October 9, 2024 • 46 mins
"If you're not a pro-life Catholic, I might argue that you're not Catholic at all."
Description: In this episode, host Katie Zakrzewski explores environmental stewardship from a conservative Roman Catholic perspective. With a solid commitment to faith-based values, Katie discusses practical solutions for addressing environmental challenges without compromising core conservative and Christian beliefs. The conversation covers vital issues such as sustainable resource management, responsible consumption, and the role of individuals and communities in protecting God's creation.
Throughout the episode, Katie emphasizes the importance of faithful stewardship, drawing inspiration from scripture and Church teachings.
Katie Zakrzewski emphasizes a strong commitment to the pro-life stance, which she views as central to her identity as a Catholic. For her, being pro-life primarily means opposing abortion and protecting the unborn, and she suggests that this is a defining belief for Catholics. However, she also acknowledges Pope Francis's call for a broader, more holistic pro-life perspective, which includes caring for vulnerable populations like children affected by hunger and war. Katie critiques conservatives who focus solely on abortion while neglecting other life issues, such as health care, and believes that true pro-life values should encompass a wider range of concerns beyond just anti-abortion advocacy.
Overall, her beliefs reflect a mix of traditional Catholic pro-life views with an openness to the expanded definition of "pro-life" as promoted by Pope Francis, which calls for care for all forms of life and social justice.
Key Takeaways:
- Conservative Values & Environmentalism: How environmental care aligns with the Christian responsibility to be stewards of creation.
- Practical Strategies: Simple, everyday actions that reflect both conservative values and environmental responsibility.
- Faith-Based Perspectives: How scripture supports environmental stewardship, focusing on Genesis and the teachings of Pope Francis on care for creation.
-
Laudato Si’ is Pope Francis’s encyclical that calls for global action to combat environmental degradation and climate change, emphasizing the moral responsibility to care for our common home.
- Individual Responsibility: The power of local, community-led solutions to environmental problems.
- Katie's Faith Journey: Personal stories of how her faith drives her passion for environmentalism.
- Upcoming Topics: Sneak peek at future episodes, including guest interviews with faith leaders discussing moral responsibility toward the planet.
Quotable Moments:
- "We are called to care for the earth, not just because it's good for us, but because it's God's creation."
- "Faithful stewardship is about taking personal responsibility for how we live, consume, and care for the world God entrusted to us."
Contact Information:
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Disclaimer: Green Tea Party Radio is an independent project and does not represent the views of the Diocese of Little Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, or any of our employers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss conservative solutions
to environmental problems.
My name is Katie Zekreski.
Today, I'm going to guide you through complex issues and provide strategies
to address them, all while remaining faithful to my conservative values.
It'll be a good time, so grab your mugs, and we'll pour the tea.
(00:20):
Alright, nobody be alarmed, we're doing things a little bit differently today.
Hannah is busy off in the mountains, she is still alive, for those of you who
have asked. I have relayed all of y'all's love to her, so I'm sure that she'll
get back with us soon. I'm sure of it.
I know that didn't sound very reassuring, but I am sure of it.
And Zach is pretty busy today with work, so I figured I'd hop in and use this
(00:43):
as an opportunity to talk about something that might pertain more to me and
some of the folks who follow the things that I do than with both of them.
So I'm not going to make those Protestants suffer through what I'm going to
talk about today. but I did want to take a little bit of time to talk about
environmentalism within the realm of the Catholic Church.
(01:04):
Some of you who follow me know that I'm a very devout Catholic.
I've always been a devout Catholic. Could I be a better Catholic?
Yes, but who couldn't be?
And this topic has been on my mind quite a bit lately because we just left what
was called the season of creation in the Catholic Church, which is a period from,
let me look this up, it's sometime in, I think it's September 1st to October 4th.
(01:27):
Let me double check those. Season of creation 2024.
I should be a better noodle. See, this is what I was saying when I said I could
be a better Catholic. I don't know the season of creation off the top of my head. What a shame.
I know that it just ended. I know that.
I was right. Thank you, Google, for boosting my ego.
(01:50):
So the season of creation is a global ecumenical celebration of prayer and action,
encouraging Catholics across the world to care for their common home.
This takes place from September 1st and finishes on October 4th,
which is the Feast of St. Francis.
So you may be wondering, OK, Katie, why are you talking about this after October 4th?
(02:10):
Well, for several reasons, and I think it's primarily because a lot of Catholics
think, oh, I only have to care about the environment for a month,
and then I can go back to doing whatever I want to do.
Wrong. So I want to talk a little bit today about some of the things that trouble
me as a conservative Catholic environmentalist, but I want to start by unpacking
(02:31):
the overlap between my faith beliefs and my political beliefs,
because this is something thing that I get a lot of flack for from people on both sides.
People who are conservative who know that I'm Catholic often accuse me of not
being conservative enough, and people who know me in the Catholic world who
know that I'm conservative often accuse me of being not Catholic enough.
(02:52):
So I think that, first of all, it's worth unpacking that you don't have to forsake one for the other.
I think as long as your religious beliefs control your morality,
or maybe Maybe your morality plays a role in determining your political beliefs.
Essentially, I don't know that you have to be a good Catholic to be a good conservative,
(03:13):
but I do know that being a good conservative might not necessarily make you a good Catholic.
We see this a lot in that a lot of Catholics aren't purely red or blue,
or at least they shouldn't be, because the Catholic Church is not purely red or blue.
I know that there have been a lot of divides in recent years along those political
boundaries, but I think that that's the very reason why the Church shouldn't
(03:33):
be red or blue, because that causes a lot more division, at least here in the U.S. church.
So, obviously we've got the season of creation that takes place for a little over a month.
The culmination of the season of creation is on October 4th,
with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
Now, for those of you who might not be familiar with what I'm going to call
Catholic lore, St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most popular saints.
(03:57):
He was essentially a young man who was born into a very wealthy family in Italy,
and as his eyes were opened to B!
Would you shut the fuck up? Jesus Christ, you bark at everything,
dude. I'm trying to record.
Sorry for that jump scare, Peterson. Shit. You'd think the fucking boogeyman
(04:20):
was outside my apartment. Would you go? Would you make yourself scarce?
Jesus, you act like you were raised in the ghetto. Well, you kind of were. Sorry.
So, St. Francis was a young man who was born into a very wealthy family in Italy.
I believe his family was merchants. like a family of wealthy merchants.
Don't quote me on that, though.
But he's a very, very popular saint, and as he was exposed to the Catholic faith,
(04:44):
he more or less decided to take a vow of poverty and live more like Christ.
He gave up all of his wealth, all of his possessions, a lot of the nobility
that came with being part of his family, and decided to live a life of material
simplicity to be more like Christ.
He gained quite the following from this. He made friends with with another saint in Italy, St.
(05:05):
Clair of Assisi, and both of them were very pivotal environmentalists.
St. Francis was really unique in that he saw everything in the environment around
him as his brother or his sister.
I mean, he talks about brother-son and sister-moon, and he was a very gentle soul.
He was very kind to animals. He recognized the importance of everything out in nature.
(05:29):
I mean, he's got writings where he talks about the simplicity and the importance of birds.
Where he talks about, you know, things that people were not thinking about at that time.
And if you think it's hard to find environmentalism in the church today,
just imagine how radical he was back then.
But I think that radical nature made a lot of people realize that he was filling
(05:49):
a gap that maybe the church was not exactly addressing as thoroughly as they
needed to be at that time.
So the feast day of St. Francis on October 4th is considered the culmination
of the season of creation.
But what I've noticed in the church in recent years is that a lot of Catholics
seem to think, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm an environmentalist and I said
my prayers to St. Francis today. Awesome.
(06:11):
I'm going to go back to throwing my car battery in the ocean now.
And I think that the church needs to do a better job of helping Catholics understand.
Every day is a season of creation. If you are on this planet,
living, breathing, drinking water, surrounded in any way by nature,
I hate that we've called it the season of creation.
(06:34):
All year round, 24-7 is the season of creation.
We should say, I mean, and here's another thing that, you know,
not to get too far off on a tangent, And this is not even necessarily an official liturgical season.
So we don't even have specific readings or liturgy or homily guides geared towards
(06:57):
the environment for this season of creation.
And it's taking a little while to catch off for a lot of people.
So a lot of the issues with environmentalism in the Catholic Church today,
I'm about to give a lot of you folks the TLDR on Catholicism lore,
especially here in the United States.
And this can be a little hard for a Protestant crowd to understand,
so I'm going to try to be as simple as I can with this.
(07:18):
Essentially, it all boils down to politics. Imagine that. Just like everything
else does, this boils down to politics as well.
We couldn't even let Jesus Christ go without finding a way to work red and blue into it. Great.
So, Pope Francis, the current pope, became pope in 2014.
In, I believe, 2015, Pope Francis released an encyclical that was kind of unlike
(07:39):
anything anybody had seen before. Now, peep the name.
Pope Francis really admires St. Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis is from a South American country. I believe he's from Argentina.
We've seen throughout the church that Catholics from Latino communities and
Hispanic communities have a much higher focus on the environment than their
Anglo counterparts. parts.
(07:59):
A lot of this is because where there are not red and blue political divides or,
climate denial in a lot of these countries, a lot of individuals from these
countries are seeing firsthand the effects of climate change,
whether that's smog and other air pollution in the public health,
repercussions that come as a result of that, whether that's unclean drinking water.
(08:20):
A lot of individuals in these countries are having to immigrate.
In order to find a more sustainable environment and a better way of life.
