On the Climate Stew podcast we are not afraid to get downright silly if it helps to communicate serious and important messages about climate change. One of our most popular recurring “guests” is Elizabeth Jeremiah, from the Elizabeth Jeremiah Global Worldwide Ministries in Jesus. While to some she may initially sound like a shallow, intolerant church lady dragged out of a Saturday Night Live skit from the early 90’s, our Elizabeth Jeremiah has a lot of depth to her and a natural curiosity.

In this hilarious monologue, Elizabeth Jeremiah reveals the shock she felt when she discovered the existence of eco-feminists. In so doing she also reveals a thoughtful and powerful way of looking at our relationship to the earth in a time of a rapidly changing climate.

If you like Elizabeth Jeremiah, you are in for a treat. Rumor has it that she is branching out into the world of YouTube very very soon. Stay tuned.

Elizabeth Jeremiah and the Eco-Feminists (full transcript below)

This is Elizabeth Jeremiah from the Elizabeth Jeremiah Global Worldwide Ministries in Jesus with a special word just for you. As a woman in the church of God called to the ministry I have had to claw my way to the pulpit. Now technically according to the male leaders I must submit to, I am forbidden to teach men, and have be relegated to women’s conferences, prayer breakfasts, and shopping mall events. Now I can’t help it if the men sneak in the back to hear me deliver God’s word.

While I feel opposed to feminism because of some vague discomfort I have due to the ways that feminists are portrayed in the media and from the pulpit, how can I be opposed to the feminists’ basic tenet of equality in the workplace? Similarly while I recoil at the sight of environmentalists with their sloppy, sagging hippy fashions and their rigid impractical dogmatism, I do care about clean air and looking after our temporary earthly home that God has graciously allowed us to journey upon. I am not from the religious camp that says the earth doesn’t matter and we might as well whip up wars and trash the planet so that Jesus can more quickly return to create a new heaven and a new earth while the wicked are placed in hell, God’s eternal rotisserie oven of judgment.

Both feminists and environmentalists are reviled and rejected by so many powerful people in society. So you can only imagine how shocked I was to discover that there is a group of women who call themselves ecofeminists. These are feminists who believe men have used, abused, and exploited the planet in the very same ways they have used, abused, and exploited women. They are feminists environmentalists who I have heard rumored sometimes gather for full moon menstruation ceremonies. I wonder if ecofeminism was created in some Left Wing think tank as a weapon of mass destruction in order to give Conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh a heart attack.

These likely terribly lonely ecofeminists rightly point out how domineering, and I mean that in the bad way, men have been towards women and towards the earth–sucking the life out of us and leaving us as an empty shell of our former selves. But these much maligned eco-conscious strong women also point out that the planet, like women in community, operates on “traditionally ‘female’ values of reciprocity, nurturing and cooperation” which I no doubt have witnessed at our Women of God Warrior Mothers and Daughters Annual Conference and Fashion Show.

Now while the concept of Mother Earth sounds like New Age pagan devil worship to me, in theory I can appreciate the thought that Mother Earth is sick from all the poisons we have been pouring into her body and lungs (that would be the earth and the atmosphere or what I call the heavenly firmament.) I also imagine she is sick and tired of people treading heavily upon her, leaving greasy, muddy carbon footprints everywhere, piercing her deep in her heart over and over, extracting, extracting, extracting, and never giving anything in return. I imagine she feels backed up against the wall and is growing more and more angry to the point where she is about to say, the hell with all y’all and in a righteous rage she ejects us all from this planet we call our temporary home. Lord have mercy.

God tells us in Proverbs 18:19 that a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. Now I wonder how much harder is it to make peace with a wronged woman. When we harm someone through our greed, exploitation, and general selfish bad behavior, we are instructed to repent—turn from our sinful ways, make amends, and seek to rebuild the trust we squandered. While I have no idea how to do this with a body as large and powerful as Mother Earth, I believe today is the day that the Lord has made, and today is the day for doing a new thing.

This is Elizabeth Jeremiah from the Elizabeth Jeremiah Global Worldwide Ministries in Jesus. May God bless you and keep you and your whole household too.