The Reverend Malcolm Carroll, Baptist Minister, has been "doing a Saint Paul" this week, getting himself arrested to give his Christian witness to the atrocious rise in Carbon Dioxide emissions from air travel in the United Kingdom.
He held a sermon on the taxiway tarmac of Nottingham Airport, naming short-haul flights a sin, and calling for repentance from the evil of flying, urging us all to mend our fuellish ways. His little service of meditation and reflection was attended by members of the Climate Camp, kneeling to show their profound (and varied) beliefs, out of respect for the good pastor.
Much of the language being used to describe Climate Change by scientists and politicians rivals that of the Bible in its Apocalyptic overtones, and yet, until recently, the faith-based organisations have been terribly circumspect in their pronouncements, desperate not to tip any apple carts or rock any boats.
What Noah would have made of this stance, I don't know. He was into rocking boats, big time. He built the most rocking boat you could ever dream of, because he knew, he just knew, that God was going to make it precipitate and inundate, and that he had to save himself and his little family, and the whole of the animal kingdom (with some spare to eat later).
The early Christians encouraged each other with gentle reminders that they could be held by the authorities, flogged or fed to voracious lions etc at any time, but that this persecution was all in the plan, and that if they did it to Jesus, well, you could certainly expect them to do it to you.
Thankfully, protesters don't get crucified in the United Kingdom, except in the media. Some think that the age of protest is dead, as protest is no longer necessary, or should no longer be tolerated, since we have very public conversations and debates, and transparency and engagement.
Yet on Climate Change, we have a sluggish Government and non-governmental organisations that are proceeding with undue drag, political processes that truly need to be energised. Plus, we are fighting the spin from public voices funded by oil companies.
How to break this impasse ? Following the good old traditions of opposition, this means protest.
Why put yourself on a public highway and block the traffic to draw attention to Fossil Fuel-driven Global Warming? Why block the business of a small provincial airport in order to question the UK's nightmare travel expansion plans ?
Why put yourself in a position where you can get arrested, prosecuted, charged, tried; when instead you could sit safely at home, and watch petrol-heads (nearly) killing themselves challenging the world land speed record on television?
What gives Christians the impetus to throw themselves into the firing line, breaking "national security" to complain about kerosene abuse ?
Why should Christians break the social norms of behaviour to assert the end to Big Energy injustice, and claim a future for the atmosphere ?
Is Climate Change that serious that we need to break customs and laws ?
In fact, we follow an Arrestable Jesus, a man who knew in advance that he was to be held, tortured and murdered for expressing the love and forgiveness of God, but who continued with his Freedom Mission regardless.
The man who said he was going to look like the Snake-on-a-Stick that Moses held up during the epidemic in the desert, the man who said that he was going into the belly of Hell for three days, as the Sign of Jonah.
The man who said "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Personally, I will not be breaking any laws, or compromising any airport security, or climbing up and abseiling down any power station cooling towers, or locking onto motorways. I do not agree with this form of protest for myself, as my tactics are strictly non-confrontational, but I can appreciate how Malcolm and others of the Climate Camp came to agree this action.
I applaud Revd Carroll on his direct action this week, and I hope I can be as strong and righteous and fearless in my own way, in my own attempts to fight Climate Change.
I, too, am a Christian, and in addition also a member of the Climate Camp, a broad movement, and not just a political or religious party. We do canvassing community for collective consensus, in preference to polarised picky partisan polemics.
Church, here's your warning : if individual Christians feel strongly enough about environmental destruction to put themselves in a position where they can be arrested, maybe it's time for the Church Militant to be more visible.
If Christians see that they need to act autonomously outside of their home churches in order to have an impact, then it's time for Christian leaders to shake up, and spice up their approach.
With the IPCC Report coming out in February 2007, and the likely scenarios that will be depicted, you will need to have a response on typed up notes to hand to match the gravity of the situation.
Climate Change is already compromising the water supply, crops, habitat and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, and threatens to undermine the Global Economy within a few decades, as well as creating waves of Climate Refugees, and driving countless animals and plants to extinction.