Of course, the church very much stands with the immigrant, and this is one of
those areas where being conservative and being Catholic don't fit neatly in
a box, at least here in the United States, in the same box, for that matter.
The church is very pro-immigrant.
Conservatives are a little bit iffy on immigration.
(08:42):
So obviously a lot of these Hispanic and Latino Catholics operate through the
realm of faith when it comes to addressing climate.
Pope Francis is no exception. Climate has always been a big concern of his.
In 2015, he released an encyclical called Laudato Si.
Laudato Si was like a papal letter in which Pope Francis said,
hey, we're doing a real bad job of caring for the earth, and if God gave us
(09:06):
dominion over earth, as good Catholics and good Christians, we need to care
for the earth and uphold our end of the deal.
Doesn't sound too radical, right? Sounds like common sense, right? Well, interpolitics.
The rest of the world did not seem to have a problem with Laudato Si's existence.
However, in the United States, ten years later, two-thirds of Catholics still
(09:30):
have not heard of Laudato Si.
And a lot of that is because things get stuck in the bureaucracy of the church,
and they also get caught up in the political endeavors of different Catholics,
and I guess that divide within the faith life.
So, the Pope's encyclical called on all Catholics to better care for creation. Great.
(09:51):
A lot of Catholics here in the U.S., particularly higher-ranking clergy,
are not too sure how to interpret that.
A lot of the issue is that Pope Francis is deemed more of a liberal pope,
and I won't lie, I do think he's liberal on a lot of issues.
I don't think he's liberal enough on some of the issues that he should be.
This might get me into a little bit of hot water. I believe women should be
(10:11):
able to have some sort of clerical authority within the Catholic Church. church.
The Pope held a three-year convention called a synod or a sign-on,
depending on who you ask. I've heard it pronounced 1,500 different ways in the last few years.
This was a three-year process in which people were supposed to bring forward
kind of like a worldwide town hall.
So you can probably imagine if your local city hall gets a little caught up
(10:33):
in drama over a few hours in one night, imagine expanding it to a religious
organization that covers the entire world over Yeah, it was a little bit hairy.
But essentially, they accepted a bunch of critiques and criticism from people
all over the world on things that the Catholic Church can do better.
And while I think a lot of clergy were kind of optimistic about it going into
(10:55):
it, I don't think anybody left the Synod happy.
I mean, it ended earlier this year, I believe.
And essentially the grand takeaway was a lot of Catholics were like,
well, I don't care because I don't think anything's going to change.
And one of the hearings was on being able to have female deacons,
not even female priests, just female deacons, which I cannot for the life of
(11:15):
me fathom why they could make an argument against that other than,
well, we've been doing what we've always done and that's worked.
So we're going to keep doing it. Has it worked?
We can debate that. So we had a three-year synod on all of this.
And essentially the Pope came out in a TV interview and was like,
so I'm not going to do X, Y, Z, W, P, or K.
And everybody was like, well, then why did we spend the last three years talking
(11:37):
about it if you're going to bat it down in an interview in 60 minutes? I digress.
This Pope is viewed as pretty liberal by a lot of conservative Catholics here in the U.S.
Now, in the U.S., the way that the church is broken down is dioceses,
which is kind of like the equivalent of a state legislature for Catholic churches.
(12:02):
So here in Arkansas, you've got the Diocese of Little Rock, which is the Catholic
church governing authority for the entirety of the state.
Every Catholic church in the state fits under the umbrella of the diocese.
On the next level, you've got like a regional church headquarters,
which is an archdiocese.
The only real difference between an archdiocese and a diocese tends to be population,
(12:24):
population but the diocese of little rock falls under the
archdiocese of oklahoma city because you probably can
pinpoint oklahoma city on a map but you can't pinpoint you can't pinpoint little
rock that would be why um and so of course you know a bishop oversees a diocese
an archbishop oversees an archdiocese not too hard um and there's you know i
(12:46):
don't know how many bishops there are in the U.S.?
How many bishops are there in the U.S.? Okay, so the U.S. has around 441 active
and retired Catholic bishops.
So, 273 of those active bishops include six cardinals, which is kind of like
a very high-ranking bishop, 29 archbishops, 162 bishops over dioceses,
(13:12):
and 76 auxiliary bishops.
I don't know what an auxiliary bishop is. We're going to find out together.
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop who assists a diocese's bishop or archbishop.
Well, there you go. Okay, so he's kind of like an assistant bishop.
So there's another layer. We all learned something today.
And within the United States, there is a governing body of bishops.
(13:33):
It's kind of like Congress, but for the church here in the U.S.
And they make up an organization called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, or the USCCB.
The USCCB and previous years has been split along conservative and liberal lines.
But more recently, the USCCB has leaned more liberal or more conservative,
(13:56):
pardon me, the USCCB has leaned more conservative in recent years.
That's good if you're pro-life. It's a little iffy if you're pro-environment.
And the reason I say that is because, and let me make sure I'm right before I say this, USCCB...
(14:16):
You know what, I'm just going to go ahead and go out and say it.
Here a few months ago, the USCCB significantly pared down their department related
to all things social justice and environment.
I think it was the Environmental Justice Program was what it was called.
I could be wrong on that. Don't quote me on that.
(14:36):
But they've got like a Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development,
like a Department of Justice and Peace, and the environmental aspect is housed under that.
Here is another one of those areas where being Catholic and conservative does
not necessarily neatly fall within the same box.
In conservative circles, it is a very bad thing to be a social justice warrior,
(14:56):
mostly because that conjures images of the most obnoxious person you've ever
seen in your life screaming in the cafeteria or in the courtyard of a college campus.
I agree with that. I think that that was a term that got really taken out of perspective in 2016.
It was mostly just used to describe anybody who was kind of crazy on the left,
and the Catholic Church did a very poor job of saying, no, this should not be a politicized term.
(15:21):
It depends on what we mean by social justice when we say that.
I know, don't dogpile me, I'm still a conservative, but I don't think that it's
radical to say that racism is bad, okay?
So, do with that what you will, but earlier this year,
the Conference of Catholic Bishops here in the United States significantly reduced
(15:45):
their department that oversees environmental care and care for creation and
all things related to environment and environmental justice.
Months after saying that they were concerned about environmental justice.
So, enter the present day.
We've just come out of the season of creation. As of the time I'm recording
(16:07):
this, it's October 7th. The season of creation ended October 4th,
and we're back to business as usual.
Ironically, Florida is getting ready to get hit with another Category 5 hurricane
a week after getting hit with a Category 5 hurricane.
And people are already talking about how, from a faith perspective,
we don't have to worry about climate change anymore.
(16:29):
That's not true. People seem to have forgotten at the end of season of creation
that season of creation is not just a season. It's not a month. It's all year round.
So these are some of the issues that we're having in the Catholic church.
I wanted to take the time to analyze, you know, maybe what is a conservative
(16:50):
It's a conservative case for environmental stewardship amongst Catholics.
And the whole reason I bring this up is because this is where the partisan divide
really rears its head in the Catholic Church.
And for reasons that I can't really understand, a lot of individuals who are
working on the issue of environment and climate change in the Catholic Church
tend to be very left-leaning.
(17:13):
They still tend to be pro-life, but they are very left-leaning.
My big issue for me, personally, is being pro-life.
If you're pro-life, I can get away with pretty much just whatever else you believe
as a Catholic, because that lets me know you've got the right foundation and
your heart's in the right place.
If you're not a pro-life Catholic, I might argue that you're not Catholic at
(17:33):
all, but I don't have the authority to determine that, so that's an episode for another day.
But a lot of folks working on climate and environment in the church,
struggle to see across the political aisle, which is crazy because they're very
much a love thy neighbor, we have to care for the immigrant,
we have to care for the poor, we have to care for the vulnerable.
(17:54):
But I think they think that their conservative counterparts don't feel that
same way, and they have a hard time working with their conservative counterparts.
I'm going to be real with y'all for a minute, and some of y'all might not like
this. When I die, the first person I want to see is God.
It's not Ronald Reagan, it's not Trump, it's not Teddy Roosevelt.
I'll get to them when I get to them, but I want to be a good person before I'm
(18:19):
a good politician, or before I'm a good political wonk.
And I think that the Catholic Church needs to look at the issue of environment
from the perspective of, am I being a good Catholic or a good Christian,
or even a good person, yes or no?
The question is not, am I being a conservative Catholic? Am I being a progressive
(18:39):
Catholic? I don't give a rat's ass about that.
Are you being a good person?
Is your desire to help the environment stemming from a place of helping others,
or is it stemming from a place of political gain? Or of some sort of gain?
Some sort of selfish aspect?
(19:02):
If you're being selfish about it, then you probably should not work within the
confines of the Catholic Church on it.
But if you are a Catholic working within the Catholic Church,
presumably because you value that faith basis, then one of the hallmarks of
being a good Christian is loving your enemy, is it not?
And I know that's hard to do. Boy, howdy, is that hard to do in this day and
age when you can hide behind a screen, talk shit, say whatever you want.
(19:26):
It is very hard to love your enemy in this day and age.
I'm not telling you to go out and hug a convicted felon after this,
but I am telling you that if you use faith as the basis of a lot of your moral
judgment, not that you need to, but it's pretty cool if you do,
that you need to understand that this partisan divide that we have in the U.S.
Seems to be fairly exclusive to us and our faith backgrounds.
(19:47):
I have seen many a schism, not just in the Catholic Church, and perhaps not
personally in the Catholic Church, but throughout denominations across the U.S.
Because of political reasons.
Now, granted, it is not exclusive to the U.S.
I mean, there was almost a schism in Italy a couple months ago.
