Remarks presented by Alan Scarfe, Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa at the Re-energize America Town Hall Meeting, September 7, 2006, Plymouth Congregational Church, Des Moines, Iowa


It is probably both disingenuous and dishonest that I stand before you in such company of passionate and aware persons. Like some of you I am a late comer to the discussion before us. Ironically lulled into non activity by a sense of our collective and superabundant compliance in creating the problems burdening our planet, I have been too satisfied with an understanding of the Creation story in the Hebrew Scriptures that gives humanity mandate to dominate the earth. In the United States and the early industrial nations we have certainly fulfilled that "calling", and we should not be surprised that others like China and India tell us that it is now "their turn".

But like the contradiction of our policy on nuclear power which prevents proliferation anywhere else, without any intention for full unilateral disarmament at home, we are caught in an ecological mess mainly of our own making. Ironically it falls on us, those responsible for the greatest pollution over time while being unwilling to find the political will to halt our superficial understanding of our relationship to the earth, to make now our confession and lead by example into a new way of life in a spirit that is humbled before the earth and its people.

For me it is a challenge that has come from the heart of the Indian sub-continent itself, and like most things that finally hit us between the eyes, it came not through the data of facts and figures but through the appeal of a human voice. Bishop Burri of Bangladesh attended the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops meeting in September 2005. As contradictory human nature would have it, we were meeting in the Ritz Carlton in San Juan Puerto Rico. Karl Marx would have enjoyed the juxtapositioning!

Be that as it may, Bishop Burri said: "Nature is producing its own WMDs, not sparing anybody, no matter who they are. The effect of global warming on Bangladesh will be that the country will be under water within one decade of time. Future generations will have no place to live. My plea to you is to do something. You have the power to pursue local governments and governments as a whole to do something about Global Warming and the environment. You have access to the highest levels of human interaction, including the G8 summit. We depend upon you to be our voice."

Hearing this diminutive figure, speaking softly but urgently, I thought that this must have been how it was to hear Ghandi’s pleas for peace from the rooftops of Calcutta. Today we are invited to join our more strident voices to his, and begin to engage in steps that make a difference.

We do it at a time when religions seem to be at their most self-obsessed. We do it at a time when we seem to be enjoying terrorizing one another with our propaganda or proselytism or our power. Some use the machinery of commerce and war, others use suicide and terror, but all of us are in danger of being reduced to rubble. And yet we are here tonight because we believe that from under that rubble hope can emerge.

In the 1970s, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote an essay published in a compendium of works under the title "From Under the Rubble". The essays were a collection of responses from Soviet dissidents of what seems now a very different time. Solzhenitsyn called on nations of the world to employ the doctrine of sufficiency in their common lives. He raised a question we constantly fail to ask – when are we going to be able to say "Enough" to our domination of the earth and our acquisitive nature.

It is not too late to heed his call. One light bulb changed per household to the most efficient model can save millions of energy dollars. As we have seen tonight future technologies can unlock the impossible. We just have to think of the jobs which have been created not just in terms of openings but in entirely new fields over the past decade. New things however require space. Other things have to move over and make room.

One of the more peculiar aspects of Christian theology speaks of the return of Jesus Christ. Recently this doctrine seems to lead some to their worst side – to indulge in fanning the flames of violence. There is however another image that I live with connected to that same belief. For Jesus once asked: "When the Son of Man appears will he find faith on earth?" For, there is another way to speak of dominion or lordship of the earth, which remembers that we ourselves are also a created part but with a special invitation to tend or steward our fellow creation in all of its aspects. The creation story in Genesis says that God looked out from the resting day and called creation "very good", and the invitation to share dominion is precisely that. We share as co-workers with God in the caring for the very earth on which we are placed.

And to this day, life on this planet remains very good, though increasingly it has to be said not so for many. The reality is that the poor bear the brunt of our foolish self-obsession time and time again. And yet the poor like the rest of us find themselves here as a surprise– born into poverty where the ravages of the planet are at its worst. And it is simply not enough for us to be spectators at a distance, grateful for our equally surprising place of birth.

An Iowan woman approached the Bishop of Swaziland during a healing mission he and I were undertaking with our wives last summer across Iowa. She was embarrassed and full of remorse over her many resources. "Do not be ashamed of God’s blessing" the bishop replied, "but know God intends you to pass it on". Re-energising America must be about passing it on as anything. All the blessing of the sacrificial work of our scientists cannot simply be for us. It is not merely a matter of our national safety or even the prosperity of Iowa. It must be seen as blessing that has to be shared – passed on even to our enemies. For nature shows no respect of persons, but we shall all be swept away.

I must say that I have not always passed it on. Stewardship has often ranked low on my priorities to my regret. But I have gratitude in my heart that hundreds of my own Diocesan members will not let me stay there. They signed the Iowa Charter on Sustainable Energy, which was placed into the hands of our legislators and officials. They have urged me to become more than a spectator. I am grateful to be invited to be Bishop in a state where the land is revered and understood, and its potential ravages even for fuel but really for profit are heeded. I am grateful that any late wake up call is better than none at all. I may be speaking the reality of some of you.

For, I am convinced that it is the Creator who is waking us up to the impossible at this eleventh hour. We who are the first generation to see the planet from beyond itself still have choices to engage our creativity and imagination in new ways. We can replace the energy with which we engage the seemingly endless ways we find to blast each other out of existence or we can use that same brain power to unlock creation’s own ability to be good and sustain itself and those of us committed to it.
.
The specifics of all this have been outlined for us tonight. They impact every level of our common life. But let me tell you of one simple way that has come to my notice from one of our parishes.

The prophet Micah asks what does God require of you? – to do justice, show mercy and walk humbly with our God. Today we must add "and walk gently on God’s earth". Think of entering the home of a friend and there before you is a vast expanse of white carpet! We must tread carefully and gently, aware of what we bring in underfoot, as does our God.

St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls has adopted a project in recent months in which they "weigh" their carbon footprint on the earth. Thirty families so far have signed on, willing to engage in intentional measurement of their carbon footprint upon the earth. Carbon footprints are defined as "a representation of the effect you have on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases you produce (measured in CO2)" The fact sheet for the families explain that the Kyoto protocol would allow 11,000 pound per individual while scientists believe that an allowance of 4700 pound per person would be needed in order to control global warming from where we now are. I have copies of twenty steps they have suggested as ways of reducing your carbon footprint for distribution tonight.

Clearly it is not just the planet and our sustainability on it that is at stake, but our ability to remain civil with one another. Perhaps to begin to respect the earth may in turn lead us back to respect for one another. Creation remains linked in that sort of way. For, ultimately we are made in love, for love, to love, by Love. So learn then to love the ground on which you stand. Take nothing for granted. Bend low like Pope John Paul II who on all of his travels kissed the ground, and walked gently upon it. So that as God wills, we will not be ashamed at what we hand on to future generations, but that they too as they are born into the surprise of this existence may open their eyes and see the wonder, beauty and joy of this awesome jewel which made God once say: "It is indeed very good, even though I say so myself!"