for believers and non-believers across the country. We need to follow the legislative session in Washington State and watch for the outcomes of this strategic partnership that includes a strong voice of faith.
LeeAnne Beres, the executive director of Earth Ministry, was trained as a fisheries biologist and now spearheads religious-environmental campaigns. When she left Save our Wild Salmon to join Earth Ministry, a colleague asked her, "What? I can't believe you are one of them!" (The "them" in this case was Christians).
Indeed our isolation from those who appear different from us may be the source of our greatest oppression. But as witnessed in Washington State, our ability to act on shared hopes for the health of our communities may be the greatest outcome of the search for meaning.
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We have DAM energy electrifying the entire state. All the Aluminum Plant left 20 year ago free more electricity than the state will ever need from Dam energy?
Hopkins Ridge where I live was almost totally built with TAX Payer Dollars. The farmer got $1000 a month per wind mill. The British Commonwealth corporation Monarch made so much money with public subsidy they Bought the Public Utility companies. Now these public utilities can fill our open spaces of easter washington and ship the electricity to Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Phenoix if not Pittsburg. And the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho don't seem to care.
In the mean time the Farmer still gets all his subsidy and my rates have double.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL
The reality is cheap dirty coal energy from the old generations plants cost a little over $0.02/kwh and is a big winner for profit margins for utilities. Calculation 2500kwh/ton of coal with long term coal contracts $50.00/ton.
Coal usage in North America & Europe actually went down between 2000-2009 but coal usage worldwide went up over 50% in the same period with almost all that increase in Asia. What part of the world has the fastest growing economies?
Asia has joined the industrial revolution and they have rediscovered the key; cheap energy!
For better or worse!
Filling up the open space where Sun Rise and Sun Sets use to warm the heart. Now we are electrifying the BIG CITIES welcoming more OVER POPULATION
So GREAT
But I think you need to have more faith in humanity itself. We have made huge progress, especially over the last few hundred years in elevating life for so many people, and thereby helping them, inter alia, pursue spiritual goals more readily should they choose to do so. The climate is indeed often troublesome, but there is no evidence at all that we can do very much about controlling it. In particular, the impact of CO2 increases over the past 150 years or so has been so slight as to so far defy reliable detection. Even a doubling is likely to produce an effect difficult to detect amidst the climate variability due to so many other factors. Only with rigged computer models can scary projections be produced. Such models are to be sniffed at, and not to be taken as revelation from on high.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/08/the-smoking-gun-at-darwin-zero/
It appears to confirm there has been some fudging of data by the UEA CRU, and accepted by the UN IPCC at least in the one area of northern Australia. And then this...
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/09/hockey-stick-observed-in-noaa-ice-core-data/
This is data from analysis of ice core samples taken in Greenland. It appears to support a medieval warming period, something the proponents of AGW question.
So when Christ said be in the World and not of the World and taught DEED (righteousness) and GRACE (all men will become the eternal spirit) I see and here what you say.
I have little confidence in the Churches doing much for fellow man except to Believe in his Name and not being HIM
Duh! Conservatives have been using divide and conquer tactics on us for decades. It works, all too well.
You paid for all the Wind Mills and they made so much the bought Puget Power and Pudget Sound Power companies to ship it out of the state. Raising our BPA Rates and Tax Payer Debt.
Proud too are the British Pension Fund holders