I think Germany is almost trying to have a schism every other day,
(20:09):
but the Pope dunks on the U.S.
Because, well, who doesn't like to dunk on the U.S.?
Anywho, as Catholics, I believe that our faith calls us, regardless of our political
demeanor, to be good stewards of God's creation.
And I didn't just come up with that. Pope Francis didn't just come up with that.
That decades worth of popes before him didn't just come up with that.
(20:30):
That's in the first book of the Bible, baby. Go read Genesis.
God gave man dominion over the earth, but he did not give man domination over
it. And there is a big-ass difference.
It is crucial for Catholics in order to tackle these environmental challenges
to embrace an ecological ethos.
(20:52):
Now, if you're grounded in conservative principles, I think that's fine.
You can still find conservative principles that resonate deeply within your
religious life in order to tackle climate change.
Exhibit A, me, Katie Zekreski. Neat.
But I think that there are several other perspectives that we can look at this
from conservatively to maybe compel some of those Catholics who've felt like
(21:13):
they're on the margins, who might not identify necessarily with being an environmentalist.
And I could go down the rabbit hole of who is an environmentalist.
If you care about the environment, you're an environmentalist. Okay?
We've done a real bad job in our culture of making it seem like in order to
be an environmentalist, you have to have a three-piece suit,
take three 3,000 trips up to Washington, D.C.
(21:33):
Every single year to lobby your members of Congress. That's not true, okay?
You don't have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars being a crunchy TikTok influencer mom.
You don't have to homeschool your kids and not vax them, okay?
I'm not advocating for that.
All you have to do is care about the environment to To be an environmentalist,
boom, you're already one step ahead of the guy who throws his car battery in
(21:55):
the ocean, okay? He's not an environmentalist.
I think we have to view creation as a divine gift. So our Catholic faith,
Genesis 1, verse 28, if you want specifics, teaches us that God created the
world and entrusted humanity with its care.
This is a divine mandate, okay? This is not a polite request.
This is not a gentle nudge.
(22:17):
God created the world and then told us to have dominion over it.
So this divine mandate is a call to
recognize the beauty the sanctity
of that creation so when we actively
protect the environment we are honoring god's gift
and acknowledging our responsibility to preserve it for future generations not
just for our own because i know a lot of catholics and a lot of conservatives
(22:41):
fell into that pit of oh i'm not going to be around for that what do i care
so you don't care about your kids and grandkids that's crazy and if you don't
have kids and grandkids.
You don't care about any single person younger than you in the world around you. Get a grip.
Are you really going to make that argument and then say that you're a good Catholic? Come on.
I think that Catholics, again, regardless of political perspective,
(23:04):
whatever, need to recognize that caring for the environment is a moral imperative.
The Catholic Church throughout Catholic social teaching, which is kind of like
our core tenets of how to apply the Catholic Church in the real world today,
with all of the issues of the real world today.
The Catholic Church emphasizes the dignity, the dignity of human life,
(23:24):
and the need to protect the vulnerable.
Environmental degradation disproportionately, and studies show this,
this is not just the Pope saying this, environmental degradation disproportionately
affects the poor, who lack the resources in order to adapt to climate change
and pollution. You want a real world example?
Look at everybody dealing with Hurricane Helene right now. Now,
several people could not evacuate, and by several people, I mean thousands of
(23:48):
people, could not evacuate because they could not afford to.
They did not have transportation.
They did not have family who would be able to take them in somewhere safer.
They could not afford food, could not afford water, could not afford shelter,
supplies, evacuating, anything like that.
All of these people are suffering right now because of a hurricane that was
amplified by the effects of climate change.
(24:10):
And I'll get into that in a future episode. said, don't you worry,
I got that one lined up for you, baby.
And they're getting ready to get hit with it again.
I mean, and we're going to see it again and again and again and again and again.
So whether you want to tackle it from a congressional standpoint or a religious
standpoint, the longer we stand by and do absolutely nothing,
the longer we prolong the suffering of people who have less than us.
(24:33):
It is our moral obligation as people who have enough to say these things to
not be in the line of fire of climate environmental disasters to help our neighbors who are.
I would love to see the conservative that makes the argument that we don't need
to help people, bro, because you're not getting my vote.
This transcends the political boundaries of this one country.
(24:59):
Climate change does not give a shit where you are located, where the boundary
line is, or who you voted for on your latest ticket.
It does not care. People need to get their mind out of the gutter in terms of
making every single issue partisan.
Hurricanes do not give a shit who you vote for.
And to add another layer onto that, October is Respect Life Month in the Catholic
(25:22):
Church, which is different from a lot of the pro-life events that happen in
January. A lot of people ask me about this.
So in January, that is when you have your National March for Life,
which isn't necessarily a Catholic event.
It's more of a generally, if you're pro-life, you attend this march.
It's primarily focused on being anti-abortion and being pro-life,
abortion-related issues, protecting the unborn, things of that nature.
(25:44):
That's when the big marches are in D.C.
That's when the Catholic Church has a lot of their big events.
A lot of dioceses will have their own marches. A lot of churches will have their
own marches and masses and things dedicated to this cause, rallies, things like that.
But it mostly revolves around abortion.
October is Respect Life Month, which calls for a more holistic perspective in
(26:09):
terms of, you know, respecting life, things of that nature.
Let me, because Pope Francis had a really good quote about this here a couple years ago.
Pull it up. Give me just a second. Don't hate me now.
So abortion, Pope Francis spoke on this here, I think in 2015,
he had a conference in Washington, D.C.
(26:30):
And he talked to all of the bishops, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the USCCB.
And while he was there, he talked about a holistic pro-life perspective.
And here we go again. This is another one of those ways that the Catholic Church,
being Catholic and conservative, don't fall neatly within the same box.
(26:51):
Even with what conservatives preach versus what they practice.
A lot of conservatives say that they're pro-life. What they mean by that is
they're anti-abortion, because when it comes to health care,
immigration, the death penalty,
things of that nature, IVF, the waters get a little bit murky.
The Catholic Church is against in vitro fertilization.
(27:14):
A lot of conservatives don't really care. I mean, it could go one way or the
other. You could ask 10 conservatives to get 10 different answers.
Case in point, I was talking to a member of Congress recently who was Catholic,
and I asked him what he thought about IVF issues.
He said, now don't get me wrong, I'm a very devout Catholic,
but I've got nothing wrong with people trying to seek out in vitro fertilization.
And I was like, so...
(27:37):
Okay. Me personally, in case anybody's wondering, and again,
I don't care if you do IVF personally, I'm not a spokesperson for the Catholic
Church, I can't make you do anything you don't want to do.
I personally would not do it, because I think that there are plenty of kids
out there in the world already who are in foster care and adoption centers being
absolutely forgotten about and neglected and abused who could stand to be adopted
before you bring another child into the world because you want that child to look like you.
(27:59):
But I could go on and on and on, and I know we can unpack it in another episode
about, well, why does it take so long to adopt somebody? Why is the foster care system broken?
These are our great questions, and I completely agree with you.
I am not the person to ask, though, as I am not a member of Congress.
I can only do what I can do as a pro-life individual with a show. need.
So even within Catholic and conservative circles, sometimes these issues don't perfectly overlap.
(28:25):
But when the Pope talked to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2015,
he talked about having a consistent ethic of life.
This fits into this respect life month ideology for October.
And again, I don't think it just needs to be a month. I think this is something
we need to work towards believing all the time, especially since 59% of Catholics
(28:46):
believe in abortion, according to recent surveys. Scary.
Francis has insisted that everything is connected and he's bridging the American
political divide every time he does that.
Again, I'm not a huge fan of the Pope, but I could admire his ability to see
beyond partisan divide.
He said, you know, we are part of a throwaway culture. That I 110% believe.
(29:08):
I mean, I agree with that. That is absolutely correct.
Young people in particular struggle to find silver linings, to be optimistic,
to find something to be happy about.
Life has no meaning for a lot of young people. And you can say that that's either
because of the climate crisis or because of economic disparity or because of
(29:30):
racism or social movements or what have you.
I'm sure there's a billion different reasons why, but a lot of young people
like to live in the the moment, and I don't know that they necessarily understand
the dignity and value of life as a whole across the entirety of the life spectrum.
Case in point, Pope Francis mentions, you know, abortion is not a standalone issue.
(29:53):
He says that the victims of abortion, children who die from hunger and war,
immigrants who drown trying to find a better place to live,
elderly and sick people who are considered a burden, people who are victims
of war, terrorism, violence,
drug trafficking, human traffic, drug trafficking and human trafficking,
(30:14):
the environment devastated by mankind's domination over it.
All of these things are at stake when we think about the gift of life from God,
of which we are all noble stewards, but not masters.
And that is a quote taken from my bishop, Anthony B. Taylor,
at this past Sunday's Respect Life Mass.
(30:37):
He said, you know, it's wrong to look the other way and remain silent.
We're here today because we're not willing to look away or remain silent when it comes to abortion.
Pope Francis is challenging us
not to remain silent on any of these other issues either. And he's right.
We only talk about abortion one month a year, and we don't talk about these
other issues, does that not make us hypocrites?
(31:00):
Now, I'm not saying you have to be a complete and total teetotaler when it comes
to Catholic or Christian beliefs.
Goodness knows there are several issues in here that I still need to work on
from a personal perspective, but I think that if your,
consciousness and your intention sits in a place of goodwill,
if you're coming at it from a perspective of wanting to be helpful and meaningful
(31:20):
and valuing the well-being of others,
well, I think that's a good first step in worrying about all the other stuff,
regardless of who you vote for or where you go to church.