Tearfund have an open, public, loud position on Climate Change. Christian Aid are campaigning. Malcolm Carroll is prepared to get arrested to bring a message of repentance to our newspapers. Rowan Williams can talk openly about it. Richard Chartres can wing it. Why can't you ?
Much of the language being used to describe Climate Change by scientists and politicians rivals that of the Bible in its Apocalyptic overtones, and yet, until recently, the faith-based organisations have been terribly circumspect in their pronouncements, desperate not to tip any apple carts or rock any boats.
What Noah would have made of this stance, I don't know. He was into rocking boats, big time. He built the most rocking boat you could ever dream of, because he knew, he just knew, that God was going to make it precipitate and inundate, and that he had to save himself and his little family, and the whole of the animal kingdom (with some spare to eat later).
The early Christians encouraged each other with gentle reminders that they could be held by the authorities, flogged or fed to voracious lions etc at any time, but that this persecution was all in the plan, and that if they did it to Jesus, well, you could certainly expect them to do it to you.
Thankfully, protesters don't get crucified in the United Kingdom, except in the media. Some think that the age of protest is dead, as protest is no longer necessary, or should no longer be tolerated, since we have very public conversations and debates, and transparency and engagement.
Yet on Climate Change, we have a sluggish Government and non-governmental organisations that are proceeding with undue drag, political processes that truly need to be energised. Plus, we are fighting the spin from public voices funded by oil companies.
How to break this impasse ? Following the good old traditions of opposition, this means protest.
Why put yourself on a public highway and block the traffic to draw attention to Fossil Fuel-driven Global Warming? Why block the business of a small provincial airport in order to question the UK's nightmare travel expansion plans ?
Why put yourself in a position where you can get arrested, prosecuted, charged, tried; when instead you could sit safely at home, and watch petrol-heads (nearly) killing themselves challenging the world land speed record on television?
What gives Christians the impetus to throw themselves into the firing line, breaking "national security" to complain about kerosene abuse ?
Why should Christians break the social norms of behaviour to assert the end to Big Energy injustice, and claim a future for the atmosphere ?
Is Climate Change that serious that we need to break customs and laws ?
In fact, we follow an Arrestable Jesus, a man who knew in advance that he was to be held, tortured and murdered for expressing the love and forgiveness of God, but who continued with his Freedom Mission regardless.
The man who said he was going to look like the Snake-on-a-Stick that Moses held up during the epidemic in the desert, the man who said that he was going into the belly of Hell for three days, as the Sign of Jonah.
The man who said "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Personally, I will not be breaking any laws, or compromising any airport security, or climbing up and abseiling down any power station cooling towers, or locking onto motorways. I do not agree with this form of protest for myself, as my tactics are strictly non-confrontational, but I can appreciate how Malcolm and others of the Climate Camp came to agree this action.
I applaud Revd Carroll on his direct action this week, and I hope I can be as strong and righteous and fearless in my own way, in my own attempts to fight Climate Change.
I, too, am a Christian, and in addition also a member of the Climate Camp, a broad movement, and not just a political or religious party. We do canvassing community for collective consensus, in preference to polarised picky partisan polemics.
Church, here's your warning : if individual Christians feel strongly enough about environmental destruction to put themselves in a position where they can be arrested, maybe it's time for the Church Militant to be more visible.
If Christians see that they need to act autonomously outside of their home churches in order to have an impact, then it's time for Christian leaders to shake up, and spice up their approach.
With the IPCC Report coming out in February 2007, and the likely scenarios that will be depicted, you will need to have a response on typed up notes to hand to match the gravity of the situation.
Climate Change is already compromising the water supply, crops, habitat and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, and threatens to undermine the Global Economy within a few decades, as well as creating waves of Climate Refugees, and driving countless animals and plants to extinction.
Tearfund have an open, public, loud position on Climate Change. Christian Aid are campaigning. Malcolm Carroll is prepared to get arrested to bring a message of repentance to our newspapers. Rowan Williams can talk openly about it. Richard Chartres can wing it. Why can't you ?
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