Speakers Call for Working Together on Climate Change

The Christian Reformed Church in North America’s Office of Social Justice joined with a national environmental advocacy group led by a former U.S. Republican Congressman and with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action to host a town-hall discussion titled “Christian Climate Courage” Tues. evening, Sept. 25.

Participants at the event called for people of faith and of all political positions to join in a discussion to break down walls of partisanship and address climate change together.

The event took place at Calvin CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich., because several of its members are partners with the CRC’s Climate Witness Project, meaning they endorse the Synod 2012 Creation Stewardship Task Force Report and are working to do what they can to carry out its recommendations.

“The evening was excellent. We had a turnout of about 30 individuals from churches all over the city to listen and be educated about how we can work on this issue together,” said Cameron Kritikos of the CRC’s Office of Social Justice.

The event featured Bob Inglis, a former Republican Congressman from South Carolina and the founder of republicEN.org, which is bringing Republicans and others together to seek free-enterprise solutions to climate change.

Inglis is nationally renowned for advocating conservative, market-based solutions to the challenge of climate change. He discussed his organization’s support for a revenue-neutral carbon tax that he believes will find ways to reduce carbon-based energy generation and grow the economy without growing the size of government.

“We stand together because we believe in American free enterprise,” said Ingilis. “We believe that with a true level playing field, free enterprise can deliver the innovation to solve climate change.”

Also featured was Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, national organizer and spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA). He described his work organizing young evangelicals across the country to advocate for climate solutions, as well as to explore the theological and biblical grounding for Christian action on climate change.

“Jesus sums up the entire thrust of the redemptive story with the command to love God and to love our neighbor,” he said.

“In a time when God's world is being degraded and our neighbors are being threatened by the impacts of climate change, taking action to address climate change is an opportunity for the people of God to get better at obeying these two commands. It's what it looks like to follow Jesus in the 21st century.”

To make progress, he added, everyone needs to be in the discussion and be willing to listen to the views of others.

“We have to be curious about one another's stories and about the values that inform one another's positions and decisions,” said Meyaard-Schaap, a CRC minister who worked for OSJ before taking his current position with YECA.

“By speaking together,” he added, “that's when the walls of partisanship and polarization fall away and are replaced by empathy and understanding. That's when we discover we have a whole lot more in common than we don't, and when we find common ground to move forward toward solutions that honor God and extend love to our neighbors down the street and around the world."