So, from a conservative perspective, conservatives often emphasize the importance
of stewardship and responsibility, and this environmental stewardship aligns
perfectly with these values within the Catholic Church.
(31:41):
So, when we promote sustainable practices, we can ensure the natural resources
are used wisely, which benefits both current and and future generations.
Obviously, you know, this approach would foster economic resilience,
support local communities, ensure that they thrive without sacrificing the environment,
and it would really uplift a lot of these other creation care issues in these
vulnerable populations that we see constantly impacted by climate change.
(32:05):
I know a lot of conservatives grapple with thinking about the future.
They're typically more past-oriented.
I remember when I was in grad school, I did a little bit of research on,
you know, what is it that conservatives get get hung up on when it comes to
talking about the environment.
And for them, they don't like thinking about the future. They're very nostalgic for the past.
They don't identify with the future with the present, and rightfully so.
(32:25):
I do understand this, because a lot of the present and the future tends to be
dictated by young people with social media followings that they didn't really earn.
They just kind of stumbled into, and they think the world owes them something.
The world owes you nothing.
A lot of conservatives identify more with the past than preserving things for future generations.
Okay, well, if that's what you need to do to get through it,
(32:48):
honor the legend of your ancestors by not letting their stuff go to shit.
Ta-da! See how hard that was?
So, I think that, you know, even when, as Catholics look to the future,
I don't think there's anything wrong with looking to the past for inspiration
of what we want our lives to be like, you know?
If we had these examples in the past that we think, wow, that's great.
(33:10):
I wish I could be more like that. That person inspired me. Okay,
okay, then why does that have to stay in the past?
Carry that into the future with you. I mean, and even if you are a conservative
who cares more about, you know, leaving a good legacy for your future generations,
becoming that person that they can look back on fondly.
Then okay, preserve the world the way that it is or improve it for your children or grandchildren.
(33:32):
I don't know that that's specifically a conservative or a Catholic issue.
That feels like it should just be common sense.
That the church has not been certain. Let me back up.
A lot of Catholic social teaching has talked a lot about the rights of the worker,
rights to achieve a fair and sustainable wage.
I think a great way that the Catholic church could get involved with the issue
(33:54):
of climate change is, okay, well, look at all the economic and job opportunity it provides.
There's a whole sector of green jobs that are constantly growing,
constantly developing, constantly thriving, being innovative,
being competitive with one another through the free market.
It. We don't have to say Catholic Church equals capitalism,
but we can say supporting environmental stewardship through the lens of the
(34:15):
Catholic Church means that more people who couldn't have jobs before might have
better paying competitive jobs now, particularly in areas that have been absolutely
ravaged by the fossil fuel industry.
Case in point, look at the Appalachian area that's been brought back to life
by Amazon and solar products endorsed by Amazon when they were We're crippled
by the coal industry that left the area and no way for outside economic opportunity.
(34:39):
That's just one of the first examples that come to mind. But I even think about
a lot of the convents and dioceses and parishes and parishes and churches and
Catholic communities that have started employing more sustainable practices and measures.
I mean, namely, we've got an abbey, which is where monks live,
(35:02):
about two and a half hours from here, well, probably closer to two hours from
here in central Arkansas. It's called Subiaco.
Subiaco recently decided to go completely solar. Completely.
And their abbot had to come out and say, this is not a political stance.
We are the Catholic Church We've been around for about 2,000 years now A little
(35:24):
over 2,000 years Us getting solar panels is not an endorsement of a political
candidate For a country that's been around for, what, 250 years?
I think that that says it best. Not everything has to be misconstrued into a
political stance, okay?
Some people just want to help the world around them. Crazy, I know.
(35:45):
Believe it or not, there are people on every side of the political aisle that want to do exactly that.
There are some on every side of the political aisle that don't want to do that at all.
But let's not lump people into one group or another. So I think that the church
could really stand on this issue of economic prosperity, economics,
solidity, solidarity, through environmental stewardship,
(36:08):
and that would combine several of their Catholic social teaching elements.
I mean, that's a no-brainer, and
I think that it would appeal to a lot of conservative Catholics as well.
So, obviously, a lot of conservatives value and prioritize local government
and community engagement, things of that nature.
I have said repeatedly on this show that I think one of the best existing systems
(36:32):
for individuals to get involved with the environmental movement is religion.
Not even necessarily the Catholic Church, although that's a great start because
they've got a whole lot of structure, a whole lot of systems set up already to work with them.
But I think any church organization has already built a community.
All you got to do is plug into to it and pitch this to them in a way that makes sense for them.
(36:57):
This is such a lost art when it comes to environmentalism.
People have no idea how to talk to people in the environmental movement.
If I walk into a room full of farmers and conservatives, I'm probably not going
to talk about climate science and Exxon scientists and use words like carbon capturing.
(37:19):
No, I'm going to to talk about why are the ducks gone?
Why are you not seeing deer anymore? Why have your crops sucked for the last five years?
I want to coin this term called environmental code switching,
where we figure out how to teach environmentalists how to read the room when
they walk in and then craft an environmental argument that's going to resonate with their audience.
(37:42):
Because if we use the same one-size-fits-all approach when we talk about environment,
we're not doing ourselves any favors. And that shows.
And I think that that's a problem that a lot of environmentalists have right now.
It's, I'm going to pitch this to you in the way that makes sense for me.
And if it doesn't make sense to you, well, you're just a bad person and I don't want to talk to you.
I think, I think we really need to figure out, you know, if you have an existing
(38:06):
faith organization or an existing faith community, how do you plug environmentalism into that?
Because you can't make the argument that any existing religion does not care about the environment.
I'm telling you right now, every religion in existence, and I challenge you
to find one that doesn't for me, has some sort of tenet about caring for the
world around you, or at least caring for the people around you in the world.
(38:29):
You can't neglect the environment and say that you care for the people in it. It's non-sequitur.
And I think that Catholics need to realize at the end of the day,
like I said earlier, Pope Francis didn't tell Catholics to start caring about
the environment 10 years ago.
It's not like Catholics didn't have a stance on the environment before 10 years
ago. We've had a stance on the environment since Genesis, baby.
(38:52):
Long before there were anything even remotely close to popes.
The very first book of the Bible, whether it's my Bible or yours,
starts with Genesis, which is rooted in the creation,
of the world and caring for that creation and what a healthy relationship with
that creation looks like.
(39:14):
You don't have to like the Pope. I'm not telling you to.
You don't have to like your bishop. Again, I'm not telling you to.
You don't even have to like the Catholic Church. I mean, go figure.
You can hate them for all I care, but if you're a religious person,
I'm pretty sure your book of worship has something in it about caring for the
environment and your ability to be a good member of whatever religion that is,
(39:37):
hinging on how you care for the world around you and the people in it.
I mean, the scriptures are chock full of calls to care for creation.
I mean, one of my favorites is Proverbs 12.10, which reminds us,
the righteous cares for the needs of their animals, which highlights this broader
principle of caring for all of God's creatures.
So, engaging in environmental stewardship, for me at least, is probably the
(40:02):
best expression of my faith, because it aligns our actions with the biblical
teachings and demonstrates our commitment in the modern world to living out the gospel today.
So, I think that a lot of Catholics, whether they're conservative or not,
a lot of Christians, whether you're a Catholic or not, need to understand that
(40:23):
a call from God transcends a call from your political party.
Your political party changes their mind every other week, much less every four years.
Are words that have withstood the test of time from God. I think people need
to realize that environmental stewardship is not just a progressive or a social
justice warrior, crazy leftist perspective. It's not.
(40:46):
It's deeply rooted, especially for us Catholics, in Catholic principle that
aligns rather concisely with many conservative values.
I tell a lot of Catholic conservatives who are hung up or on the fence about
certain issues, let your faith be your guide. If you think you're a good Catholic
or a good Christian, then you've probably got a pretty solid moral compass already.
(41:07):
Let your faith guide your way. What feels right?
Because it probably shouldn't be throwing your car battery in the ocean.
You've probably got a gut feeling on that already.
You might not know the words to describe it, but you know right from wrong.
You know that there's nothing wrong about caring for the world around you and
caring for those who need help. I would say it's the core tenet of your beliefs.
(41:28):
Caring for the world around us is a
call to act responsibly to engage with the
people around us and to honor the divine gift of creation being an environmentalist
regardless of where you go to church or who you vote for this november is an
endeavor that reflects both our faith lives and our commitment to the common
good into the world around us this is something that we have
(41:51):
to rise to the challenge too, not just because the Pope told us to, but God did.
Okie dokie, let me pull up my handy dandy script.
Okay, I've got some action steps for you now, and there's a few here.
If you're involved in your faith, and I'm not even talking just Judeo-Christianity,
(42:12):
if you're involved in your faith in any way and consider yourself an environmentalist,
tweet at Green Tea Party Radio and let me know how you managed to combine both
both your faith life and your environmental life, your eco life.
What does that look like for you personally?
What does that look like for your faith community?
What does that look like for your denomination or your parish or your church
or your group or whatever it is? How do you bring that to light?
(42:35):
How do you merge the two?
Tell me a little bit more about that over on X at Green Tea Party.
I think it's GT Party. I mean, what the hell is our Twitter?
Let me give you just a second. Let me look that up.
I think it's GTP radio.
A GTP radio show. Who the hell came up with that? Oh, I did.
(43:00):
Check us out on Twitter at GTP Radio Show and tell us a little bit more about your thoughts.
Tell us what you think. Tell us how you managed to combine your faith life and your political views.
I assume a lot of the folks who listen to this show are at least conservative.
I don't know whether you're religious or not, but I guess tell me how you managed to juggle the two.
