stepping it up at last

This weekend was so inspiring. Perhaps the best part was knowing that we really weren't alone--there were other people all over the country, all doing different things but sending the same message. But here in Atlanta, the most inspiring part to me was the effort to show the connection between climate change and social justice. It's much easier to explain the necessity of Christian action on social issues (especially since Dr. King already did it for me) than to explain the necessity of Christian action on the environment. But in my mind, they are indivisible. We are all dependent on our environment--and the poorest among us are the most dependent, and the least culpable for the changes.

We heard speakers and workshops on this topic, but I think few things were as powerful for me in seeing that connection than simply the meeting place we chose. We rallied at King Chapel on Morehouse College campus, and sitting in the shadow of this larger-than-life statue of Martin Luther King Jr., I kept wondering what he would be preaching now, if he were still alive. He has always been someone whom I admired, and more so the more I've learned about him. He understood the need to act on faith, and he was driven by love. His message was in many ways always the same, but toward the end of his life it was beginning to shift, extending across racial issues to the multi-colored face of poverty, which in our country today is even more pronounced and dangerous than it was then. He cared about the poor. But we, so often still, blithely leave the poor behind in a trail of SUV emissions. When sea levels rise, when food is harder to grow, when the cost of staying warm is more expensive--it will be the poor who are hit hardest. The rich will always be able to drive. But can we in conscience keep driving cars, we who say that we, too, are driven by love?