Listen, Our Mother is Crying: Climate Change as a Theological Crisis

Brighton Katabaro
Academy for International Ecumenism, University of Hamburg

Introduction

Climate change has emerged as one of the most urgent challenges confronting humanity in the twenty-first century. A broad scientific consensus confirms that rising global temperatures, accelerating biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, and widespread ecological degradation increasingly threaten the foundations of life on Earth. Yet despite the abundance of empirical evidence, political responses remain fragmented, delayed, and largely insufficient to address the scale of the crisis.

Christian theology cannot treat climate change as a marginal ethical concern or a secondary social issue. Rather, it must be recognized as a theological crisis—one that exposes deeply fractured relationships between humanity and God, between humanity and the Earth, and among human communities themselves. 

As Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt, Bishop and Representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) for Creation Responsibility, has warned, “the creation of God has never been so threatened by humankind as it is today” (EKD, 2019). This sobering assessment demands serious theological interpretation and response.

This article argues that climate change represents a profound failure of stewardship rooted in distorted understandings of dominion, progress, and human exceptionalism. Furthermore, it contends that ecological destruction constitutes a form of structural sin—one that disproportionately harms vulnerable populations, particularly in the Global South. 

By integrating biblical theology, African cultural wisdom, and artistic expression, this article seeks to deepen theological engagement with climate justice and to articulate a faith-based call to repentance, ecological responsibility, and transformative action.

Romans 8 and the Groaning of Creation

The Apostle Paul’s assertion that “the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth” (Romans 8:22) offers a crucial theological lens for interpreting ecological suffering. Creation’s groaning is neither meaningless noise nor passive despair; it is an expression of longing for redemption and renewal.

Significantly, Paul situates humanity within this groaning creation, not above it. Human sin affects the entire created order, and human redemption is inseparable from the liberation of the cosmos. This vision challenges escapist theologies that spiritualize salvation while neglecting material reality and ecological responsibility. Salvation, in Paul’s understanding, is both personal and cosmic.

This ecological crisis is powerfully depicted in a painting by Lucy D’Souza-Krone and Andreas Krone, portraying a human face contorted by pain. The image collapses the false boundary between humanity and nature: the suffering Earth mirrors human suffering, revealing that ecological destruction ultimately wounds its perpetrators as well. The face of creation becomes the face of humanity itself.

Art, like theology, can function prophetically. It awakens moral imagination and evokes ethical response, enabling communities to perceive truths that scientific data alone cannot fully convey.

The poem that follows emerges from this intersection of art, theology, and lament. It gives voice to the cry of Mother Earth and calls humanity to listen, repent, and act.

The Mother Weeps

A mother sits, tears on her face,
Grief weighs heavy, yet her eyes hold grace.
A pain endured through countless years
Has torn her heart but forged her tears.

Why does she cry? What has she lost?
Her life was giving—no matter the cost.
She offered love, gave food and care
To all her children, everywhere.

But now she’s weary, broken, alone,
Her strength has faded, her breath a groan.
With trembling hands and pleading eyes,
She waits for her children to realize.

Yet few will listen, few will see,
Most lost in selfish misery,
Consumed by their own daily strife,
Forgetting the Mother who gave them life.

Her tears fall softly; only the wind can hear.
Her sorrow whispers; the world remains deaf.
The world turns cold, blind to her pain—
Mother weeps, her hope in vain.

Adama weeps—her heart so sore,
Mother Earth can bear no more.
Once she gave love and radiant light,
Yet her children refuse to see her plight.

She gave clear water, the air we breathe,
Bread to eat, the shade of trees.
Now she bears wounds and endless grief—
Forests burned, rivers defiled beyond belief.

Her breath is choked in toxic haze,
The seas are poisoned in countless ways.
In the name of progress, we exploit and destroy,
We steal her life and seal our children’s doom.

Her tears flow down like rivers to the plain,
An ancient cry, a desperate refrain:
“How long will you cause me to bleed?
Tell me, when will you stop your greed?”

The Earth is burning, hotter each day;
Drought and flood refuse to fade away.
Farmers wait, their fields in need—
Tell me, when will you stop your greed?