If you're Catholic, tell me a little bit about what you plan on doing as an
(43:22):
environmentalist in your faith community.
I always love hearing a little bit more about that.
And then in the event that you're not religious, But just tell me a little bit
more about some of the existing structures that you think could be helpful for
spreading environmentalism and employing means of environmentalism.
I know for me, because of my upbringing, I always think about the existing structure
of faith and the church and things of that nature.
(43:42):
But I would love to hear some other perspectives about other existing structures
in our society that might be beneficial for connecting and furthering the environmental movement.
So tell me a little bit more about that. you can either email us at info at
greenteapartyradio.com or tweet to us at our Twitter account.
It is GTP Radio Show, because unfortunately, GTPR was taken.
(44:04):
Will the real GTPR please stand up?
For you, our listener, email us with your thoughts. Our email is info at greenteapartyradio.com.
Thank you for listening to Green Tea Party Radio, and a very special thank you to all of our patrons.
We couldn't do this without you. If you're interested in getting early access
to episodes, as well as Green Tea Party Radio merch. Did I say merch?
(44:27):
Check us out at greenteapartyradio.com. If you have feedback,
tell us what's on your mind and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have any organizational sponsor.
And another reminder that Green Tea Party Radio is not representative of the
Diocese of Little Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, or any of our employers.
(44:48):
We're just young people who are building a movement because we want the world
to know that conservatives, and particularly young ones, have important things
to say about climate change.
And if you want to hear our show on your college radio station,
email us at info at greenteapartyradio.com and give us the details about your
campus and your radio station.
That email again is info at greenteapartyradio.com.
(45:09):
Thank you so much for listening, everybody, and have a great day wherever you are.
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss conservative solutions
to environmental problems.
My name is Katie Zekreski.
Today, I'm going to guide you through complex issues and provide strategies
to address them, all while remaining faithful to my conservative values.
It'll be a good time, so grab your mugs, and we'll pour the tea.
(00:20):
Alright, nobody be alarmed, we're doing things a little bit differently today.
Hannah is busy off in the mountains, she is still alive, for those of you who
have asked. I have relayed all of y'all's love to her, so I'm sure that she'll
get back with us soon. I'm sure of it.
I know that didn't sound very reassuring, but I am sure of it.
And Zach is pretty busy today with work, so I figured I'd hop in and use this
(00:43):
as an opportunity to talk about something that might pertain more to me and
some of the folks who follow the things that I do than with both of them.
So I'm not going to make those Protestants suffer through what I'm going to
talk about today. but I did want to take a little bit of time to talk about
environmentalism within the realm of the Catholic Church.
(01:04):
Some of you who follow me know that I'm a very devout Catholic.
I've always been a devout Catholic. Could I be a better Catholic?
Yes, but who couldn't be?
And this topic has been on my mind quite a bit lately because we just left what
was called the season of creation in the Catholic Church, which is a period from,
let me look this up, it's sometime in, I think it's September 1st to October 4th.
(01:27):
Let me double check those. Season of creation 2024.
I should be a better noodle. See, this is what I was saying when I said I could
be a better Catholic. I don't know the season of creation off the top of my head. What a shame.
I know that it just ended. I know that.
I was right. Thank you, Google, for boosting my ego.
(01:50):
So the season of creation is a global ecumenical celebration of prayer and action,
encouraging Catholics across the world to care for their common home.
This takes place from September 1st and finishes on October 4th,
which is the Feast of St. Francis.
So you may be wondering, OK, Katie, why are you talking about this after October 4th?
(02:10):
Well, for several reasons, and I think it's primarily because a lot of Catholics
think, oh, I only have to care about the environment for a month,
and then I can go back to doing whatever I want to do.
Wrong. So I want to talk a little bit today about some of the things that trouble
me as a conservative Catholic environmentalist, but I want to start by unpacking
(02:31):
the overlap between my faith beliefs and my political beliefs,
because this is something thing that I get a lot of flack for from people on both sides.
People who are conservative who know that I'm Catholic often accuse me of not
being conservative enough, and people who know me in the Catholic world who
know that I'm conservative often accuse me of being not Catholic enough.
(02:52):
So I think that, first of all, it's worth unpacking that you don't have to forsake one for the other.
I think as long as your religious beliefs control your morality,
or maybe Maybe your morality plays a role in determining your political beliefs.
Essentially, I don't know that you have to be a good Catholic to be a good conservative,
(03:13):
but I do know that being a good conservative might not necessarily make you a good Catholic.
We see this a lot in that a lot of Catholics aren't purely red or blue,
or at least they shouldn't be, because the Catholic Church is not purely red or blue.
I know that there have been a lot of divides in recent years along those political
boundaries, but I think that that's the very reason why the Church shouldn't
(03:33):
be red or blue, because that causes a lot more division, at least here in the U.S. church.
So, obviously we've got the season of creation that takes place for a little over a month.
The culmination of the season of creation is on October 4th,
with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
Now, for those of you who might not be familiar with what I'm going to call
Catholic lore, St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most popular saints.
(03:57):
He was essentially a young man who was born into a very wealthy family in Italy,
and as his eyes were opened to B!
Would you shut the fuck up? Jesus Christ, you bark at everything,
dude. I'm trying to record.
Sorry for that jump scare, Peterson. Shit. You'd think the fucking boogeyman
(04:20):
was outside my apartment. Would you go? Would you make yourself scarce?
Jesus, you act like you were raised in the ghetto. Well, you kind of were. Sorry.
So, St. Francis was a young man who was born into a very wealthy family in Italy.
I believe his family was merchants. like a family of wealthy merchants.
Don't quote me on that, though.
But he's a very, very popular saint, and as he was exposed to the Catholic faith,
(04:44):
he more or less decided to take a vow of poverty and live more like Christ.
He gave up all of his wealth, all of his possessions, a lot of the nobility
that came with being part of his family, and decided to live a life of material
simplicity to be more like Christ.
He gained quite the following from this. He made friends with with another saint in Italy, St.
(05:05):
Clair of Assisi, and both of them were very pivotal environmentalists.
St. Francis was really unique in that he saw everything in the environment around
him as his brother or his sister.
I mean, he talks about brother-son and sister-moon, and he was a very gentle soul.
He was very kind to animals. He recognized the importance of everything out in nature.
(05:29):
I mean, he's got writings where he talks about the simplicity and the importance of birds.
Where he talks about, you know, things that people were not thinking about at that time.
And if you think it's hard to find environmentalism in the church today,
just imagine how radical he was back then.
But I think that radical nature made a lot of people realize that he was filling
(05:49):
a gap that maybe the church was not exactly addressing as thoroughly as they
needed to be at that time.
So the feast day of St. Francis on October 4th is considered the culmination
of the season of creation.
But what I've noticed in the church in recent years is that a lot of Catholics
seem to think, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I'm an environmentalist and I said
my prayers to St. Francis today. Awesome.
(06:11):
I'm going to go back to throwing my car battery in the ocean now.
And I think that the church needs to do a better job of helping Catholics understand.
Every day is a season of creation. If you are on this planet,
living, breathing, drinking water, surrounded in any way by nature,
I hate that we've called it the season of creation.
(06:34):
All year round, 24-7 is the season of creation.
We should say, I mean, and here's another thing that, you know,
not to get too far off on a tangent, And this is not even necessarily an official liturgical season.
So we don't even have specific readings or liturgy or homily guides geared towards
(06:57):
the environment for this season of creation.
And it's taking a little while to catch off for a lot of people.
So a lot of the issues with environmentalism in the Catholic Church today,
I'm about to give a lot of you folks the TLDR on Catholicism lore,
especially here in the United States.
And this can be a little hard for a Protestant crowd to understand,
so I'm going to try to be as simple as I can with this.
(07:18):
Essentially, it all boils down to politics. Imagine that. Just like everything
else does, this boils down to politics as well.
We couldn't even let Jesus Christ go without finding a way to work red and blue into it. Great.
So, Pope Francis, the current pope, became pope in 2014.
In, I believe, 2015, Pope Francis released an encyclical that was kind of unlike
(07:39):
anything anybody had seen before. Now, peep the name.
Pope Francis really admires St. Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis is from a South American country. I believe he's from Argentina.
We've seen throughout the church that Catholics from Latino communities and
Hispanic communities have a much higher focus on the environment than their
Anglo counterparts. parts.
(07:59):
A lot of this is because where there are not red and blue political divides or,
climate denial in a lot of these countries, a lot of individuals from these
countries are seeing firsthand the effects of climate change,
whether that's smog and other air pollution in the public health,
repercussions that come as a result of that, whether that's unclean drinking water.
(08:20):
A lot of individuals in these countries are having to immigrate.
In order to find a more sustainable environment and a better way of life.
Of course, the church very much stands with the immigrant, and this is one of
those areas where being conservative and being Catholic don't fit neatly in
a box, at least here in the United States, in the same box, for that matter.
The church is very pro-immigrant.
Conservatives are a little bit iffy on immigration.
(08:42):
So obviously a lot of these Hispanic and Latino Catholics operate through the
realm of faith when it comes to addressing climate.
Pope Francis is no exception. Climate has always been a big concern of his.
In 2015, he released an encyclical called Laudato Si.
Laudato Si was like a papal letter in which Pope Francis said,
hey, we're doing a real bad job of caring for the earth, and if God gave us
(09:06):
dominion over earth, as good Catholics and good Christians, we need to care
for the earth and uphold our end of the deal.
Doesn't sound too radical, right? Sounds like common sense, right? Well, interpolitics.
The rest of the world did not seem to have a problem with Laudato Si's existence.
