The climate emergency is here. Denying it, at this point, loses credibility with the neighborhoods we serve and causes us personal harm as we dig ourselves in deeper into ignoring the problems. How we respond as a church is entirely up to us.

Berry’s invitation to stay put seems so beautiful and tantalizing and healing: “put your faith in the two inches of humus.” Staying put has surprised me, healed me, and loved me into a new existence. I expect this movement will continue and I will, thankfully, have the words and wisdom and witness of Wendell Berry along with me on the journey. 

Each week in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.

We are angry and we are afraid. We do not want to be sad. We want to avoid moments of silence for 9/11 and for mass shootings. Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to ask that we demilitarize our cities and cut our investment in instruments of death?

Known for his gifts with poetry and prose, Berry, who died on August 31, lived a quiet life of consistent resistance to the mechanization of human dignity, the wanton destruction of creation, and the myths of progress that threaten ecological destruction.