"We're made to live in a delicate network of interdependence" Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1931-2021
"We're made to live in a delicate network of interdependence" Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1931-2021
We must be as fierce and compassionate as Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died, aged 90
The Economist: Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the best kind of troublemakerThe veteran campaigner against apartheid has died, aged https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/12/26/archbishop-desmond-tutu-was-the-best-kind-of-troublemaker
The BBC: Desmond Tutu: Obama joins tributes to South Africa anti-apartheid hero https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59796159
The New York Times: Desmond Tutu, Whose Voice Helped Slay Apartheid, Dies at 90 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html
Statement by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on the Passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I first heard of Archbishop Desmond Tutu when I was an art student at “old Queens College,” Rutgers University. Rutgers, U.C. Berkeley and NYU (New York University) were the first three universities to lead the student movement around the nation calling for divestment of their universities holdings in South Africa and to completely pull out billions of dollars invested in companies doing business with the apartheid government of South Africa. That all is another inspiring story of how determined non-violent action that turned universal can make a difference.
He was a living model for all, no matter their beliefs or faith. His courage and his tireless struggle “for liberation of the oppressed” is a shining example of what it means to work for social and environmental justice.
Tutu, an Anglican theologian was on the fore front working for a non-violent response to the South Africa’s colonial apartheid regime of white minority rule. The black majority’s civil rights were brutally impinged upon under the Apartheid regime, denying them the right to vote. The forced segregation was much worse than the Jim Crow laws in the Southern U.S. States. Black South Africans were relocated and placed in townships where public services were practically non existent and where they could not own property, only rent from the white property owners.
From 1976 to 1978 Tutu was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Tutu did not just fight to end apartheid. He emphasized a consensus-building model of leadership and oversaw the introduction of female priests. When serving as Archbishop of Johannesburg, he was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 "for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa.".
As South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela led the transition from apartheid minority rule to a multicultural democracy, Mandela selected Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses committed by both pro and anti-apartheid groups.
Tutu, did not stop there. He activism was loud and clear calling on world leaders to step up to turning the tide on climate change. He started a petition that was delivered to then Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and President Barack Obama. Over 350,000 people from around the world signed on.
The petition reads:
“Climate change is one of the greatest moral challenges of our time. It threatens the health of our planet and people; especially the poorest and most vulnerable. It threatens our children’s future and everything we hold dear. It is time for all of us to wake up and take action together — in our local communities, nationally and globally, as well as in our daily lives.
As citizens motivated by faith and other moral traditions, we recognize that there is a grave obligation to act on climate change.
We call on you as leaders to respond urgently to the threats of climate change and set a renewable energy target of 100% by 2050. We need bold action like this to keep global temperature rise below the unacceptably dangerous tipping point of two degrees, to phase out carbon pollution to zero, and to invest resources in sustainable development pathways to build a more flourishing, inclusive and balanced world.
We pledge to do our own part by embracing the moral responsibility to care for our world and for each other and by seeking to live better and more sustainable lives in greater joy and harmony.”
As I write this I look to my copy of the 1989 The Green Bible - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) a reading of the Bible thru a “green lens’ where the honor of writing the foreward went to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As I read Tutu’s words I feel sorrow for his loss and sorrow for a world that has not yet grasped his profound message.
Excerpt from the 1989 The Green BibleForeward by Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
“…We must act now and wake up to our moral obligations. The poor and the vulnerable are member’s of God’s family and are most severely affected by droughts,high temperatures, the flooding of coastal cities, and more severe and unpredictable weather events resulting from climate change. We, who should have been responsible stewards preserving our vulnerable, fragile planet home, have been wantonly wasteful through our reckless consumerism, devouring irreplaceable natural resorces. We need to be accountable to all God’s family. Once we start living in a way that is people-friendly to all God’s family, we will also be environment-friendly….”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change:
“The destruction of the earth’s environment is the human rights challenge of our time.
Over the 25 years that climate change has been on the world’s agenda, global emissions have risen unchecked while real world impacts have taken hold in earnest.
Time is running out.
We are already experiencing loss of life and livelihood due to intensified storms, shortage of fresh water, spread of disease, rising food prices, and the creation of climate refugees.
The most devastating effects are visited on the poor, those with no involvement in creating the problem. A deep injustice.
Just as we argued in the 1980s that those who conducted business with apartheid South Africa were aiding and abetting an immoral system, today we say nobody should profit from the rising temperatures, seas and human suffering caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
We can no longer continue feeding our addiction to fossil fuels as if there is no tomorrow. For there will be no tomorrow.
We are on the cusp of a global transition to a new safe energy economy. We must support our leaders to make the correct, moral choices.
Freeze further exploration for new fossil sources. We cannot maintain a livable temperature and climate for humanity if we burn more than a fraction of the fossil fuels already discovered.
Hold those responsible for climate damages accountable. Change the profit incentive by demanding legal liability for unsustainable environmental practices.
Encourage governments to stop accepting funding from the fossil fuel industry that blocks action on climate change.
Divest from fossil fuels and invest in a clean energy future. Move your money out of the problem and into solutions.
There is a word we use in South Africa that describes human relationships: Ubuntu. It says: I am because you are. My success and my failures are bound up in yours. We are made for each other, part of one family, the human family, with one shared earth.
God bless you.”
A selection from the many writings by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
United Nations Development Programme “We do not need climate change apartheid in adaptation” - by Desmond Tutu
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/we-do-not-need-climate-change-apartheid-adaptation
The Guardian
Desmond Tutu: We fought apartheid. Now climate change is our global enemy by Desmond Tutu https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/21/desmond-tutu-climate-change-is-the-global-enemy
Desmond Tutu, Nobel Lecture , December 11, 1984 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1984/tutu/lecture