Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director of GreenFaith

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hudson River Radio dot Com.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello out there and podcast Land and Beyond Maxi Margar
Rubin along with my co host Malcolm Berman. And this
is the Many Shades of Green, our program that adds
a dash of green into your life as we engage
in conversations that move to inform, educate, activate, and raise
your eco and social consciousness through culture, politics, music, art.

(00:47):
In this case for our faith based communities, we hope
to inspire you to pick a seade of green and
become a steward of this beautiful, blue, green planet we
call earth. So Hi, Malcolm, Mountain, La Land and High
River and Harper here in uh in in in New
York correct, New York.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Right, northern North Jersey.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Good to see you North Jersey. Oh well, well we
got Neil in uh nearby there, uh so anyway Jersey
representing here. And so you know, I was thinking of
the music that we can use to bring this in
and bring you in, and I just Patty Smith papped
in my head. And so now Neil please hit in on.

(01:29):
People have the power?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yeah, right?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
And fair who was broken dream.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
In the Fama showing bodies We have the pillar him recognized.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Oh my sisters, really helping Ulla again. You to the
cries with the people have the power.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
To redeem the work of fools from.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
The meek, the graces shower.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
It's the creed the people w.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
People have the po people have, the people have the power.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
People have the power.

Speaker 6 (02:54):
Into the space, became suspect and bend the news is
in Tahia, Good Yomies.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
She's to fressing because the people had the ear and
the shiphers to.

Speaker 5 (03:11):
The soldiers in a Lady among Stars s traditions, laying
off to rest in the dust in the form of
shining valleys with joy went nice in the.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Senses, leop and no one can to the prize.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
People have.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
The people have, the bad.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
People have.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
The bad.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
People have. The bad.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
People have the power. And I'm gonna send a quote
out to Neil from Patty Smith that she once said
punk rock is just another word for freedom. So people
have the power. Patty Smith wrote this song with her
late husband, Fred Smith. It emphasizes that idea that ordinary people,

(04:26):
when acting together, possess the ability to shape their world
and achieve their dreams. Was inspired by the spirit of
the nineteen sixties protest movements and abing to inspire a
similar sense of agency in the late eighties when it
was written. It's an anthem about the collective power of
individuals to create change and encourages listeners to recognize their

(04:50):
own agency and work together to realize their dreams and
address societal issues. And she's way up there in my
book as a great poet, a great writer, a great song.

Speaker 6 (05:03):
A great philosopher, and a great philosopher.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
So people have the power to do great things, but
at times it seems that humans have a propensity to
mess things up, especially when it comes to the environment.
There are those who are working to make things better
and to help reduce the pollution of the land, air,
and water, but we need to build community to protect
the earth. So on today's podcast, we're going to talk

(05:28):
about a powerful ally in the climate movement. Religious institutions,
from churches to moss synagogues, the temples, faith communities are
stepping up and making a tremendous effort to protect the planet.
According to our guests today, Reverend Fletcher Harper, executive director
of Green Faith, the United States stands at a crossroads
as within months, decades of climate progress have been undone.

(05:53):
So what can we do to get the pendulum to
swing back and get us on a path to creating
a healthier planet and to have for the current and
future generations. There's just so much that needs to be
done because the climate crisis is causing real harm right now,
and faith based groups are helping to fill a gap
in climate activism by connecting the global crisis to local needs,

(06:17):
providing disaster relief, protecting vulnerable communities, and ensurings that climate
justice includes racial and economic equity. The message is clear,
caring for our planet isn't just environmental, it's spiritual and moral.
So again, our guest today, as I mentioned before, is
Reverend Fletcher Harper. He will give us some his thoughts

(06:39):
as well as important information on how Green Faith is
working to inform faith based communities on ways to be
proactive on environmental issues. Reverend Fletcher is a pioneer of
the global religious environmental movement and he helps spearhead the
faith based Fossil Fueled Investment movement. He organizes faith turnout

(07:00):
at major climate mobilizations, and a mobilization is coming up
next month as Faith for Climate Justice Sun s u
N Day will take place from September nineteenth through the
twenty first and please go to Faith Greenfaith dot org
to get more info. Reverend Harper is also the founder
of Shine and International campaign that supports women and community

(07:21):
led renewable energy access initiatives in Africa and India. He
is the author of Green Faith Mobilizing God's People to
Protect the Earth. So, Reverend Harper, welcome back to the
many shades of Green.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Good to be with you, Good to see you again.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's good to see you. It's good to be with you.
And I know you're still working harder than ever because
we need to work harder than ever right now in
this environment that we're in. I'm gonna have to ask
you to start off the green shade of green question,
So because I have to, So, what is your shade
of green in this moment?