However, in the United States, ten years later, two-thirds of Catholics still
(09:30):
have not heard of Laudato Si.
And a lot of that is because things get stuck in the bureaucracy of the church,
and they also get caught up in the political endeavors of different Catholics,
and I guess that divide within the faith life.
So, the Pope's encyclical called on all Catholics to better care for creation. Great.
(09:51):
A lot of Catholics here in the U.S., particularly higher-ranking clergy,
are not too sure how to interpret that.
A lot of the issue is that Pope Francis is deemed more of a liberal pope,
and I won't lie, I do think he's liberal on a lot of issues.
I don't think he's liberal enough on some of the issues that he should be.
This might get me into a little bit of hot water. I believe women should be
(10:11):
able to have some sort of clerical authority within the Catholic Church. church.
The Pope held a three-year convention called a synod or a sign-on,
depending on who you ask. I've heard it pronounced 1,500 different ways in the last few years.
This was a three-year process in which people were supposed to bring forward
kind of like a worldwide town hall.
So you can probably imagine if your local city hall gets a little caught up
(10:33):
in drama over a few hours in one night, imagine expanding it to a religious
organization that covers the entire world over Yeah, it was a little bit hairy.
But essentially, they accepted a bunch of critiques and criticism from people
all over the world on things that the Catholic Church can do better.
And while I think a lot of clergy were kind of optimistic about it going into
(10:55):
it, I don't think anybody left the Synod happy.
I mean, it ended earlier this year, I believe.
And essentially the grand takeaway was a lot of Catholics were like,
well, I don't care because I don't think anything's going to change.
And one of the hearings was on being able to have female deacons,
not even female priests, just female deacons, which I cannot for the life of
(11:15):
me fathom why they could make an argument against that other than,
well, we've been doing what we've always done and that's worked.
So we're going to keep doing it. Has it worked?
We can debate that. So we had a three-year synod on all of this.
And essentially the Pope came out in a TV interview and was like,
so I'm not going to do X, Y, Z, W, P, or K.
And everybody was like, well, then why did we spend the last three years talking
(11:37):
about it if you're going to bat it down in an interview in 60 minutes? I digress.
This Pope is viewed as pretty liberal by a lot of conservative Catholics here in the U.S.
Now, in the U.S., the way that the church is broken down is dioceses,
which is kind of like the equivalent of a state legislature for Catholic churches.
(12:02):
So here in Arkansas, you've got the Diocese of Little Rock, which is the Catholic
church governing authority for the entirety of the state.
Every Catholic church in the state fits under the umbrella of the diocese.
On the next level, you've got like a regional church headquarters,
which is an archdiocese.
The only real difference between an archdiocese and a diocese tends to be population,
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population but the diocese of little rock falls under the
archdiocese of oklahoma city because you probably can
pinpoint oklahoma city on a map but you can't pinpoint you can't pinpoint little
rock that would be why um and so of course you know a bishop oversees a diocese
an archbishop oversees an archdiocese not too hard um and there's you know i
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don't know how many bishops there are in the U.S.?
How many bishops are there in the U.S.? Okay, so the U.S. has around 441 active
and retired Catholic bishops.
So, 273 of those active bishops include six cardinals, which is kind of like
a very high-ranking bishop, 29 archbishops, 162 bishops over dioceses,
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and 76 auxiliary bishops.
I don't know what an auxiliary bishop is. We're going to find out together.
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop who assists a diocese's bishop or archbishop.
Well, there you go. Okay, so he's kind of like an assistant bishop.
So there's another layer. We all learned something today.
And within the United States, there is a governing body of bishops.
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It's kind of like Congress, but for the church here in the U.S.
And they make up an organization called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, or the USCCB.
The USCCB and previous years has been split along conservative and liberal lines.
But more recently, the USCCB has leaned more liberal or more conservative,
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pardon me, the USCCB has leaned more conservative in recent years.
That's good if you're pro-life. It's a little iffy if you're pro-environment.
And the reason I say that is because, and let me make sure I'm right before I say this, USCCB...
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You know what, I'm just going to go ahead and go out and say it.
Here a few months ago, the USCCB significantly pared down their department related
to all things social justice and environment.
I think it was the Environmental Justice Program was what it was called.
I could be wrong on that. Don't quote me on that.
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But they've got like a Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development,
like a Department of Justice and Peace, and the environmental aspect is housed under that.
Here is another one of those areas where being Catholic and conservative does
not necessarily neatly fall within the same box.
In conservative circles, it is a very bad thing to be a social justice warrior,
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mostly because that conjures images of the most obnoxious person you've ever
seen in your life screaming in the cafeteria or in the courtyard of a college campus.
I agree with that. I think that that was a term that got really taken out of perspective in 2016.
It was mostly just used to describe anybody who was kind of crazy on the left,
and the Catholic Church did a very poor job of saying, no, this should not be a politicized term.
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It depends on what we mean by social justice when we say that.
I know, don't dogpile me, I'm still a conservative, but I don't think that it's
radical to say that racism is bad, okay?
So, do with that what you will, but earlier this year,
the Conference of Catholic Bishops here in the United States significantly reduced
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their department that oversees environmental care and care for creation and
all things related to environment and environmental justice.
Months after saying that they were concerned about environmental justice.
So, enter the present day.
We've just come out of the season of creation. As of the time I'm recording
(16:07):
this, it's October 7th. The season of creation ended October 4th,
and we're back to business as usual.
Ironically, Florida is getting ready to get hit with another Category 5 hurricane
a week after getting hit with a Category 5 hurricane.
And people are already talking about how, from a faith perspective,
we don't have to worry about climate change anymore.
(16:29):
That's not true. People seem to have forgotten at the end of season of creation
that season of creation is not just a season. It's not a month. It's all year round.
So these are some of the issues that we're having in the Catholic church.
I wanted to take the time to analyze, you know, maybe what is a conservative
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It's a conservative case for environmental stewardship amongst Catholics.
And the whole reason I bring this up is because this is where the partisan divide
really rears its head in the Catholic Church.
And for reasons that I can't really understand, a lot of individuals who are
working on the issue of environment and climate change in the Catholic Church
tend to be very left-leaning.
(17:13):
They still tend to be pro-life, but they are very left-leaning.
My big issue for me, personally, is being pro-life.
If you're pro-life, I can get away with pretty much just whatever else you believe
as a Catholic, because that lets me know you've got the right foundation and
your heart's in the right place.
If you're not a pro-life Catholic, I might argue that you're not Catholic at
(17:33):
all, but I don't have the authority to determine that, so that's an episode for another day.
But a lot of folks working on climate and environment in the church,
struggle to see across the political aisle, which is crazy because they're very
much a love thy neighbor, we have to care for the immigrant,
we have to care for the poor, we have to care for the vulnerable.
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But I think they think that their conservative counterparts don't feel that
same way, and they have a hard time working with their conservative counterparts.
I'm going to be real with y'all for a minute, and some of y'all might not like
this. When I die, the first person I want to see is God.
It's not Ronald Reagan, it's not Trump, it's not Teddy Roosevelt.
I'll get to them when I get to them, but I want to be a good person before I'm
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a good politician, or before I'm a good political wonk.
And I think that the Catholic Church needs to look at the issue of environment
from the perspective of, am I being a good Catholic or a good Christian,
or even a good person, yes or no?
The question is not, am I being a conservative Catholic? Am I being a progressive
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Catholic? I don't give a rat's ass about that.
Are you being a good person?
Is your desire to help the environment stemming from a place of helping others,
or is it stemming from a place of political gain? Or of some sort of gain?
Some sort of selfish aspect?
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If you're being selfish about it, then you probably should not work within the
confines of the Catholic Church on it.
But if you are a Catholic working within the Catholic Church,
presumably because you value that faith basis, then one of the hallmarks of
being a good Christian is loving your enemy, is it not?
And I know that's hard to do. Boy, howdy, is that hard to do in this day and
age when you can hide behind a screen, talk shit, say whatever you want.
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It is very hard to love your enemy in this day and age.
I'm not telling you to go out and hug a convicted felon after this,
but I am telling you that if you use faith as the basis of a lot of your moral
judgment, not that you need to, but it's pretty cool if you do,
that you need to understand that this partisan divide that we have in the U.S.
Seems to be fairly exclusive to us and our faith backgrounds.
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I have seen many a schism, not just in the Catholic Church, and perhaps not
personally in the Catholic Church, but throughout denominations across the U.S.
Because of political reasons.
Now, granted, it is not exclusive to the U.S.
I mean, there was almost a schism in Italy a couple months ago.
I think Germany is almost trying to have a schism every other day,
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but the Pope dunks on the U.S.
Because, well, who doesn't like to dunk on the U.S.?
Anywho, as Catholics, I believe that our faith calls us, regardless of our political
demeanor, to be good stewards of God's creation.
And I didn't just come up with that. Pope Francis didn't just come up with that.
That decades worth of popes before him didn't just come up with that.
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That's in the first book of the Bible, baby. Go read Genesis.
God gave man dominion over the earth, but he did not give man domination over
it. And there is a big-ass difference.
It is crucial for Catholics in order to tackle these environmental challenges
to embrace an ecological ethos.
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Now, if you're grounded in conservative principles, I think that's fine.
You can still find conservative principles that resonate deeply within your
religious life in order to tackle climate change.
Exhibit A, me, Katie Zekreski. Neat.
But I think that there are several other perspectives that we can look at this
from conservatively to maybe compel some of those Catholics who've felt like
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they're on the margins, who might not identify necessarily with being an environmentalist.
