Walking with Micah & climate justice
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, NIV)
The Methodist Church is currently exploring the question of what does it mean for the Methodist Church to be a justice-seeking church through the Walking with Micah project. It acknowledges that we live at a time of huge change when domestic and global injustices are being revealed and intensified and asks how can our world be renewed so that all God’s creation, people and planet, can flourish?
What is climate justice?
A good definition of climate justice comes from the Natural History Museum website:
“Climate justice recognises that climate change will not affect everyone in the same way, and that this will lead to inequalities between places, people and even generations. It moves climate change conversations beyond the science and the physical impacts, to questions of politics and ethics, such as who should bear responsibility for paying for the damage caused by climate change, or how much developed countries should help the developing world increase their energy use in a sustainable way.”
Why should Christians care?
Ruth Valerio is the Global Advocacy and Influencing Director for Tearfund and has written extensively on the link between climate change and poverty, and why Christians should care about climate change.
Writing for the Tearfund blog in 2020 she said:
“For those who are already vulnerable, this is a life-threatening emergency that is pushing them further into poverty. The climate crisis is a justice issue.
This is even more evident when we reflect on what it means that we’re made ‘in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:26–28).
Firstly, it speaks of the absolute equality between people. Acting justly means not only responding to the needs of our immediate communities, but also looking to our global neighbours living in countries that do not have the financial protection or healthcare that we do.”
Want to go deeper?
The Revd Simon Topping has written a
series of blogs on the theology of climate justice for the Methodist Church. The aim is to help ground the climate crisis, and our responsibilities as Christians to address it, in the Bible.
Time to Deliver - a Tearfund campaign for 2022
Tearfund are
calling on the UK Government to ensure finance is delivered to climate-vulnerable communities.
Find out more and sign the petition.
Climate Justice: Every moment matters - a Christian Aid campaign
Christian Aid have lots of resources related to Climate Justice and a Loss and Damage petition which calls on Boris Johnson to fully back the creation of an international loss and damage fund.
Find out more and sign the petition.
