Faith and Legislation - finding hope
UPDATE. The Earth Bill! The Earth Bill found a sponsor in the 117th congress, and in December 2022 Representative Espaillate introduced it in congress. The 118th congress is now sworn in, with the expectation that the Earth Bill will be reintroduced—that’s how it works. The Sierra Club has also joined in to support this bill. Read more about the Earth Bill and the faith effort that came alongside that bill below. The Earth Bill is a grassroots effort. Led by Todd Fernandez the effort gathered and included experts, analysts, scientists, and people of faith nationwide. Shout out to Lavona Grow who led the faith contingent! Find specifics about the bill here, view the bill!! and view the celebration video with Rep. Espaillate!
November 2nd, our conversation at the Climate Cafe Multifaith centered around the effort—especially this last year—to pass climate legislation at the federal level. As of today, US legislators still have not achieved this goal. Perhaps, though, we are closer than we have ever been before.
The scale of the effort this year brought people together from across many communities, including indigenous voices, black voices, and environmentalists. But it also included a wide swath of the faith community ready to exercise a little moral muscle, both in leading action and standing alongside others. This coalition stretched across denominations, traditions, Spiritual beliefs and ancient wisdom, from Anishinaabe land to Houston, Texas, to Washington D.C.
This seemed a really important and timely topic for our Cafe Multifaith.
“67% of religious adults believe passing federal climate legislation is a priority this year.”
We invited three experienced faith organizers to share their reflections and takeaways on the unprecedented effort this year, and share also their thoughts for the path forward. These three organizers, Lavona Grow, Peter Sergienko, and Terence Ellen, worked on a wide set of issues, but all also came together alongside the Earth Bill Network, an effort to evaluate, craft and pass climate legislation spearheaded by Todd Fernandez.
In the middle of the pandemic, with relief and response measures being crafted and signed in every government office and agency, the Earth Bill Network recognized the imperative of a green recovery. Todd Fernandez brought people together from across the country, and connected with farm groups, faith groups, legislative staff, and experts to galvanize a grass roots push. Karenna Gore, of the Center for Earth Ethics, spoke first for the faith community, and Lavona Grow soon took up the work of organizing the faith cohort. Between 150-200 clergy, ministers and faith leaders participated, building relationships, connection, practicing advocacy, and participating in webinars, calls, prayer and climate actions.
A 2030 Moonshot for the Earth
100% by 2030
Renewable Energy
Electric Vehicles
Regenerative Agriculture
“By simply fixing how our Electricity, Cars & Food are made - we can achieve 80% of our pollution solution!”
While the Earth Bill did not yet make it to the legislative floor—UPDATE! On April 22, 2022 the Representative from New York Adriano Espaillat announced he would be introducing the bill to congress (see the press release). You can add your support here.
This effort has marked a multi-faith collaboration that came alongside what was otherwise a secular effort. As the moral movement for climate action continues to take shape, learning and relationships continue to be a key path forward.
All this and more was central to our conversation last Tuesday.
Lessons learned were many. A key takeaway is a deepening reflection that this is collaborative work, and the voices of those most impacted are powerful at the center. Those most impacted, also, are not of one mind. Actions, conversations and dreams are diverse. Collaboration is not a meeting of monoliths. Each person has their own stories, perspectives, and ideas about how to organize for change. For people of faith, solidarity and alignment can mean different things in different circumstances, and organization for marches and actions need to reflect that.
Another lesson learned is the widening realization of faith-folk in coming to understand themselves as important collaborators. Some are ministers, some are teachers, some are apostles, but others are pediatricians, foresters, firefighters, Teamsters, electricians, and Aunts…and this, all of it, is in of itself what a ‘faith community’ can look like, diverse yet whole, reaching into the heart to find our moral voices together.
As for takeaways, there was one big takeaway that Cafe participants wanted to share—and that is ‘hope.’ While there are moments where things seem to be flowing in the right direction, other times this work is so much harder than it should be. Big picture challenges like climate change have tremendous complexities, and navigating that can cause exhaustion and dismay.
