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Carl Safina, Friend of Sinners
Carl Safina, the preeminent ocean conservationist alive today, and author of Song for the Blue Ocean will be speaking at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor this coming Sunday. Why? Because he is the friend of sinners. I met Carl in November of 2006 at a retreat bringing together top enviornmental scientists and a group of evangelical leaders. It was an historic meeting inasmuch these two groups hadn’t done a lot of retreating together in the past. We were asked by the organizers (Harvard and the National Association of Evangelicals) not to tell people where we were going, with whom, or why, because they didn’t want to draw media attention. I think that was overkill, but it reveals the sense of nervousness surrounding the meeting.
Carl was one of the first scientists I met and he was a little intimidating. He is a New Yorker who has that no nonsense air about him and looks over his glasses at you, probably because he need bi-focals. Or maybe it was just me. The scientists all knew each other and I only knew a few of the evangelicals in attendance, being above my pay grade.
we came with our own ignorance
At the retreat we discovered our mutual ignorance. I didn’t know diddlysquat about the global environmental crisis. I didn’t know that more than a billion people were without clean drinking water. I’d heard about climate change, but knew little about it, except that mnay of my friends thought it was hoax. And I didn’t realize that major portions of the developing world were in eco-system collapse, meaning the farmers couldn’t grow crops because the soil was in such bad shape. I didn’t realize that the extinction rate was at an all time high–equivalent to the rate of extinction that took place when the dinasours left the scene, probably after the earth was struck by a massive meteor and the world was shrouded in dust clouds for years.
Carl didn’t know diddlysquat about religion. When I brought up Rick Warren’s name, he said, “Who is that?” “Well, Rick Warren is an evangelical mega-church pastor who has sold more non-fiction books in the United States than anyone else. It’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for 36 months or so. But there’s not reason that you would have heard from him.” I think I looked over my glasses at him when I said that.
carl has something we need more of
But Carl has something rare in human beings: passion mingled with humility. He is passionate about the earth and our responsibility to care for the earth. He knows the oceans like few people do, and he knows what we are doing to them and it fills his heart with pain. That was and is, and ever will be, his passion. But he also has humility: Humility to learn from people that he didn’t start out respecting. Like me, an evangelical pastor. I’ve learned more from Carl than he’s learned from me, but he’s been willing to learn from me–and that doesn’t happen without humility.
What I felt on that retreat–from the Holy Spirit or I don’t know who the Holy Spirit is–was conviction of sin. I felt myself to be a sinner. Why? Because my heart was hard toward the way we human beings are trashing the planet. It was a hardness of heart born of ignorance, what Paul calls, “darkened understanding.” Carl’s heart was soft where mine was hard and sometimes you don’t know the hardness of your own heart until you spend time around someone who’s heart is soft. Soft is the wrong word; feeling, sensible, a heart of flesh–that’s a better way to put it.
Carl is also an atheist. He can’t understand how there could be a loving God in view of how much suffering there is in the world. He prefers to call himself “secular” because that’s a more positive description. By “secular” he means that he cares about the world we live in now.
(For the record: If I were an atheist it would be for the same reason. I don’t understand suffering–that’s for sure, but I can’t help believing that God has chosen to meet us in our suffering, as strange a thing as that it is, stranger even than it sounds.)
Someone asked me a very good question recently: “Why are you having someone who doesn’t believe in God speak at church?” That’s a fair question. And my answer may not have been adequate but here it is: I invited Carl to speak because I think we can learn something from him. More than that, I think we can feel something from him. We can feel love for God’s good earth and we can feel humility. I think we need more of both. Better put: I think Jesus wants to give us more of both and he’s planning to use Carl to do that.
Can God use someone who doesn’t believe that he exists? Read your Bibles and tell me. I’ve read mine and believe that he can and he does. Plus I’ve seen that he can and he does. So that’s enough for me.
All truth is God’s truth. No one has the corner on the truth except Jesus, who is the truth in my book. I don’t have the corner on the truth. You don’t have the corner on the truth. Nobody does, except Jesus. And that, more than anything, should humble us.
Carl Safina and I met and befriended each other in a space called humility. I experienced his friendship as the friendship of one willing to befriend a sinner, someone who was (and is) missing mark on something he cares deeply about.
When Carl comes to church, I hope we can return the favor. I hope he finds in us a whiff of the One we claim as our master–Jesus, the friend of sinners. Jesus who befriends people in the midst of their missing the mark. Jesus who doesn’t wait for them to get it before giving it–friendship that is.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
“Why are you having someone who doesn’t believe in God speak at church?”
I wondered the same question when you said an atheist would be speaking to us at church.
Now I am looking forward to it.
