Seasonal Reflections

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume One, Number Four
March/April 1992

SEASONAL REFLECTIONS

Our church forebears set aside the season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter, as a time of self examination, repentance, and self discipline looking toward the promise of new life. During the next several weeks we suggest setting aside several 15 minute periods to reflect on the following selections which deal with serious moral issues of our time.

Suggested Method: First read the selection two or three times. Then ask yourself (or a group) these questions:

A PROPHETIC VISION

For the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land . . . bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish. Together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing. (Hosea 4: 1-3)

THE DEVASTATION OF THE EARTH: A NEW FACET OF CHRIST'S PASSION

How can we embrace fully the Incarnation? In Jesus Christ, God enters into solidarity with the human and in so doing with all of creation. The devastation of the earth becomes for us a new facet of Christ's passion. We are sinning against the earth, and consequently against ourselves and the Creator. Jesus is the key, not only for experiencing redemption, but also for understanding creation. From the beginning there has been a Christ dimension of the universe. (From "Invitations for Spirituality in the Ecological Age," by John Surette, SJ, in Harvest, Winter 1989; publication of National Federation of Christian Life Communities, 3601 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108)

FOREGOING ECONOMIC GROWTH FOR THE SAKE OF GOD'S KINGDOM

Sustainable development is a contradiction in terms. In its physical dimensions, the economy is an open subsystem which is finite, non-growing and materially closed. As the economic subsystem grows, it incorporates an ever greater proportion of the total ecosystem into itself and must reach a limit at 100 percent, if not before. Therefore its growth is not sustainable. (Herman E. Daly, UN Development Forum, page 19, Sept/Oct 1991, PO Box 5850 G.C.P.O. ,New York, NY 10163-5850)

THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT OF CONSUMPTION IN THE USA

The United States population is growing by about 2.5 million people every year. Experts predict that in the next 90 years our 250 million will swell to between 292 and 800 million, depending upon decisions that we make now. Because the average American consumes over 30 times more resources than the average person from the poor countries of the world, our annual addition of 2.5 million has a greater impact upon the Earth than all of the millions added in China, India and Africa combined! (David Paxson, World Population Balance, PO box 23472, Minneapolis, MN 55423)

REAL MEN: WARRIORS OR CARETAKERS?

Here's a puzzle: Why are the same people who were prepared almost to bankrupt the country to protect against an external enemy so reluctant to sacrifice anything to forestall possible environmental disaster?

Maybe both responses grow out of deeply ingrained ideas about manhood in America. Our image of manhood is inseparable from the role of the warrior. Preparing to fight our enemies is always manly. Showing concern about environmental dangers is a different matter. Here the dangers come from our own excessive and irresponsible behavior. It is one thing for a man to guard what is his own -- that is the work of the warrior. It is another for a man to take care of what has been entrusted to him; that sounds like women's work.

There is another ancient image of what a man might be. It is the image of the good steward. Until the good steward seems to us as manly as the vigilant warrior, our national security will be threatened by our very notions of what it means to be a protector. (From Andrew B. Schmookler's essay "Manliness and Mother Earth", the Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, October 3, 1991)

TABOOS TO GUARD CREATION'S FUTURE!

Why taboos? Why not ordinary laws? The reason is that an ordinary law, the work of a legislature, can be set aside by that legislature whenever it feels like doing so. It's clearly understood as a matter in which people have a choice.

A taboo relates to a matter in which people must be allowed no choice; a matter such as murder, slavery, or rape. A taboo must be regarded as an absolute, eternal law -- an expression of the sacred order of God's Kingdom. A community will brook no violation of any true taboo.

In America, we can translate a new concept, such as the sacred order of Nature, into a taboo by making a set of rules. Then we enshrine the rules in a Constitutional amendment.

A Constitutional provision stands right at the half-way point between the divine order of righteousness and the secular order of government. (Marshall Massey, A Protocal For Holy Ground, 4353 E. 119th Way, Thornton, CO 80233)