5 Burst results for "World Evangelical Alliance"
Climate Cast
"world evangelical alliance" Discussed on Climate Cast
"I often say if we took the Bible seriously, we'd be out at the front of the line demanding climate action as in fact many people who call themselves Christians are. This week, the Minnesota climate adaptation partnership recognized leaders in climate solutions with its climate adaptation awards. The keynote speaker Katherine hayhoe is doing that work in an increasingly polarized place in American culture, Catherine is the chief scientist for the nature conservancy and an evangelical Christian. She often talks about her work through the lands of her faith. Her recent book is called saving us a climate scientist's case for hope and healing in a divided world. High Catherine, welcome back to climate cast. Thank you so much for having me. So you've been called an evangelical climate scientist I know by The New York Times. How does your faith and your science combine in your approach as a climate communicator? Well, I know that to some that might sound like an oxymoron these days, but the reality is is I am a climate scientist because I'm a Christian. Climate change is not only an environmental issue, which is also a health issue. It's a food and a water issue, and most importantly of all climate change is a justice issue. So how can I not do everything I can to help fix this problem? And you know, it's interesting because the Vatican sent a delegation to cop 26 last year, right? The Pope was planning to attend. What do you make of that? And do you think it could make a difference? Yes. So although the Pope was not able to attend, there was definitely a large faith contingent, the head of the world evangelical alliance was there. They represent 600 million evangelicals around the world. There were theologians. They were Christian organizations, marching in the climate marches there. The vast majority of people, both in the U.S. and around the world, some aspect of their values tend to be shaped by their faith tradition, whether they are practicing today or not. And when you look at any major phase tradition, they all have at their core some aspect of good stewardship over nature or creation and caring for those less fortunate than us. And those are the only values we need to care about a changing climate. In fact, I often say if we took the Bible seriously, we'd be at the front of the line demanding climate action as in fact many people who call themselves Christians are rather than dragging our feet at the back as unfortunately many in the United States who call themselves Christians are. How do you approach that? How do we talk to people who simply don't accept the science or is it more effective to preach to the rest of the choir that does? First of all, 70% of us are already worried about climate change, but 50% of us don't know where to start. We feel hopeless and helpless and only 8% of us are activated. So those conversations with people who are already worried but don't know what to do, they are probably the most important conversations that we can have. So how do we have conversations with the other 30%, though? Well, often it begins with understanding and I talk about this quite a bit in my book that they don't truly have a problem with the science. It's the same science that explains how airplanes fly and how stoves heat food. Most people don't reject those. The problem is they don't think we can fix it. They don't understand what real solutions look like. So ironically, talking about what real climate solutions look like and how they can be practical and beneficial and constructive and clean up our air in our water and make healthier soils and a safe for better world for all of us. It's the same answer to both groups. What are your top ideas for our listeners to really become a bigger part of that climate solution? I would encourage listeners to engage their climate shadow. And it's basically how we interact with each other. So whoever you are, your part of other groups that are greater than yourself. And when you use your voice to talk about why climate change matters to you in your neighborhood or to you as kayakers or to you as parents of young children in your school. And what you could do working together, that's when we engage our climate shadow and that's when we can really truly change the world. Great advice. Nature conservancy chief scientist and keynote speaker at this week's climate adaptation awards in Minnesota. Katherine hayhoe, thanks for your great work. And for joining us again on climate cast. Thank you so much for having me. That's climate cast, I'm NPR chief meteorologist, Paul.
