"You’ve got everyone from the Unitarian Universalists to the young evangelicals. That’s quite a spectrum"
-Rev. Brooks Berndt, United Church of Christ
The Green New Deal Picks Up Major Christian Endorsements
What climate policy would Jesus choose? One that protects nature and lifts up the poor, these Christians say.www.huffpost.com/...
"The Green New Deal has picked up endorsements from two major Christian groups, signaling a growing base of support among the faithful as climate change projections look increasingly apocalyptic.
The Unitarian Universalist Association passed a resolution at its general assembly in late June endorsing the Green New Deal resolution that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced in Congress five months ago. The main national organization for the egalitarian spiritual movement, which has over 1,000 churches in the U.S., vowed to “actively support the development of federal legislation to implement” the deal.
Days later, the national deliberative body of the United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant sect with nearly 825,000 adherents and close to 4,900 congregations across the United States, also voted to endorse the Green New Deal. It called the policy framework “what is needed to preserve and restore God’s great gift of creation.”
Last week, Young Evangelicals for Social Action, a progressive youth organization within one of Protestantism’s most traditionally conservative denominations, praised what it called the Green New Deal’s “biblical principles” and pledged to work “toward translating these … into viable, bipartisan bills.”
The announcements bring new momentum to the effort to advance a sweeping national industrial plan to eliminate planet-warming emissions and provide millions of Americans with good-paying jobs that fortify infrastructure and build renewable energy ― at a moment when that plan is facing fierce opposition. The religious endorsements could give the Green New Deal appeal in conservative districts as activists urge 2020 candidates to adopt its framework.
“You’ve got everyone from the Unitarian Universalists to the young evangelicals,” said Rev. Brooks Berndt, a 42-year-old United Church of Christ minister in the Cleveland area. “That’s quite a spectrum.”www.huffpost.com/...
"Roughly 70% of the U.S. population identifies as Christian. Throughout American history, Christian clergy have taken leading roles in progressive social movements. They championed the rights of workers and immigrants amid the nation’s chaotic 19th-century boom. During the civil rights era, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently cited the Bible to highlight the immorality of racism and spent his final years crusading against laws that preserved the poverty he saw as antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
When the so-called culture war shifted to fights over evolution, abortion and LGBTQ rights, a new generation of religious hardliners with national TV platforms forged a powerful conservative voting bloc. In the mid-2000s, as the oil industry’s propaganda denying climate science became a main Republican Party line, those voters adopted a similar stance.
When the Pew Research Center polled different Christian sects in 2015 on climate change, white evangelicals were the least likely, at 28%, to recognize that the planet is warming due to human actions. That compared to 41% of white mainline Protestants, 45% of white Catholics, 56% of black Protestants and 77% of Hispanic Catholics.www.huffpost.com/…
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Pope Francis declares 'climate emergency' and urges action
www.theguardian.com/...
Every November, the United States pays tribute to the rich history and culture of Native Americans. Indigenous peoples are among the communities most threatened by industrial pollution and climate change....
Islamic Declaration on Climate Change
Islamic leaders have called on the world's 1.6 billion Muslims to play an active role in combatting climate change and have urged governments to conclude an effective universal climate change agreement in Paris at the end of the year.
unfccc.int/...
Fifteen of the world´s most senior Buddhists leaders have issued a landmark call to all nations to adopt an effective climate change agreement at the UN negotiations in Paris starting 30 November.
The Jewish Environmental and Energy Imperative, signed by 50 Jewish leaders “across the political and religious spectrum,” also establishes a goal of reducing Jewish community greenhouse gases
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14 candidates asking for Climate debate:
+Biden now=15
Jay Inslee April 17 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
Kirsten Gillibrand April 17 [Daily Beast]
Mike Gravel April 19 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
Julián Castro April 22 [Julian Castro, Twitter]
Tim Ryan April 22 [Tim Ryan, Twitter]
Andrew Yang May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
Beto O’Rourke May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
Bernie Sanders May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter] (promoted by Sanders on May 7)
Elizabeth Warren May 20 [Elizabeth Warren, Twitter]
Amy Klobuchar May 23 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
Michael Bennet May 29 [Politico]
John Delaney June 4 [John Delaney]
Tulsi Gabbard June 6 [Gabbard press assistant Cullen Tiernan, Twitter]
Seth Moulton June 7 [Seth Moulton, Twitter]
14 candidates asking for Climate debate