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September 2017

While We Still Can

While We Still Can

by Paul Chaffee, Editor

The decision to devote the September TIO to eco-justice came months before Harvey, Irma, and Jose ravaged the Caribbean, Texas, Florida, and eastern Mexico with torrential wind and water, before all-time heat records in the West sparked hundreds of fires...

Ecology of Our Minds

Ecology of Our Minds

by Nimai Agarwal

When I was eight years old, my parents used to take me to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We would go every week of the summer, spread out a blanket on the grass, and enact a tradition central to our monotheistic branch of Hinduism: singing devotional songs to passersby, often accompanied by a harmonium and brass hand symbols.

Caring for Creation (for Kids)

Caring for Creation (for Kids)

by Vicki Garlock

Once creation, in all its splendor, has been spoken, dreamed, resurrected, danced, and cracked open into existence, we can turn out attention toward creation care. Since all the major faith traditions emergbed when people lived in harmony with the land, stories highlighting our connection with nature are readily found in the sacred texts and narratives of the world’s religions. 

A Plea for the Sake of Us All

A Plea for the Sake of Us All

from Voices for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons

This summer, two events of nuclear significance happened. First, North Korea successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated greater reach and sophistication, signaling that, soon, it will have the capacity to drop nuclear weapons on the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. Second, at the United Nations, 122 nations of the world voted “never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devises.”

Where's the Moral Outrage?

Where's the Moral Outrage?

by Katherine Marshall

“Where is the moral outrage?” A questioner at a recent Washington event demanded some explanation for the seeming indifference in the United States to hunger that affects tens of millions of people in Africa and the Middle East. Is it lack of knowledge? Citizens numbed by an unending deluge of horrifying news? A hardening of spirit accompanying Americans’ turning inwards?

Acts of Mercy and Saving the Environment

Acts of Mercy and Saving the Environment

by James Kurzynski

On September 1, 2016, Pope Francis introduced two new works of mercy pertaining to the environment...Why did Pope Francis add these works of mercy? What does this mean for the Church?  In answering these, it is important to reflect on why popes make these kinds of changes in the first place.

Eco-Dharma: Awakening to the Environmental Crisis

Eco-Dharma: Awakening to the Environmental Crisis

by David Loy

Interest in eco-dharma — the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings — is growing after years of apparent indifference and little conversation about it in Buddhist sanghas (communities). The environmental crisis has been in and out of headline news since at least 1992, when the first President Bush attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro

Teilhard de Chardin – Envisioning a Unitive Evolution

Teilhard de Chardin – Envisioning a Unitive Evolution

by Marcus Braybrooke

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-55), a distinguished paleontologist, theologian, and visionary, held a unitive vision that covered a wide canvas. He tried through his writings to bring the worlds of science and religion together, believing their combined insights held the key to creating a greater sense of global community. 

John B. Cobb Jr. – Environmental “Evangelist”

John B. Cobb Jr. – Environmental “Evangelist”

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

No ivory tower has ever been able to contain Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. Even at 92, the premier “eco-theologian” of our times is a man on a mission. He urgently wants to convert us. But not in the conventional sense. He wants us all – regardless of our religious orientation, our racial, national, and cultural origins – to “evangelize” for an “ecological civilization”

Seizing an Alternative

Seizing an Alternative

by Philip Clayton

This is the story of the interfaith movement and climate change. It is also the story of a scholar of science and religion who gradually realizes that global climate change is the most urgent threat that humanity faces.Rampant poverty, social inequalities, the unjust treatment of the global South, each of these is magnified ten or a hundred fold by climate disruption.

Interfaith Collaboration in the Wake of Global Climate Change

Interfaith Collaboration in the Wake of Global Climate Change

by Justin Catanoso

On May 24, 2017 a grim-faced Pope Francis handed a signed copy of Laudato Si to President Trump during his visit to Rome. The U.S. president, who has called climate change “a hoax,” promised to read the papal encyclical, a spiritual and secular plea to save the Earth from environmental destruction. A week later, Trump announced plans to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement

Daring to Dream: Religion and the Future of the Earth

Daring to Dream: Religion and the Future of the Earth

by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

There is a dawning realization from many quarters that the changes humans are making on the planet are comparable to the changes of a major geological era. The scientific evidence says we are damaging life systems on Earth and causing species extinction at such a rate as to bring about the end of our current period, the Cenozoic era, and ushering in the Anthropocene.