Thanks for the explanation
March 17th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Ken,
Just what is atheism, anyway? Perhaps Sam Harris, atheist and author, could explain:
“Science does entail that one be skeptical of unsupported and unsupportable claims about miracles and about the divine origin of certain books. This is all that atheism is, the failure to be convinced by other people’s claims about miracles and it is the conviction that they too should not be convinced.
“Both religion and science are ways of forming beliefs; they are systems of belief and their justification, or lack thereof. They are systems that require very different standards of evidence and levels of self-criticism…
“Whatever the subject under discussion, there are good reasons for believing things and there are bad reasons. The problem is that religion has made bad reasoning into an art form.”
March 18th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Ken, I’ve drifted away from the Genesis class due to completely underestimating my time this term (sorry!), but this English major knows pitifully little about science or evolution. Our AP Bio teacher @ Ren was a Promise Keeper and a VERY conservative believer (awesome dude!!!), but we completely skipped the first chapter on evolution and began with chapter two (genetics?). The only other time I’ve had biology was in college, a class for non-majors with a joke of an instructor and I don’t remember a thing. So although I usually have an opinion on every subject under the sun, whenever the talk turns to science, I shut up and open my ears.
I’m praying for this Sunday, and am eagerly looking forward to Dr. Safina’s talk!
March 18th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I can see how the thought of someone who does not believe in God speaking in church can be an eye opener. It could be that for many evangelicals, their experience of atheists is of a rather arrogant person belittling their beliefs, like Bill Maher and company. But from how you describe him, Mr. Safina seems not to be that type of person.
I have been doing some research on Mr. Safina and I am pretty impressed with his passion for ocean issues and was surprised to find he actually has a 1st love for what he calls ‘living jewels’ or birds. Love that poetic language!
March 19th, 2009 at 6:37 am
cool. i’ll be interested to catch the your podcast with carl safina. speaking of the global environmental crisis, did you catch james balog on “fresh air” yesterday? he lead the extreme ice survey and has documented the effects of climate change with 26 time-lapse cameras, which he programmed to shoot a frame every daylight hour for three years. Balog’s work will be featured in the Mar. 24 NOVA and National Geographic special Extreme Ice.
anyway, check it out:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102041024
March 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
As our oceans are dying, the souls of humanity are perishing. What does it profit anyone, if they save the earth and lose their soul? The physical reflects the spiritual, and the earth cries out for salvation. Jesus loves people first, and in the process he will restore the earth and the wonder of the oceans. Sometimes it is hard to see beyond the pollution in my life, the murky waters of the heart, and focus on the sins of polluting the ocean and the earth. When I saw Jesus covering my sins, I was set free and I turned to him. If we are sinners because of our lack of passion for environmental issues, global warming, recycling, etc, then I guess you can add these to the list in my life that Jesus died to save me from.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Ken, I look forward to Dr. Safina’s talk on Sunday. I feel very passionate about the protection of creation-the natural world. The same creation that John Muir described as a natural cathedral. If only people could see the world as a cathedral we might spend more time worshiping God. I don’t see worship as a Sunday Morning act. Worship is the way we live and the world is our cathedral. I hate the retoric that we “greenies” or “environmental wackos” “worship creation” or the bumper sticker that says “Worship God Not Creation”.
I don’t worship creation, but creation ispires me to worship. So much so that with out it I feel disconnected from the Lord. So my message to the bumpersticker folks is that your lack or respect for creation offends God, and offends me.
Worship God Not Your Hummer-Your Status!
Hmmmmm maybe I should renew my Sierra Club membership! I must be a wacko!
March 19th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Mark, Another great contribution on the quote side. Of course, religion is filled with unreason, as Harris points out. However, I think what’s needed to understand religion is practice. It’s something that requires full bore personal engagement, something I’m not sure Sam Harris has been able to give it. The sort of belief that religion does has to be understood from the inside of belief, in much the same way that love must be understood. So while his perspective has merit, I think he may be essentially uniformed for this reason. Don’t know that for sure as I don’t know his background. Have only read a book or two of his.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Gem, I think this is a gem of quote: “The physical reflects the spiritual, and the earth cries out for salvation.”
It makes me appreciate those like Carl Safina who have been made alive in their concern for creation. It’s like they have heard the deep cries of creation which desires salvation…And they are doing something about it. I shudder at the thought that sinners like myself may have dropped the ball at blessing their work as they serve our creator with their hearts, minds and souls and hands whether they acknowledge God or not. I pray that God uses Carl on Sunday to open our hearts and minds to the call of pursuing peace, justice and salvation for all of creation. God’s Gospel is targeted at saving the whole shebang…I think.
Be blessed Carl, be blessed.