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Well, today, whatever the embattled shade of green is. You know,
we're up against a tough situation now. I mean that
the new administration has shredded decades of progress on climate change,
with every single progress step having been hard fought and
hard won, and that's been shredded in incredibly short order.

(08:20):
So embattled is the shade of green for today?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, I mean you're right, because now you know, we're
trying to get through this. It seems like it's just
you need like fifteen paddles to stop everything that's coming
at you, to swat it back. And you know, we're
hoping that the legal recourse will take effect on some things,
but it's just I've never seen anything like this. It's

(08:45):
hard for me to even talk about things now because
it's just you want to literally cry. And that that's uh,
you know that that's I don't know. So anyway, I mean,
so Green Faith, how are you helping like kind of
lead the charge in with respect to this this big,
beautiful bill that he threw out that's that's decimating so much.

(09:08):
I mean, what's the messaging to the face faith based
communities about this bill and and one of the actions
that you guys are taking.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
It's been multifaceted. I mean, one of the ways we've
been approaching this has been by creating spaces for people
from different spiritual and religious backgrounds to share how they're doing. Because,
as you said, it's a really challenging moment. It's it's
overwhelming and deadening in some ways because of the intensity
of the onslaught. So we've you know, we've been holding

(09:39):
those discussions online on a on a monthly basis for
folks who are interested. When it came to the Big
Ugly Bill, a reconciliation bill, we were part of a
national campaign called United End Polluter Handouts that was pointing
out to the Congress that there were massive increased handouts

(10:03):
to fossil fuel companies in the in the legislation and
that that was dead wrong and these these subsidies are
not popular and increasing them certainly isn't popular, and it's
just flatly and moral to be ramping up subsidies for
you know, fossil fuels as they're intensifying the climate crisis.
So where we were successful was putting this sort of

(10:27):
strongly on the radar screen of a range of Congressional representatives.
We know that there's a lot of misgivings about this
bill among its supporters in Congress, and we know that
when people hear about the bill, the more they hear
about it. You know, you start out with sixty to
seventy percent of people having a negative opinion of it,

(10:50):
the more people hear, the less they like it. We
also organized faith communities to end faith We had two
hundred faith leaders from around the country who signed a
letter to Congress saying, do not pass this bill. It
is absolutely against our core ethical beliefs to shred healthcare,

(11:11):
to tear a power, protections for the environment and support
for clean energy, to deprive people of nutritional support that
they need. And we saw a very strong on short
notice upsurge of consensus among faith leaders around that because
it's just blatant that this is tomorrow as mr as
it comes. We also we did a little bit of

(11:35):
spoofing to try to approach this in a different way
to underscore the point that this is not something that
faith communities are in support of. When the fossil fuel
subsidies issue was getting debated, we had a couple of
clergy and myself went down to Washington, DC and we
had our clergy callers on and we got our offering

(11:57):
bowls and basins, and we went into a number of
different senators awe senators offices asking for alms for the
fossil fuel industry because after all, this industry needs needs
so much help and needs so much support. As a
way of trying to sort of point out the ludicrousness of,
you know, the the industry getting more money. So we

(12:19):
took this on in a number of different ways, and
the bill got passed, obviously, but we're doubling down and
are going to be calling for the Congress to repeal
the bill because it's just a moral slot. It's just
an abomination and it and and it. You know, we
need to fight it.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I just keep saying to myself, what's the endgame in
all of this?

Speaker 6 (12:41):
What?

Speaker 2 (12:42):
How much power?

