New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light participated in the People of Faith Prayer at the opening day of the New Mexico Legislative Session January 15. It was a wonderful even in the Rotunda coordinated by Interfaith Worker Justice with many participating organizations. Here are the words I presented in the name of NMIPL.
What an amazing and synchronistic moment on the 84th Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. As we gather diverse faith leaders of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate gather in Washington, some being arrested.
Those gathered in DC and perhaps many of us here might agree that if Martin Luther King were alive today he would be declaring climate change as one of the greatest moral issues of our time. One of the leading NASA scientists calls it a “national emergency.” A recent UN Report concluded that in less than a year, an ice sheet larger than the U.S. melted. 2012 was the warmest year on record with record highs weather related disasters.
The memories of summer smoke filled air, record high temperatures and drought filled days cannot be left outside the doors of this Legislative Round House. Our concern for sister water and our future viability of living in New Mexico is reaching crisis proportions.
We cannot be silent in this session when it comes to protecting safeguards and regulations around our common trust of water. We cannot have an economy without an ecology. We must hold oil, gas, uranium mining and other extractive industries to high moral standards. Water is our life blood given by our Creator. We must act justly and love tenderly in our actions for what God has given us.
We cannot be silent when it comes to promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency legislation that heralds a future for our children and grandchildren and true economic opportunity. “Who would give their child a stone, if they asked for a piece of bread?”
We cannot be silent if ALEC legislation is introduced to erode the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard. The burning words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr ring loudly. “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. … Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.'”
Each of us gathered here is a holy witness called in this amazing moment. We must believe in every cell of our bodies and within every whisp of our souls that radical loving transforms injustice, radical loving heals the disease of despair and radical loving transforms the allurement of greed into a longing for healthy communities and oneness. Poets are also holy prophets. In Dreams Before Waking Adrienne Rich, who passed over this year, wrote:
What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope?-
You yourself must change it.-
what would it feel like to know
your country (or state) was changing?-
You yourself must change it.-
Though your life felt arduous
new and unmapped and strange
what would it mean to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?