Climate Questions: My Review of Our House is On Fire

 

So not too long ago I finished reading Our House is On Fire: Scenes of a Family and Planet in Crisis by Greta Thunberg, Svante Thunberg, Malena Ernman, & Beata Ernman (though it mainly seems to be written by Greta's mother,  Malena )

The slim volume describes the personal journey of the Thunberg/Ernman family as they dealt with both Greta, and her lesser known younger sister Beata's challenging mental and emotional health difficulties and how their struggles paralleled their growing concern for the state of our planet.  Each chapter is a "scene" from the life of the family, and each is brief, sometimes only a page in length. While the book is short, it took me a long time to read. It's not a happy story, and that is by design as the neglect of those who do not fit our societies definition of "normal" and the neglect of our planet are not happy stories.  They do not intend to sugarcoat these facts to make the reader feel good.  They were successful in that effort. I did not feel good.

I know among a certain segment of our culture it's considered funny to mock Greta Thunberg and deride her passion for addressing climate change. I've always felt that attitude is cheap, low, cowardly, and demonstrates an an inability to bring a meaningful challenge to climate change activists ideas.  When you don't have a strong case of your own, you can always resort to personal insults and sneering.

That said, I do feel that the book missed the mark in two crucial ways.  These omissions are important enough that they really hamstring the books ability to get us to take the climate crisis as seriously as they want us to.

First the author(s) fails to articulate exactly what the cost of failing to meaningfully address climate change will be.  There are no specifics as to what we are potentially dealing with in just a few short years. Are we talking about an increase in an extreme weather events, rising sea levels that consume our coastal areas, and shift the colder climates further north (and south). Or are we talking about reaching a point where the planet is literally uninhabitable for human life, as Earth is turned into some sort of Venus-like planet.  The language in the book is severe enough that it seems to imply the latter, though it is never said outright.  And that is a fatal omission especially if you are calling for the most radical of change.

Which leads to the second missing piece of this book.  The author(s) never specify exactly what steps MUST be taken NOW to halt the coming cataclysm.  The implication seems to be that there must be a complete upheaval of our current way of life but there's never any picture of exactly what that would look like.  The closest they come is calling for the end of air travel and embracing vegetarianism.  The Thunberg/Ernman family is adamant that offering "hope" is foolish at this juncture.  Any "solutions" that are not sufficiently radical will simply lull us into a sense of further complacency now that we've "done something."

The air travel thing hit hard. I love to travel and I love to fly--it's one of the things I miss most since the pandemic arrived. I know the authors would dismiss my determination to hold on to winging it as the selfish and short sighted wishes of a privileged person stubbornly insisting on grasping my luxuries at the cost of the planet.  But if you're going to make that case and convince me, then you've got to tell me A) what exactly, in specific detail, is going to happen and B) what exactly must be done by society as a whole in order to stop it.  Absent that, it's all too easy to walk away from the hard questions this book raises and the hard sacrifices it demands.  And I know that's not what Greta and her family want people to do.

What are Those?

 

Maybe a couple of years ago it was a big thing among "the youth" that I work with as a middle school teacher to make fun of someone's shoes. You'd point at the victim's shoes and crow "What are those?"  Those whose parents couldn't be bothered to keep their kids in spotless, name brand kicks would pay the price in the derision of their classmates as cries of "What are those?!?" followed them down the hallway.  

It would seem shoes make the man.  They are more than protection and comfort for our feet (which is how I tend to see them, with all due respect to my sneakerhead friends).  They make a statement.

Lil Nas X, the pop sensation who rocketed to global fame with his ubiquitous hit "Old Town Road" a few years ago has grabbed the spotlight once again this past week, this time with a new song and video and associated shoe tie-in that has scandalized grown-ups across the country.  

I won't dwell on his Satan-themed video or the "Satan shoes" drop. Mainly because I feel that we're being played. Lil Nas X's goal was to get people to talk about him, think about him, watch his videos. And most of us have done exactly what  he wanted. Shock value--over the top sex and Satanism was a combination sure to do the trick--one that has been used to great effect by everyone from the Rolling Stones to Marilyn Manson in years past. He doesn't care what kind of attention he gets.  Any publicity is good publicity.  And the more we frown, the more we gasp, the more we cluck our tongues and wag our heads in warning the more curious "the kids" are to see what the fuss is all about.

I'm not so worried about the good kids righteously appalled at the video. But I do worry about the kids who are maybe ready to turn their back on the Christian faith, those disappointed and hurt by rejection and judgment from zealous believers around them. I worry about those holding on to their faith by their fingernails.  And I wonder if, in our scandalized approach, we are stomping on their fingers with our good Christian shoes.

I think we need to talk more about Jesus and less about Satan.  Rather than obsess over the cartoonish wrongs of the devil, let's focus on the matchless goodness of Christ. We need to approach these issues with calm confidence rooted in our certainty of Jesus. When we are fearful, angry, and condemning we misrepresent the character and the power of Jesus. You might say we take His name in vain.  I get it. I'm a parent, and my deepest wish and daily prayer is that my children would know and love Jesus.  But I don't know that "freaking out" is the best way to encourage that.  

