STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

One church tore up its parking lot to plant an organic garden. Another replaced its non-native plants with native ones.

These examples of how churches are addressing climate change are not earth shattering. But every little bit counts towards protecting the earth and the creatures that live on it, according to the Rev. Sally Grover Bingham’s gospel.

“It may not seem like much to turn the water off when you brush your teeth. But what if everyone did it?” she asked Wood River Valley residents Thursday night at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Bingham became an ordained priest at the age of 55 not to save souls but to save the environment. She co-founded the Episcopal Power and Light ministry in 1997. And today the Interfaith Power and Light ministry has galvanized more than 20,000 congregations in 41 states—the latest being Idaho—to find ways to address climate change.

On Thursday the environmental minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco demonstrated the power of her convictions in a quiet, thoughtful way that evidenced her singular passion and focus.

“If we take care of the planet, the planet will serve us,” she said. “The planet won’t take care of us if we don’t take care of the planet. We need to be conscious of every single one of our behaviors.”

In a conversation moderated by the Rev. Kathleen Bean of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Bingham said she grew up roaming through the woods around Stanford, Calif., from dawn to dusk. Most of what she learned came from nature, she said, including finding God in nature.

In the mid-1980s she joined the board of the Environmental Defense Fund where she heard scientists’ warnings about the role man is playing in the warming of the planet. But she found a disconnect in her church where she heard platitudes about loving God and God’s creation but no discussion about how to reverse the ways man had abused Creation.

She couldn’t convince her rector to talk about it from the pulpit. So, at age 45, she set foot on college campus for the first time, earning an undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of San Francisco. Ten years later—at 55—she was ordained a priest.

“I had no intention of being ordained. I just wanted to know why the disconnect between saying we cared for Creation and not caring for it,” said Bingham, who since has served in the company of such leaders as Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu and former Vice President Al Gore.

Bingham co-founded Episcopal Power and Light with $50,000 that the Rockefeller Foundation gave her to persuade churches to install solar panels and switch to renewable power. And soon she was getting calls from those in Jewish, Buddhist, Protestant and Mormon faith communities wondering how they could follow suit.

“Our focus has been the United States because we’re the ones causing problems and dragging our feet about doing anything about it,” she said.

Not everyone has appreciated her passion. The first time Bingham talked about saving the environment from the pulpit a man stood up in the back of the church and said, “This little lady—she’s trying to get us to go back to covered wagons.”

Another church member who walked in the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King thundered, “I don’t care about polar bears!”

In time, however, he realized the movement was about providing clean air and clean water. Now, he talks about it as a civil rights issue because he realizes that marginalized communities, including many Black and Brown communities, are often those that suffer most from the consequences of pollution,  said Bingham.

“We’d like to breathe our air without being fearful of lung disease,” Bingham said. “The health part of combatting climate change is very important. There’s nothing in scripture that says it’s okay to pollute the air.”

Today, Bingham said, the primary resistance comes from politicians who refuse to accept the science of climate change that points to the need to decrease reliance on fossil fuels.

“It’s politicians over faith,” she said. “If you believe faith is about loving your neighbor, you would realize combatting climate change is about loving everyone. Climate change is not a political issue. It’s a moral issue. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself People have told me, ‘I never thought that my eating habits or recycling habits had anything to do with my neighbor or faith.’ ”

As for those who continue to deny climate change?

“I say, ‘I hope you’re right!’ ” she exclaimed.

Bingham asks the faithful to be mindful of every choice they make from the cups they use to the cars they drive. Install smart technology that will turn off the light in the church bathroom someone forgot to turn off so that it’s not left on for a week, she added.

Bingham champions programs that enable consumers to get solar without upfront costs, paying back the costs slowly over time as they enjoy savings on electrical bill. She also touts programs that give free low-flow toilets to those without.

Many of those in big homes that have old refrigerators or freezers they’re not using could unplug them, she said. And everybody can walk more, rather than driving their Subaru four blocks, she added. Bingham said she taps on the windows of cars when she sees them parked but running their engine and not going anywhere.

“I ask them, ‘Why are you running your engine? And I’ve gotten them to turn it off.’ ”

Never discount the power of setting an example she said.

“If you see a solar panel on your neighbor’s roof, you might find yourself saying, ‘It doesn’t look as bad as I thought, and my energy bills will go down.’ ”