Jitterbugging for Jesus

(More on the story here–with a video of a concerned homeowner near the Cahaba River.)

The leak of hundreds of thousands of gallons of refined gasoline in Shelby County is expected to drive up fuel prices across the Southeast and cause fuel shortages.

About 500 first responders trying to deal with this environmental disaster are putting their health and safety at risk in the cleanup.

Somewhere in North Dakota a lot of Native Americans are following the news out of Alabama and going, “Hmmmm. Isn’t that interesting?”

God created the heavens and earth and declared that it was good–good enough to provide for all the needs of humankind.

Yet the trashing of God’s green earth is so normal that it hardly makes news or alarms anybody into pursuing alternatives to fossil fuel with any sense of urgency.

God’s creation is being “crucified” and the Earth calls out for emergency care–emergency energy alternatives, that is. Yet it’s easier to sloganize with “drill baby drill!” sound bites–and hope it doesn’t happen in your back yard.

I don’t pretend to know all the answers to all these environmental disasters of our making.

I just know the daily disasters around the big, wide world aren’t the making of God. (Oh look–another one in Florida!)

Air and water pollution and climate change are political and social issues, but I see them primarily as spiritual issues.

When we mess with Mother Earth, we’re messing with God.

It seems to me that Christians and churches and people of faith traditions, of all people, should be verily demanding we do something. (That said, God bless Pope Francis for his leadership in keeping “mercy for the environment” movement in the news worldwide.)

It behooves us and our children and their children’s children to start showing God’s creation some serious mercy.