Speaker 5 (12:44):
You know?

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I mean Gilded Age Part two, YadA YadA, right, I mean,
we know what happened back in the day, in the
early point of the nineteen twentieth century, But now it's like,
where where is this? What do these people? I mean,
aside from greed and power and money, I guess three
major things. But what's the endgame? To keep polluting the

(13:09):
air and land and water, and especially hitting underserved communities
and areas where there's lower income, and it's hitting the poorest,
it's hitting the people who have the most difficult time
surviving in general. And I just don't do you hear
from anyone about I mean, what that's about? What is

(13:31):
possibly the endgame in all of this? It seems like
they just want to destroy everything and and if you're
a you know, a guard fearing person or a person
who you know regularly, you know, goes to services and
goes into temples and mosques and synagogues. How I mean,
what are you getting? What are the what is the

(13:52):
feedback you're getting.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
The feedback we're hearing is that people are stunned and appalled.
You know, obviously we're not going into faith communities that
are heavily friendly to this agenda, but even among more
I mean, I'm in touch with lots of religious leaders,
and even those that i'd characterize as more moderate are
very clear that they're shocked by what's happening and they're

(14:17):
appalled by it. It's very clear that ripping healthcare away
from people has nothing to do with what religions teaches
the right thing to do. It's very clear that destroying
clean energy progress in the country, really taking aim at
the solar and wind industries and trying to eliminate them
is nothing close to what our faiths call us to

(14:41):
be in support of. And I think that there's a
sense of shock that the administration has the goal to
try to do this and to try to dress it
up as the right thing. And I think you're going
to see a lot more and where we're already seeing
more and more religious leaders rising up and saying that
is dead wrong and do not try to use ethics

(15:04):
or morality to say that what you're doing is right,
because it couldn't be further from the truth.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, are the new pope who's an American, which is
you know, very unusual. No one thought that was going
to happen. He seems very pro environment I mean, what
do you what are you getting any you know, info
or vibes from from from you know, the Catholic community
and from the Pope and church about you know, he
seems to be on the forefront of trying to you know,

(15:31):
do the right thing and even putting solar in the
Vatican and you know, stuff like that to try to
set an example. I mean, what do you what are
you take taking from that?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
What we see from Pope Leo is a continued commitment
to concern for the poor, concern for migrants and refugees,
concern for caring for creation, and a concern for social justice.
And those are not you know, conservative or liberal values.
Those are religious values. And so we see and expect

(16:03):
that the Pope will be calling for that kind of
action and commitment by governments and to say that it's
our responsibility. So we're glad to see that. And what's
important now is that more and more people take up
that banner and speak out at the local level.

Speaker 6 (16:20):
It's not necessary religious values. That's the humanistic values, right.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
You don't exactly, there's no there's no need to be
religious to agree that treating people with dignity and respect.
You know, you don't, you don't. I mean, religion is
one way to get to that conclusion, but it's certainly
not the only way.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
All right, So we'll hold on to that thought, because,
believe it or not, we hit the brake and I
don't even know how fast that went. But anyway, so
it's time for a quick break. We'll be back more
with great info from Reverend Fletcher Harper Green Faith talk
about the Royal Houses of work, worship, play and the
environment to movement and more. So please stay tuned Hudson

(17:01):
River Radio dot com.

Speaker 7 (17:07):
Hudson River Radio dot com.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Hudson River Radio dot com.

Speaker 7 (17:21):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
And we're back with Reverend Fletcher Harper, executive director of
Green Faith, to talk about how we can connect to
the environment and all these issues that are happening right now,
and how we can get the faith based communities more
involved and get ourselves. We're involved, and with that, you
can get involved by messaging us if you have any questions.

(18:06):
Subscribe to our podcast on all major apps and send
us your thoughts at Team Shades of Green on Instagram, threads, Facebook,
and Blue Sky because there's lots we'd like to hear
from you as well. So we're talking about, you know,
the faith based community. Faith based community is if I
can talk today, I don't know, ah, and what actions

(18:28):
and how they're responding. So what what what's going on?
I mean, what what are the actions being taken at
this point?

