Drawing A Line In The Sand
Andy Flannagan
As I wandered through our estate one Monday morning, I
wondered who must have been excavating or
sandblasting. That was my glib presumption based on the
fact that every car on the street was covered in spotted
brown dust. Even the 'Boris bike' saddles were smeared
in the stuff and you couldn't wipe it off without some
effort.
advertising and the power of peer pressure, we have
allowed wants to be presented as needs, and occasional
luxuries to sneakily become regular necessities.
We are beautiful, yet broken people impacting a
beautiful, yet broken planet. Our lifestyles are right now
affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions, and putting
many more at future risk. Yes, we need political
leadership to combat climate change, but more than
anything we need a change of heart. One of our mantras
at Christians on the Left is that we need to be a people
where policy and lifestyle meet. We need a fundamental
recalibration of what is enough. Through the genius of
Growing some veg; Only eating meat at weekends;
Mostly just drinking water; Sharing tools and household
equipment between families; Sharing CDs and DVDs;
Cutting out chocolate and crisps; Sharing food with
neighbours to avoid waste; Buying local to avoid food
miles; Creating our own fun - playing more games and
telling more stories!
Sadly where we have arrived is almost inevitable. As
theologian Walter Brueggeman often describes, once we
stake out our autonomy as individuals, we leave no room
for a belief in the abundance of God, and then: "The
So when I arrived in Westminster and noticed that every
autonomous person, beset by anxiety, can only resolve to do
car was similarly covered in the stuff, I was startled.
better, to get more, to arrive at full control of the future by full
Something was not normal. Of course most of us now
control of the present. The propulsion to greed in an effort to
know the explanations that emerged over the course of
control generates ravenous acquisitiveness, so that life becomes
that day, and sitting here on Thursday morning I can still a passionate pursuit of every form of security and self-worth,
only vaguely see Big Ben from my window because of the most particularly through more money."
haze.
So we see why those with a lot believe they don't yet have
It's one of those weeks where it is worth
stop enough, while those with less are left to find ways to
ping to 'clock' the magnitude of what is
mimic them. This toxic collusion produces subprime
happening. It is incredible. Right now there
mortgage crises, payday lenders, overconsumption and
are specks of dust on my finger that
climate change. We are all "tearing down barns and
were previously in the eyes, or under
building bigger barns" (Luke 12:18) until we are all
the feet of Moroccans, Nigerians or
as Brueggeman says: "Participants in
Algerians.
autonomous, anxious acquisitiveness who end
as 'fools' engaged in self-destructiveness."
If we needed any more
confirmation of our
So rather than burying our heads
connectedness as a
in it, surely it's time to draw a
global village, we now
line in this sand. If this
have it in spades – even
week's warnings aren't
though brushes have
enough, there are the
thankfully sufficed thus far.
freakish weather conditions
that the UK and US have both
This week we also learned that the UK
been exposed to the last few
is being sued by the EU for failing to meet
months, but most importantly the
our emissions targets on air pollution, and
testimonies of brothers and sisters in
most telling of all, the new International Panel on
places like Bangladesh where homes and
Climate Change report left nowhere to hide for
lives are being lost right now because of
anyone still clinging to the ridiculous hope that this
climate change. I've met some of them. This is
'climate change' thing was an overblown trendy fad.
re
al. Could we start to redraw what 'enough' looks
like? Not just for the good of others, but for our own
The apostle Paul's travels and collections make it clear
health as human beings. And I am very much speaking to
that