Romans 8:19-23
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Gem
I think we can do both. Though I don’t have a passion for environmental causes (I like cars too much, especially those with HUGE engines), I think that as we become more Christ like as we grow, there should be evidence of such in all areas of life.
So as we grow in Christ, other facets of life also grow like love for the poor (who get most affected by dirty environment), love for creation (greater appreciation for God’s handiwork), love for the young (who will inherit whatever we leave them), love for our brother and ourselves (who will be pretty annoyed when we are hungry because the ocean is a huge source of food),etc.
Like St. James said, faith without works is dead.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Ken, thanks for your reply.
Meanwhile, since you have written in the past about the prevention of HIV/AIDS in Africa through the use of condoms, I’d like to ask your opinion about the following news from just 2 days ago:
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YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that condoms were not the answer in the continent’s fight against HIV, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients…
Benedict had never directly addressed condom use, though his position is not new. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often said that sexual abstinence — not condoms — was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease…
“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
The pope said that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.
About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as well as two-thirds of all people living with HIV.
Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing new HIV infections, he will focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.
“Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans,” said Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign…
Even some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church’s opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa…
The late Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms may help spread AIDS through a false sense of security, claiming they weren’t effective in blocking transmission of the virus. The cardinal, who died last year, headed the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-17-pope_N.htm
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Once again, I must agree with Sam Harris that “Whatever the subject under discussion, there are good reasons for believing things and there are bad reasons. The problem is that religion has made bad reasoning into an art form.”
BEWARE OF DOGMA !!!
March 20th, 2009 at 9:47 am
“Jesus who doesn’t wait for them to get it before giving it:”
That’s one of my favorite things about him.
March 22nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I heard it was a fabulous sermon. Sorry I missed it – looking forward to listening online. I picked up a National Geographic in an airport when I was traveling last year. I remember reading an article on albatrosses and thinking, “This is beautifully written. Whoever wrote this is completely in love with God’s creation.” I flipped to check out the author and it was Mr. Safina. I thought, “Ah, I see why Ken enjoys this man’s friendship.”
On a different note – you mention you didn’t initially realize that 1 billion+ of the world’s population is without clean drinking water, and soil erosion and bad farming have led to an inability to grow crops in large swaths of the world. There are segments of the church – namely in missions circles – who are tackling these issues from the grassroots level … digging wells, creating simple water purifying techniques for locals to run, etc. I’ve met quite a few in various parts of the world. Definitely more can be done if we get the word out and channel our resources. Just noting that parts of the evangelical world have been working in these arenas.
You mention Carl Safina’s humility, but thanks also goes to you for having the humility to know we can learn from the science community as well.
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Today I went to hear Carl Safina. Ken talked in this posting about a soft heart. Dr. Safina’s presentation softened my heart toward creation. I did a full-blown report on the event, as well as more of my reaction to it, in my latest blog entry at http://jlee.harshbarger.name/blog
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
There was so much to be proud of at Vineyard yesterday:
• Having Dr. Carl Safina in our church (and you and Nancy having him in your home) as a warmly welcomed guest;
• His very moving and spiritual presentation on caring for God’s creations;
• His receiving a standing ovation from the crowd;
• His pretty fine talent for playing the drums. (Was that God just dotting the i and crossing the t?).
• And though it has nothing to do with Dr. Safina’s visit (actually it might since we learned that everything is dependent upon everything else), I understand that our church received a donation of an almost-new motorized wheel chair just as one of our members heard that she will not be able to walk on her crutches for awhile.
There was more church at Vineyard yesterday than most churches have in a life time. Maybe church isn’t the right word, maybe it should be more of “God’s kingdom” but its the kind of church I want to be a part of.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Ken, thank you so much for bringing Carl Safina to speak to our church. I learned so much and was so impressed by him and his approach to dealing with the issue of the environment–use it, not use it up. He presented both the factual(what has already happened) and ethical issues in a personal,non-hyped (and entertaining)way that really crystallized the issues involved. Not only that, God used it within my own household to soften hearts and open dialogue between politically conservative offspring and more liberal-leaning offspring.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Hey Emily S….I’m assuming the one in C.–Keep inspiring us with your stories. You share the world with us, and it keeps getting smaller.
I loved Carl’s poke at the Christians about how we didn’t have to share his passion for terns and tuna, but we as Christians better be passionate about the people negatively impacted on the over-exploitation of our resources. Well done!
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Mark, The pope, in this case, is wrong. It’s the danger of being certain of too many things. Can blind us to the data.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Ken, are you certain the Pope is wrong?
April 5th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Carl Safina wrote about his visit to Ann Arbor in his blog “Allies in Ann Arbor”:
http://carlsafina.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/488/
Ken, thank you for inviting him!