The Scathing Atheist
"world evangelical alliance" Discussed on The Scathing Atheist
"Given the promo code, really? Manscape. When the fear is gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Okay. I've got manscaped manners cost us so much money. It really has just a lot. What the fuck is an evangelical? The turbine evangelical comes from the Greek word for gospel Evangelion, which sounds way cooler than gospel, or evangelical. According to the dictionary, the term simply means of or denoting a tradition with Protestant Christianity emphasizing the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and the doctrine of Salvation by faith in the atonement. And as concise as that definition may seem, it does beg the question, are there traditions within Protestant Christianity that don't emphasize the Bible personal conversion or Salvation? And if you ask an evangelical, they'd probably say yes and lump all such traditions under the heading of mainline Protestantism. But if you asked a mainline Protestant if their religious tradition emphasized the authority of the Bible personal conversion and Salvation, they'd almost certainly tell you, yes, so clearly someone's full of shit. And we're talking religion here. So odds are it's everybody. Now, if you trace the term back to the 16th century, it was largely a synonym for Protestant to find the point where it diverges into a distinct type of Protestantism. You have to fast forward to the first great awakening in the 1730s. In its early form, it was largely an amalgamation of the three P's of being boring as bucket a party. Pietism, presbyterianism and puritanism. Rather than representing a denomination or sect of Protestantism, the evangelical tag denoted a movement within a number of Protestant sects. In many ways, the movement can be described as puritanism light, and grew in direct response to declining attendance and local piety in the previously puritanical cities of Massachusetts. While less cynical historians described this as a method of refurbishing God's message for a more modern day, realistic as a bunch of puritan preachers removing all the inconvenient shit from their religion because they were running out of money. For example, during the great awakening denominations that used to say that it took a lifetime of sturdy contemplation to achieve true assurance of one's faith, started saying it was assigning bonus that you just got for saying the magic Jesus words. This do nothing and get rewards approach to religion caught on quickly in the North American colonies, but as much because of the evangelical focus on missionary work as the new low price. Unlike many of the traditional forms of Protestantism, evangelicals held a firm belief that one wasn't doing their true duty to God unless they were all up in everybody's shit about it. This led to an increase in religious influence in government, schools, and the average American social life. But like puritanism before it, the evangelical movement became stagnant and outdated and by the early 20th century it was dominated by fundamentalists so fundamentalists that they actually called themselves fundamentalists. A desire by some more PR conscious members of the movement led to the term neo evangelical in the post World War II era, which we now simply call evangelicals. So yes, the swath of Christians that include pat Robertson, Brian Fisher and John hagy started with an effort to be less fundamentalist. Of course, knowing where the evangelicals have been, doesn't get as much closer to understanding what the fuck they are, especially since the history of the movement is largely defined by what they're not. And modern evangelical groups are of no more use as their primary goal is to make groups of people they represent seem as large as possible, even if that requires using rather fuzzy definitions. For example, the world evangelical alliance claims to represent more than 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide, which represents about a 195% of the total evangelical population. They get there by employing the bevington quadrilateral, which you can tell us full of shit because they didn't just call it the bevington square. They did a 5 syllable word in there to make it sound thinky. Basically, this approach defines evangelicals through their theology. It posits four key theological elements and in the tradition of over naming laid down by gratuitously polysyllabic use of quadrilateral, they define these four elements as follows. Biblicism. The belief that all essential spiritual truths could be found in the Bible. Cruci centrism, a focus on the atoning work of Christ's death on the cross, conversion is the belief that human beings need to be converted and activism. The belief that the gospel needs to be expressed in effort. If anybody strongly agrees with all four of these statements, the NAE considers them an evangelical. The problem here obviously is that you're going to catch a lot of fish in that net that would vehemently disagree with your classification. Hell, by that definition, you can find an awful lot of evangelical Catholics. Even further confusing the definition is the tendency of the modern media to use the term evangelical as a shorthand for white Protestant, which is all the more baffling since wasp is already there and takes away less effort to say. So despite looking into the etymology, the dictionary, the history, the organizational definition and the demographic definition, I wound up back where I started. See, to me, the term evangelical simply means extra annoying non Catholic Christian and the more I dug into it, the more I realized that truly was an operational definition. In other words, an evangelical is a fundamentalist with enough PR savvy not to use the F word. And.
