Challenge to Earthists

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

Volume Ten, Number Two
January/February 2001

by William E. Gibson

I appreciated John Cobb's "Successive Dominant Religions of the West" (Earthkeeping News, Nov./Dec. 2000). It stimulated some thoughts on the last two religions in the succession, Economism and Earthism.

Dr. Cobb does not say that Earthism has succeeded Economism as dominant religion. He says "The most powerful check on the forward march of global capitalism is people's concern for the earth . . . . Nations and corporations are beginning to pay lip service to this concern and to make some concessions."

Protests against global capitalism have attained a level not seen in many decades, with the big demonstrations in Seattle, Washington, Prague and elsewhere. Earthists have participated in these demonstrations. Probably they have been outnumbered by those whose passion is more for justice than for ecology. The demand for justice suggests that Christianism, no longer dominant, still makes a powerful impact through those influenced, consciously or not, by the biblical story's witness to God's bias for the poor and oppressed.

A Christian form of Earthism will embrace God's bias, and position the Earth and all life unmistakably within the same orbit of God's concern. The Earth suffers from the same greed and exploitation as do impoverished people. Christian Earthism will know and make known that earth and people must be liberated together.

The time has come for Earthists to probe more deeply and courageously into the tenacious dominance of Economism. We need to name the pantheon of gods - Wealth, Power, Economic Growth, Consumerism — where Economism maintains its hold on people's assumptions and values, as well as their options for work and for life in family and community.

We need to face and expose Economism's inordinate power, the entrenched stance of the dominating class, and capitalism's success in opposing the efforts of Earthists and justice advocates.

Economic growth is essential to capitalism. The message that it destroys the resource base, widens the rich-poor gap, and disrupts community does not bring the priests of Economism and executives of corporations to repentance. They do not give priority to sustainability, justice and community.

The challenge to Earthists is to realize what we are up against, without losing nerve and hope. We have to think and go beyond merely checking Economism's power through endless disadvantaged efforts. We have to undertake the excruciatingly difficult task of conceiving and struggling toward a fundamentally different economy that serves, rather than opposes, what Earthists seek.

An impossible task? We need to begin to say what we are doing and welcome the debates it generates. Christians can bring unique, powerful spiritual equipment to the task.

A CHALLENGE TO "EARTHISTS"