December 2020 Newsletter
The holiday season should be one of optimism but with the pandemic’s grip tightening all across the United States – and much of the rest of the world – it is difficult to feel optimistic. Too many are dying daily and too many are hungry. Yes, with vaccine approvals occurring hope may well be on the way but we will unfortunately experience a great deal of pain before we see the impact of any of the vaccines. With vaccines in mind, I want to be certain that you are aware that I am encouraging everyone who can to opt to be inoculated as soon as you are able. Vaccines will resolve our current situation only if enough of us make use of them. Please do so and encourage others to do so.
Similarly, discussing the pandemic – and our responses to it – might be a wonderful way to celebrate Evolution Weekend. Science denial has made the situation worse even as science and scientists are fighting to help us work our way past the worst of the pandemic. Similarly, the challenges we have been facing have called faith into question for many. Together religion and science – and all they both have to offer – are likely to be the most rewarding way forward. But you know that!
Please accept my most sincere wishes that you, your families, your congregants, and your communities are staying as healthy as possible. I also hope that you are caring for your psychological well-being in addition to your physical well-being. Similarly, I hope that our collective activities demonstrating that religion and science, working together, have an important role to play in defeating this pandemic eases the pain so many of us are feeling. Be vocal, be safe, and be compassionate. Thank you for all you are doing.
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following nine items:
- Free Book Offer to Help with Evolution Weekend 2021;
- Astrobiology News for December 2020: Ideas for Evolution Weekend 2021 and Beyond;
- Dr. Rick Lindroth: Why I’m Participating in a Covid Vaccine Trial;
- WesleyNexus Evolution Weekend Program;
- The Climate Crisis Letter;
- Sacred Science;
- Allies in the Struggle Against the Post-Truth Swarm;
- Midwest Religion and Science Society: Trauma and the Environment; and
- On The Origin of Evolution.
1. Free Book Offer to Help with Evolution Weekend 2021
The Rev. Jim Antal, Special Advisor on Climate Justice to United Church of Christ General Minister and President and a long-time member of The Clergy Letter Project, has written an important and helpful book entitled Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change. He has also generously donated copies for distribution to Clergy Letter Project members who believe that the book will be helpful for them as they prepare for Evolution Weekend 2021.
The comments made about the book by Archbishop Desmond Tutu will give you a flavor of what Jim has crafted in this volume:
Jim Antal shows how the church can engage the urgent moral crisis of climate change. This book will inspire both the courage and conviction people of faith need to provide the leadership necessary to realize God’s dream of a just world in which humanity is reconciled to all of creation.
Similarly, Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, had some interesting things to say about the book:
Even more than an environmental problem, climate change is humanity’s greatest collective moral crisis, and no one understands that better than Reverend Jim Antal. He’s borne witness to its test of our resolve from pulpits, in paddy wagons, and now through this book, which offers recipes for hope (and prescriptions for action) on every page. To people of faith – lay or clergy – who are seeking ways to engage on this great global challenge: Here is your guide.
If you believe that Climate Church, Climate World will help you prepare for Evolution Weekend, let me know and I’ll award a free copy (except for postage and handling) to every fourth person requesting one until all copies are gone.
_____ The book sounds great, please enter my name to receive a free copy and please add my congregation (or other group) to the list of those participating in Evolution Weekend 2021. I agree to pay $5 for postage and handling.
Congregation (or related group):
Location:
Your Name:
If the book doesn’t fit into your plans for Evolution Weekend, that’s fine. You can still sign up now to participate in a manner that’s appropriate for you and your congregation. What’s important is that, together, we advance the position that religion and science have the ability to make a difference in the life and health of our communities – especially during these terribly trying times. Please sign up now.
_____ Yes, I want to be a part of this effort. Please sign us up to participate in Evolution Weekend 2021.
Congregation (or related group):
Location:
Your Name:
2. Astrobiology News for December 2020: Ideas for Evolution Weekend 2021 and Beyond
In this month’s Astrobiology News Grace Wolf-Chase, Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute as well as a Clergy Letter Project consultant, makes an incredibly generous offer to work with congregations to shape their Evolution Weekend events. I hope you join with me in thanking her and take her up on her proposal and sign up to participate in Evolution Weekend 2021.
