I'd like to hear from folks who have been influenced by theologians and thought leaders re: Theology and Ecology. For me, Wendell Berry, Matthew Fox, my seminary professor of Christian Ethics Dr. Glen Stassen (1978-81) , and UMC member Bill McKibben. Who would you offer up as offering theological approaches to ecological issues? This question was actually prompted by my present reading of a book that is not theological in nature, but rife with proddings to my theological reflections on care for the earth, Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate

I agree and disagree with a variety of the perspectives mentioned in these post. I do accept the scientific bases of human induced climate change (cc), I believe that many of the actions to reduce climate change and it's impacts are beneficial to the world's health, environment and economies (we need transitional and diversified energy economies based on availability of technologies and financial resources to implement clean energy strategies and incentives. Free market or regulatory measures can be used, never use a 'one fit all approach', but the current fossil fuel monopoly unfairly disadvantages alternative energy and transportation market growth.) . While I believe CC is an important issue I do worry about those who put it above issues of war, poverty and environmental degradation occurring now. When someone says "cc is the most important issue of our lifetime" I'd say maybe not so if you are without a job, or healthcare or under oppression or war. We also need to be open to legitimate alternative approaches to the impacts of cc and how we respond to them, we should not dismiss or yell at people because they have a different perspectives. As a people of God we should be an example of love as we deal with issues of the integrity of creation, we should not be just another liberal voice, but we should also not be afraid to deal with difficult issues, we must be examples of Christ reconciliation of all things. We need to be humble so we do not become arrogant and think we have all the answers.If we are not different then the world in our values and approaches then we are not being the church, just call us the church of greenpeace or wall street, whomever you side with. The UMC has passed resolutions in support of the scientific consensus on cc and I believe that God is calling our church and all Christians to act as responsible stewards of the earth, and to support policies and actions that helps the least of these and also help for anyone who might lose jobs because of climate regulations. Marching for these issues is important but I do get nervous when we are confused as being just another liberal advocacy group, when we are in-fact marching for the transformation of the world, including all those marching, in Christ.

an excellent resource and analysis of the history of climate change up to the moment is Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate. She does an excellent job of covering how the economic forces on this country have opposed serious measures to deal with the causes of climate change.

"Marching for these issues is important but I do get nervous when we are confused as being just another liberal advocacy group, when we are in-fact marching for the transformation of the world, including all those marching, in Christ"
Amen to that , Brian. Well said.

Having been born in, or near, the warmest year of the 20th Century, 1934, I've had the opportunity to go through 3 "global warming" and two "ice ages". If i'm not mistaken, we are currently in a 17+ year cycle of static warming which may be the impetus behind the change of terminology from warming to climate change. It more fits the apparent anomaly. In looking back over the many misapplications of the designation 'anthropogenic caused changes', I find only one factor consistent in all of them; ideology. It's the weapon of choice among those who wish to regulate and control every aspect of society. Of course, with the most honorable of intentions.

Doesn't the Methodist Church have more important things to be concerned about. What about the 50% of the Methodist that believe that God is in control of climate change and he will do it his way.

Amen to the previous comments! For Top Stories to headline UMC continuing to use scarce resources on silly U.N. climate change action, without even mentioning the thousands of Christians being executed and buried alive or calling for action on the radical Islamic state and the war in Ukraine, raises serious questions about priorities of the institutional church. More fiddling while Rome burns.

A quick review of the posts here on this issue is very telling: people of the UMC are tired to exhaustion to have this continual barrage of the "correctness" agenda. If you want to protest and/ or demonstrate or advocate for your cause(s) do it on your own dime. As one poster said so well---do not presume to speak for all UMC people---do not even presume to speak for me.
This denomination is diminishing year by year; the fault is not the effects of perceived climate change, or illegal immigrant returns, or Israel defending itself, or marriage rights. The UMC leadership---bishops to global committees need to "see" their mission and ministry.

There are many United Methodists engaged in the renewed action for climate change. I applaud this effort and I will be marching to support this in my local area of San Diego, CA as we join many groups of people, both secular and people of faith, in support of this. As a pastor and longtime United Methodist, joining together in a peaceful march is also how we are able to actively bear witness to the important issues of our time, and try to affect change in the world. Jesus reached out to those on the margins of life and spoke out against injustice and spoke up for those without a voice in society-- and he was ridiculed and questioned for doing this. Climate change will affect those most, who are poor and vulnerable-- yet many arguments I hear in the secular world are from people who are afraid they will lose some personal freedom through this or fear government regulation. John Wesley spoke of personal holiness as well as social holiness -- which means we should also care about what happens to people beyond ourselves and work towards changing the balance of power, where those (corporations and individuals) with the most money often influence the votes. Thank you again for including this important work happening in our denomination -- through many churches collectively, as well as through individual United Methodists, even though we may not all agree on this important issue.

