Missing the Mark
Sin and Climate Change
In the world in which I work, the concept of sin is a pretty big deal. OK, maybe not as big in my exact circles, where we have so many people who have been deeply traumatized by sin wielded at them like a weapon (which is a sin, by the way). But in the halls of “Christendom,” sin features prominently.
I think that sin gets a bad rap. First from a pseudo-puritan wing of my religion which posits it as THE single problem, offers one solution (in their form and fashion, of course) and tends to then rail upon a pre-chosen list of sins while kind of ignoring the others, all while assuming a rather sanctimonious position. And, on another side, there is my wing that doesn’t take sin seriously enough, making sure not to say that word very loudly, unless we’re talking (again) about other people’s sin, or we are talking about corporate sin.
But sin is a theological concept that we all need. Not the hammer version, but the ever-present reminder of our position in the flow of things, like a cobweb that you can only see from certain angles or a fly that keeps buzzing around, not really damaging anything but just being a constant buzz.
In ancient Greek, the word translated as sin is hamartia, and it is an archery term. It means to miss the mark. It doesn’t mean a black stain on our souls, or a permanent reminder of how worthless we all are. It means that part of being human is making mistakes, extending ourselves too far, or perhaps not far enough.
I was reminded of this on my walk this morning as I was listening to the NYT podcast, The Daily. This episode featured David Gelles and Brad Plumer, both NYT reporters who had been in Belém, Brazil for the annual U.N. conference on climate change. For the first time in over 30 years, the U.S. is not represented there. And that isn’t the only place that our nation’s leadership is lacking on climate change and a sustainable energy future.
This administration doesn’t even acknowledge that climate change is a thing, much less a thing that need concern us. Therefore, we have pulled out of the Paris climate accords, downplayed at best and dismantled at worst our clean energy efforts, including wind and solar. Meanwhile, it is literally “drill, baby, drill,” in offshore locales, on public lands and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Meanwhile, the nation that is leading the way towards a different future is China. It is on track to only raise its carbon output by .4 percent next year, or perhaps even to go negative! And the tech they are using to do this, including renewable energy, electric cars (with far better performance and much lower cost than even the vaunted Tesla), and transmission lines all across their country, not to mention high speed trains that get people across that vast nation efficiently and with minimal pollution. Now, that comes with an abysmal human rights record and some really problematic poverty, but the U.S. is starting to look like that, only without the positive impact on the environment.
I put this in the context of sin because that’s what came to mind as I walked along listening to the ways that China is leading where we could have been, if we weren’t led by such short-sighted and selfish people. The oil-and-gas lobby has not only dominated our politics, they have refused – staunchly refused – to see themselves as ENERGY companies and prepare themselves for a future that is carbon neutral at least. I mean, that is a finite resource, why not prepare for its inevitable demise? Even if you were going to operate from a place of selfish motivation, why not keep your position and your power long-term, instead of just living it up while it lasts?
Yet the prevailing “mark missing” is not just a better selfishness, but an awareness that we are preparing the way not just for our children, but their great-grandchildren. We have an obligation far beyond our own wallet and, given that we can see how things have changed in our own lifetime, why would we think that we could just keep doing what we’re doing and that change won’t exponentially impact our descendants?
Right here in Tulsa, we have all kinds of non-profits for almost every conceivable issue, but scant few that are dedicated to the one issue that will impact every single one of us. Last time I checked, we ALL live on this planet, though I am suspicious sometimes of what world some people are living on when they can say with a straight face that the economy is great, or that climate change is a hoax.
Whether it is the head-scratcher of turning the horribly polluted Arkansas River into a family water park, the reality of a 10-year gap in life expectancy between Tulsans living south and living north and west, due in no small part to toxic exposures, or the existing data centers with the imminent arrival of more, Tulsa has a lot with which to contend, particularly in the areas of water and power usage.
And I think about how “missing the mark” begins with us not having the proper mark in the first place. Yes, we need power. I cannot imagine my life without it. In fact, I’m using electricity (and batteries and carbon and all that) to write this piece! Ain’t NONE of us clean in this. But we also need a healthy planet, clean air and water, and a stable climate. The consumer capitalist model doesn’t offer a place for such allowance, so we’re talking about more than an energy shift, we’re talking about an economic one, even an ideological and existential one for some people.
This is why I return to the model of sin, just not as it is typically portrayed. Like many others before me, I believe the role of sin in our lives not to make us feel worthless or hopelessly flawed, but to remind us that we all need grace to get by – we need to offer it and receive it. Sin is simply a social and corporate reality, and when we compartmentalize it to only small, personal actions, we make its impact entirely about “me” and forget the big “we” of sin that impacts the systems in which we live. Then we can ignore the collective nature of our lives together. We protect the planet and steward our resources because they aren’t “ours,” they belong to all of us and to all the future generations. The true sin is when we forget that.
On the issue of climate change and our power future, we can, and we must, do better. But, as usual, it feels like that starts with getting out of our own way. With grace for all of the ways we have missed, and continue to miss, the mark, I continue to hope – sometimes, it feels, against all hope – for a better answer.