Just over twenty years ago, the United Methodist Bishops released a landmark pastoral letter, In Defense of Creation, addressing itself specifically to the issue of the looming threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Recognizing that the letter is out of date on a number of levels, but the threats to creation remain and have multiplied, the Council of Bishops, as reported here, are updating the document, and inviting input from annual conferences, seminaries, and others, wishing to offer insights and suggestions for emphases. The author of the original document, emeritus Dean and Professor Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and retired Senior Pastor of Foundry UMC, also in Washington, J. Philip Wogaman, will be returning to familiar territory, once again authoring the statement to be offered to the Church for comment and consideration.
I thought it incumbent to address some specifics on this issue. First, I think it important, as a general observation, to note that the original document, coming as it did as the Cold War was starting to wind down (glasnost and perestroika were at their height, and it was less than a year after the document's release that Ronald Reagan received the offer from Gorbachev to eliminate the mutual nuclear stockpiles of our respective countries in return for ending research in to Star Wars; the offer occurred during a closed-door session of a summit in Rekjavik, Iceland; infamously, Reagan turned him down, storming out of Iceland), was deficient because Wogaman refused to address the moral degradation inherent in maintaining nuclear weapon technology. I do not blame him, but I do feel that, by failing to insist that elimination of nuclear weapons unilaterally was a moral imperative, the document missed a golden opportunity.
With the Soviet Union long gone, and nuclear threats now coming more from the proliferation of former Soviet stockpiles for sale on the black market, the issue is far more complicated, and the situation far more dangerous that it was during the reign of the Evil Empire. Furthermore, it is important to remember that, in the autumn after the pastoral letter's release, the world came together to address the recently discovered hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, a hole linked directly to the use of chloro-fluorocarbons. The ensuing international agreement on the reduction and eventual elimination of these chemicals was a landmark, and the first round in an ongoing world-wide recognition that threats to human survival were not limited to the evil of nuclear weaponry. In the years since then, with the signing of the Kyoto Accords (from which Pres. Bush removed the US as signatory), there has been a consensus that there needs to be a global legal and regulatory regime for environmental sustainability. It should not be doubted that nearly as much space and time will be dedicated to the issues of environmental concern and global climate change as to the threat of global nuclear annihilation.
Furthermore, and much to the surprise and delight of many, the Bishops are also seeking input on the issue of global poverty. Since the six billion or so human beings are also an integral part of creation, and our current global economic structure is destructive of human life and integrity (as well as the physical integrity of the planet), it is cheering to find the Bishops intent upon looking at economic matters, especially as they relate to the ways international capital destroys human lives. It is further cheering because Wogaman was writing about the relationship between economics and Christian ethics long before it was fashionable to do so. This is a subject with which he is intimately familiar, and his expertise is a welcome asset.
It is heartening to see the Church actively engaged in moving forward on this front. Revisiting the issue of creation care, in a comprehensive, all-encompassing way is a sign to me that the Church is not resting on its laurels, but conscious of the privilege it has of speaking out of its own historical reality in the Wesleyan tradition to matters of concern to us all. It should be a welcome voice as we move beyond the sterility of our current public dialogue on these matters.
Virtual Tin Cup
