Following Jesus in a Warming World is a plea to fundamental Christians to get on board and love God’s creation enough to fight for climate change. Both my brand of Christianity, as well as my political party, are opposite to this author’s, but I wanted to hear what he had to say.

He makes a good point that fundamental Christians are not going to listen to or be persuaded by people outside their own ranks, so he’s offering himself up to be that person from within their ranks, who feels convicted on this subject. I’m grateful he’s trying; I just wish more would listen.

Here are the quotes from the book I tabbed to share with you:

• “Thank God that the gospel and its good news for the world are so much bigger than the lines we draw around it.”
• “How can we love our neighbors well if we remain silent in the face of circumstances that threaten their livlihoods and poisen their bodies? How can we tell our brothers and sisters in Christ, ‘I believe you,’ when they describe the ways that climate is harming them and their families, and then do nothing to try to change the circumstances?How can we love our neighbors without fighting for their right to clean air and water, and a safe place where they can flourish and thrive?”
• “What if instead of looking for which privileges are unique to humans, we instead looked for what responsibilities are unique to us?”
• “The barometer for success, says Jesus, is not buts in seats, number of sermon downloads, or cash in the collection plates. It’s release for the captive, freedom for the oppressed, hope for the hopeless. In other words, if your ministry in the name of Jesus doesn’t result in actions that are good news for the poor, you’re doing it wrong.”
• “Does our evangelism lead to real, concrete good news for those enduring insecurity due to changing weather patterns?”
• “In a world wracked by the devastation of rising seas, more extreme weather, and a more unpredictable and dangerous future, this means that practical steps to address the climate crisis are, in fact, acts of evangelism.”
• “When we engage as Christians in public actions whose results are good news for the poor, for the oppressed, and for all creation, then we bear witness to a watching world to the reason for the hope we have in Christ.”
• “The truth is, the Big Story of God’s saving work in the world, and our calling to proclaim its good news to all creation, has everything to do with climate change. Our faith not only permits but requires us to clean up toxic waste sites, protect our neighbors from harmful pollution, and safe guard God’s human and nonhuman creation from the ravages of climate change. So, what might it look like for followers of Jesus to expand the scope of what it means to be pro=life in a warming world? What if the reputation of Christians in the public square included more than merely their anti-abortion fervor but also a holistic concern for all life at all its precious stages?”
• “In June 2020, the Arctic Circle recorded its first ever 100ºFahrenheit day.”
• “The majority of the world’s people who are feeling the strongest imacts of climate change are also those with the fewest resources to be able to adapt. And, since economic development and wealth accumulation in the nineteenth centuries were directly tied to how many fossil fuels your economy consumed, it also means that, historically, these populations have contributed least to the problem of climate change.”
• It just might be the task for all Christians to remain curious, and refrain in today’s hyper-polarized world to just sort people into binary categories.
• “For too long, a relatively small group of powerful Christian leaders and their political allies have been allowed to  hold hostage the moral imagination of millions of Christians.”

I agree that it is our Christian duty to remediate a problem like this that we have perpetrated, not only on the intricately amazing world of God’s creating, but on our innocent neighbors as well.