Pastor Ham,
What most certainly will effect the 'poor and vulnerable' in our society is the governmental power grabs when it comes to their so called climate change solutions. Higher taxes, higher energy costs, etc. These also mean higher food costs, higher costs for much of the very basic things of life, which the poor have the hardest time paying for as it is.
The poor live further from their jobs than the rich on average. So higher and higher petrol taxes, like the ones CA are implementing this fall, are disproportionately paid by the poor. They are a a regressive tax upon our poor. Our energy policies of those who want to tax and driver energy costs higher means higher costs for farmers, higher costs to get food to market, higher energy costs for markets to cool and freeze and protect and process food. These rising costs fall hardest on the poor.

The climate change/global warming issue is really NOT about people on the margins, Pastor Ham. It is entirely about controlling others. Have you noticed that the CC/GW leaders haven't spent their money on campaigns to inform people about what THEY voluntarily could do right now to change their consumption away from disposable containers. The vast majority of the proposals of the CC/GW folk are to designed to empower and enlarge government so it can control and punish energy producers. So let's be honest Rev. Ham this is NOT about the marginalized at all.

I am so tired of seeing my church used as a shill for the Democratic party and it's socialist schemes and scare tactics. And, right below this piece I see another hand-wringing for the 270 lb. thus who got what he deserved for attacking a policeman. Get a life.

Wayne Parrish shame on you..........You're attitude is anti-Christ. With those hate words, you're no better off than the snakes that crawl on their bellies......You better start praying and asking forgiveness.....

Most of us aren't convinced of global warming of an anthropogenic global warming, so this march seems a bit silly. Not only that, but surely there are much more pressing issues for our communities world wide, than this perceived humanistic disaster.
Now this does NOT mean I am not all for being sure that we are good stewards of all of God's creation. We need to be diligent in our stewardship. Although, how great is stewardship in which we give less than 3% of our income to the Church even!

" Not only that, but surely there are much more pressing issues for our communities world wide"
Certainly a matter of debate. OTHER MORE PRESSING is not an argument that should prevent us from addressing ANY problem. OTHER MORE PRESSING is often the sign of avoiding problems. And then the issue of MORE PRESSING is entirely questionable, since the actual fate of the earth and its climate and averting further trauma to the environment is, actually, VERY URGENT. This is what the climate scientists have been telling us since 1988, when the world's climate scientists (not just "liberal" or "radical" ones, but ALL of them) began looking urgently close at this issue and arriving at the consensus that YES, it is a HUGE PROBLEM, and is being made worse as our CO2 levels rise, and emissions around the world are having the feared effects (and most possibly, effects we haven't even discovered, or experienced yet).
I was flabbergasted that Dean actually dismissed the problem of increases in CO2 with the observation : "we exhale that, and plants breathe it" , which is NOT the problem AT ALL. Of course we do and they do, but the problem is that we are pumping toxic levels of it into the atmosphere at a level the atmosphere was not DESIGNED to endure. And the idea that "God created it" therefore "we cant destroy it" is amazingly naive and just BAD THEOLOGY. One might as well say that "God created me, and therefore NOBODY can kill me". See the problem? See the issue of free will impinging on that? God does NOT ensure ur safety. He gives us what we know as "responsibility" to be "good stewards". There are consequences for usurping that responsibility, which we do in the name of the almighty dollar. We are participating in an idolatrous relationship with the allure of money and short term gain. God has higher expectations and hopes for us than this. Theology of Creation has become a crucial issue for us that demands MUCH MUCH greater attention. Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything actually says it will take a massive reworking of our economy to do so. To many , this is tantamount to blasphemy. It is simply a matter for us of being faithful to justice-seeking worldwide, for ALL OF THE WORLD's PEOPLE.

no, not "most".....these comments are certainly no reflection of that. Maybe because the strident issue this has become (and it has become strident because of the political atmosphere, and not from a theological perspective, which I think the UMC has done a laudable job of doing the theological connections.

Looked it up. An Aug 2013 poll found 63% of Americans believe in climate change. But in the summer of 2014, 53% did not believe in man climate change.
Now you and I would agree part of that swing in polling is due to the harsh winter the north had this past year which is weather and not a predicter of climate change. Public opinion seems to be swinging widely, but the latest I found was most Americans are not convinced.

