Acceptance in a Time of Climate Change

Is it hopeless? Is humanity doomed to near term extinction?

Well, if you are pinning your hopes on the myth of progress, the answer is "yes." Progress had been foundational to my belief system, and it's been very, very hard to give it up. Doing so depressed the hell out of me. My sense of urgency around the need to address climate change brought me to the edge of burnout.

I figured, or I was forced to do so by depression, I must step back and slow down. I used the time I regained to read, speak, and correspond. I have also been preaching about my evolving understanding and adjustment.

I'm feeling much better now because I have accepted the near certainty that things are going to get a lot worse, and that it is very unlikely that we will acquire the political power and the technological know-how to significantly slow - much less reverse - environmental degradation. My research has also pointed out that this, not all the crap I learned in high school, college, and through the media, has been the history of humankind. Humanity is a cancer on the planet. It has finally grown to the point where it is very likely to kill its host.

To be hopeless isn't to be helpless. However, it does lead one to continually reconsider tactics and strategy. The goal no longer is progress, it's closer to hospice. Now isn't the time for despair; it's the time for compassion and courage. Here my experience as a chaplain is of particular use.

When ministering to the dying and their families, it was not my role to predict the time of death. It was to be present for others. In these circumstances, I always found that truth was more healing than bullshit. Without lying, I still could provide comfort to the dying.

Mother Nature is a serial killer. We have all known from a certain age that we were going to die: we just didn't know when. What I find most intensely disturbing is that the future I once imagined for my children is not likely to be available for them. That grief exceeds my fear of my own death.

It is absolutely appropriate to react to loss and even the anticipation of loss with fear, sadness, and anger. Acceptance is not surrender. It is humility, wisdom, and recovery.

A Time for Solidarity (Updated)

Part 3 of 3

For many years the Unitarian Universalist Association has been trying to become more diverse across many spectrums including age, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. While we've had some successes, we have a long, long way to go.

So the provocative question from the UU minister was to imagine that you were sitting in a church pew and both the pew and the congregation were diverse. How would you feel?

Well, I felt all warm and fuzzy. It reminded me of my religious experiences growing up and how much I enjoyed being in diversity. All white congregations and associations make me nervous. There is over a 2,000 year history of Jews being oppressed by Christians and by Romans before them. Though I have never been a practicing Jew, I will always be tied to that ethnicity.

I am claiming no special virtue here. It's just that I was never "Carefully Taught."

The people who are due our admiration are those who were carefully taught and yet somehow managed to throw off the teachings.

I once believed that we were becoming a kinder, gentler, and wiser species. I will let people more knowledgeable than I argue over the direction we're heading. What I sadly, angrily, and confidently assert is that we are not moving quickly enough to avoid a massive human die-off.

Yet my assertion doesn't lead me to despair, it argues for courage in the face of a common enemy. Even though everyone is somewhat accountable for the situation that we are in, we are far from being equally accountable. Those of us living in a middle-class lifestyle in the US are more accountable than most. However, many of our sins are venal compared to those promoting fascism, nativism, sexism, racism, and other oppressions to line their pockets and retain their power. These people are more evil than any who preceded them because they are leading us on the path of ecocide.

We must resist their power and build our own through education and activism. We are called to be in solidarity. Do not fear your neighbor; fear those who are attempting to manipulate you and your neighbor for their own devious ends.

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Part 2 of 3

In mid August, I attended and led workshops at a justice retreat for Unitarian Universalists in California. One of the other presenters was a woman, whom I admire, who is both a parish minister and a seminary professor.

She asked a question which I presume she thought would be provocative. It was very provocative for me, but not in the way that most people would imagine.

First a little background. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Unitarians were working very hard to attract more members of color, particularly African-Americans. This Sundays is school I attended in downtown Washington, DC, was quite diverse. I didn't know that this diversity was unusual.

It became even more unusual in the late 1960s when the majority of African-American UUs walked out. I'm sure there were many reasons for the walkout, but the proximate reason was the Association's refusal to release funds that had been promised for organizing efforts.

Fast forward 20 years. In the 1980s, I returned to UUism in Fairfax County, Virginia, a well-off suburb of DC. I noted a lack of diversity, but attributed it to the difference between the city and the suburbs.

In 2003, I entered seminary to find myself in a war zone. The level of meanness and mean spiritedness was amazing. However, like the psychologist who assures you that there is a pony underneath that pile of horseshit, I decided to stick it out.

I came out of seminary with a battered head that would not stay bowed. And, yes, there were many kind and helpful people who picked me up when I faltered.

My next big mistake was going to a lecture on climate change. I came out of the lecture wanting to take a long walk off a short pier, praying that the speaker was off his meds.

"We are all going to die!" Can either be a trope in a horror movie or a simple statement of fact. On the other hand, I love this little story:

The seer came to the Queen and told her that he had wonderful news.

"What is it?"

"You are going to die, your children are going to die, their children are going to die, their grandchildren are going to die, and their great grandchildren are going to die."

"Fool! Why do you give me such news? I should have your head removed from your shoulders."

"Majesty, you not understand. You are blessed. You will die before your children die as they will die before their children die unto five generations. The greatest sorrow in life is watching your children die. None of you will suffer this."

After listening to the lecture on climate change and confirming the accuracy of the information presented, I knew that billions of parents would not be as lucky as the Queen.

(The story continues in part three: A Time for Solidarity.)