1838–1850 Great Britain’s Chartist movement, which is steeped in Methodist thought, becomes among the first broad labour movements in modern history. Prominent members William Lovett and Joseph Sturge, and much of the Methodist clergy, consider it their Christian duty to bring freedom and social justice to all, following the example of Christ. Although the movement faded after 1850, it precipitated the Reform Act of 1867, which extended the vote to the working class.

1915-1947 Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian National Congress, and the Hindu Mahasabha (a nationalist organization) use the Hindu principle of non-violence to guide their struggle for an independent India. They lead several non- violent events including the Salt March, boycotts against British goods, and the Quit India movement, resulting in the country’s 1947 liberation.

1930 Zainab Al-Ghazali founds the Muslim Women’s Association and fights for women’s liberation within an Islamic framework. Al-Ghazali believes Islam gave women a tremendous amount of rights when it came to the family, so the MWA focuses on helping poor families, mediating family disputes, and giving women access to education.

1940s Reeling from the Holocaust, Jewish NGOs band together to push for a universal system of human rights. Their determination contributes to the UN adopting the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, in Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress played an important role at the Senate hearings of 1950 that explored human rights here at home.

1957–1965 Backed by dozens of southern Baptist churches, Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference plays a central role in the civil rights movement, pressuring the U.S. government to pass the 1964 law ending school segregation and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Today Environmentalism is the latest social movement to get a boost by organized religion. Several Christian organizations, including the Evangelical Environmental Network that has reached 35,000 churches, actively encourage believers to care for God’s gifts by living a greener lifestyle.

The "Proclaimer" solar-powered talking bible. For serious.

Haiti suffers its worst natural disaster in hundreds of years. An estimated 200,000 people are dead or missing. Aid agencies from around the globe rush to stem deadly post-quake effects like malnutrition and cholera. And U.S. evangelical group Knobs for Jesus Faith Comes by Hearing® in the U.S. sends what? A wind-up, solar-powered talking bible. Actually, 600 of them. Because what Haitians really need right now is a radio that only shouts bible verses in Creole.

The forehead-slapping story from News.com.au:

Called the “Proclaimer,” the audio Bible delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”, the Faith Comes By Hearing group said.

According to their website, the Proclaimer is “self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!” […]

With tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents living outdoors because their homes have collapsed or they fear aftershocks from last week’s quake, the audio Bible can bring them “hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy”, the group said.

That is seriously F’d up. I’m sure they sent, like, cash or rice or something too, precisely to head off assholes like me saying  they should send something that’s going to actually be of some use.

Religious aid agencies are on the ground in Haiti, and many of them are doing amazing work. I donated to the Red Cross, and World Vision and other Jesus-y aid groups totally deserve our support. But a bunch of self-righteous proselytizers who see this quake as an opportunity to displace Haitian religious practices of Voodoo with crank-radios filled with The Word Of The Lord are just sleazy.

I was sitting in my meditation practice working on quieting my thoughts when it hit me—religion could stop climate change.

Well perhaps it wasn’t such a stroke of enlightenment, as it was keeping my ears open.  In this style of Buddhism led by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thích Nhất Hạnh, the practice contains the reading of five trainings which guide meaningful living.  In a revised set of these precepts developed by the community of participants, the second of the five calls for personal action to solve a global problem: “I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and reverse the process of global warming.”

So explicit. No messing around. Why can’t our political leaders be so clear in their action? But it’s not just the Buddhists—let’s turn to the far right.

Evangelicals are making a stand on climate. And although there is not consensus within the community south of the border, youth from Christian colleges who met in Seattle three years ago released their own Declaration on climate change.

Back home the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada saw the environment as one of its top issues in the last election and implored people of faith to ask their candidates questions on global environmental protection.

“We were created by God along with all the other things and living creatures, and God created humankind to be stewards of His creation,” read their election kit.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops at the same time showed the same concern about our responsibility for the planet, and took the insight a step further, stating that the political choice between saving the environment and saving jobs “is a symptom of a profound imbalance between economic activities and the place of the human being in nature.”

In 2007 I attended a conference on world religions organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community that brought representatives from major religions together to ask what religion can do.

The examples within organized religion could clearly go on and on.

So if all of this support for climate action in the religious community, and of course much from science-loving atheists and humanists, why the lack of government action?

The climate movement has thus far failed to build coalitions that work.

Make no mistake, we’re doing a lot better than we used to.  The Climate Action Network Canada now counts labour, youth and feminist organizationss and quasi-religious/social justice groups like KAIROS as members and supporters.  But just “representing” millions on Canadians won’t cut it.

UBC forestry prof George Hoberg blogged that “Efforts thus far to use science-based arguments to motivate adults and the politicians responsible to them have generally not been successful in producing strong climate policies,” and that a wake-up call from youth to their parents may be the groundswell needed to succeed.

The youth movement, in concert with their older counterparts, must be a big, dynamic tent. If results are to happen in Canada through the democratic system, the challenge will be to connect and message the climate crisis (or its necessary strategies and outcomes) as a political issue that will resonate at the ballot box in a way that is has not yet done. We need millions of everyday folks writing in for action.

How do we mobilize the meditators and the church-goers and the workers and the bankers to care?  Maybe start with this: 1) think of the best way to talk about it and connect with coalition partners and 2) go out and talk. 3) Listen to what you hear back, and repeat until it’s done right.