I was saying "NOT most" about the UMC, which you extrapolated from the few here who post doubt/denial of the idea of warming.In fact, if you look further amongst the News stories here, there are several indicators that many UMC members are active and involved in working to urge action on global warming.
Besides, "Polls show this" because big pockets have spent money producing disinformation disguised as science, and GOP campaigns and operatives (and sadly, evangelical churches) have helped to disseminate that informaiton.
Again, the people who know the science are hardly divided at all. For them , it is simply a matter of what we can do about it , and sooner rather than later. The implications are SCARY. Even those who don't deny the science tend to avoid thinking about it. The political climate with the Koch Bros money and other like-minded groups like the Heritage Foundation can wreak havoc on timely action. Groups like fossilFreeUMC is just one church effort among others of different denoms that recognize the perilous path. Polls only reflect the problem that Big Money has introduced into the equation.

If they march they should NOT do it as Methodists. I don't want them representing me and many other Methodists don't either. You see, I totally disagree with their stand on climate change. I won't argue that point here... they just should not say they are representative of Methodists!! They don't represent my beliefs!

they can represent the diversity that exists within the UMC.

This is a mistake.
First, has nobody noticed that doomsday predictions forty , sixty, and one hundred years out have all been laughably unreliable? Making fools of ourselves again.

Second, the official forums on climate change are ridiculously one-sided.I have encountered personally people who cry out against those who question climate change evidence and conclusions. They sound exactly like 20th century totalitarians in their anger at dissent to the official version of a social reality. I am not just referring to debates about climate change evidence and its probable causes, but also on possible future mitigation options. We are not even allowed to debate that the consequences may not be so profound ONE HUNDRED years from now? The future's tech and social constructs are that perfectly determined? Surely a range of possibilities are reasonably possible. No, every prediction must present a dire emergency. Blindness and being sure you are right about a scheme to fix the world has led to the most tragic mistakes in the last century. Evidence shows that people who are dead-sure about their picture of future realities are more often wrong than right. those open to doubt make much better prognosticators.

Third: Consider this as a thought experiment: Would not the technology of FORTY years in the future be able to protect a seaside city? Estimates of the future economic losses usually don't take account of probable future standard of living. Would not future generations have an easier time taking the expected hit than the marginal societies of the present?

Lastly, most climate change mitigation programs would desire to cripple developing nations who rely heavily on fossil fuels to simply provide employment, a place at the world's table of influence, and basic necessities. To try to rob marginal societies of diesel and coal is not only impractical, it would presently be morally egregious. I see these as equivalent to cruelty to the poor and marginalized, and central control of the present world's economy. These are too high a price to pay for an expected future benefit, which will never materialize as projected

Pastor Harley,
I hope you live long enough to see how delusional you are. When 99% of scientists agree and the data is 40 years old, it is no longer in doubt. Please pay attention.

The Church has a great opportunity to proclaim the good news when it comes to taking good care of the creation. It was one of our first jobs given us by God.... to manage creation.

Taking care of creation ought to be one of the Church's best works of justice. We should inspire people take care of creation. We should inspire people to do great things like recycle. We should stop the madness of disposable packaging. Plastic water and soda bottles and plastic grocery bags should become extinct because the church is so good at inspiring people to walk away from their "disposable" mentality which reflects the exploitative thinking of our culture.

Yet, what do the progressives do in our UM agencies? They leave their duty to proclaim the gospel and walk hand in hand with political progressives and join in on the climate change/global warming bandwagon which has very little to do with taking care of the creation and a LOT to do with increasing the size and power of governments, controlling people, and controlling the economy.

Just one more reason that apportionments should be withheld from General Church agencies that do not respect the faithful United Methodists that feed them through their faithful tithes and offerings given through their local church.

I have stopped arguing "Yea or Nay" on Global Warming and Climate change. Not useful here. That issue is closed and definitive for me. I am limiting myself here to the issue of calling into question the faithful actions of church people (UM or not, but particularly those who say they "don't want to be represented by these protesters"). I suppose there were those who were saying this about working for abolition, or for Civil Rights. There are certainly common causes to be found with Progressive political activity, where it concerns the health and well being of people and communities. It happens to be the case with the Climate Crisis.

here's the relevant "What We Believe" link http://www.umc.org/what-we-...

"walk hand in hand with political progressives "
Wes, this is assigning political alliance to THEOLOGICAL conviction, and as such, unfair. Civil Rights activists were considered misguided by a lot of church folks in their settings, and so were people who supported the abolition pf slavery. Were they being "Progressive partisans" or faithful Christians by opposing slavery and working for its abolition?

Amen!

As stewards of this planet, it is our obligation to protect our environment, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the changing of weather and climate. This planet has gone through many different climate shifts during the long period since creation. Man has little to do with what God has created to regulate our climate. We should keep Government out of God's business.