Illinois Trumps Texas. Again.

You may have heard we beat Texas last month as the home of FutureGen, a new power plant that will attempt to burn coal without emitting global warming gases. This is great news for a small town in central Illinois and for all of us who know we need new ways to make electricity that don’t hasten end times.

What you might have missed was that Illinois did it again (albeit on a smaller scale). You see, we at Faith in Place challenged our friends at Texas Interfaith Power & Light to a duel. We wanted to see which state’s congregations could sell more energy saving light bulbs to their parishioners by the end of the year. And we beat them, two to one.

We’re supposed to be gracious in victory, but can I still mention that we were the underdog? Texas Interfaith Power & Light is one of the really tremendous organizations in Interfaith Power & Light, a campaign active in 25 states. Faith in Place runs the Illinois chapter. So all around the country there are groups like ours helping faith communities take action on global warming. Texas IPL is run by some incredible people, not least among them Bee Morehead and Brooke Ferguson. They have nearly 400 congregations in their network, all committed to caring for the earth. Our network includes 300 congregational partners. But don’t mess with Illinois.

All these congregations participate because they believe global warming is one of the most important moral issues facing us today. That’s right, moral issue. Global warming causes floods, draughts, and diseases that are harming people around the world, and poor people foremost. If we love others, as all our faiths command us to do, we need to conserve energy and switch to clean energy whenever we can.

We couldn’t have won the competition without LaSalle Street Church, a vibrant Chicago church near Cabrini Green. Their “green team” organized a major sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and water saving devices. They ordered them all at discounted prices through our website, ShopIPL.org, an online energy store where congregations can buy CFLs, rechargeable batteries, water heater timers, motion sensors, weatherization products and more.

So we gave LaSalle Street Church 500 CFLs for their help crushing Texas. And they gave them to the low-income seniors at their Senior Center. It was a great event. Even the Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn came to lend his support. The altar was stacked with a pyramid of 500 CFLs, just above the words “Do This in Remembrance of Me.” It seemed appropriate.

So hats off to LaSalle Street Church, warm thanks to the Lieutenant Governor, and kudos to the Mighty State of Illinois.