Stephen A. Jurovics - Hospitable Planet: Faith, Action, and Climate Change

Hospitable Planet

Faith, Action, and Climate Change

Hospitable Planet

Faith, Action, and Climate Change

STEPHEN A. JUROVICS

Foreword by Matthew Sleeth

Copyright 2016 by Stephen A. Jurovics

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Morehouse Publishing, 19 East 34th Street, New York, NY 10016

Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.

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Cover art courtesy of Thinkstock

Cover design by Laurie Klein Westhafer, Bounce Design

Typeset by Rose Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jurovics, Stephen A., 1936- author. | Sleeth, J. Matthew, 1956 writer of foreword.

Title: Hospitable planet : faith, action, and climate change / Stephen A. Jurovics ; Foreword by Matthew Sleeth.

Description: New York : Morehouse Publishing, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015041255 (print) | LCCN 2015041474 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819232533 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780819232540 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Human ecologyReligious aspectsChristianity. | Climatic changesReligious aspectsChristianity. | Environmental ethics.

Classification: LCC BT695.5 J865 2016 (print) | LCC BT695.5 (ebook) | DDC 261.8/8dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041255

To Raachel

My wife, my love

A dozen years ago, I was a physician, taking care of patients in the emergency room and living the American Dream. I had a successful career, a beautiful home, and all the things that are supposed to make you happy. It wasnt until my mid-forties when I picked up a Bible for the first time that I began to question the good life I had been pursuing. Jesus helped me see the world through a new lens, a lens focused less on me and more on serving we and Thee.

Since then, my life has taken many unexpected turns, and now I work full-time on a different kind of healthcare: healing the planet. Along the way, Ive helped churches and seminaries across the country put the theology of creation care and Sabbath living into practice. I write books on the subject and have spoken with hundreds of groups across the country about living a slower, simpler, more sustainable life. But most importantly, I try to walk the talk.

When I became a Christian, I started looking for ways to better align my beliefs with my actions. My wife and I decided we did not need to live in a large home that used so much energy, so we sold it and built a house with the same exact footprint as our old garage, getting rid of about half our possessions along the way. Over the course of a couple of years, we completely changed the way we livecutting back our fossil fuel use by more than two-thirds and our trash production by nine-tenths.

You might think that all these changes made our lives more difficu lt, but the reverse happened. Living out our theology has made our lives much better. We have fewer things to worry about, which allows us to enjoy life more.

So when I learned how Steve Jurovics was combining his engineering experience and faith background to help care for the planet, I was overjoyed. Every time he engages in a project with the biblical stewardship mandate in mind, he is helping to heal Gods creation. And by sharing what he has learned about environmentally responsible living, he is helping others care for the planet as well.

The book you have in your hands is a call to action. Part I identifies biblical teachings for earth stewardship and how these principles can motivate people of faith to care for the planet. Part II examines how we can shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and mitigate climate change. Part III explores how we can make cost-effective reductions in our energy consumption and advocate for change in our communities.

It would be easy to look at all that is being done to harm the planet and feel as if the situation is hopeless. But it is not hopeless. People of faith can and should play an important leadership role in healing our ailing planet. My prayer is that you, too, will join the growing movement of people who love the planet enough to care for it as if it were a rare and beautiful gift of a loving Creator.

M ATTHEW S LEETH , MD
Executive Director of Blessed Earth
Author of Serving God, Saving the Planet and
24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life

F or this book, written late in life, I must acknowledge the innumerable literary and conversational encounters over the years that, though most not consciously retrievable, shaped the perspective of this work. I am clearly grateful, however, to Simmy Klein (may he rest in peace), my friend and mentor during my teens, who first introduced me to the enrichment that can result from biblical study.

Carolyn Toben, Sarah Stein, and Yonat Shimron read early versions of Part I of the book, and I am grateful for their thoughtful comments that influenced later versions.

My thanks as well to Ann Regen Myhre for helping to develop the discussion questions in Part I and to the Rev. Dr. P. Joseph Ward for conversations about James Carrolls Constantines Sword and about Christian-Jewish readings of Scripture.

I deeply appreciate the thoughtful critiques of the author Peggy Payne and the various members of her writers group during the creation of this work.

To my friend Anthony Weston, I express appreciation for many thoughtful conversations over decades and for his literary and educational efforts encouraging an ethical relationship between humans and the natural world.

I am grateful to many friends who, over the years, expressed interest in, and encouragement for, this project.

I cannot overstate my gratitude to my wife, Raachel, whose love and support, wisdom, humor, and writing skills helped me bring this project to fruition.

S TEPHEN J UROVICS
Raleigh, North Carolina
September 2015

Faith, Action, and
Climate Changean Introduction

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Matt. 5:1718

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.

Luke 16:17

In the Sermon on the Mount, as it appears in the book of Matthew, Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. The book of Luke expresses a similar adherence to the Law. What in English is translated by Christians as the Law, Jesus called Torah in Hebrew and Oraita in Aramaic. Genesis through Deuteronomy, the first five books in the Christian and Hebrew Bibles, comprise the Torah.

Genesis opens with the story of creation, revealing that everything that exists was created by God, and Genesis 1:28 finds God granting the created world to humankind to master and to rule. We are granted dominion over the animals, the fish, and the birds, but the land itself is not mentioned. We would be mistaken to view this as implicitly included, for in Exodus 19:5 God states: Indeed, the whole earth is Mine.