And I could go down the rabbit hole of who is an environmentalist.
If you care about the environment, you're an environmentalist. Okay?
We've done a real bad job in our culture of making it seem like in order to
be an environmentalist, you have to have a three-piece suit,
take three 3,000 trips up to Washington, D.C.
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Every single year to lobby your members of Congress. That's not true, okay?
You don't have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars being a crunchy TikTok influencer mom.
You don't have to homeschool your kids and not vax them, okay?
I'm not advocating for that.
All you have to do is care about the environment to To be an environmentalist,
boom, you're already one step ahead of the guy who throws his car battery in
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the ocean, okay? He's not an environmentalist.
I think we have to view creation as a divine gift. So our Catholic faith,
Genesis 1, verse 28, if you want specifics, teaches us that God created the
world and entrusted humanity with its care.
This is a divine mandate, okay? This is not a polite request.
This is not a gentle nudge.
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God created the world and then told us to have dominion over it.
So this divine mandate is a call to
recognize the beauty the sanctity
of that creation so when we actively
protect the environment we are honoring god's gift
and acknowledging our responsibility to preserve it for future generations not
just for our own because i know a lot of catholics and a lot of conservatives
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fell into that pit of oh i'm not going to be around for that what do i care
so you don't care about your kids and grandkids that's crazy and if you don't
have kids and grandkids.
You don't care about any single person younger than you in the world around you. Get a grip.
Are you really going to make that argument and then say that you're a good Catholic? Come on.
I think that Catholics, again, regardless of political perspective,
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whatever, need to recognize that caring for the environment is a moral imperative.
The Catholic Church throughout Catholic social teaching, which is kind of like
our core tenets of how to apply the Catholic Church in the real world today,
with all of the issues of the real world today.
The Catholic Church emphasizes the dignity, the dignity of human life,
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and the need to protect the vulnerable.
Environmental degradation disproportionately, and studies show this,
this is not just the Pope saying this, environmental degradation disproportionately
affects the poor, who lack the resources in order to adapt to climate change
and pollution. You want a real world example?
Look at everybody dealing with Hurricane Helene right now. Now,
several people could not evacuate, and by several people, I mean thousands of
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people, could not evacuate because they could not afford to.
They did not have transportation.
They did not have family who would be able to take them in somewhere safer.
They could not afford food, could not afford water, could not afford shelter,
supplies, evacuating, anything like that.
All of these people are suffering right now because of a hurricane that was
amplified by the effects of climate change.
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And I'll get into that in a future episode. said, don't you worry,
I got that one lined up for you, baby.
And they're getting ready to get hit with it again.
I mean, and we're going to see it again and again and again and again and again.
So whether you want to tackle it from a congressional standpoint or a religious
standpoint, the longer we stand by and do absolutely nothing,
the longer we prolong the suffering of people who have less than us.
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It is our moral obligation as people who have enough to say these things to
not be in the line of fire of climate environmental disasters to help our neighbors who are.
I would love to see the conservative that makes the argument that we don't need
to help people, bro, because you're not getting my vote.
This transcends the political boundaries of this one country.
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Climate change does not give a shit where you are located, where the boundary
line is, or who you voted for on your latest ticket.
It does not care. People need to get their mind out of the gutter in terms of
making every single issue partisan.
Hurricanes do not give a shit who you vote for.
And to add another layer onto that, October is Respect Life Month in the Catholic
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Church, which is different from a lot of the pro-life events that happen in
January. A lot of people ask me about this.
So in January, that is when you have your National March for Life,
which isn't necessarily a Catholic event.
It's more of a generally, if you're pro-life, you attend this march.
It's primarily focused on being anti-abortion and being pro-life,
abortion-related issues, protecting the unborn, things of that nature.
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That's when the big marches are in D.C.
That's when the Catholic Church has a lot of their big events.
A lot of dioceses will have their own marches. A lot of churches will have their
own marches and masses and things dedicated to this cause, rallies, things like that.
But it mostly revolves around abortion.
October is Respect Life Month, which calls for a more holistic perspective in
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terms of, you know, respecting life, things of that nature.
Let me, because Pope Francis had a really good quote about this here a couple years ago.
Pull it up. Give me just a second. Don't hate me now.
So abortion, Pope Francis spoke on this here, I think in 2015,
he had a conference in Washington, D.C.
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And he talked to all of the bishops, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the USCCB.
And while he was there, he talked about a holistic pro-life perspective.
And here we go again. This is another one of those ways that the Catholic Church,
being Catholic and conservative, don't fall neatly within the same box.
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Even with what conservatives preach versus what they practice.
A lot of conservatives say that they're pro-life. What they mean by that is
they're anti-abortion, because when it comes to health care,
immigration, the death penalty,
things of that nature, IVF, the waters get a little bit murky.
The Catholic Church is against in vitro fertilization.
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A lot of conservatives don't really care. I mean, it could go one way or the
other. You could ask 10 conservatives to get 10 different answers.
Case in point, I was talking to a member of Congress recently who was Catholic,
and I asked him what he thought about IVF issues.
He said, now don't get me wrong, I'm a very devout Catholic,
but I've got nothing wrong with people trying to seek out in vitro fertilization.
And I was like, so...
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Okay. Me personally, in case anybody's wondering, and again,
I don't care if you do IVF personally, I'm not a spokesperson for the Catholic
Church, I can't make you do anything you don't want to do.
I personally would not do it, because I think that there are plenty of kids
out there in the world already who are in foster care and adoption centers being
absolutely forgotten about and neglected and abused who could stand to be adopted
before you bring another child into the world because you want that child to look like you.
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But I could go on and on and on, and I know we can unpack it in another episode
about, well, why does it take so long to adopt somebody? Why is the foster care system broken?
These are our great questions, and I completely agree with you.
I am not the person to ask, though, as I am not a member of Congress.
I can only do what I can do as a pro-life individual with a show. need.
So even within Catholic and conservative circles, sometimes these issues don't perfectly overlap.
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But when the Pope talked to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2015,
he talked about having a consistent ethic of life.
This fits into this respect life month ideology for October.
And again, I don't think it just needs to be a month. I think this is something
we need to work towards believing all the time, especially since 59% of Catholics
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believe in abortion, according to recent surveys. Scary.
Francis has insisted that everything is connected and he's bridging the American
political divide every time he does that.
Again, I'm not a huge fan of the Pope, but I could admire his ability to see
beyond partisan divide.
He said, you know, we are part of a throwaway culture. That I 110% believe.
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I mean, I agree with that. That is absolutely correct.
Young people in particular struggle to find silver linings, to be optimistic,
to find something to be happy about.
Life has no meaning for a lot of young people. And you can say that that's either
because of the climate crisis or because of economic disparity or because of
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racism or social movements or what have you.
I'm sure there's a billion different reasons why, but a lot of young people
like to live in the the moment, and I don't know that they necessarily understand
the dignity and value of life as a whole across the entirety of the life spectrum.
Case in point, Pope Francis mentions, you know, abortion is not a standalone issue.
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He says that the victims of abortion, children who die from hunger and war,
immigrants who drown trying to find a better place to live,
elderly and sick people who are considered a burden, people who are victims
of war, terrorism, violence,
drug trafficking, human traffic, drug trafficking and human trafficking,
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the environment devastated by mankind's domination over it.
All of these things are at stake when we think about the gift of life from God,
of which we are all noble stewards, but not masters.
And that is a quote taken from my bishop, Anthony B. Taylor,
at this past Sunday's Respect Life Mass.
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He said, you know, it's wrong to look the other way and remain silent.
We're here today because we're not willing to look away or remain silent when it comes to abortion.
Pope Francis is challenging us
not to remain silent on any of these other issues either. And he's right.
We only talk about abortion one month a year, and we don't talk about these
other issues, does that not make us hypocrites?
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Now, I'm not saying you have to be a complete and total teetotaler when it comes
to Catholic or Christian beliefs.
Goodness knows there are several issues in here that I still need to work on
from a personal perspective, but I think that if your,
consciousness and your intention sits in a place of goodwill,
if you're coming at it from a perspective of wanting to be helpful and meaningful
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and valuing the well-being of others,
well, I think that's a good first step in worrying about all the other stuff,
regardless of who you vote for or where you go to church.
So, from a conservative perspective, conservatives often emphasize the importance
of stewardship and responsibility, and this environmental stewardship aligns
perfectly with these values within the Catholic Church.
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So, when we promote sustainable practices, we can ensure the natural resources
are used wisely, which benefits both current and and future generations.
Obviously, you know, this approach would foster economic resilience,
support local communities, ensure that they thrive without sacrificing the environment,
and it would really uplift a lot of these other creation care issues in these
vulnerable populations that we see constantly impacted by climate change.
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I know a lot of conservatives grapple with thinking about the future.
They're typically more past-oriented.
I remember when I was in grad school, I did a little bit of research on,
you know, what is it that conservatives get get hung up on when it comes to
talking about the environment.
And for them, they don't like thinking about the future. They're very nostalgic for the past.
They don't identify with the future with the present, and rightfully so.
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I do understand this, because a lot of the present and the future tends to be
dictated by young people with social media followings that they didn't really earn.
They just kind of stumbled into, and they think the world owes them something.
The world owes you nothing.
A lot of conservatives identify more with the past than preserving things for future generations.
Okay, well, if that's what you need to do to get through it,
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honor the legend of your ancestors by not letting their stuff go to shit.
Ta-da! See how hard that was?
So, I think that, you know, even when, as Catholics look to the future,
I don't think there's anything wrong with looking to the past for inspiration
of what we want our lives to be like, you know?