These, then, are our words of hope to share.
Words of hope
Lavona Grow shared resources in the movement that inspired her. Her book recommendations include All You Can Save, and Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto by Jenny Price. Price also includes a practical lists of things you can do. Katharine Hayhoe’s new book Saving us, also makes Grow’s recommended list, as well as Hayhoe’s podcasts and TedTalk. These books speak to the need for us to talk to each other and share our stories. Says Grow, “people are saying they don't know how to talk about it or they don't know how to tell their story. I think there are ways to help in doing this that the faith community could lead.” Grow also sees that people in general are beginning to see that climate change is “not just about your carbon footprint.” She finds hope in the conversations in the business community about sustainable business practices, (ESG, see our Cafe on this), that reflect a “shift toward communal, community action.”
Rev. Terry Ellen also saw hope in actions that brought the moral imperative and business community together to address climate sustainability. Ellen referenced Bill McKibben’s efforts with divestment. By shining a light on those who financed and insured fossil fuel projects, the shame spread not just to the pipeline companies alone, but also to those who were investing in projects that caused yet more emissions and damage to the planet. Just the divestment effort alone has made a tremendous difference just by shining the moral light for change.
“we’re going to be hitting tipping points soon. What’s currently impossible will become possible, what’s currently unaffordable will become affordable, what’s difficult spiritually is going to become the way things are.”
Peter Sergienko shared that his home church had taken concrete steps toward emissions reduction, including adding solar panels and working toward installation of an electric boiler. The efforts included a grant and development of “a credible, affordable, very easily achievable plan to get to net zero emissions no later than 2030 and true zero no later than 2040.” Sergienko credits both technological and spiritual change as essential to achieving this plan. “…social movements have tipping points … I feel like there's so much positive energy going into this movement right now that we're going to be hitting tipping points soon. What's currently impossible will become possible, what's currently unaffordable will become affordable, what's difficult spiritually is going to become the way things are.”
For Sergienko, it really, truly does come down to matters of faith, “I go back to my baptismal covenants and we have a covenant that says will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. To this, I add the creation. When we center ourselves in those kinds of spiritual places we open up a lot of possibility for centering what's really at stake here, which is our human dignity, our love for each other, and for the creation. Those are the things that must be centered and give me hope.”
Others at the Cafe also had hope to share.
Rosa Waldron draws hope from her Catholic faith. “God’s light shines in the darkness. …our faith has been built in resiliency called hope. You know how high rise buildings are built to withstand high winds, so they bend a bit? —same thing for me as I experience hope.” Rosa as a faith leader within the Earth Bill Network learned that the expertise and technology exists to address the climate crisis, “we have the technology available now to turn this around in terms of the climate crisis if we choose to act.”
“ …our faith has been built in resiliency called hope. ”
For Nancy Lorence, her first big “ well of hope” came with the publication of Laudato Si. “It allowed us to have conversations in our churches and I hadn't had those kind of conversations in a faith context before. That was really wonderful.” She also finds hope in the efforts of the young. “The other thing that gives me hope is to see the young people taking what might be just a personal action….but then making it a campaign…” Young people’s use of social media means these messages can spread widely. These actions “make such a difference” and deserve to be celebrated.
David Marrett shared a saying from Al Gore that ‘the best way to restore hope is to act.” Marrett added some sage advice, as well, speaking to not just taking action, but to also look for ways and places that action can be most effective. “Find places where in your activism you are effective even if sometimes you jump from space to space.”
If you need a last word on Hope, I will recommend the poem Scott Schurtleff shared. The poem is titled Hope by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer. You can find it in the book How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. A preview is here on Google books.
“Don’t look for hope. Find action and, through it, find hope.”
Lavona M. Grow is a founding member of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ), and served twice as Board chair. She established and directed the UUSJ Advocacy Program, and represents UUSJ and the UU Association at the Washington Interfaith Staff Community (WISC). Peter Sergienko sits on the Board of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and leads the Creation Justice Committee. Terry Ellen is a retired Unitarian Universalist Minister on the Board of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and on the Steering Committee of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.