Climate Change Reflects United Methodists’ Electoral Interests – Baptist News Global

As the US presidential elections continue In recent weeks, United Methodists are drawing attention to a global issue that has seen little in the way of candidate and media attention: the Earth’s rapidly warming environment and its effect on people.

Two United Methodist-related agencies held webinars on September 17 and 18, predicting events during the convergence of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week in New York City. United Methodist Creation Justice Movement held a 90-minute “café” on September 17 with the theme “Politics, Methodists and Environmental Sanctity.” The next day, United Women in Faith’s Just Energy 4 All unit teamed up with the newly renamed Department of Immigration Law and Justice for a Spanish-English webinar, “Climate Change, Displacement and Conflict: Migrants Speak.”

Co-sponsoring the UWF/ILJ webinar were the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the General Board of Church and Society, UMC’s National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministries, Sojourners SoJo Action and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.

Both webinars were moving about common elements:

• Climate change intersects with and influences many other public issues, including racism, economics and immigration.
• The new Social Principles, a United Methodist set of guidelines for Christian living, clearly state that believers have a responsibility to care for the earth as stewards of God’s creation.
• United Methodists “need to get involved” in politics, as Movement Cafe moderator Richenda Fairhurst put it, to build local and national partnerships to influence public policy.

“We are citizens of two different empires – primarily of the kingdom of God, which then shapes us into the political realm rooted in the life and teachings of Jesus,” said Keith Sexton, advocacy coordinator for the creation care team of the annual (regional ) conference of the UMC in North Carolina.

Darryl W. Stephens

Ethicist Darryl W. Stephens, director of Methodist Studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, noted that the new Social Principles will become official UMC policy on January 1, 2025. The Social Principles were adopted in May by the UMC’s legislative General Conference and were drafted over eight years by 4,000 United Methodists around the world.

The Social Principles point to three “dangers” to creation:

• Destruction of ecosystems
• Global warming and climate change
• Dependence on fossil fuels

Stephens consistently said Methodists They have been concerned about the environment since the 1930s. The United Methodist Church adopted its first resolution on global warming in 1980, drawing attention to how greenhouse gases warm the Earth’s atmosphere.

Retired United Methodist pastor Mel Caraway emphasized the importance of communication when responding to public projects that threaten the environment.

“People are using fear tactics to attack facts (climate change),” Caraway said. “We must be willing to listen to their point of view and then respectfully confront them with the facts.”

Caraway urged webinar participants to encourage people to vote, whatever their climate views. He recommended two books to prepare for difficult conversations about the future of the environment: Save Us: A Climate Scientist’s Plea for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Kathryn Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian, and Don’t even think about it: why our brains are wired to ignore climate change by British climate communicator George Marshall, co-founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network.

The influence of climate change on migration can be brutal and even murderous, according to the three migrants, two men and a woman, who spoke during the United Women in Faith webinar. The webinar was held primarily in Spanish with English translation.

Ilka Vega

Ilka Vega, United Women in Faith’s director of environmental and economic issues, opened the session by noting that the idea of ​​”climate refugee” has no authority among U.S. immigration officials. Yet data from the United Nations shows that 21.5 million people have been displaced by climate since 2010.

“Most come from countries that have not contributed to planetary warming,” Vega noted.

Alba Jaramillo

Alba Jaramillo, co-executive director of Immigration Law and Justice, denounced the “many stories about immigrants (that) were racist, xenophobic and downright untrue.”

Both male speakers were identified only by first name because of the potential threat to their lives. One of the two men also did not want to appear on the webinar because he is still in danger while awaiting a visa in Mexico. To further protect their safety, as Vega requested, speakers are identified here only by initials.

One of the men, G, told how he grew avocados and was forced by drug cartels to hand over his crops to them. Then the drought caused the region’s avocado trees to die.

“The cartels don’t care,” said G. “They told me they would kill me if I failed again. Then I left the country illegally.”

In response to Vega’s question: G said that government agencies do not provide assistance.

“You become a bigger target if you go to the authorities, because they’re dealing with bad people and telling about you,” said G. “I went one time, and (drug cartel enforcers) beat me. It’s better if you don’t go; I told them that the water dried up because there was no water for avocados; they scare you, they say they are going to kill you.

“As I tried to organize others, I became an even bigger target,” he said. “My brother told me to leave because the cartels said they were going to kill me.”

C said his indigenous community in northern Honduras was also intimidated by drug traffickers and had their property seized.

“As a defender of human rights I was a victim in our country,” said C. When he tried to emigrate, “the police in Guatemala asked for ‘cooperation’ – which meant giving money. If you didn’t have cash, you would have problems too.”

The third speaker, S, said that at the age of 16 she escaped poor conditions in her community by marrying a much older man. Unfortunately, the marriage turned into a domestic violence situation and she eventually fled illegally to the United States. With the help of an immigrant aid organization, she divorced her abusive husband. She said she is now a legal immigrant through a second marriage but still cannot find work as a teacher because her Honduran credentials are not accepted. She said many Central American professionals who immigrate to the United States face similar hurdles.

“We are not lazy; we want to work, but these barriers stand in our way,” says S.