Opinion: Perspectives from readers

The beginning of the growing season in northern Indiana was difficult last year. An extremely warm March led to early fruit tree blossoming. We watched the weather anxiously, wondering whether we dreaded more a killing frost that would devastate the harvest or prolonged unseasonable warmth. We got both, then an extended drought …

And God put them in the garden to serve and preserve it.—Genesis 2:15 paraphrased

The beginning of the growing season in northern Indiana was difficult last year. An extremely warm March led to early fruit tree blossoming. We watched the weather anxiously, wondering whether we dreaded more a killing frost that would devastate the harvest or prolonged unseasonable warmth. We got both, then an extended drought.

The last significant rain of spring fell in early April. Nothing more came until mid-July. By dint of hard work we kept vegetable plants and berries alive through June and July, but the early blooming followed by a killing frost ensured that tree fruits and grapes were sparse. The many fruit farmers of lower Michigan had a terrible year; some, for the first time in their lives, had no harvest at all.

Last November, we watched the aftermath of superstorm Sandy on the North Atlantic coast. Climatologists told us the Atlantic ocean did not have time to cool down over the unseasonably warm winter. Hurricanes move north across the Atlantic, and the warm ocean contributed energy to the storm system, preventing it from dissipating as it crossed.

When I wonder about the truth of any global event I often turn to the church’s feet on the ground. The stories coming from Mennonites who work around the world in hot war zones and where the cold wars of poverty and injustice take place often differ from what I see and hear from the New York Times, CNN, NPR and USA Today about these countries.

When stories diverge, I know that the disinvested volunteer workers of our mission agencies and Mennonite Economic Development Associates have nothing to gain or hide by their involvement in these situations, and I trust their stories.

So it is with distress that I consider that my church does not have a story about climate change. Though many Mennonites care a lot about the health of the planet, we have not yet grappled as a body with our God-given responsibility to be stewards of the earth in light of climate change.

Here is an irony: On this issue I look outside the church for solidarity. While waiting for the necessary policy changes needed to address climate change, secular community and national organizations are making a difference, responding in a myriad of ways; through advocacy, raising awareness, reducing consumption, smart energy use, relocalization and rebuilding interdependence, they are tapping many creative ideas that can help us.

Many people are working to build a sustainable future with creativity and ingenuity. I’m glad to collaborate with them, and they ignite my passion. But for the most part they are not people I can sing and pray with. They are not people with whom I can share my deepest hopes for the world.

I remember how important it was to me on Sept. 11, 2001, to gather with members of my community for prayer. Participation in the community at prayer gave me courage I did not have alone. Fear and dread gave way to hope and a sense of God’s presence. When we are afraid, we need to feel God’s presence through the care and support of those we love.

God so loved the world that he gave his son to save it. God gave us responsibility for creation and for the least ones. It is clear that something is up with the weather, and scientists who study climate are urging us to take immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions. So does love of the world mean taking care that we do not lose half the remaining species on earth to extreme climate and weather changes? Do we believe that loving the world is our work, too?

Mennonites would be so good at addressing climate change: We are creative and have a history of hard work and service. We understand the elegance of simplicity and the strange arithmetic of collaboration. We have skills as scientists and inventors, technicians and artists, theologians and farmers, economists and homemakers and businessmen. To these practical gifts we can add our hope in God’s love that ensures that the turning of the world is not altogether mechanical, in which grace often changes the game. However true it is that we live in a world of cause and effect, God also blesses our good efforts beyond our imagining.

Do we love the world that God loves well enough to be instruments of its healing?

Danile Martens is a member of Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, Ind.