The political response to climate change has been disappointing, but Mallory McDuff in an engaging op-ed piece in USA Today called "Eat, pray, love: A new green gospel" describes how a religious response to climate change can "inspire awe rather than disappointment".
Encouraging Words, the previous post on this blog, talked about others who are looking for hopeful ways to respond to the big environmental challenges we face. To have another piece appear so soon after is perhaps a sign that people who care for the environment -- and especially people of faith who are concerned about the environment -- are not giving in to despair but are bringing a message of hope and renewal into the conversation. This does not deny the severity of the problem, but rather keeps us from the paralysis of despair and keeps us on the path of faith and hope on which Christians are called to walk.
Mallory McDuff, a fellow Episcopalian and GreenFaith Fellow, is the author of Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God's Earth, which is due to be released soon by Oxford University Press.
