From the “God Is Green?” IRD Conference

The opening presentation of the conference was by Dr. Calvin Beisner of Knox Theological Seminary, who in a relatively short time managed to make clear that this issue is not as simple as my writing on it in the past may have made it seem. He clearly knows his stuff, and he’s willing to admit that he isn’t infallible.He also convinced me that trying to do this in real-time wouldn’t do the presenters justice. So I’m going to take extensive notes, and write several posts about what I hear here.

But here’s something to whet your appetite: Beisner contends that the best way to deal with climate change and other environmental problems is to do everything we can to facilitate the reduction of poverty, especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Doing so doesn’t mean throwing money at poor people, but creating conditions in which people’s creative and productive energies can be released.

More about that, and lots of other things, later.