Please read this - this month’s news is broader than astrobiology! In light of the theme for Evolution Weekend 2021, “Religion and Science in a Time of Denial: Neither will be Denied,” I’d like to offer some specific ideas on bringing religion and science together in a positive, proactive fashion - through participation. I’m also offering my services to help you do this, either during Evolution Weekend, or during a time that works with your community of faith. If your faith communities are anything like mine, you are probably conducting online services and programs. I think most of us expect to be doing this through the first few months of 2021, if not longer.
I’ve frequently written about how the online Zooniverse(1) platform makes it possible for people around the world, from all walks of life, to contribute to research projects spanning many fields of science and the humanities - fields as diverse as ecology, medicine, astronomy, social justice… Is there a particular field of interest to you or your congregation? If you contact me (please see email address below), I can suggest which projects would provide a good match to your community’s interests. Furthermore, I can “zoom” (or use another remote platform) to help lead (or co-lead) your group in participating in one or more Zooniverse projects. This would be done in a venue of your choosing (e.g., services, youth or adult education). I might even be able to arrange a connection with a member of the research team connected to your chosen project, but I can’t promise that. However, I CAN promise that it’s possible (and encouraged) to connect with these teams through Zooniverse’s discussion boards.
What better way to show solidarity than by setting the example of science and religion working together to effect positive change? In the coming months, I will be writing articles for distribution in various news venues about how faith communities are helping advance science through participation in Zooniverse. I’d like to use these articles to raise the profile of CLP members and efforts to demonstrate not just the compatibility of religion and science, but what we can accomplish when we work together. Everyone can take part in this effort - even if that just means using some of your time in isolation to contribute to projects aimed at improving the environment, medical research, or ensuring that history remembers the persecuted (see, for example, Every Name Counts(2)). Please contact me - I want to help!
Wishing you happy holidays, health, and high hopes for 2021Grace Wolf-Chase (gwolfchase@gmail.com)
Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist, Planetary Science Institute (http://www.psi.edu)
Vice President, Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS: http://www.casiras.org)
1. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=projects-CLP
2. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/arolsen-archives/every-name-counts
3. Dr. Rick Lindroth: Why I’m Participating in a Covid Vaccine Trial
Dr. Rick Lindroth, a professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, recently volunteered to participate in a Phase III trial for a Covid-19 vaccine. In a moving essay he wrote for The Clergy Letter Project, he explains how he came to this decision.
He notes, “As a scientist and Christian, participation in a vaccine trial presented an opportunity to live out the admonition common to all Abrahamic faiths, to ‘love your brother.’” You can read his full essay here. Please join me in thanking Rick for his contribution to the well-being of all of us.
4. WesleyNexus Evolution Weekend Program
As they have for the past seven years, WesleyNexus will be holding an exciting Evolution Weekend event that’s open to all of you and members of your congregations. This year’s event, scheduled for 15 February 2021 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time, will be a virtual one.
The event will consist of a panel discussion entitled “Naturalism: 3 Distinct Views.” Here’s how WesleyNexus describes the panel:
This panel will address the topic from three distinct perspectives: (1) Daniel Spiro, President of the Spinoza Society, will speak first, outlining the classic position as laid out by Baruch Spinoza. In the popular view, Spinoza is considered a pantheist, conflating God and nature, but that is a shallow reaction to his thought. (2) The second position, presented by Maynard Moore, will represent a “Christian naturalism,” though not an articulation that is mainstream. This view is gratefully aware of the richness of life and the resourcefulness of the natural world, but the perspective will reflect the distinctiveness of the Christian naturalist position that is worthy of commitment, while being compatible with the best thinking that characterizes science. (3) The third position will represent a classical Muslim view, articulated by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, based on the Qur’an and the basic affirmation that God is the author of all creation. The Qur’an and the universe should be seen as twin manifestations of the divine act of Self-revelation. Thus, nature must be seen as a “written scroll” with information that must be read according to its meaning.
More details will be forthcoming at the WesleyNexus website in the coming weeks.
Additionally, WesleyNexus has created a video archive of their previous seven Evolution Weekend events. You can view the archive, and use one of these events with your congregation this year, by going here.
_______ These opportunities look fabulous. I plan to make use of them with my congregation! Please sign us up as participants in Evolution Weekend 2021.
Congregation (or related group):
Location:
Your Name:
5. The Climate Crisis Letter
I’m delighted to say that our Climate Crisis Letter is nearing 1,000 signatures! If yours has not yet been added, please let me know. (If you’re not certain whether you’ve signed the letter or not, please click here and search for your signature.)
