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Theology and Climate Change

Special Interest Articles:

• Manchester Aftermath – Their example to us.

• Mass Extinction – Latest warnings.

• Gerald’s Advocacy – Fr. Gerald Quinn’s contribution to advocacy.

On the first of June, President Trump pulled the US out of the landmark Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement, adopted by consensus on the 12 December, 2015, by 196 members meant that each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution in order to mitigate global warming.

Predominantly white evangelical Protestants hailed the president’s action while Catholics, mainline Protestants and leaders of other faiths decried it. Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago stated that “Climate change is real. Failing to protect the earth is not just a failure of leadership. It is a moral failure.” His views were echoed by Catholic officials from Washington to the Vatican, where Pope Francis has made environmental protection a priority.

In contrast Erick Erickson, a conservative Christian popular commentator, tweeted, “I worship Jesus, not Mother Earth. He calls us all to be good stewards of the planet, but doesn’t mean I have to care about global warming.”

Perhaps the explanation why these white evangelicals stand where they do on this issue is that they are putting their political preferences first - that backing the commitment of the Paris Agreement will hurt the US economy and kill jobs. But it may have to do with their theological position that the Earth was given to humans to do with as they will, and that Jesus will soon return in glory to rapture his followers. In short, if you believe that God will end the world in the twinkling of an eye, then you might be more prone to short-term thinking about the environment.

J.R.Sanchez, CP.

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After the tragic bombing in Manchester on the 22nd of May of this year, racist opportunists of the extreme right ‘English Defence League’ picketed outside of the Arndale Mall hoisting the Union Jack and yelled out Islamophobic slogans scapegoating immigrants to the UK.

However, they were quickly outnumbered by counter-protesters made up of the residents of Manchester. Onlookers clapped and nodded as one man denounced the EDL saying, “The people of Manchester don’t stand with your xenophobia and racism. The people of Manchester are going to stick together, no matter what religion you follow, no matter what the colour of your skin is. We’re going to stick together because together we are stronger and the people of Manchester are not going to be afraid of who is responsible for this violence.”

The explosion at the Ariana Grande concert claimed 22 lives and led to over 59 injuries. The responsibility for the suicide bombing was blamed on Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old whose parents are Libyan immigrants with long time ties to the opposition against the late Libyan leader, Gaddafi.

The UK was involved, in overthrowing Gaddafi in 2011. The intervention became a regime change that plunged the country into an all-out civil war, anti-black African ethnic cleansing, and the transformation of that country into a base for various transnational extremist factions including Islamic State.

The tragedy of terrorism brings out the best and the worst in human beings. Manchester’s people have shown us the best.

J.R.Sanchez CP

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Contents:

Theology and Climate Change 1

Manchester Aftermath 1

JPIC Happenings 2

Us and Them 2

Making a Difference 3

Mass Extinction 3

Fukushima Revisited 4

Gerald’s Advocacy 4

Manchester Aftermath

Committee Desk (07) 3375 7640

JPIC

August 2017

Volume 11, Issue 3

Since the beginning of June, I have been on sabbatical and so my activity in the work of JPIC has been limited. I published the monthly blog articles (The June article was, “The Human Face of Asylum Seekers,” which received 143 hits; and the July article, “South Australia’s Blackout and the Climate Debate,” which received 58 views). Both articles can be viewed at jpiccp..

In terms of my involvement with ACRATH, the good news is that ACRATH’s application was successful to receive a Government grant for $125,000. While ACRATH needs at least $250,000 a year to function at our current levels, the grant goes a long way to alleviate a potential funding crisis. Also ACRATH, along with the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria, Freedom Partnership to End Modern Slavery, and the Federation of Ethic Communities Council of Australia, has made a submission to the inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, so as to draw together all of Australia’s anti-slavery efforts under a central role for better coordination, transparency and performance measurement.

In communications with Peter Gardiner, we are going to consider future immersion experiences for Cambodia or India. To that end I will meet with Peter in early Octoper to explore options and begin planning.

