Source: Public Orthodoxy
Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis
Executive Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Holy Cross School of Theology
At the beginning of his first term, I wrote an article exhorting Donald Trump to self-restraint in matters of faith. This article is an extension of that plea in the second Trump term, urging the President to do likewise when it comes to creation care and, specifically, the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Every day, it seems, we are exposed to an unrelenting onslaught of increasingly polarized and deeply fragmented, often ill-natured and vitriolic discourse about what Trump is doing to America and the world. From geopolitical upheaval over NATO, Greenland, and Venezuela to local chaos over heavy-handed immigration raids to fatal shootings in Minneapolis, this administration seems positively addicted to crisis. We’ve all grown used to it somehow. It’s become the white noise that suffuses and surrounds our daily consciousness, to the point where it is scarcely even noticeable any longer. Any criticism is immediately deflected or dismissed—in a grievously unserious trope that entirely inverts reality—as “Trump derangement syndrome” or “fake outrage.” Its effects are readily apparent not just on social media (where it has always festered most conveniently), but increasingly in faith communities, professional circles, and family life. Relationships everywhere—from intimate gatherings to global alliances—are straining under the weight of one man’s unbridled lust for power and money as well as revenge and attention. No president in US history has resorted to so many lawsuits and withholding government money to stifle criticism and change policy, thereby generating a climate of fear and silence.
In addition, many are tired of seeing someone of such moral inadequacy and uncultured boorishness absorb so much of the oxygen in media (mainstream and unhinged) and in public conversation (real and in cyberspace). It seems to have altered reality for everyone: corporate and church leaders cower to and enable him; evangelical crusaders and religious neophytes idolize and normalize him; entitled plutocrats reap tax benefits and government contracts, while small business owners, young adults, and blue-collar workers are left with more medical and personal debt.
For whatever reason, not everyone can see that he has thoroughly debased the office he holds. For whatever reason, not everyone can see that he has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the United States as a reliable ally. For whatever reason, not everyone can see that he has internally divided and globally isolated our nation. For whatever reason, not everyone can see that he has fundamentally compromised and undermined core constitutional and civil rights. The onslaught persists on a daily basis.
It᾽s no wonder then that the recent news that the EPA will soon be revoking the endangerment finding at the EPA is but another one-day news blip. Who cares and who even knows what it is? The 2009 “Endangerment Finding” demonstrated that public health and welfare are threatened by greenhouse gases (oil, gas, and coal), which should be regulated by the federal government. It is the scientific and legal foundation on which government policy and court rulings is based. Revoking it ends the government regulation and has lasting consequences that gamble with the future of our children. Whether we voted for Trump or not, can we not all at least agree that he does not have any right to gamble or, worse, sabotage the future of our children and grandchildren irreparably and irrevocably?
Against this backdrop, it is incumbent on those of us who still retain an appreciation for the stability and sanity that preceded this era, at the very least, not to look the other way when it comes to what Trump has done to a precious domain of policy that means a great deal to me and one that receives far less attention than deserved—namely, climate policy. In particular, we cannot ignore the evident determination of the Trump administration to slow or reverse commitments on this front undertaken by his predecessors, despite those promises already being embraced and endorsed by private and state actors alike around the world, such as the United Nations Climate Change Conferences.
In the past, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has written to several US presidents to convey his congratulations on environmental policies or concerns about energy issues. But let me focus on just one president for purposes of this article. I was at the Phanar each of the years below when His All-Holiness wrote to President Obama:
- Thanking him in 2011 for his “comprehensive national strategy and policy in the ‘Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future.’”
- Commending him in 2013 for his “Climate Action Plan” and “the courageous manner, with which [he]underlined our moral obligation to future generations by assuming ‘the courage to act before it’s too late,’ affirming [his]inaugural pledge to ‘preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.’” On the same occasion, Patriarch Bartholomew added: “There is no doubt in our mind that this is a movement as critically urgent and as morally imperative as any campaign for fundamental human and civil rights.”
- Supporting his efforts in 2015 through the Environmental Protection Agency to formulate “the unprecedented and long anticipated ‘Clean Power Plan,’ which drew clear and direct connections between climate change and human health.” At that time, the Patriarch also noted: “We believe that this world has been granted to us as a divine gift and as a legacy for future generations. Such decisive and definitive action is as critically urgent and as morally imperative as any political campaign for fundamental human and civil rights. For the willingness to exploit the environment is revealed in the willingness to tolerate human suffering.”
As we watch and witness the unprecedented reversal of environmental standards and rampant deregulation of the energy sector touted by this President, I cannot help but fear that the price that will inevitably be passed along to our children is of even less concern to our generation than I had previously supposed. The short-sightedness of the current administration—rooted as it is in the President’s ignorant and contemptuous dismissal of the climate crisis as “a giant scam”—will no doubt be contested in the courts and in future elections. But the final reckoning will doubtless extend beyond the ephemeral spheres of law and politics. Its real repercussions will be felt by untold generations to come—in other words, by those who have not yet had the opportunity to cast a ballot or have their voices heard, who will ultimately feel most aggrieved by the political myopia and self-centeredness of this moment. To put it mildly, they will wonder at those who were silent.
In this context, I cannot help but feel a deep sense of disappointment, if not outright repugnance, at the hesitancy with which those organizing the Templeton Prize ceremony in honor of His All-Holiness in September 2025, sought to avoid attracting the displeasure of the White House. Their fear of expressing anything that might be perceived as critical of or even potentially offensive to the current administration fundamentally belies the principal ambition of the patriarchate’s ecological initiatives, which is to highlight the perennial and often-forgotten connection between faith and science and shed light on the corresponding association between environmental degradation and countless forms of suffering. In a powerful and prescient, if in retrospect, sadly ironic twist, His All-Holiness reminded his audience of precisely the perspective I would have hoped that the church and wider polity might adopt, but is instead contradicted on a daily basis:
“We cannot heal our relationship with the planet without healing our relationships with each other. We cannot achieve environmental sustainability while maintaining social inequality. We cannot save the earth without practicing justice . . . May we find the courage to speak truth to power and the wisdom to speak love to fear. May we discover that caring for creation is not a burden but a gift. And may we remember, even in dark moments, that every crisis is also an opportunity, every death the possibility of resurrection. The earth is groaning, but it is also hoping. The question is whether we will join its song of grief or its chorus of gratitude.”
Now is the time to end the fear of retribution and silence. Now is the time to speak out for the Green Patriarch’s long legacy of creation care and for the future of generations to come. Now is the time to speak out before the revocation of the “endangerment finding” and for the record in the courts that will handle the appeals when the revocation happens. Future generations will be looking and listening!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis was born in Australia and studied theology (University of Athens) and Byzantine Music (Greek Conservatory of Music). He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Oxford.
After spending time on Mt. Athos, he served as Personal Assistant to Archbishop Stylianos in Australia, where he co-founded St Andrew’s Theological College and taught at the University of Sydney. Subsequently, he was appointed Professor of Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology and directed the Religious Studies Program at Hellenic College.
The author of many books and articles in several languages on theology, spirituality, and ecology, Fr. John’s publications include three volumes of collected works by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, whose biography by Fr. John was published by Harper Collins.