“By public announcements on climate change, the CRC can call human kind back to a stewardly and humble way of living before God’s face. By using fewer nonrenewable resources and living more simply we may help developing countries rather than hindering them.”

Without uniform agreement that the globe is warming or that people are causing it, the Christian Reformed Church’s governing body this week asserted that “human-induced climate change is an ethical, social justice, and religious issue.” Synod 2012 also stated that the church should “take private and public actions to address climate change.”

The statements were made in response to a lengthy report [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] from the Grand Rapids-based church’s Creation Stewardship Task Force, and they have stirred divided feedback on the church’s Web site.

Among the other statements adopted during the annual Synod that wrapped up Thursday in Canada:

• “It is the current near-consensus of the international scientific community that climate change is occurring and is very likely due to human activity.”
• “Such climate change poses a significant threat to future generations, the poor, and the vulnerable.”
• “We are called to commit ourselves to honor all God’s creatures and to protect them from abuse and extinction, for our world belongs to God.”

Church staff report that none of the Synod delegates who spoke on the topic “opposed caring for creation, but there were insistent voices that said speaking out should focus on matters related to Christ. They questioned whether the CRC should spend time and energy seeking to provide remedies for slowing, climate change.”

Likewise, a blog on the Web site shows divergent opinion on global warming. August Guillaume wrote “I have been taught that we humans are stewards of creation. Human kind has now discovered that as humans we have made some errors in judgment, which if nothing is done, may do us and our neighbors harm.

If we do nothing, costs of nonrenewable resources may sky-rocket for everyone. If we in the west can develop more innovative products, which could help everyone, our poorer neighbors can enjoy a better standard of living.”

But Morgan C wrote that a focus on climate change “is indicative of our denomination’s shift towards social and political action and away from the proclamation of the Gospel as the true source of hope.

“Shouldn’t we focus our energy and attention as a denomination on the proclamation of the Gospel, growth of believers, and acts of mercy? This may be an important issue for Christians, but it does not follow that it is good for our denomination to make a proclamation on it.”

Synod also approved several calls to action on climate change, including one that states “we should examine energy choices in our homes, lives, businesses, farms, and institutions from a perspective of stewardship, challenging ourselves to use less energy and to use it more wisely.”

Tied into the discussion on climate change is the idea that global warming disproportionately impacts people who live in poor countries. A related Synod discussion focused on the Belhar Confession, a statement emphasizing human unity, justice, and reconciliation that three years ago was embraced by the Reformed Church in America. The CRC Synod stopped short of adopting the Belhar as an official confession, approving it instead as an “ecumenical faith declaration.”

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