Gore to the Thessalonians: “Pray without Ceasing” (1 Thess 5)
by Lowell Bliss, Director of Eden Vigil Institute for Environmental Leadership
I took a retreat on New Years Day and did something unusual in the afternoon. I retrieved an old DVD of the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, released by Al Gore in 2006, almost two decades ago. I also had to unpack my now-adult son’s old PlayStation since we had no other DVD player left in the house. I’ll attach a photo of the DVD cover. I met the former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laurate in 2016 and brought along this DVD for him to autograph. “Weren’t you embarrassed,” my kids asked, “to hand him a used DVD from the bargain bin of Dillon’s Video Department?” Nope. Reduce, reuse, recycle, baby—that’s what Gore himself taught in the closing credits.
It was surreal re-watching this. I used to tour churches and small groups with this DVD and could still easily mouth along with some of the dialogue. I knew what was going to happen in the next scene. Of course, I also knew what would happen in the next twenty years. I was surprised about how little had changed since Gore and his team first produced An Inconvenient Truth. For instance, there was one piece of science that was immediately disputed. Gore claimed that the collapse of Greenland’s or West Antarctica’s would raise ocean levels by “20 feet” (7 meters). I seemed to recall a time when scientists advised him to reduce that assessment by half. And yet, climate.nasa.gov now reports: “if the Greenland ice sheet were to completely melt and the meltwater were to completely flow into the ocean, then global sea level would rise by about seven meters (23 feet).” Other than that, at almost every slide on the screen and almost every paragraph in the transcript, you could replace “Paris Agreement” for “Kyoto Protocol.” You could replace President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for President George W. Bush and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK). Scenes from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans could be replaced with Hurricane Milton in Asheville, NC. And of course, the 2024 version of Keeling Curve, that marks the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, has the exact same shape as it had in 2006, though it has been extended with two more decades of data.
Alas. My favourite non-change is when Gore refers to Carbon Capture and Sequestration and calls it “a big solution that you are going to be hearing a lot more about.” We are still hearing a lot more about CCS as a big solution in the future, but now it is the fossil fuel industry that seems to be the one talking about it, but as a PR campaign that allows them to keep emitting carbon.
In re-watching An Inconvenient Truth on my retreat day, I wasn’t seeking to be depressed at how little has changed for climate action in the last 20 years. No, I was seeking to recapture my original vision and passion, like a lingering aroma after a candle has burned down. And I was also seeking to inform my current activism by revisiting some of my original marching orders. As my prayers and activism and leadership were entering the Year 2025, what changes did I want to put into what I was doing? For all that I ended up considering, let me mention just two things to change from An Inconvenient Truth and one thing to keep the same.
First, we definitely need to change that scene where Gore quotes Winston Churchill. Gore says,
And one question we as a people need to decide is how we react when we hear warnings from the leading scientists in the world. There was another storm in the 1930s of a different kind. A horrible, unprecedented storm in continental Europe, and Winston Churchill warned the people of England that it was different from anything that had ever happened before and they had to get ready for it. And a lot of people did not want to believe it. And he got real impatient with all the dithering. And he said this: “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences...."
Surely we are fully in that period of consequences for climate change, so why do we keep issuing warnings? In a Substack article coming out today, I argue that we can replace this Churchill quote for a different one, something that he uttered on May 28, 1940 about the surrender of Belgium, the evacuation of Dunkirk, and the fall of France. I think it is more relevant for 2025.
Second, we also need to change the closing credits of An Inconvenient Truth, although I still love the voice of Melissa Etheridge belting out her song “I Need to Wake Up.” (Treat yourself to the music video here.) The closing credits include a rolling set of actions to take, of “climate solutions” that all viewers could do: change your lightbulbs, ride a bike, buy renewable energy from your utility, take public transportation, etc. Of course, in the last 20 years, many of us have been checking off that list, including the one about voting for climate friendly candidates. In the years since 2006, the United States has actually had twelve years of Democrat presidents (Obama and Biden) and only six years of Republicans (two remaining years of Bush’s second term and all of Trump’s first.) Two hours before I started writing this article, I heard the news that our Canadian, climate-friendly, prime minister, Justin Trudeau has just resigned. Trudeau became prime minister the same month and year that the Paris Agreement was adopted. I can’t help but feel that 2025’s action list must include more radical actions which target capitalism’s injustices, Christian nationalism’s idolatries, and the polluters’ pocketbooks.
Finally though, also in the closing credits, I found one of their action points that did make me stop and think. It rolled out on the screen in four parts:
If you believe in prayer,…
…pray that people will find the strength to change.
In the words of the old African proverb…
...when you pray, move your feet.
In I Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul tells Christians, “pray without ceasing.” It’s a funny little concept at face value. As an ironic twist I’ll turn to a biblical exegete that I used to adore back in 2006, John MacArthur, who writes,
To "pray without ceasing" refers recurring prayer, not nonstop talking. Prayer is to be a way of life--you're to be continually in an attitude of prayer. It is living in continual God-consciousness, where everything you see and experience becomes a kind of prayer, lived in deep awareness of and surrender to Him. It should be instant and intimate communication-not unlike that which we enjoy with our best friend.
I can still affirm that interpretation even though now in 2025 I want to shake the dust of my sandals off in MacArthur’s climate-denying, Christian nationalist pulpit in the hopes that he will sneeze the evil hermeneutic out of his sermonizing.
At the very least, “pray without ceasing” means that if you pray on Sunday, pray on Monday too. If you used to pray in 2006, still be a person of prayer in 2025. If you prayed about the flooding in Mumbai portrayed in An Inconvenient Truth, pray about the flooding happening this month in the U.K. But the phrase “without ceasing” has a time element to it, and time should mean growth and maturation. We started praying together as a Climate Intercessors network in November 2020. The growth I am going to seek in my prayers in 2025 are informed, in part, by the other changes I want to make to An Inconvenient Truth.
If you believe in prayer,…
…pray that unjust people will find the divine grace to change,
…and that those people who have changed will find the strength to endure this period of excruciating consequences.
In the words of the old African proverb…
...when you pray, move your feet
…tirelessly,
and prophetically.
Al Gore signed more than his name to my well-used DVD from the bargain bin. Can you read what he wrote? He wrote, “with deepest respect and gratitude for your tireless work.” Yikes! Tireless?! I guess it is a challenge to try and rise to, as much as “pray without ceasing” is. I pass on that deepest respect and gratitude to you, dear people of Climate Intercessors. I also pass on that same challenge in 2025.
You are very dear to God,
Lowell
On behalf of Climate Intercessors Leadership Team