We seek an earth restored

I arrived an hour early to my church. Katie Breslin, the young adult program manager at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, was with me. We paused to take a quick selfie in front of the sign for the event, “Congress Comes to You!”

We then hurried upstairs where fellow members of the Loft, a community within the Westwood United Methodist Church, were already helping set up tables and chairs, food and drink, and sound equipment.

The space already looked great. New Advent decorations had recently gone up. We quickly finished setting up. Within minutes more than 60 people from area churches, including the Santa Monica Friends Meeting, as well as friends and neighbors would arrive for the meeting with staff members from the offices of Reps. Ted Lieu and Karen Bass, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

This event was part of my work in the Advocacy Corps, a yearlong program where 20 young people across the United States organize our communities and lobby Congress on critical social issues of our day. This year, our focus is on getting Congress to act on the urgent issue of climate change.

When the idea for this event came up, my church community was enthusiastic about it, and they jumped into action. We, as communities of faith, wanted to share our concerns with our elected officials, and lobby them to take action on the issue of climate change.

For both Quakers and United Methodists, caring for our environment is a practice of our faith in action. Scripture suggests that the earth is not ours to use, but is part of creation that we have the responsibility for maintaining, caring for and sustaining. As FCNL puts it, “we seek an earth restored.”

For United Methodists, the Social Principles acknowledge that the environment is not only to be cared for and sustained for future generations, but also that it has intrinsic value bestowed upon it by its creator, and that we ought to respect that sacred quality.

As we gathered together, our witness provided a unique lens on the issue. And even though our elected officials in Los Angeles are very supportive of taking action on climate change, we suggested that, given the senseless polarization around the issue, their power might also be well used to foster dialogue and support for taking action with their congressional colleagues who may currently be resistant to the idea. As a faith community, we see the value not only in the Creator’s earth for its own sake, but also the value in each other, even those with whom we disagree.

One way to live this out is for members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to join the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the House of Representatives. Faith-based organizations, like Church and Society and FCNL, have supported this caucus. There are currently 62 members, half Republicans and half Democrats. The numbers are even because the caucus adopted a “Noah’s Ark” model; members must join two-by-two. This is a particularly apt model, as we hope this group of elected officials will slow the worst effects of climate change, such as the punishing floods that have been occurring throughout the Southeastern US and Puerto Rico during hurricane season.

The event began with a shared dinner. Breslin spoke about the importance of grassroots lobbying, and I shared with the congressional staffers a list of priorities our large group had collectively created. We specifically asked Lieu and Bass to join the Climate Solutions Caucus and to get their colleagues to join as well.

The staffers responded, and our conversation went late into the evening, as we built relationships and, hopefully, contributed a step down our society’s collective journey toward an earth restored.