Sharon Delgado, a United Methodist minister, author, and speaker, is founder and Executive Director of Earth Justice Ministries. She is a dynamic speaker who leads seminars and workshops and speaks before spiritual communities and secular audiences on issues related to climate change, economic and environmental justice, peacemaking, and corporate globalization. Find out more at her website and blog at sharondelgado.org. Her new book, Love in a Time of Climate Change: Honoring Creation, Establishing Justice, offers a progressive Christian approach to climate change, which disproportionately harms the poor, threatens future generations, and damages God’s creation. This book uses scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to explore the themes of creation and justice in the context of the earth’s changing climate. By creatively employing these four sources of authority, readers discover a unique way to assess the physical realities of climate change, discern its physical and spiritual implications, reflect on planetary warming theologically and discern a faithful response. The book’s premise is that love of God and neighbor in this time of climate change requires us to honor creation and establish justice for our human family, for future generations, and for all creation. From the Introduction: “As we entrust our lives to God, we are enabled to join with others in the movement for climate justice and to carry a unified message of healing, love, and solidarity as we live into God’s future, offering hope in the midst of the climate crisis that `another world is possible.’ God is ever present, always with us. Love never ends.” Sharon's first book, Shaking the Gates of Hell: Faith-Led Resistance to Corporate Globalization, includes personal stories, theological analysis, and an overview of the global economy. This book makes the case that humanity faces a living hell on earth of widespread poverty, social upheaval, repression, war, human misery, and ecological collapse. Huge corporations drive economic globalization, exacerbating these global threats by triggering a “race to the bottom.” Nations lower environmental, labor, and human rights standards in order to compete in the global economy. Though there are powerful forces at work that threaten life, we need not fear. These destructive forces are not abstract and irreversible, but emerge from actual institutions that hold political, economic, and military power. We can meet these forces with courage if we are deeply grounded in our relationship with God. Together, people of faith and conscience around the world can “shake the gates of hell,” resisting the horror of a barren, violent, and poisoned future, while developing new and viable alternatives to help build a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Sharon's goals are to demonstrate the link between personal spirituality and social concern, to offer hope, and to inspire people to take action for a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. She lives in Nevada City, California, with her husband, poet Guarionex Delgado, and spends many hours with her grandchildren. She loves to dance.