Instead of reflexively condemning out of fear, what about encouraging the consideration of questions like these:

Who do you think would have your back no matter what--the one whose credo is "Do what thou wilt" or the One who said "There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for one's friends" ?

Note that Satan's shoes contain a "drop of human blood" and then compare that with Jesus who does not call on us to sacrifice our blood, but instead gave His own blood on our behalf. 

Who limits access to their shoes to less than a thousand people willing and able spend to more than a thousand dollars on the spot, and who has offered His gift of eternal life, free to all?

Who encourages a focus on surface appearance and style at the cost of the self-esteem of millions who never feel good enough, well-dressed (and well-shod) enough, hot enough? And Who loves everyone, but has a special affinity for those most others ignore, disregard, and disrespect.? Who would you rather trust? The one who applauds you only when you are at your best, or the One who is sure to be there for you when you were at your very worst?

What do you think Jesus' shoes would look like? (The same company that released the Satan Shoes released limited edition pairs of "Jesus Shoes" last year. It's all marketing to them).  Would they inspire pride in the wearer or would their appearance be incidental, with the emphasis on the work they do--covering the feet of those who bring good news, justice, mercy, love?

What does it mean to be "worldly?"  Is it just about "secular" entertainment, fashion, sensuality? Or is it also---and maybe primarily--about cruelty, selfishness, materialism, mockery, a celebration of mortal success, fleeting beauty, and talent, and scorn for the losers, the ugly and the ordinary? How often do we as Christians end up advocating for those very values that define this transient world?

I'll be honest. Jesus is the only reason I'm still a Christian at all.  What passes for Christianity today is largely a mess. We have become entitled, spoiled by hundreds years of cultural dominance so that we've come to view our place of preeminence as our due and any diminishment of that privilege as tantamount to "persecution."  Our comfort has become the number one priority, and I'm not just talking about material comfort--but our also our obsession with spiritual comfort, with a desperate need to be right.  I'm tired of the emphasis on "Biblical living"--our fixation on the Scriptures as if we think that we can find eternal life in them, leading us to fealty to this or that doctrinal point no matter the cost in human lives who must be sacrificed along the way.  The Bible is not the source of life-- at its best it points to the Source. 

I'm tired of the dogged devotion to orthodoxies that are as much about tradition and our own comfort and security as they are about so-called Truth. I've seen too many "Christians" regretfully cut off  people from their loving Savior, just so that they can feel secure in their own righteousness.  Too many are willing to "lovingly" condemn rather than risk being wrong. And I'm sorry, simply professing love and having a nice gentle demeanor simply does not cut it, if you have to add a "but" to God's love.  I'm not at all convinced that ticking all the right religious boxes doesn't have the potential to be even more deadly and dangerous to one's spiritual health than any shock-value satanic posturing.  Jesus seemed to think so too, as religious people were only ones He had words of condemnation for.

How much of Lil Nas X latest creative impulse came from the failure of Christians to reflect the character of Christ? It's a sad day when the church of Jesus has given over the role of total acceptance to the church of Satan.

Rather than worrying frantically over who might be wearing Satan's shoes and singing his songs, why don't we focus instead on seeking by God's grace to walk ourselves in the battered, worn, shoes of Jesus and to sing of His love.

Every time I tried to make it on my own
Every time I tried to stand and start to fall
And all those lonely roads that I have travelled on
There was Jesus

When the life I built came crashing to the ground
When the friends I had were nowhere to be found
I couldn't see it then but I can see it now
There was Jesus

In the waiting, in the searching
In the healing and the hurting
Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces
Every minute, every moment
Where I've been and where I'm going
Even when I didn't know it or couldn't see it
There was Jesus

For this man who needs amazing kind of grace (Mmm)
For forgiveness at a price I couldn't pay (Mmm)
I'm not perfect so I thank God every day
There was Jesus (There was Jesus)

In the waiting, in the searching
In the healing and the hurting
Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces
Every minute, every moment
Where I've been and where I'm going
Even when I didn't know it or couldn't see it
There was Jesus

On the mountain, in the valleys (There was Jesus)
In the shadows of the alleys (There was Jesus)
In the fire, in the flood (There was Jesus)
Always is and always was
No I never walk alone (Never walk alone)
You are always there

In the waiting, in the searching
In the healing and the hurting
Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces
Every minute (Every minute), every moment (Every moment)
Where I've been and where I'm going
Even when I didn't know it or couldn't see it
There was Jesus

There was Jesus
There was Jesus
There was Jesus

           --Zach Williams & Dolly Parton "There Was Jesus"

This song was one of the last things my dear friend Chandra posted on her Facebook page before she passed away unexpectedly. Even if she didn't know her life was soon to end, she knew Who she trusted, and Who loved her and had been there through it all. At the end of everything, there is

Jesus.