wfn.org | LWF Council Press Release No. 02-2008

["Colette Muanda" <cmu@lutheranworld.org>]

*Apologies for any double mailing, for technical reasons.

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>LWF Council Press Release No. 02-2008

Humanity at a Crossroads

LWF President Says Global Climate Change Consequences Are
Inescapable

ARUSHA, Tanzania/GENEVA, 26 June 2008 (LWI) - The exploitation
and neglect of creation and consequences of the resulting climate
change have brought humanity to a crossroads, said the President
of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Bishop Mark S. Hanson, at
the LWF Council meeting in the northern town of Arusha, Tanzania.

In his address to the LWF governing body on 25 June, the
president said humanity was not only faced with the question of
where it would go in the future, but where it truly was at
present and “who is with us at this crossroads.” Hanson is
presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA). 

Referring to the meeting’s theme, “Melting Snow on Mount
Kilimanjaro-A Witness of a Suffering Creation,” Hanson
cautioned it was not only the mountain’s snows that were
melting - its waters were diminishing as the glacier receded, the
air was changing and God-created creatures were disappearing, and
human families were dying of starvation. “Global climate change
is an undeniable reality. The documentation is voluminous and the
consequences are inescapable,” he remarked.

He pointed out that throughout human history, especially in
recent centuries “the human race has acted as if its calling
were to be more like God than like the rest of Creation.” In
Christian tradition, those who have done so, Hanson stated, have
appropriated language in Scripture such as the invitation to have
“dominion” over the earth and to “subdue” it. (Gen 1:28)

The LWF president stressed the need to recognize humanity’s
unique responsibility for the rest of creation, saying, “To
disown our creaturely status and claim a relationship of mastery
with our fellow creatures is a betrayal.”

>Rebellion against God

The calling to “have dominion” or to “rule” and
“subdue” was never an invitation to human beings to be
their own gods, said Hanson. The claim to prerogatives of
“co-creators” was an expression of humanity’s rebellion
against God, against “our status as creatures and against our
true calling in relation to creation,” he noted.

The problem was not just environmental, according to the LWF
president. Humankind had treated the earth as if the human race
were the guarantors of the creation’s continuation, and acted
as if creation’s life was intended “to serve and glorify the
human race.” The earth’s value and worth, he regretted, were
measured by its “utility to human aspirations.”

Ultimately the problem was not simply about water and air
pollution with the resulting global warming, but rather, about
“the spiritual blasphemy of treating God’s good creation
as something else, as an adversarial wilderness, a god-forsaken
wasteland, a natural resources dump to be used for our own
self-interest rather than cared for in obedience to God and for
its own sake.”

>Systematic Attack on Living Creatures

The LWF president noted that despite this abuse, the land, seas
and skies would endure but the living creatures that inhabited
the earth were more vulnerable. Environmental offenses such as
the reckless pollution of air and water, voracious consumption of
forests and farmland, diversion of food and fiber for wasteful
consumerism and the consequent changes in the climate, constitute
a “systematic assault on our fellow living creatures,” he
said.

Speaking about “true witness of our stewardship of the
creation,” Hanson warned the ecology of our own bodies was at
stake: “In familiar ways we fail to care for our own created
bodies, minds emotions and spirits.” By the manner in which
humans live, they are saying, “We will be our own gods.”
Faithful stewards of the earth, however, “can exercise
self-control, which liberates them for the fulfillment of their
creaturely calling.” 

He added that focusing narrowly on the reality of climate change
itself, while ignoring the spiritual crisis of blaspheming God
and God’s creation, was as misguided as denying the changing
climate and its consequences. Similarly, moving too readily to
the role of the questioner evades responsibility “for ourselves
and our accountability” to God and God’s creation.

>Addressing the Crisis

The LWF president said a communion with a rich theological
tradition had the resources to address this crisis. The Lutheran
communion of churches recognizes that “a living and active
faith that serves the neighbor comes from hearing the Word and
responding to Christ’s call,” he stressed. It was
“committed to the conversations and consultations, the
proclamation and practical policies that call out a living faith,
shaped in the mind of Christ,” he noted.

He mentioned the current study program of the LWF Department for
Theology and Studies (DTS) “Theological Responses to Climate
Change” as only one example of the theological dialogue taking
place throughout the LWF communion, and challenged Lutheran
churches to advocate for changes in both policy and practice in
their own countries. 

As illustrations he pointed to churches' initiatives in Denmark,
Papua New Guinea and Sweden, in the Nordic and Baltic churches,
in Tanzania and in the United States, as well as the
LWF-initiated dialogue with Indigenous Peoples in Asia.

He noted that measures for the preservation of creation, such as
LWF-sponsored conversations and dialogues, range from local
initiatives to global partnerships, and cited examples of a
number of member churches involved in reforestation projects as
part of larger strategies to change environmental practices.

Hanson said the creation’s suffering was a sobering truth that
humanity was forced to accept. “The burden of guilt, the shame
of responsibility for such suffering and the fear of consequences
easily could turn us against each other in recrimination and
judgment,” he warned. But this was not compatible with the
“communion that we are in Jesus Christ, for such a community
could not be humbled because it had no hope,” he added. (977
words)

>*   *   *

There are around 170 participants in this year’s Council
meeting including church leaders, officials from LWF partner
organizations, invited guests, stewards, interpreters and
translators, LWF staff and co-opted staff and accredited media.
(985 words)

The Council is the LWF’s governing body meeting between
Assemblies held every six years. The current Council was
appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada. It
comprises the President, Treasurer and 48 persons elected by the
Assembly. Other members include advisors, lay and ordained
persons, representing the different LWF regions.
(977 words)

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