Kevin Dance CP, who is also a member of our JPIC commission, has been very active and has promoted 2 projects. The first, which he made me aware of in April, was a message about action on Palestinian Prisoners Day, with an invitation to sign on to the campaign. The second has been to promote through our mailing list a paper explaining the whole issue of Constitutional Recognition and a possible Treaty between our Government and the Indigenous People. Hopefully you all received a copy of that document.

J.R.Sanchez, CP .

JPIC Happenings

JPIC

Page 2 of 4

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Us and Them

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In June of this year, Senator Pauline Hanson called for children with disabilities and autism to be put into classrooms where they couldn’t ‘hold back’ the kids of her worried constituents. Whether this was truly a representation of her constituents or her own conclusions, what is behind it is a fear of the unknown.

When I went through school, I didn’t have any classmates who were mentally or physically challenged in this way, and the result was that I was not readied to see them as normal. Whenever I saw people like this in public, I felt fear of them because they were different and I didn’t know how to respond to them.

So it was that when Peter Gardiner CP invited me to go with a group on an immersion experience to Vietnam, volunteering at an orphanage for mentally and physically disabled children, I went with fear and trepidation. This was going to be right out of my comfort zone.

What I didn’t expect to discover was that I would fall in love with those kids. When I helped to feed them and interacted with them, I discovered they were just kids who wanted to have fun like any other kids.

Senator Hanson spoke of the importance of children learning competitiveness in schools to better prepare them for adult life. Yet, as Jo Roberts, the mother of an autistic child put it to the New Daily, “she clearly sees no need for them to also learn about diversity and empathy in preparation for the same. School is more than teaching kids how to get a good job. It’s about teaching them how to be human beings and about those sometimes messy, unquantifiable emotions and skills that come with it, like empathy, understanding and conflict resolution.”

Preventing our children from experiencing the normality of children with disabilities only creates an ‘us and them’ mentality, so much a feature of Pauline Hanson’s rhetoric.

J.R.Sanchez CP

Making a Difference

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JPIC

Page 3 of 4

Researchers in Sweden examined the possible steps that people can take to help tackle the climate crisis. The good news from this study is that individual action still matters a lot. In fact, the researchers found that behavioural shifts could be faster in having an impact than waiting for national climate policies and widespread energy transformations. This is the first comprehensive analysis on the effectiveness of specific individual climate actions.

The actions we can each take include:

• Upgrade light bulbs.

• Hang clothes to dry rather than use an electric drier.

• Recycle.

• Wash clothes is cold water.

• Replace a petrol car with a hybrid.

• Switch from an electric car to living car free (i.e. use public transport or bicycle.

• Move toward eating a plant based diet.

• Buy green energy.

• Avoid one round trip transatlantic flight.

These are steps that are accessible to anyone. Rather than be overwhelmed and feeling that you must implement them all, think in terms of what adjustments you can make to make your lifestyle more environmentally friendly.

But the message is clear – if we don’t shift our culture (relatively quickly) to make the most meaningful changes feel inevitable, we’re not going to get a second chance. The perfect mix of worry and hope will be different for everyone, but at least now we’ve got an armload of stuff we can do to make things a little better.

J.R.Sanchez CP .

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Mass Extinction

the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe.’

Dr. Jane Goodall, British ethologist, anthropologist, environmentalist and UN Messenger of Peace, who recently visited Australia said, “The problem is that environmental preservation is directly in competition with development, and certainly, in many countries, with corruption. So the government is very often pressured by big business and it’s a corrupt arrangement.”

Real power, Dr. Goodall said, lies with ordinary people from developed countries (not the powerless poor) who possess two potent weapons: spending power and the vote. “If we don’t buy the product from the businesses that are harming the environment, they’ll do it a different way. And if enough people support the politicians who do stand up, then they’ll get re-elected. It’s us: we have to stand firm. We have to say, ‘if it means tightening our belt one notch we’re prepared to do it.’ We have to rethink the idea that natural resources are not infinite. They’re finite.”

J.R.Sanchez CP .

