Did you know that almost one-fifth of climate change pollution comes from the food industry and our own food choices? Find out how you can help! Download your instant, free Cool Harvest kit at this link. Cool Harvest is a food, faith, and climate program for congregations brought to you by Interfaith Power & Light. The “Enjoy a Cool Harvest” guide will help you plan and host a potluck gathering. As you will learn, the foods that are healthier for the planet are also healthier for our bodies. You will also be able to download the spring “Sow a Cool Harvest” guide for planning and creating sustainable vegetable gardens.
Walking the Talk
At the September 27 TIPL Annual Meeting, our spiritual response to climate change session was opened with a discussion on what sets apart TIPL from other kinds of climate organizations. Because TIPL is a faith-based organization, we are encouraged to look inward to examine our self, renouncing our own faults and aligning ourselves with the good. This we must do before looking out into the world to change others.
Through TIPL we can practice beneficial ways of living within our own lives; in our interactions with other TIPL members and partners; and in how TIPL interacts with the world.
To that end, we identified the following guiding values that support and inform TIPL’s words and deeds.
- We speak truth to power.
- We believe in the power of one acting together.
- We help ourselves and others learn about what is true.
- We walk the talk.
- We have a deep and abiding gratitude.
- We support those who are making a difference.
- We know when enough is enough.
- We conserve resources.
- We minimize travel.
- We limit our carbon footprint and recompense those we have harmed through carbon offsets.
- We align ourselves with the good, which provides us with a moral compass and sense of direction.
- We determine together the best way to express our understanding of the good.
- We are inclusive of all people of faith.
- We act upon our compassion for the vulnerable and powerless.
- We know we are powerful through the spirit.
- We create opportunities for ourselves and others to do good.
TIPL’s Comments on Clean Power Plan Plan Presented at EPA Hearing 7-29-14
Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light upholds the vision of our generation accepting the moral responsibilities of our actions and determining to do the right thing, something that we already know in our hearts to be true.
I am Dan Joranko, president of the Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light, a statewide network of faith groups that spiritually responds to the moral challenges of climate change. I teach at Vanderbilt Divinity School and have preached on numerous occasions at United Methodist churches.
