Reverend Karen Mann is a pastor with Sojourners United Church of Christ in Charlottesville. Her work in ministry has led her to participate in issues impacting her community, like immigration advocacy. With a background in farming, Mann’s work as a pastor has also included a focus on climate change. WMRA’s Calvin Pynn asked Mann how her faith informs her views on climate change.
Karen Mann: I believe that we are called by God to be caretakers of this world. I’m not a literalist when I read the Bible, so when I read those creation stories, I’m not reading a literal seven days or anything like that, but I am reading that God created a world that is beautiful and diverse and life-giving and life-sustaining, and that we are part of that creation and that in that creation we are given responsibility to care for and preserve that world. There’s two words in there where God directs the first humans to keep until the earth is what we often translated in English. In Hebrew, it is we are to avad and shamar the earth, which might also mean to protect and preserve. And I find that to be a really beautiful way to think about what our role is. It’s not to have dominion over or to destroy or to use at our will and exploit, but that we are to preserve and protect the earth. And so, I think that’s really fundamental to what we were created to be and to do in this world is to preserve and protect and care for this earth. For me, that’s an expression of my faith, living out my calling for God.
WMRA: Yeah. It’s like the idea of stewardship. That’s kind of how I’m hearing that…