The Jubilee and the Global Economy: Lessons from Leviticus

Undoubtedly, the present economic order is marred by social and economic injustice among and within nations and by the overexploitation and destruction of natural resources. Scripture is not concerned with designing an economic system, but rather with prescribing how to implement justice and compassion within any given system.

UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Climate Assessment Nov.2, 2014

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Climate change is happening, it’s almost entirely man’s fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the U.N.’s panel on climate science said Sunday. The fourth and final volume of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s giant climate assessment didn’t offer any surprises, nor was it expected to since it combined the findings of three earlier reports released in the past 13 months. [Rabbi Lerner on the tone of this A.P. article: it once again lulls one to sleep, with words like “didn’t offer any surprises” when it could have said, “is yet another attempt to wake the world’s peoples to rebel against governmental and corporate leaderships that have set this planet on a path toward environmental destruction of the life support system of Earth.” But of course, the media hide behind their pretext of “value free reporting,” though their values are constantly seeping through in their choice of what to feature and who to quote.]

But it underlined the scope of the climate challenge in stark terms. Emissions, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, may need to drop to zero by the end of this century for the world to have a decent chance of keeping the temperature rise below a level that many consider dangerous. Failure to do so, which could require deployment of technologies that suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, could lock the world on a trajectory with “irreversible” impacts on people and the environment, the report said.

Don’t Let “recreational marijuana” be brought to you by Monsanto Corporation

Tired of fake organic food and phony eco-forestry lumber? Get ready for recreational marijuana –
brought to you by Monsanto Corporation!  
By Paul Cienfuegos, published October 20, 2014
 

I am really worried that the social movement to legalize recreational marijuana is going to end up being taken over by giant agricultural corporations, like monsanto, if the folks who are leading these legalization efforts don’t start paying a lot more attention – and soon – to the problem of constitutional so-called “rights” for corporations. In fact I think it’s inevitable. At this point, there is nothing to stop corporations like monsanto from growing and selling genetically modified marijuana, because the folks who are writing our marijuana legalization laws are not paying attention to the very real difference between actual human persons and corporate persons, and who gets to play.

The Big Picture – a Movie I’d Love to Make

I’d start The Big Picture with a frame showing the earth: from every spot on it zillions of people reach their hands toward what they imagine heaven to be and shout to the God they believe in: “Please God, please universe, give us a world in which love, kindness, generosity, caring for each other, and caring for the earth have replaced violence, wars, economic and social injustice, and environmental destructiveness.”

After that prayer, someone says, “What has God done for me lately? To hell with God. Why should I believe in a God that doesn’t deliver for me?” And suddenly the zillions of people fall silent, withdrawing into their own private isolation, despairing that their prayers and actions could ever make a difference. The film thus opens into the planet-destroying phase of human history in which people actually know that they are collectively destroying the life-support system of the earth but feel there’s no point in doing anything but maximizing their own advantage because they cannot believe that others will ever act from anything more than selfish motives. How did we get here?

Please Come to the Citizens’ Climate March Sept 21 in NYC

Dear friends,
The People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21, in New York City will be the largest demonstration yet for climate sanity. We hope you can join us there that day. Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) have been working in coalition with hundreds of other groups to make this important event an impactful assembly of those who do not want to stand by passively while our global environment is being destroyed. We at the NSP believe that there are three things that can be done right now to begin the process of preventing global environmental disaster:

1. Plan local and national demonstrations to call attention to the urgency of the problem

2.

Environmentalist Bill McKibben’s Note to Tikkun and the NSP

The fossil fuel companies aren’t normal companies. In the last few years we’ve come to understand that they have five times as much carbon in their reserves as we can safely burn if the world is to meet its agreed climate target of limiting rises in temperature to below 2 degrees. That is to say, if they carry out their business plan, the planet tanks. What this means in turn is that if you hold these stocks you in effect are wagering that the planet will do nothing to limit climate change.

Trusting the Water Again: Understanding the West Virginia Chemical Spill

On the morning of January 9, 2014, Charleston residents noticed that the air smelled like licorice and that the water tasted like it too. Inspectors soon traced the odor and taste to a chemical storage facility owned by a company called Freedom Industries. There, near the bank of the Elk River, inspectors discovered that a 48,000-gallon tank was leaking an industrial chemical called MCHM (methylcyclohexane methanol) used to cleanse coal.

Earth-Honoring Faith

As we enter an age of ecological catastrophe, we need new theologies. Political campaigns are not enough—we need to rethink our place in the world.