But Cizik and the others persisted. "As a biblical Christian," he said, "I agree with St. Francis that every square inch on Earth belongs to Christ. "If we don't pay attention to global climate change, it's pretty obvious that tens and or even hundreds of millions of people are going to die. If you have a major sea-level rise then Bangladesh becomes uninhabitable. Where do you put its 100 million people? Do you put them in India? In China? They'd have no place to go. Britain's Christian Aid talks of climate change impacting one billion people by mid-century, with drought, floods, disease and malnutrition. I've asked African American leaders whether, as a white man, I can call climate change 'the civil rights issue of the 21st century.' Unanimously they say 'You not only can, but you must.'"
Cizik believed he could still preach the gospel while also talking about these kinds of issues. "You need both. To go to bed at night and say that over a billion people live on a dollar a day and can't go to bed themselves with a full stomach, can you live as a Christian happily in your suburban home, driving your SUV? Of course you can't. Not as a real Christian. And if you happen to be a liberal, conservative or centrist, I don't care. The gospel has priority over politics."
Although Cizik and his allies never quite convinced the NAE to take an official stand on climate change, and he eventually got forced out after telling radio interviewer Terry Gross that he was beginning to rethink his opposition to gay civil unions, the organization reaffirmed the moral importance of "creation care," a core perspective that encouraged further dialogue. And Cizik has gone on to start an organization, the New Evangelicals, devoted to issues like poverty and environmental engagement. He called his fellow evangelicals "a slow-moving earthquake. They don't quite understand themselves how they're changing, but they are."
"The issue shook my theology to its core," Cizik told me. "It changed me as much as my being born again thirty years before. This threatens the whole planet, so it raises a basic issue of who we are as people. Climate change isn't just a scientific question. It's a moral, a religious, a cosmological question. It involves everything we are and what we have a right to do."
Adapted from the wholly updated new
edition
of "Soul of a
Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times" by Paul Rogat
Loeb (St Martin's Press, $16.99 paperback).
With over 100,000 copies in print, Soul has become a classic guide to
involvement in social change. Bill McKibben calls "Soul" "a
powerful inspiration to citizens acting for environmental sanity." Alice
Walker says, "The voices Loeb finds demonstrate that courage can be
another name for love." The Sierra Club magazine writes, "Loeb
examines the stumbling blocks--perceived powerlessness, cynicism,
burnout--that
keep most Americans from participating in the public sphere, as well as
the
rewards of following a different path."
Loeb also wrote "The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear," the History Channel and American Book Association's #3 political book of 2004. HuffPo is serializing selected sections of Soul every Thursday. Check here to see previous excerpts or be notified of new ones. For more information, to hear Loeb's live interviews and talks, or to receive Loeb's articles directly, see www.paulloeb.org. You can also join Paul's monthly email list and follow Paul on Facebook at Facebook.com/PaulLoebBooks From "Soul of a Citizen" by Paul Rogat Loeb.
Copyright 2010 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Griffin. Permission granted to reprint or post so long as this copyright line is included.
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