We have been aware for some time now of the extinction of species due to our impact on the Earth. But research scientists have just reported that a mass extinction is currently underway, a biological annihilation of wildlife in which billions of regional or local populations have already been lost.

The report that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [volume 114, no. 30, issued the 25th of July, 2017], pinpoints several contributing factors: habitat destruction, overhunting, pollution, alien species invasion and climate change. But the definitive cause, it says, is human overpopulation and overconsumption, ultimately threatening human civilization itself.

One of the report’s authors, Professor Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, warns there is only a small window of time in which humans can act to reverse this obliteration of species – and says the shrinkage of the human population is essential for its own survival. “The serious warning…needs to be heeded because civilization depends utterly on the plants, animals and microorganisms of Earth that supply it with essential ecosystem services ranging from crop pollination and protection to supplying food from the sea and maintaining a liveable climate,” Ehrlich told The Guardian. The report’s most dire prediction is: ‘Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of

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Fukishima Revisited

Six years ago a powerful earthquake shook Japan unleashing tsunami waves. More than 15,000 people died as a result from the natural disaster, and hundreds of thousands were evacuated from their homes. Japan also experienced its worst nuclear accident ever with the melt down in the Fukushima Nuclear plant.

TEPCO is the corporation that failed to meet the basic safety requirements that might have prevented the Fukushima Daichii emergency generators from failing when Japan was hit by this earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The problem is unresolved. Each day 300 tonnes of water wash through the Fukushima reactors, cooling them down and collecting a slew of radioactive material along the way. While some contaminants can be filtered out, the water cannot be cleaned from tritium – a radioactive form of hydrogen – resulting in nearly a million tonnes of highly radioactive waste water.

Now TEPCO wants to dump thousands of tonnes of this radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. The consequences of dumping more nuclear waste into the marine ecosystem could be catastrophic.

The Japanese government has not yet given TEPCO the green light, andhas been under constant pressure from local residents. We can shine a spotlight and plead with them to stop TEPCO from going ahead with its dangerous plans. If you can help by signing an on-line petition, go to actions..

J.R.Sanchez CP.

passionists

'The Fort'

P. O. Box 1145

Oxley, Q4075

Phone:

(07) 3375 7640

Fax:

(07) 3375 5139

E-Mail:

sanchez346@.au

Blog:

jpiccp.

Gerald’s Advocacy

Three years ago, Gerald Quinn CP was inspired to approach the Tasmanian Parliament to put an idea before them. He called the speaker of the house and suggested that each month he lead a prayer for the politicians. The suggestion was received very positively and to date Gerald has done this 28 times, or 11 times a year.

The prayer service is pre-empted with the setting of a small altar with a cloth, a cross and a couple of tea-light candles. The simple service begins with a hymn, followed by an opening prayer asking God to send his Holy Spirit to guide the thoughts, words and actions of the Tasmanian Politicians. There is a short first reading, a psalm, then a Gospel reading. After this there is a short creed professing belief: that God has made us for Himself; in Jesus Christ; the urgent need for prayer for our difficult age; the value of prayer; that nothing is impossible for God and that the prayer for Politicians will bring blessings on Parliament and the people of Tasmania. Then come prayers of intercession for the politicians, their families, and those with special needs. Finally there are prayers of blessing on the members of Parliament, a sign of peace and the service concludes with a final hymn.

The prayer service is positive and avoids pushing any political agenda. As Gerald put it, “It is a prayer for God’s blessing on the politicians, not at them.” But in a subtle way it serves to invite God’s presence into the consciousness of the Politicians. Gerald tells me that it has been received very well, and that the politicians have never had a problem with it.

Gerald wants his advocacy to always be positive and respectful, so when crucial votes come along for issues like abortion or euthanasia, he is sure to be present for these. He is never vocal at such moments, but believes that his presence serves as a subtle reminder of the values held by the Christian faith. Advocacy doesn’t have to be vocal. Presence can speak loudly also, and respect always creates a positive disposition towards mutual respect.

J.R.Sanchez CP

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