If we had these examples in the past that we think, wow, that's great.
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I wish I could be more like that. That person inspired me. Okay,
okay, then why does that have to stay in the past?
Carry that into the future with you. I mean, and even if you are a conservative
who cares more about, you know, leaving a good legacy for your future generations,
becoming that person that they can look back on fondly.
Then okay, preserve the world the way that it is or improve it for your children or grandchildren.
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I don't know that that's specifically a conservative or a Catholic issue.
That feels like it should just be common sense.
That the church has not been certain. Let me back up.
A lot of Catholic social teaching has talked a lot about the rights of the worker,
rights to achieve a fair and sustainable wage.
I think a great way that the Catholic church could get involved with the issue
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of climate change is, okay, well, look at all the economic and job opportunity it provides.
There's a whole sector of green jobs that are constantly growing,
constantly developing, constantly thriving, being innovative,
being competitive with one another through the free market.
It. We don't have to say Catholic Church equals capitalism,
but we can say supporting environmental stewardship through the lens of the
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Catholic Church means that more people who couldn't have jobs before might have
better paying competitive jobs now, particularly in areas that have been absolutely
ravaged by the fossil fuel industry.
Case in point, look at the Appalachian area that's been brought back to life
by Amazon and solar products endorsed by Amazon when they were We're crippled
by the coal industry that left the area and no way for outside economic opportunity.
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That's just one of the first examples that come to mind. But I even think about
a lot of the convents and dioceses and parishes and parishes and churches and
Catholic communities that have started employing more sustainable practices and measures.
I mean, namely, we've got an abbey, which is where monks live,
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about two and a half hours from here, well, probably closer to two hours from
here in central Arkansas. It's called Subiaco.
Subiaco recently decided to go completely solar. Completely.
And their abbot had to come out and say, this is not a political stance.
We are the Catholic Church We've been around for about 2,000 years now A little
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over 2,000 years Us getting solar panels is not an endorsement of a political
candidate For a country that's been around for, what, 250 years?
I think that that says it best. Not everything has to be misconstrued into a
political stance, okay?
Some people just want to help the world around them. Crazy, I know.
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Believe it or not, there are people on every side of the political aisle that want to do exactly that.
There are some on every side of the political aisle that don't want to do that at all.
But let's not lump people into one group or another. So I think that the church
could really stand on this issue of economic prosperity, economics,
solidity, solidarity, through environmental stewardship,
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and that would combine several of their Catholic social teaching elements.
I mean, that's a no-brainer, and
I think that it would appeal to a lot of conservative Catholics as well.
So, obviously, a lot of conservatives value and prioritize local government
and community engagement, things of that nature.
I have said repeatedly on this show that I think one of the best existing systems
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for individuals to get involved with the environmental movement is religion.
Not even necessarily the Catholic Church, although that's a great start because
they've got a whole lot of structure, a whole lot of systems set up already to work with them.
But I think any church organization has already built a community.
All you got to do is plug into to it and pitch this to them in a way that makes sense for them.
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This is such a lost art when it comes to environmentalism.
People have no idea how to talk to people in the environmental movement.
If I walk into a room full of farmers and conservatives, I'm probably not going
to talk about climate science and Exxon scientists and use words like carbon capturing.
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No, I'm going to to talk about why are the ducks gone?
Why are you not seeing deer anymore? Why have your crops sucked for the last five years?
I want to coin this term called environmental code switching,
where we figure out how to teach environmentalists how to read the room when
they walk in and then craft an environmental argument that's going to resonate with their audience.
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Because if we use the same one-size-fits-all approach when we talk about environment,
we're not doing ourselves any favors. And that shows.
And I think that that's a problem that a lot of environmentalists have right now.
It's, I'm going to pitch this to you in the way that makes sense for me.
And if it doesn't make sense to you, well, you're just a bad person and I don't want to talk to you.
I think, I think we really need to figure out, you know, if you have an existing
(38:06):
faith organization or an existing faith community, how do you plug environmentalism into that?
Because you can't make the argument that any existing religion does not care about the environment.
I'm telling you right now, every religion in existence, and I challenge you
to find one that doesn't for me, has some sort of tenet about caring for the
world around you, or at least caring for the people around you in the world.
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You can't neglect the environment and say that you care for the people in it. It's non-sequitur.
And I think that Catholics need to realize at the end of the day,
like I said earlier, Pope Francis didn't tell Catholics to start caring about
the environment 10 years ago.
It's not like Catholics didn't have a stance on the environment before 10 years
ago. We've had a stance on the environment since Genesis, baby.
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Long before there were anything even remotely close to popes.
The very first book of the Bible, whether it's my Bible or yours,
starts with Genesis, which is rooted in the creation,
of the world and caring for that creation and what a healthy relationship with
that creation looks like.
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You don't have to like the Pope. I'm not telling you to.
You don't have to like your bishop. Again, I'm not telling you to.
You don't even have to like the Catholic Church. I mean, go figure.
You can hate them for all I care, but if you're a religious person,
I'm pretty sure your book of worship has something in it about caring for the
environment and your ability to be a good member of whatever religion that is,
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hinging on how you care for the world around you and the people in it.
I mean, the scriptures are chock full of calls to care for creation.
I mean, one of my favorites is Proverbs 12.10, which reminds us,
the righteous cares for the needs of their animals, which highlights this broader
principle of caring for all of God's creatures.
So, engaging in environmental stewardship, for me at least, is probably the
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best expression of my faith, because it aligns our actions with the biblical
teachings and demonstrates our commitment in the modern world to living out the gospel today.
So, I think that a lot of Catholics, whether they're conservative or not,
a lot of Christians, whether you're a Catholic or not, need to understand that
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a call from God transcends a call from your political party.
Your political party changes their mind every other week, much less every four years.
Are words that have withstood the test of time from God. I think people need
to realize that environmental stewardship is not just a progressive or a social
justice warrior, crazy leftist perspective. It's not.
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It's deeply rooted, especially for us Catholics, in Catholic principle that
aligns rather concisely with many conservative values.
I tell a lot of Catholic conservatives who are hung up or on the fence about
certain issues, let your faith be your guide. If you think you're a good Catholic
or a good Christian, then you've probably got a pretty solid moral compass already.
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Let your faith guide your way. What feels right?
Because it probably shouldn't be throwing your car battery in the ocean.
You've probably got a gut feeling on that already.
You might not know the words to describe it, but you know right from wrong.
You know that there's nothing wrong about caring for the world around you and
caring for those who need help. I would say it's the core tenet of your beliefs.
(41:28):
Caring for the world around us is a
call to act responsibly to engage with the
people around us and to honor the divine gift of creation being an environmentalist
regardless of where you go to church or who you vote for this november is an
endeavor that reflects both our faith lives and our commitment to the common
good into the world around us this is something that we have
(41:51):
to rise to the challenge too, not just because the Pope told us to, but God did.
Okie dokie, let me pull up my handy dandy script.
Okay, I've got some action steps for you now, and there's a few here.
If you're involved in your faith, and I'm not even talking just Judeo-Christianity,
(42:12):
if you're involved in your faith in any way and consider yourself an environmentalist,
tweet at Green Tea Party Radio and let me know how you managed to combine both
both your faith life and your environmental life, your eco life.
What does that look like for you personally?
What does that look like for your faith community?
What does that look like for your denomination or your parish or your church
or your group or whatever it is? How do you bring that to light?
(42:35):
How do you merge the two?
Tell me a little bit more about that over on X at Green Tea Party.
I think it's GT Party. I mean, what the hell is our Twitter?
Let me give you just a second. Let me look that up.
I think it's GTP radio.
A GTP radio show. Who the hell came up with that? Oh, I did.
(43:00):
Check us out on Twitter at GTP Radio Show and tell us a little bit more about your thoughts.
Tell us what you think. Tell us how you managed to combine your faith life and your political views.
I assume a lot of the folks who listen to this show are at least conservative.
I don't know whether you're religious or not, but I guess tell me how you managed to juggle the two.
If you're Catholic, tell me a little bit about what you plan on doing as an
(43:22):
environmentalist in your faith community.
I always love hearing a little bit more about that.
And then in the event that you're not religious, But just tell me a little bit
more about some of the existing structures that you think could be helpful for
spreading environmentalism and employing means of environmentalism.
I know for me, because of my upbringing, I always think about the existing structure
of faith and the church and things of that nature.
(43:42):
But I would love to hear some other perspectives about other existing structures
in our society that might be beneficial for connecting and furthering the environmental movement.
So tell me a little bit more about that. you can either email us at info at
greenteapartyradio.com or tweet to us at our Twitter account.
It is GTP Radio Show, because unfortunately, GTPR was taken.
(44:04):
Will the real GTPR please stand up?
For you, our listener, email us with your thoughts. Our email is info at greenteapartyradio.com.
Thank you for listening to Green Tea Party Radio, and a very special thank you to all of our patrons.
We couldn't do this without you. If you're interested in getting early access
to episodes, as well as Green Tea Party Radio merch. Did I say merch?
(44:27):
Check us out at greenteapartyradio.com. If you have feedback,
tell us what's on your mind and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have any organizational sponsor.
And another reminder that Green Tea Party Radio is not representative of the
Diocese of Little Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, or any of our employers.
(44:48):
We're just young people who are building a movement because we want the world
to know that conservatives, and particularly young ones, have important things
to say about climate change.
And if you want to hear our show on your college radio station,
email us at info at greenteapartyradio.com and give us the details about your
campus and your radio station.
That email again is info at greenteapartyradio.com.
(45:09):
Thank you so much for listening, everybody, and have a great day wherever you are.
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