We are bombarded by threats to our democratic form of government and threats directed at immigrants, racial and sexual minorities, women, civil servants, educators and scientific researchers. Good Faith Media has vigorously critiqued and opposed these threats through the efforts of staff writers and guest contributors.
However, in the midst of the struggle, we must remember that the global climate crisis is the ever-present context of our quest for justice; without a liveable world, this quest cannot prevail. Ironically, anxiety over climate change saps our will to start families, to welcome the increasing multitudes of refugees from climate disasters and chronic warfare, and to look beyond today´s pleasures and to seek justice.
Will growing anxiety in response to the climate crisis lead people to return to faith or seek a faith community for the first time? If this occurs, what does Christian faith have to offer? What does the Baptist Christian tradition, from which Good Faith Media emerged, offer in response to the climate crisis, both to seekers and to committed members of Baptist communities of faith?
Characteristics of Baptist Faith
Baptist faith and practice present opportunities and disincentives for addressing the climate crisis and climate trauma. The following characteristics are not unique to Baptists, but are central to Baptist identity.
Personal Commitment to Christ and Membership in the Body of Christ
Baptists, along with many adherents of evangelical Protestant versions of Christianity, emphasize a personal faith commitment to Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The personal experience of God’s love in Christ, transcending this present world, can ground courage in the face of trauma. But it can also yield an isolating individualism, which makes membership in the Body of Christ all the more important.
The extended metaphor in First Corinthians 12 describes Christ followers as intimately related to Christ, our head, and to one another as members of “the body of Christ.” Thus, we face the climate crisis together, and we pool our gifts to alleviate impacts on our communities through service to our neighbors. This connects naturally to the healing of creation and empowers the healing of our own trauma.
The Priority of Grace
Baptist Christians reflect the Reformation in celebrating God’s redemptive grace, which liberates us from the power of sin (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the grace of redemption presupposes the grace of creation, God’s loving gift of being to all that “was not.”
God delights in the totality of creation (Genesis 1:31; Psalm 104). To rejoice with and in God is a powerful reagent for the dissolution of self-centeredness and anxiety.
The Imago Dei: “Dominion” and Stewardship
The first creation narrative describes the creation of humanity “in the image and likeness of God” and states that we are given “dominion” over the other constituents of creation (Genesis 1:26-27). The interpretation of this dominion as power to utilize the creation, our fellow creatures and the earth’s resources for our own immediate gratification, and the resulting exploitation, produces widespread hardship and trauma.
I suggest a different rendering of dominion, modeled after Jesus. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). To understand ourselves as God’s partners in caring for the creation lends us agency and responsibility that counteract resignation.
Eschatalogy: Otherworldly or a Vision for This World?
Baptist tradition has been shaped by “escapist” eschatology introduced into American evangelicalism by nineteenth-century dispensationalism. Are we then to overcome the trauma endemic to this wounded world by being “raptured” out of it?
On the contrary, embracing a call and a task for the reshaping of this world in accordance with God’s values has been a strong theme in Baptist tradition. We only need to point to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Walter Rauschenbusch to see this.
The Centrality of the Bible: A Human-Centered or God-Centered Reading?
Baptists have often characterized ourselves as “people of the Book.” But in doing so, we ignore interpretative questions to our peril.
We may pick and choose which biblical “mandates” to implement according to values in our own sociohistorical location, and thus fail to distinguish between enduring theological principles and their culturally conditioned applications. That is, we engage in anthropocentric readings of “God’s Word,” rather than theocentric readings, which reflect God’s delight in all of creation.
The human-centered reading of scripture has given carte blanche to our selfishness and has played a significant role in the destruction of creation and our trauma in the face of it. A God-centered reading aligns us with God’s purposes, as expressed in scriptural images of the reign of God (Isaiah 11:1-9).
Being agents of God’s purposes is a powerful antidote to despair. Baptists can share our signature contributions in partnership with other Christians, members of other faith communities and people of goodwill to overcome trauma, create hope and resolve and address the global climate crisis together.
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David Wheeler is an Adjunct Professor of Theology at Palmer Seminary.