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Well, what we're what we're working on now is prepping
for mid September national mobilization as part of a big
mobilization called Sunday s u n Day, and we're adding
the theme of Fates for Climate Justice and the purpose
of the mobilization is to raise up that renewable energy

(18:59):
is taking off. You know, every eighteen hours around the
world is the equivalent of a new medium sized nuclear
plant worth of solar capacity that's installed on more than
one hundred days last year. On parts of more than
one hundred days last year, all of the electricity in
the state of California was generated by renewable sources. Another

(19:22):
great story is that in Pakistan, which you know twice
in the last decade has been thirty percent underwater from
climate induced flooding. Because of frustration with the slow pace
of expansion of the country's energy grid, Pakistanis have bought
up solar panels and installed them on their own roofs,

(19:45):
and by doing so have increased the electricity supply of
the country thirty percent. So all around the world there
are these examples of renewable energy growing at this incredible speed.
It's real hope and it's also a real challenge to
the fossil fuel industry. And so Sunday is intended to

(20:06):
lift up that fact, to celebrate it, to say that
this is the future, and you know, in our case,
to show that religious communities are all on board with that,
to make that transition happen as fast as it can,
and to say that this is that we need to
see policies that support that transition and that phase out
fossil fuels. At the same time, we know that we're

(20:29):
sort of climbing uphill with that message, but it's absolutely
vital that we put that out there and call for
that clearly so that people see and understand that that's
where the future is at.

Speaker 6 (20:40):
Ye, how many of the ministers or reverends out of
a agree with you? I was preaching that every Sunday
because it doesn't seem to me it's not really reaching
the people that are going to church, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I think that's another reason that Sunday is really important, Malcolm,
because there's a study that came out from Boston University
recently that showed that when polled, ninety percent of clergy
in the US believe that climate change is happening, believe
it's a serious problem, and believe that addressing it directly

(21:18):
is a central part of their faith. But the same
survey showed that fewer than half of those people have
talked about this issue with any kind of regularity, either
because they don't feel equipped to talk about it, or
because in the polarized cultural and political environment we're in,
they're afraid to do so. So part of what Sunday

(21:39):
is designed to do is to say to people, we're
in this together. We know that this is a serious issue,
and we know that it's all religious and ethical duty
to speak out. So we've got a lot of a
lot of people who have been silently believing in the closet,
and it's time. You know, this is a day about

(21:59):
say saying we're going to come out and go public
on this because that matters.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Right, I mean I was reading a little bit about
it and it said this is the weekend the sun
day s u n Day's two separate words play on
words of sun because it's a solar and it's also
you have solar sh u l a r as well, which.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
I thought weekend is the is the fall equinox also, right,
so it's a nice time.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
So anyway you have, you know, so you said, you know,
please join for Sunday Faith for Climate Justice mobilization and
it says some will hold climate theme work, workshop services,
and rituals. Others will march to state houses and city halls,
lead climate pilgrimages, learn more about solar power and electric vehicles,
so those being put into place now as well as.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
So up up in Boston, there's a group of about
fifteen faith communities that are coming together to do a
pilgrimage down one of Boston major streets, ending up in
front of the State House, in front of city Hall.
Here in in northern New Jersey where I live in
Sea Caucus, the Lutheran Church in town has a solar array.

(23:16):
Secaucus is a very low lying community and if sea
level rise happens as predicted, significant parts of the town
are going to be underwater in a century. And so
we're going to be doing a march from one church
through the middle of town to the Lutheran church with
the solar panels. The marchers are going to be wearing
snorkel gear as a way of saying that we don't

(23:37):
want to be underwater at the time. You know, and
this is century now, you're talking about the expected The
life expectancy for a girl born today is close to
one hundred years, so you're talking about now within people's
living lifetimes.

Speaker 6 (23:51):
And so that how are you relating to the non
Christian ministers, the rabbis, or the months of Muslim faith.
Are you getting them involved also?

