By Salim Matt Gras
As a Sufi, I consider it my spiritual obligation to bear witness: to illuminate important truths we tend to overlook or shy away from. What you’re about to read is an op-ed I wrote for Faith and Climate Action Montana, an interfaith organization dedicated to raising awareness that climate collapse is a deeply spiritual issue requiring us to acknowledge our sacred obligation to live in a much more awake and openhearted way.
If you’re piloting an airplane and the engine cuts out, first thing you’ll try is to "extend the glide." You’ll kick-start the engine of course, hoping to keep the airplane flying. But when that fails, you do everything you can to extend the glide and look for a safe place to land.
Our world is in danger and we all know it. Threatened by the perfect trifecta of rising fascism, a pandemic that won’t quit, and climate collapse, we’re frightened and overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. Some of us wrap ourselves in brave-faced optimism that we can right this foundering ship, that it’s not too late. That if we try hard enough, we can return to a state we think of as "normal." But the truth is far more sobering. As environmental activist Dahr Jamail tells us, we are already “off the cliff.” The reality is, no government on Earth has been willing to take the dramatic measures necessary to mitigate what is coming our way.
That’s why we need to extend the glide.
It is time we acknowledge our sacred obligation to live in a much more awake and openhearted way. We need to come to terms with the brutal truth that the worst, most horrific consequences of climate collapse are already baked in and unavoidable. And we need to love the Earth now, more than ever, while holding onto one another and caring for our beleaguered planet as best we can, while we can.
Millions of people are suffering right now. It’s worse than we were told. We are in immediate danger. We must do all we can to slow down the problem, but we must also do all we can to help each other through this. As Chiricahua Apache Nation Elder Stan Rushworth says, “It’s not human beings who have made things so colossally dire, it’s a particular type of thinking called sawetico, or cannibal, that justifies predatory behavior as our natural state. That’s where the guilt comes from,” Rushworth tells us, “because we know this isn’t true. Everybody knows in the deepest part of their hearts that we are way better than that.”
What we’ve got to do now, is listen. We need to really listen to the Earth, need to heed well Indigenous wisdom accumulated over eons. We need to remember what we’ve mostly forgotten: that this is heaven; that the here-and-now is the garden. We need to appreciate and love this Edenic world we’ve been blessed with while it’s still here, and while we still can. These are sacred obligations we must not turn away from.
We are called to summon courage and acceptance. Courage, because this is hard — hard for our tender hearts to take in this unfathomable weight of grief and sorrow. And acceptance, because struggling against the truth is just another form of weariness.
When we stop struggling, we open ourselves to love: love for our own lives, plus an incredible tenderness for all the infinitely precious creatures that, with us, call Earth home. As Joanna Macy wrote, “The sorrow, grief and rage you feel is a measure of your humanity and your evolutionary maturity. As your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal.”
It is time to extend the glide.
“Faith and Climate Action Montana” is a multifaith coalition based in Missoula. We work to educate individuals and faith communities about climate science; create space for spiritual reflection on climate-related social and environmental issues; and facilitate action to address the climate crisis via advocacy and local organizing. We invite you to join us.
This opinion is signed on behalf of Faith and Climate Action Montana by Rev. Jennifer Yocum, Susie Clarion, Rabbi Laurie Franklin, Betsy Mulligan-Dague, Frank Kromkowski, Rev. Judith Holloway, Sheikh Munir Peter Reynolds, Mary Dickson, Richard C. King, Rev. Gary W. Hawk, Nancy Menning, Khalif Saladin Frank Pelfrey, Claudia S. Brown, Fr. D. Gregory Smith, Salim Matt Gras and Winona Bateman.