On Being with Krista Tippett
"world evangelical alliance" Discussed on On Being with Krista Tippett
"Mind sort of bothered a little bit because that was literally what I was talking about, but because I had not said those words, she had been able to listen to what I was actually saying without tripping over the language. And she said, but yes, this makes sense. And so that taught me that, first of all, the words are very important, like you say. And as a scientist, I do say climate change because that is what it is. You have to use the correct term, the call to spade a spade. But if we're talking with people one on one, if we're building connections with people who might be uncomfortable with those words, we can often have a much more productive conversation if we use the language that we're familiar and comfortable with, and we can talk about the same things without necessarily mentioning a few words that people might trip over. Or that might cause them to turn off. Yeah. So, you know, I want to say something to you before we go on, which is that I just want you to know we are going to flag the book all the way through the interview. Oh. Thank you. And I would say that because I know that publicists will tell you that you have to mention it a lot, but don't worry about it. And we actually, we actually don't do book interviews. So I'm going to interview you for the sweep of your work, but I am going to absolutely. We will center it around telling people that that book is out there. So thank you so much. She relieved my mind. I was mentally thinking that my publicist was like, capture. Oh, I know. I know I know. I know. And so good. No, so let's just talk and then we'll do that. We'll do that. Read my mind. Okay, thank you. Yeah, because I feel like my job is yes to get people to know that your book is out there and also to get to know you. And so that all those things work together. So good. Okay. And I haven't honest, I honestly like those stories. I haven't been shoehorning them in. They're the natural. Oh no, no, I know. I know that time. Yes. No, they're your stories. No, I get that. Yeah, so. You know, I feel like there's also a story that I feel is not very told very well or fully or alive in our culture, which you're also very much a part of, which is this religious, I don't even want to say reckoning kind of encounter, relationship, dial. With this matter of our ecological present and future. And it's a complicated picture. It's not just one thing. I mean, the thing that gets all the publicity and I know that you're often in the middle of is where it feels like there's a struggle with science or a hostility to this science. But and you write about this and speak about this when you're in the world. I mean, you know, there is this world that has emerged in recent decades of from the national association of evangelicals to the world evangelical alliance. There was an Islamic declaration on climate change, Pope Francis, who you've written about his famously passionate about the natural world, the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Bartholomew is known as the green patriarch, the world wildlife fund as a sacred earth program. And I just, you know, I feel like just almost like that 1965 report this is part of the story of our time that we don't tell anyone. I mean, I want to talk to you about the exchanges urine and how you've really put yourself on the fault line, but the fault line isn't the whole story. I think you're totally right. I'm so glad that you're bringing this up. And of course, this is the perfect place to do it. If we don't talk about this here, where do we? So in the United States, white evangelical protestants and white Catholics, those two groups are consistently the least concerned about climate change. And so because of that, people often mistakenly assume that it's something about, you know, what the Bible says or what we believe is Christians or where we go to church on Sunday or don't go to church on Sunday that is dictating our opinions. But when social scientists dig into it, they find that it turns out it's all political ideology, and the history of the increasing association and the deliberate association. Between right wing politics and theologically conservative Christianity that began with the whole issue of desegregation of schools, and then the moral majority. That climate change has fallen right into that pit, so to speak. It's not real. It's not Christian. Right, right. It is theology that's not Christian. Right. It's very unchristian in fact, because if you truly look at the Bible and thoughtful leaders from John Calvin, all the way up to the present day and Martin Luther. From John Calvin and Martin Luther all the way up to the present day, thoughtful thoughtful theological leaders have looked at the Bible and have clearly concluded that care or stewardship over every living thing on this earth as it says in genesis one chapter one, which living things include plants and animals, but they also include humans, too. That is a specific part of our responsibility as humans. It doesn't say that God gave Christians responsibility. It says God gave humans responsibility over every living thing on this earth. And then the idea of caring for and loving our neighbors and being recognized being known by our love for others. The idea that the fruit of the spirit as we Christians believe is love and joy and patience and kindness. Rather than greed and hubris and arrogance and judgment, which unfortunately is what is so often associated with religion these days. It's really about returning, I think, to who we are. And I mean, if we really were if we acted like who we believed we were who, as Christians, at least the Bible told us we were. And of course, in other major world religions, there's also strong aspects of stewardship and care for creation and loving others and caring for the less fortunate. But if we really lived out who we were, the world would be a completely different place. Yeah. I mean, there's an interesting way in which you personally entered this story. Not the hostility, but the arrangement, which actually isn't there in the history of science or of religion. I mean, you your husband, who's now a pastor, was a linguistic scholar. Is that right when you first got to know him? Like 6 months. This is what I read. Tell me if this is true. Discovered to her shock. 6 months after her marriage, that he was among the dubious. Yes, that is true. You may say, how could that possibly be true? Well, this is how'd you really not talk about this before? Well, first of all, I'd just like to be clear Internet dating was not even a thing back then. So it was all in person. It wasn't one of those things where you don't meet somebody online and then you hadn't read everything you'd written online about thoughts on science. No, because social media was nothing in there either. Yeah. Well, so here's how it came about. So I growing up in Canada. Had never met anyone who didn't think climate change is real. And so it never occurred to me to ask because you don't stop to ask people a list of like, do you believe in gravity is the sky blue? Is climate change really? You just don't ask these things. You just assume everybody agrees, right? So that was my cultural assumption. And then he coming from growing up in the cultural south, growing up in a politically conservative family, he had never met anyone who shared his faith who believed that it was real..