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Absolutely? Absolutely, they're involved in the pilgrimage I mentioned in Boston.
They'll be involved in the event in North Jersey that
I mentioned, And there are You know there are are events.
You know, there are events now taking place around the country.
Down in New Orleans, it's the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane

(24:25):
Katrina this year, which is a wow moment. Yeah, religious
leaders are coming together and former Vice President Al Gore
is going to be joining them to share stories about
the impact of the storm and the recovery, and to
send a message to the rest of the world that this,
you know, we need to learn and we need to
pay attention to what's happening. So this is absolutely a

(24:48):
multi faith, multicultural sort of event and weekend.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
How would someone how would clergy or rabbi whenever get involved?
I mean, how where would they go to get some information?
Because I know I have someone near and dear to me.
My nephew is a rabbi, and I'm I haven't spoken
to him about this because he's marrying my son in
two weeks, so I haven't brought this up with him,

(25:16):
but i'd like to performing the ceremony is not married
right right, he's performing anyway, I would love I don't
know what his take is on this. I'm sure he
has a good take on it. I don't know if
he's involved with Green Faith at all. How would I
push him a bit?

Speaker 3 (25:31):
So if he if he googles green Faith, or if
he just does a Google search for Green Faith and
then sun s um space day, so green Faith sun day. Okay, Well,
you know that'll get him to the resource page where
there's lots of information he can Okay. Reverend Amy Brooks,
who is our US coordinator, She's at Okay, Amy at

(25:53):
faith dot org. Okay, those are some great ways to
get in touch.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Okay, good, Just I want to keep that in.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
My head, so you know, I want his phil Soon
you'll have no problem with him.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
I know, I know we'll see he's though, and everyone's
so preoccupied and try to deal with what's happening, you're
just thrown for a loop.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Your concentration is often you want to concentrate on things
like this to get you know, people out in numbers,
and even though there's numbers though, sometimes I wonder, you know, who,
how are we going to keep this going? How are
we going to keep this momentum, these movements that you're doing,
I mean, how you know, what what do you see

(26:36):
in terms of after this particular movement on the nineteenth
to the twenty. First, what's what's going on for the
rest of the year to get people involved.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
So I think, you know, a key piece is to
look at how do we marshal opposition to this horrible
legislation that's just gone through that inviscerates renewable energy development
in the country, hands out milk billion of dollars eighteen
billion in additional and new subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

(27:05):
And so our answer is we're going to be working
with religious communities around the country for them to call
to repeal those subsidies, to repeal this terrible legislation and
make that, you know, and call on candidates running for
elected office at the federal level to make it clear
whether they support that or not. We think this legislation

(27:27):
is dead wrong, that it's imoral, that it's unethical, that
it's destructive, and that it's got the wrong priorities for
the future. And the best thing to do with this
legislation is to repeal it. So that's what we'll be
asking and calling and with faith communities calling for and
we'll be putting the question to elected officials and candidates

(27:49):
for elected office, would you support repealing that legislation because
we think people need to be on record. Look, when
it passed, there were dozens of people who ended up
voting for the bill who expressed grave reservations about it,
and it was only because of very hardcore pressure that
they came in and voted for it knowing that it

(28:10):
was the wrong thing. So we want to return you know,
we want to return fire and put the pressure back
on those people and make it clear that there's a
cost to supporting that kind of destruction.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
Yeah. From what I can see, and I've always been
talking about this show and my other shows, is that
the most important thing that we're dealing with now is
the climate change and how we can you know, prevent
it or stop it or you know, revitalize it. Because
other things that we do where you know, the administration does,

(28:44):
can be corrected with time. It might take a lot
of time and it upsets a lot of people, but
it can be corrected. Climate change cannot be Climate change
affects our earth, it affects the world. We can change it,
and as far as I remember, there's a certain point
where you cannot change it and the world.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, yeah, no, And I think, you know, it's important
for us all to recognize that these things are interconnected.
I mean, one of the main causes of an upsurge
in migrants and refugees is that people are forced off
their land where they've lived for centuries because of droughts
and floods and fires, and those are worsened by climate change.

