Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Losing the creation around us

Losing the creation around us

Aug 19, 2006 - 02:10:58 CDT

By VERLE REINICKE
Bismarck

Like it or not, believe it or not, we are losing something very precious and necessary for life: our environment, the creation around us.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, in her “On Death and Dying” (1969), taught us that we grieve when we lose something, anything, not just the death of a person — anything. Working with people who were dying or dealing with life-altering diseases, she developed five stages: denial and dying, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. These stages do not happen one after the other.

Rather, one goes back and forth among them in no particular order, in a complex process.

Global warming is about grief because we are losing something: the creation that surrounds us.

Genesis 1-3 tells us that God creates a creation as well as creatures. All of creation has the ability to interrelate and interact because at the deepest level God is about relationship, and the creation reflects that. Everything is deeply interrelated.

We and the creation impact one another. Our human activity is bound to affect the world around us. Treating the creation as a “thing,” something with no inherent value other than to serve us (which, from a biblical stance, is not true), we simply do not get it.

So, can humans have an effect on what happens to the creation? Of course.

Right now, our rape of the land and air and what lies beneath says we do not know how to live in harmony with the whole of creation. The earth is coughing and belching in apoplexy because it cannot breathe (Romans 8:22).

We have befouled things by putting carbon dioxide and other things into the atmosphere at a record rate.

We are called to be co-creators with God to serve the creation in love as God did in creating it. Our problem is that we are sinners who don’t have God’s perspective, and we make mistakes, like global warming. That is our sinfulness.

Those who claim there is no global warming are ignoring recent sound scientific findings and are in denial. We are losing something. We deny that at our own peril, and at the peril of our children and grandchildren and generations beyond the world over. Is that the legacy we want to pass on?

Others are bargaining: If we can just have a few more coal-fired power plants or a few more gas-guzzlers or two more oil fields, then we will think about alternatives. That won’t work either, though.

I’m at the anger stage. We can do something about it, and those in denial or bargaining are of no help. For me, it’s like the news anchor in the movie “Network,” who yells from his window, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more.” There is global warming; I’m convinced of it. There will be those who will deny or bargain. But can we afford to be wrong?

News > Opinion

Printer friendly version Losing the creation around us

Comments

Blaine wrote on Aug 21, 2006 2:09 PM:

" Puuuuleeeese! Here we go again! Touting the "findings" of a bunch of crackpot "scientists" refering to global warming and now trying to equate it to a moral issue....wow...that is a stretch to say the least! You people should quite writing comments and go skip through the tall green grass with Al Gore on one of his spraling estates! I can hardly believe that I wasted my time reading this article...much less responding to it...carry on my socialist friends! At least it was good for a laugh! "

Amen wrote on Aug 19, 2006 10:05 PM:

" In a democracy, people openly disagree with each other on many issues - including the envirnoment and morality of the environment. This is politics. We are going to disagree about the environment (and lots more) and we will work that out thru the politics of our democracy. Let's get on with it. "

Gas Gussler wrote on Aug 19, 2006 3:39 PM:

" Both Dakotan and Verle have it right. The environment is not a political issue, it is a MORAL issue. Democracy has nothing to do with it. Democracy does not keep everyone in a state of fear and guilt. People who live in a democracy want to think for themselves and practice common sense, deciency and morality. "

More connection wrote on Aug 19, 2006 2:55 PM:

" Look at the posts on the smoking issue. Talk about people with no respect for others. Smokers actually think they have a god-given right to foul everyone else's air. "

Amen wrote on Aug 19, 2006 2:52 PM:

" We live in a democracy. Of course the environment is a political issue. We better have candidates with different views on what to do. Why else would we even care whether we live in a democracy or not? Seems pretty obvious. "

Gas Gussler wrote on Aug 19, 2006 1:45 PM:

" Mandanite and Amen infer that the environment is a political issue? When did that happen? "

Connection wrote on Aug 19, 2006 1:20 PM:

" Read Friday's letter by Dr. Seth. Is your anger caused by the noise pollution in our city? Environmentalists all and they have no time for mutual consideration and respect for others. "

dante.. wrote on Aug 19, 2006 12:55 PM:

" dakotan... excellent reference to doctor hannu. i thought he was gonna have a weekly anti-global warming column on this site, or so it seemed. "

Dakotan wrote on Aug 19, 2006 12:14 PM:

" OK Verle - Keep the ole finger on the panic button. Read Don Hannu's letter. He makes more sense than you do. I will give you one thing and that there may be some global warming due to mankind but there is no inconclusive evidence that we humans are the cause of all of it. We may be only tiny contributors. This earth has seen many climate changes in the past million years and man has maybe been responsible for that little tiny bit of it in the past one hundred years. Get real. Put down your bible and live in the real world. Instead of whining, you should be walking and not driving, you should be out in the front helping others to reduce their consumption of energy. Are you? Just another one of those phony people who can preach to us but is so so so hypocritical. JUDGE YE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED. Amen "

Gas Gussler wrote on Aug 19, 2006 11:22 AM:

" Where is the solution? Do you drive a gas burning vehicle? Are you ready to resort to getting around without those four wheels? What is the alternative? As with all recriminations, there is no practical solution offered. Further, human beings are far from as powerful as would be possible to change the earth that our powerful God created. "

Larry wrote on Aug 19, 2006 11:10 AM:

" Pastor Verle Reinicke has, from a Christian perspective, put it all together. Global Warming is indeed a moral issue that we must all work to solve. As he has said, "…can we afford to be wrong?" "

Amen wrote on Aug 19, 2006 9:23 AM:

" Very well said. I can just hear the Republicans - the kind in power today - whine that caring about creation will hurt corporate profits. "

Mandanite wrote on Aug 19, 2006 7:28 AM:

" Right on, except try telling the Republicans this "

Post Your Own Comment

All online comments are limited to 350 words total.
Comments are reviewed for taste, tone and language before posting.
Some comments may be used in the Tribune's print edition.
We value and respect your privacy, but The Bismarck Tribune might
disclose certain information to governmental entities if served with subpoena.