On Being with Krista Tippett
"world evangelical alliance" Discussed on On Being with Krista Tippett
"Is the difference between what your city will look like in 20 years or 30 years or 40 years. Here's the difference between what your city will look like depending on the choices we make today. Our choices are the biggest source of uncertainty in the future. And when people bring that down to the local scale, instead of looking at polar bears and Antarctica, we're looking at, okay, the city of Chicago could be having three of the worst heatwaves that they've ever had in the past, three of those every year if we don't do anything about climate change. But if we do something about climate change, they would still be seeing bad heat waves, but might be more like one or two a decade. When you put it in such stark terms, then all of a sudden, everybody in Chicago is like, oh, so that's why climate action matters. Well, and you know, this is just bringing into relief for me, you know, and this flows very directly from what you said was your kind of moral motivation for going into this seeing that what we speak about in terms of climate change is amplifying just the most serious humanitarian crises we have. You know, there's also a story that I feel is not very told very well or fully or alive in our culture, which you're also very much a part of, which is this religious I don't even want to say reckoning kind of encounter, relationship, dial. With this matter of our ecological present and future. You know, there is this world that has emerged in recent decades of from the national association of evangelicals to the world evangelical alliance. There was an Islamic declaration on climate change, Pope Francis, who you've written about his famously passionate about the natural world, the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Bartholomew is known as the green patriarch, the world wildlife fund as a sacred earth program. And I just, you know, I feel like this is part of the story of our time that we don't tell and I want to talk to you about the exchanges you're in and how you've really put yourself on the fault line, but the fault line isn't the whole story. I think you're totally right. I'm so glad that you're bringing this up. And of course, this is the perfect place to do it. If we don't talk about this here, where do we? So in the United States, white evangelical protestants and white Catholics, those two groups are consistently the least concerned about climate change. And so because of that, people often mistakenly assume that it's something about, you know, what the Bible says or what we believe is Christians or where we go to church on Sunday or don't go to church on Sunday that is dictating our opinions. But when social scientists dig into it, they find that it turns out it's all political ideology, and the history of the increasing association and the deliberate association. Between right wing politics and theologically conservative Christianity that began with the whole issue of desegregation of schools, and then the moral majority. Climate change has fallen right into that pit, so to speak. It's civil theology is not religious right, right. It's very unchristian in fact, because from John Calvin and Martin Luther all the way up to the present day, thoughtful theological leaders have looked at the.