(29:28):
You know, health impacts. You know, the health impacts of
climate change are very real. As the summers get a
lot hotter, vulnerable people are suffering more. And you know,
so to cut back healthcare at a time when that's
happening is really ludicrous. And then, you know, we talk
about the affordability crisis, and you know, you cut back

(29:48):
on renewable energy development, you're going to increase people's energy costs,
and you're going to decrease the number of jobs that
are available for people. I mean good that we're already
about four hundred thousand and jobs that had been created
by the Inflation Reduction Act, which were you know, putting
people to work building a better future. And there were
good studies saying that that Act was going to create

(30:11):
about a million jobs a year for the next nine years.
You know, are we willing to throw that all out
the window? I don't think so. So these things are
you know, if you want a prosperous, healthy, good future,
these things all go together.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, it's you just again what I'm saying. I keep
in my brain going, you know, what's the endgame of this?
What I mean? Do you want people to die? Do
you want? I mean, what what is it?

Speaker 1 (30:38):
I mean?

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Because this is what's going to happen. And look what
they did with the USAID, you know, thousands and thousands
of people kids, not it's you know, cancer research for kids,
cancer research in general. Just knock it all out, you know.
And and the nih and and Kennedy's Robert seniors must

(30:59):
rollin in his grave. I mean, how you know, who
would ever think of such you know, things happening in
our lifetime that it's authoritarianism, dictatorship before our eyes. The
constitutional crisis is here. It's not like it's going to
be here, it's already here. And you know, we need

(31:21):
to fight on every level. We need the faith communities,
we need the legal communities to get on board. I mean,
and there's some attorneys who are you know, they started
something called Democracy Defenders Fund, and some of these attorneys
who worked for past administrations or worked for big law
firms that are now have you know, capitulated, and they're

(31:44):
the ones going on the front lines now. So you
know that there's hope. You know, I try to you
wrote and your thing. One of the things is what
what what's the hope? You know, what's the hope? And
you know, when I see stuff like that, I see
some hope. When I see what you're doing, I see
some hope. What else can you throw in the whole thing? Now?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
I mean, you know, I think that one of the
real challenges that this moment puts to us. It's very
easy to feel overwhelmed. It's very easy to feel intimidated,
and it's very easy to feel deadened and sort of
checked out because it's so much. And I think that
what really matters at this point is to recognize that,
you know, history has shown us that part of what

(32:23):
authoritarian leaders count on is that they can essentially convince
people to accept that something that's wrong is tolerable, that
something that's just immoral is they just have to give
it a pass because it's too much. And I think
that this is where the sort of you know, ethical, spiritual,

(32:44):
religious dimensions to life kicks in where each of us
needs to remember that it is not okay, and it
dehumanizes us to say that, you know, we're just going
to look the other way because it's you know, it
doesn't matter, and you know, it's the law of the jungle.
The you know, might makes right that that just you know,
you cannot accept that. And so I think that's you know,

(33:06):
religious groups need to need to sort of continue to
bring that message and you know, to keep hope alive.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, you're right, you know, and and to get those
people more you know, involved, and get the faith based
institutions to to put up you know, solar and show
by example like the Lutheran Church. You know, let's have
examples of this where we can do in our community
to make this better and what you guys can do,

(33:35):
you know, to make it better too, and that that
when you lead by example, people will will look. And unfortunately,
what we have now in the current regime and I'll
use the word in it to me is a regime. Uh,
it's just not not it. I mean, you know, you
would want your kid to look up to the president
of the United States. I don't know how consciously people

(33:58):
can do that.

Speaker 6 (33:59):
Now is a lot of people don't know what to
believe because there's so much false information out there. I know,
I go into the UH to Facebook or Google, there's
so many depending on the source, there's so many stories
that I say, you know, that's not true, but people
don't know that that you know, aren't more well informed

(34:19):
because I get into arguments with people are very pro
what's happening, and they say the same stories. Every time
I tell them facts, they say, no, that's fake news. Yeah,
they don't know what to believe.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, that's that's that's a big problem here. How do
we get you know, the fourth Estate is letting us down.
Mainstream media is letting us down. And when you see
all of that happening, as you said, you know, you
can't lose faith, but you feel like you will if
this keeps going on. And what can you do? And

(34:54):
people have to power through this? You know, Patty Smith
said people have the power, and people do have the power.
And there's more of us, you know, there are more
of us.

