VOTE FAITHFULLY FOR CREATION CARE
– Rev. Kevin McGrane Sr., Missioner for Creation Care
Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, has suggested to us that we ask ourselves a question when it comes time to vote: “Does this look like love of neighbor?”
It is excellent advice. Allow me to suggest that one of the most important neighbors we have is our planet. The planet that God created is everyone’s neighborhood, so to say. Creation is where we live, move, and have our being. It is our neighborhood and our neighbor.
There is no other neighbor like our planet. So we can legitimately ask ourselves during the upcoming election, “Does my vote look like love of ‘neighbor’, God’s creation?”
We are just now beginning to assess the damage of one of the largest storms to strike the continental United States: Helene. At this writing, 126 are known dead, hundreds more missing, and tens of thousands of people homeless and dispossessed of all their worldly goods. Many sections of Appalachia have not been reached yet by rescuers, the sections being so remote and all roads washed out that they cannot get to them. Everyone in this field says that the storm is due to climate change, driven by fossil fuel use and carbon emissions.
As nice as recycling our plastic water bottle makes us feel, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the carbon emission and plastic production polluting our planet. We need big solutions and we need them now. Those solutions can only come from the government demanding industries change their ways and replace fossil fuels and plastics with other products. The current products are killing us, and only the government is powerful enough to make those changes happen. Who and what we vote for is paramount to solving the climate crisis. A good resource on this issue is www.sierraclub.org/missouri
When you look at your election form this fall, remember to ask yourself, “What looks like love of neighbor in my voting?” Thank you, and God bless.