For the children,
For our families and all creation,
West Virginia Christian Leaders call for Legislation on Climate
“Do not indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love." Galatians 5:13
Sin is not always as clear as when Cain murdered Abel. Sin is visible all the same, however, whenever faithful people choose the path of death instead of Life. For example, when we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels, polluting the air and warming the planet, we are breaking the life sustaining order of God’s beautiful creation. Climate chaos is here. Air pollution, floods, and rising temperatures are destroying homes and communities, and taking lives–and this is sin.
Jesus asks us ‘who is your neighbor’? Can we recognize in the question a call to the work of salvation. "Where is your elderly neighbor who collapsed from heat? Where is your neighbor’s child when the flood waters rise?” How will we respond?
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” Psalm 24:1
“You came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.” Jeremiah 2:7
March 2021 Warning signs of a Gulf Stream collapse, “an almost complete loss of stability” with “catastrophic consequences.”
April 2021 Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III: "Today, no nation can find lasting security without addressing the climate crisis...We need to act.”
August 2021, IPCC report “Code red for humanity.” Cut global emissions in half by 2030 or risk multiplying drought, floods, heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
December 2021 Twenty separate billion dollar disasters over the 2021 year, and the warmest December on record.
February 2022 Massive Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, “a glacier coming apart at the seams” in danger of collapse within 5 years.
US Flood risk most extreme in Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Find your zip code.
“God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to blow across the earth, and the waters subsided.” Genesis 8:1
No state in the contiguous United States is more exposed to flood damage than West Virginia. In Farmington and Morgantown, repeatedly, storms water burst down hills, flooding basements, seeping into aging pipes and overwhelming sewage treatment systems. West Virginia’s vulnerability impacts family homes, worship communities, critical infrastructure and businesses across the state: 61% of power stations (highest nationwide), 46% of roads, 57% of fire stations (also highest), 50% of police stations, 38% of schools, 37% of commercial properties, are at risk of inundation.
"Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household…” Luke 12:42
We, leaders of Faith Communities in West Virginia, call our civic leaders and faithful congregations to moral and urgent action in stewardship of God’s creation, including an immediate, just transition to clean energy that supports families, as well as infrastructure investment that safeguards schools and communities. We must achieve these aims. As such, we lend our support to the Resolution in Support of H.R. 5376.
To add your name or organization as signatory to this letter, sign on here.
Additionally, click to view and support the Resolution in Support of H.R. 5376.
Signatories
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst, Organizer, Faiths4Future
Allen Johnson, Coordinator, Christians for the Mountains, Dunmore, West Virginia
To add your name and/or the name of your organization, click here.