Speaker 6 (35:04):
The churches have the power if they would unite.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
You know, you're trying to do this is you know,
there are lots of examples through history when things were
in a bad place, and people of conscience, people of goodwill,
people of different faiths came together to overcome circumstances that
were really hard. And part of what's involved in that is,
you know, being willing to have a really sort of

(35:30):
you know, very strong ethical moral spine, if you will,
and to say this is not easy, but I will not.
You know, I'm defiantly hopeful on this, and I'm defiantly
committed to you know, and I think that it takes
you know, and I think also it's worth you know,
in a lot of religious circles, anger gets looked down on.
But I think that there is an there's a there's

(35:51):
a very sort of you know, what do you want
to call it? It's just you know, you're if you're not,
if you're not upset by what's happening, that's not a
human response.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
You know.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
That doesn't mean we need to be raving all day long,
but it does mean that there is a legitimate, real
concern about the awful, destructive garbage that's taking place right now.
And I think people need to hear that.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Right, you can't turn you can't turn yourself, you know,
you can't just you know, like I in the beginning
of all of this was happening, I was, I would
say to my guests, I'm just gonna be under my desks.
Now you know that that's where I'm gonna because I
can't get up and get out and like. And then
I finally hit the point where I said, uh uh,
I'm done with it all and I'm gonna speak out.

(36:38):
I'm gonna speak out, and whatever it is gonna happen
is gonna happen because I'm I can't, you know, sit
back and do nothing, and I can't sit back and
not talk. I have a podcast, I have a vehicle.
We're reaching people and that's what we need to do,
right So I can't just say I was gonna almost

(36:58):
play the song everything is beul today, but I nixed
it yesterday. I actually nixed it. Uh. I just I said, Okay,
maybe it was, but right now I'm not sure. So
I said, people are the ones that have the power
to do this, and that's why I flipped to Patty Smith.
But you know, at this point, we just need to

(37:19):
bring whatever is within us and whatever strength we have
out to just fight this and protest and and go
to events like you're having and so at this point.
That's the best I think we can do. And uh
and and I'll just say that to rap because I
know you were probably hit a point at the breakaway

(37:41):
at the end rap here, So where can people get
so thank you so much for coming on. I would
love to have you back to know what what what
happened with all of this and maybe the end of
the year or beginning of the year. Where can people
get information about the Green Faith and about this uh
again this uh September.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
So do a Google search or a web search for
Green Faith g R E E n F A I
t h and then the two words sun s U
N day d A y so Green Faith sun Day
and you'll get you'll get a link to a lot
and email our US coordinator, Reverend Amy Brooks, Unitarian Universalist

(38:26):
Minister at Amy A. M. Y at Green Faith g
R E E n F A I T H dot
O r G. That's that that's the place to reach out.
We're we're looking forward to getting more folks on board
and really good to be with you all.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
All right, Well again, thank you so much for coming on.
And uh people UH do have the power and the
faith based institutions churches, synagogues, mosques, Buddhism, all all across
the board. We have the power and we have to
use it. And that's that's the that's the key point.

(39:05):
So everyone go to Greenfaith dot org as well and
look up Sunday and get in touch with Amy and
I'll have that on my blog. I'll put the information
on and again, thank you so much, so great to
see you again, great to be with you.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Thanks Familia.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
We have to have you back on. So thanks for
joining us for the Many Shades of Green. For more
info and shows, go to Hudson River Radio dot com,
Malcolm Presents dot com and Themany Shades of Green dot com.
Send us your thoughts at Team Shades of Green on
Instagram and threads, and follow us on Facebook, subscribe to
our podcast. Shout out to Neil back there, Neil, you

(39:44):
know we love you, uh and to Brian and Malcolm
for their help. Always remember pick a shaded green and
raise your eco and social consciousness. Maxie, Margaret Rubin and
we'll see you again next time.

Speaker 6 (40:00):
M H.

Speaker 7 (40:18):
Hudson River Radio dot com