Sunday, December 8, 2013

Mandela and Earth Justice

All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,
and open furrows await the seed of God.
All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty;
it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.


I love the words of the Advent hymn All Earth is Waiting. Some Christians dismiss concern for the environment as being "off message" in terms of the gospel. Their focus is personal salvation, forgetting the broader themes of redemption for all of creation. If God made it, God will save it, but we are enlisted as co-creators. We have a unique role in creation care and creation justice. And we know that Jesus was aware of the "least and the lost" in his ministry not as conversion fodder but as human beings of worth.

Here is an interesting piece from Grist magazine by Brentin Mock which examines Nelson Mandela's commitment to climate justice. So often the poor of the planet are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change even as they are expected to provide the raw materials for our affluence. 

Six years ago, Mandela founded The Elders, a cross-cultural group of leaders from across the globe, including former President Jimmy Carter and former United Nations Chief Kofi Annan, to forge human rights-based solutions to worldwide problems.

http://grist.org/climate-energy/justice-giant-remembering-mandela-and-his-fight-for-climate-justice/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet

I hope you will take the time to read it and let me know what you think.

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