I’m also delighted to say that clergy members from 49 states and 13 countries are present on the Climate Crisis Letter. For some reason, Utah is not yet represented! I’m certain that many of you have colleagues in Utah who would be eager to sign on if they only knew of our project. Please reach out to such a colleague (and others in any other state!) and ask them to join our effort. Similarly, I’m certain that you have colleagues in countries not yet present on the Letter. (You can check the geographical distribution of signatures here.) Please reach out to those colleagues and help us extend our impact.
_____ Yes, by all means, please add my signature to the Climate Crisis Letter
Name:
Congregation/Denomination/Religion (optional):
City, State, Country:
6. Sacred Science
Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, founding director of Sinai and Synapses, is the host of a new weekly series of interviews that you will likely find of great interest. Sponsored by JewishLIVE, the series is entitled “Sacred Science.” Here’s how the series has been described:
Climate change. Genetic engineering. Truth and falsehood on social media. The psychology of how we flourish. For most Jews, we look to science for knowledge and wisdom on how to think and talk about these topics. But they also raise deep religious, ethical and philosophical questions, as well. Unfortunately, our political and cultural conversation pits "science" against "religion," rather than trying to explore and integrate these human questions from multiple perspectives. "Sacred Science," hosted by Sinai and Synapses Founding Director Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman, talks with professors and rabbis, academics and practitioners, and scientists and religious thinkers to help us move beyond a simplistic and false "either/or" dichotomy to go in depth on the biggest questions we face in this world -- personally, societally, and globally.
Sacred Science, including an archive of all interviews, can be accessed here. Enjoy!
7. Allies in the Struggle Against the Post-Truth Swarm
The Rev. Ted Peters, long-time member of The Clergy Letter Project, has just published a wonderful and incredibly timely essay in the journal Theology and Science. The piece is entitled “Allies in the Struggle Against the Post-Truth Swarm.”
The article’s abstract will give you a flavor of Rev. Peters’s thesis:
Unless we presuppose a commitment to truth and reason, averred Plato, we end up in mania. In other words, we go crazy. Today we are threatened with craziness by the post-truth forces of the worldwide web combined with governments which rely on alternative facts if not outright lies. In contrast, both natural science and Christian theology thrive in democratic societies because of their assumptions: science relies on evidence-based reasoning while faith relies on the divine promise of finally seeing the truth beyond the glass darkly. This article advances the thesis that, in our post-truth cultural context, theologians should ally with scientists to battle the enemies of truth.
You can read the full essay here. In addition to enjoying the piece, I hope some of you might use Ted’s ideas to structure your Evolution Weekend event this year.
_____ Wow, Ted’s essay is perfect for Evolution Weekend. I plan to use it so please add my congregation to the list of participants.
Congregation (or related group):
Location:
Your Name:
8. Midwest Religion and Science Society: Trauma and the Environment
The Midwest Religion and Science Society sponsors an annual event at Goshen College entitled the Goshen Conference on Science and Religion. The 2021 conference will be virtual and is scheduled to take place from Friday, 12 March 2021 through Sunday, 14 March 2021. The topic for this year’s conference is Trauma and the Environment: How Then Shall We Live?
You can read more about this exciting event and learn how to register by visiting the program’s website here.
9. On The Origin of Evolution
Dr. Paul Braterman, a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, has written a review of a new book that will likely interest many of you. The book was written by John and Mary Gribbin and is entitled On the Origin of Evolution: Tracing “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” from Aristotle to DNA. You can read Paul’s review here.
Concluding Thoughts
As I said above, I hope all of you, your families, and your communities are healthy and safe. I also hope that, as difficult as it might be, you don’t travel or gather in groups beyond your immediate household during this holiday season. Remaining vigilant greatly increases the probability that you and those you care about will be here to celebrate holidays, birthdays, graduations, and so much more next year. Additionally, if you haven’t yet done so, I encourage all of you to get a flu shot and to encourage everyone you know to do so as well.
Finally, as always, I want to thank you for your continued support and as I do every month, I urge you to take one simple action. Please share this month’s Newsletter with a colleague or two (or post a link via any social media platform you use) and ask them to add their voices to those promoting a deep and meaningful understanding between religion and science. They can add their signatures to one of our Clergy Letters simply by dropping me a note at mz@theclergyletterproject.org. Spread the word; change the world. Together we are making a difference.
Best wishes for a healthy new year.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org