Curt's Ponderings From The Bioshelter

I don't have time these days to post daily. Some of my last posts were not well written and needed rewrites. I just didn't have the time, either for the rewrites, or to keep up the kind of thinking that leads to substantive posts each day. So I am going to weekly posts. They won't be substantially different, but I will at least have the chance to clean them up some. Watch for my next full post later this week!

Yesterday, I described some of the actions that individual people or households could take to reduce CO 2 emissions. Yesterday’s list reflected the kinds of things we talked about as a part of the One People, One Earth presentation in Anchorage on November 5. Today, citizens of the USA are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving—just two more days. And across the world, Christians are preparing to kick of the season of Advent—just five more days. Advent is the season of reflection on the real need the human race and all creation had to receive a Savior, Jesus. The arrival of Jesus opens the way for real transformation of people to live for God on earth. That is, the life and work of the Savior, Jesus, restores us to God’s good grace, and opens us to life in God’s Spirit—a life of joining God in restoring the whole of creation. This has been the traditional teaching of Christian life for over 2000 years. However, joining God in the work of restoring the whole of crea...

Introduction I always say that any Christian message worth sharing needs to show itself in real life. Giving a sermon or a teaching doesn’t seem to have much value unless a connection can be made to authentic faith that shows itself in life. Whenever I am writing a sermon, or preparing a lesson plan for teaching, I am always asking myself, “so what? What difference does this make in how people really live?” Last week I took some time to give a very bri ef theology for earth care. Today, I want to talk about some specifics. Since last week’s writings were about our dire need to change our behavior, because of the overwhelming consequences of human-driven climate change, talking about concrete actions has to happen. I have already offered one concrete action, asking that you sign our petition calling for our government to follow through on regulating carbon as the law requires. You can still sign that petition at http://onepeopleoneearth.o rg . To...

Because God chose the Hebrew people, a tribal people, to be the ones through whom the Bible would come, the scriptures are filled with a strong sense of relationship. Tribal peoples are particularly aware of the importance of our relationship with God, and our relationships between people and all of God’s creatures. This awareness of the relatedness of things is quite different than the awarenesses that most naturally flow through Western culture since the Enlightenment. We westerners are more comfortable thinking about our own liberty and individuality, and the importance of thinking our own thoughts. The power and pervasiveness of “relatedness” is secondary. But to understand the message intended to come through scripture, we must remember that God specifically chose to send the scripture through the Hebrew people—a tribal people. With this in mind, there are some significant messages that we westerners may have missed. Reclaiming the Task of Dominion For i...

In the previous post I promised to post the biographical statements describing the speakers as soon as I got a copy. Here they are. We all wrote our own bios, but I see that mine, at least, had additions attached. I also googled these people and loved learning more about these amazing people. It has been. and continues to be a privilege to serve with them. Moderator: Libby Roderick is Associate Director for the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence at UAA as well as the Director of the UAA/APU Ford Foundation-sponsored Difficult Dialogues initiative. She works with faculty nationally and internationally to more effectively address controversial top ics in the classroom, including issues related to Alaska’s Native communities. She is the editor of Alaska Native Cultures and Issues: Responses to Frequently Asked Questions, which provide s responses to commonly asked questions thr ough the eyes of Alaska’s indigenous scholars, leaders and community members. She also oversees f...

In Anchorage’s One People One Earth event last week, the panelists came from three different areas of expertise: Alaska Native Elders, Scientists and Interfaith Leaders. I googled the different participants and found out what an amazing mix of people gathered for this event. We all wrote short bios to be read at the event, and I will try to get it to include here. But some of the bios seemed more modest than I would have written for them. As the event began, all of us were given a couple of minutes to introduce ourselves and to explain why we chose to be involved with this event. Although I spoke more conversationally at the event, and perhaps more eloquently, this is the gist of what I said. I am the Rev. Dr. Curtis Karns a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I currently serve as Executive Presbyter in this region, providing administration for the church from Barrow, to Anchorage, to St. Lawrence Island. I am also a person who grew up in Alaska, and ...

Because a house that mimics a living creature requires a give-and-take sort of relationship, living in a bioshelter is necessarily an ongoing lesson in relationships. We give care to the house, its plants and animals (worms, bugs and certain bacteria count as animals!), and the house gives care to us, providing heat, water, shelter and a pleasant ambiance for us to live in. Living well in relationships leads to a widening awareness of the relatedness and interdependence of all things. It is this kind of growing awareness that leads to a care for others, and this care for other has always drawn me into some sort of socially aware work. In Wrangell, AK I was very involved in addiction-and-recovery issues. In North Pole, AK I was very involved in raising awareness about the cycles of violence inherent in domestic abuse. Now I am living in a time where the whole world, including me, has to get seriously involved in earth care, and especially climate change. The evidence ...

Over the weekend I was a speaker at a truly awesome event called One People, One Earth. It brings together Alaskan leaders from the scientific, religious and Native American communities to speak about how essential it is to make a priority of Earth Care. This particular event was on climate change, calling for the government to follow through on the Supreme Court's order for the EPA to come up with clean air regulations on carbon emissions. As you know carbon in the biggest single contributor to human greenhouse gas emissions, showing up primarily in CO 2 . As you may also know, climate change has warmed Alaska twice as much so far as the Lower 48. The oceans are absorbing so much carbon that sea life is visibly suffering. [1] We are trying to get as many Alaskans as we can to sign a petition calling for the administration to follow through on this. Please go to this web site, read the petition and sign. http://onepeopleoneearth.org/ . We hope to have several thousand Ala...