Adama calls and calls—but who will hear?
Her voice grows faint, yet still she warns.
Her children gather year by year,
But only to show their power to destroy.
Who will listen before it is too late?

A Mother’s Tears: Cultural and Moral Wisdom

In many African cultures, the mother symbolizes life, care, and moral authority. Among the Nyambo/Haya people of northwestern Tanzania, a mother’s tears signify profound moral rupture and impending misfortune. To cause one’s mother to weep is understood as an act that ultimately harms the offender.

This worldview closely aligns with biblical ethics. Both emphasize that moral violations disrupt relational harmony and generate consequences extending beyond individual actors.

Referring to the Earth as “Mother” does not imply divinization but rather relational recognition. It acknowledges the Earth as life-giving, sustaining, and deserving of respect. This metaphor challenges extractive economic systems that prioritize profit over life and invites a more relational, accountable understanding of human responsibility.

Climate Injustice: Empirical Realities

Climate change manifests through droughts, floods, wildfires, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. While its causes are global, its impacts are deeply uneven. The Global Hunger Index (2019) documents how climate change intensifies food insecurity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Malteser International (2021) further reports that climate-induced disasters disproportionately affect communities with the least adaptive capacity, revealing entrenched global inequalities. Climate change thus functions not only as an environmental issue but as a justice issue.

Structural Sin and Moral Failure

Christian theology recognizes that sin is not only personal but also structural. Economic and political systems that prioritize short-term growth over ecological sustainability institutionalize injustice and normalize destruction. Climate inaction by wealthy industrialized nations constitutes a form of collective moral failure.

This injustice has been named unequivocally in global discourse. At COP30 in Belém (2025), UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared:

“The failure to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees is a moral failure and deadly negligence.”

From a theological perspective, such negligence constitutes sin—not merely individual wrongdoing but collective, institutionalized sin that prioritizes profit over life. Climate inaction represents a failure of love, responsibility, and solidarity.

Creation Care as Core Christian Doctrine

Paul’s vision of a groaning yet hopeful creation (Romans 8:22) situates ecological suffering within God’s redemptive horizon. Creation is not destined for annihilation but for renewal, and humanity is called to participate in this redemptive process.

Psalm 24:1 affirms: “The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” Ownership belongs to God; stewardship belongs to humanity.

Genesis 1:28 has often been misread as legitimizing domination. Contemporary biblical scholarship and ecclesial teaching, however, emphasize that dominion implies care, protection, and accountability (EKD, 2015). Humanity is entrusted with guardianship, not exploitation.

Jesus’ commandment to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39) expands the moral horizon of Christian ethics. Neighbor-love cannot exclude future generations, vulnerable communities, or the non-human creation upon which all life depends. Climate protection thus emerges as an intergenerational moral obligation (EKD, 2020).

A Call to Repentance and Hope

Ecological preservation is not optional within Christian faith; it is a theological imperative grounded in creation theology, Christology, and eschatological hope.

Climate change is no longer an abstract future risk. It is a present reality that devastates ecosystems and livelihoods, particularly in climate-vulnerable regions where water scarcity, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss intensify annually (Austrian Federal Ministry, 2023).

For churches and faith communities, neutrality is no longer ethically defensible. Christian discipleship today demands ecological conversion—a transformation of values, lifestyles, and structures in light of the Gospel.

The question is no longer whether we hear her cry,
but whether we will respond before it is too late.

References

Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action (2023). Austrian Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (BMK)

Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). (2015). EKD – Texts and Declarations (including climate/stewardship material)

 EKD 2019 synod decision on climate justice (declaration & solidarity statement): EKD Decision on Climate Justice 2019

 Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). (2020). Climate protection and intergenerational justice. EKD – Climate Action and Care for Creation

Global Hunger Index. (2019). The challenge of hunger and climate change. 2019 Global Hunger Index: The Challenge of Hunger and Climate Change (PDF)

Malteser International. (2021). Climate change and humanitarian impact. Malteser International: Climate Change and Current Issues

United Nations. (2025). Secretary-General’s remarks at COP30, Belém.UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ official translation of remarks: UN SG’s COP30 Climate Summit Remarks (Nov 6, 2025)