So help me God

Since the whole world been waiting for the president elect to become president Barack H Obama is now the president of the United States of America.
The expectations on this man are more than any one can live up to but at least this could be a mark of a new era.
President Obama mentioned climate change four times in his speech which at least I hope will be significant for the coming years of US administration.
Since EU has gone from the leader of the climate change agenda to the trajectory of lower ambitions we really need a proactive climate policy of US.
Now it is time to proof to the world that Americans can take the lead in the climate change negotiations and to show the world that they are willing and able to change to the new energy era and that an American lifestyle will be distinguished by low carbon use.
But the rest of the world really need to be on their toes because we all have to act, and act now. Act for to get down the CO2 emissions and act for at just distribution of the natural resources.
And we need all the strength we can get. So lets the last line of the inauguration of the president be our prayer too; So help me God

A Papal Confusion

It is sad to read that the Pope seems to mix up climate protection with a hierarchical thinking of creation and then compare it with how we live together as humans when it comes to sexual relations.
We really need the Holy See to take part in the Climate Change discussion but why is it so hard to understand that this is not a question about saving trees when it is a question of equity and justice.
Life is a precious gift that we share with each other. The earth is also a gift that we should share witch each other living on the earth now and also those who will come after us.
the Pope says
"Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian creed, the Church cannot and must not limit herself to passing on to the faithful the message of salvation alone. She has a responsibility towards creation, and must also publicly assert this responsibility. In so doing, she must not only defend earth, water and air as gifts of creation belonging to all. She must also protect man from self-destruction. What is needed is something like a human ecology, correctly understood."

So far so good. I like that but it becomes problematic when the Pope mix this with a gender perspective when he writes

"If the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected, this is not some antiquated metaphysics. What is involved here is faith in the Creator and a readiness to listen to the “language” of creation. To disregard this would be the self-destruction of man himself, and hence the destruction of God’s own work"

To listen to the language of creation can be problematic. What do we interpretate as the message from the nature? Survival of the fittest? To dominate over each other? To listen to the language of creation is not to create social orders out of it. It is more about to understand the web of life that we all are depending on, to understand the inteconectedness, to understand the we are "one body" as St Paul puts it. And out of that act for a more sustainable way of living and a more equitable sharing of the fruits of creation.