As the U.S. presidential election moves into its final weeks, United Methodists are focusing attention on a global issue that’s getting little in the way of candidate and media attention: Earth’s rapidly warming environment and its effect on people. Two United Methodist-related bodies held webinars Sept. 17 and 18, presaging events during the convergence of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week in New York City. United Methodist Creation Justice Movement held a 90-minute “cafe” Sept. 17 with the theme “Politics, Methodists and Environmental Holiness.” The next day, United Women in Faith’s Just Energy 4 All unit partnered with the newly renamed ministry Immigration Law and Justice for a Spanish-English webinar, “Climate Change, Displacement and Conflict: Migrants Speak.” Co-sponsoring the UWF/ILJ webinar were the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the General Board of Church and Society, the UMC’s National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministries, Sojourners SoJo Action, and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition. Both webinars touched on common elements: Climate change intersects with and influences many other public issues, including racism, economics and immigration. The new Social Principles, a United Methodist set of guidelines for Christian living, clearly state that believers have responsibility to care for the earth as stewards of God’s creation. United Methodists “gotta get in the game” of politics, as Movement Cafe moderator Richenda Fairhurst phrased it, to build local and state collaborations to influence public policies. “We’re citizens of two different realms — first of the kingdom of God, which then shapes us in the political realm grounded in life and teachings of Jesus,” said Keith Sexton, a coordinator of advocacy for the creation care team of the UMC’s North Carolina Annual (regional) Conference. Darryl W. Stephens Ethicist Darryl W. Stephens, director of Methodist studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, noted the new Social Principles […]