Celebrate Community Church
"world evangelical alliance" Discussed on Celebrate Community Church
"In jesus from those from jesus phil and then we have then we work. you just didn't peace island and then during covid. Kobe hit liberia. They had to shut down. It was locked down. The didn't get the rigs out at all. They had curfews. And i was on the phone with a man who's the head of all of the world evangelical alliance for the whole continent of africa. And i said what is what do you need. He said you know what we need. We need water. We can't wash our hands in dirty water. I didn't even think about that. You know we're here all the time washing our hands. My kids are always calling me. Mom did you wash your hands and there so dumb. My kid calling me. Did i wash my hands. The role reversal. There that took place you know. And then i realized if the covert is there if they can't wash their hands and so you helped us and so they decided in liberia. We would rehab. Wells had been broken. Just go through the community particularly in monrovia. The capital city rehab wells. You help just rehab wells and with that twenty. Five thousand people received water and hand washing stations. Now i want to tell you the numbers are up there. You have reached a total of for people for water a total direct. Now this is a direct beneficiary. Seventy three thousand one hundred and six people but when we look at that number then we multiply that by three because we look at the total impact. So you have given water to over. Two hundred thousand people. Isn't that the population of sioux falls. Clean water that means. They'll live that means. Their health will be better. That means that women can go to school. That little girls can go to school because they're the ones responsible for getting the water that means the whole community has changed and let me just tell you one personal thing. They did a study in liberia. And i've i've heard these. These women have come up to me and said these things before the will came in thirty percent of the children under five died every year after one year of clean water one percent of children under five. Die my friends. this means that you have saved. We can't begin to count the number of lives if you look at two hundred thousand people with water and how many lives have been changed. This is what jesus has called us to do. God his people he's called us and that's what you're doing and i cannot thank you enough as we move forward and begin to get all the information as we move forward and all that you're going to do you see you celebrate on a new trajectory. God's doing something. I'll never forget when i was in egypt and the pastors and it was right after the Square and all the people that had been killed at center and one of the pastors and said to me well joanne. The arab spring broke our imagination. Of what god can do. I thought oh my their imaginations think of something to help them to encourage them and then finally one of them raised their hand said join. I haven't exactly heard what we mean by that you see says the arab spring four million. Muslims have come to jesus. God god broke our imagination because it wasn't big enough and arm praying. God breaks your imagination that it can expand to what his imagination is for. What he wants you to do and is going to be different. You're not going to be like all the other churches. And i'm praying. That celebrate me comes literally the dna that runs clear through the entire wesleyan church denomination and beyond it becomes a model out there. For what god wants to do in his church this day. And i can't get away from isaiah forty three. You need to read the whole chapter. I'm not gonna do that today. But the one piece that i love he says god says see i am doing a new thing now. It springs up. And that's what you're doing. God bless you. And i'm wanted. Welcome gaylon ends today and your chief financial officer who has been so wonderful to work with in every way and he has an imagination that god has given him an s great to work with you gail and god bless you. Thank you joanne. While it is amazing to be a of such an incredible denomination an incredible church like we are welcome to memorial day weekend. It's a time when we remember those who have gone before us and god has memorial day's for people in the bible there called festivals and their times for god's people to stop what we're doing the nation of israel and contemplate remember. Appreciate all the god has done and so this morning. I'd like to take a few moments and walk us through a journey together of not only what how god has been good to us but how god has been good through us over. This past year journey begins a little over a year ago in march twenty twenty. The second week called hit and this country shut down. If you remember that say yes yes. We all remember that and win. That happened celebrates offerings were instantly and dramatically impacted. You can imagine and the leadership of this church had a hunch that this thing that they were calling corona virus at the time going to last a while could and it could impact our people for months to come so we went to work and the first thing we did was we prayed for you prayed for our lord. That's where it starts and the second things we did where we shut down sections of this building. We turned down thermostats. We stopped driving vehicles so we could take insurance off of them. We cancelled stuff. We sold stuff and we were successful. God allow us to reduce our budget by almost forty percent temporarily. Imagine that and those cuts were easy. Decisions for us and most of them were implemented by the end of march a year ago. Why because we are not going to continue plowing snow and later on watering the church lawn when there are celebrators so we're going to need help with medical care with groceries with utilities with toilet paper of all things who would have thought that so those are easy decisions for us but then a wonderful thing began to happen. Checks began showing up church. Lots of them. Every day we went out to the mailbox and celebrators began mailing. Your checks your ties to the church.