What Are The Implications

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

Volume Thirteen, Number Four
July/August 2004

Bringing The Church Back Down To Earth — What Are The Implications?

Three theologians gave the keynote speeches on economics, theology and eco-justice that set the tone for the workshops, worship services and all other activities.

Dr. John Cobb outlined how the church left the earth when it allowed theology and philosophy to alienate man from creation as well as from other humans. Cobb proclaimed a miracle is needed to move theology from the economic dictum that "The Good is the increase of wealth" to "The Good is the well-being of all the earth."

The impending oil crisis will bring on a global food shortage due to oil dependent agriculture. The crisis in oil, when USA overuse threatens the existence of the source of energy within ten years, will result in a crisis of food supply and therefore of civilization as we know it. He suggested organic farming and the experimentation with edible prairie grasses as a step toward preparing for this crisis.

Dr. Sallie McFague urged that we free our theologizing from personalized sin-fall-redemption theories and stress more the stewardship of earth and all creation. She used the metaphor of the earth as God's body to argue that every creature on earth has value. She urged that we recover our catholicity and act on the basis that salvation and justice have to do with the whole creation; and that we take hard stands to guarantee justice for the well-being of all creatures. Protection of endangered species is just a start of this.

Dr. Christine Smith shared a rich anthology of current eco-justice themes ranging from Deep Ecology to cross-cultural and World Religion perspectives. She outlined a one-year curriculum for religious communities focused on eco-justice, urging us to explore our eco-location, work in depth on one form of human oppression in which we participate directly, and develop a practical vision of a different earth of which we can sing and preach and write poetry.

These lectures, together with the workshops, singing, worshipping, and question-and-answer sessions, made for a memorable three days. The implications for us and other faith communities are clear:

We must begin now to do what we can and to share the concern and significance of “bringing the church back down to earth.” We cannot wait until next year or even next week. Something as simple as car pooling would be a beginning.

Our political education needs to focus on preparing a new leadership to replace those implementing the economic imperialism model. Just talking is not enough; we must change our whole life style back to small-community decision making, while at the same time increasing our thinking to include the well-being of all nature and all beings. Nationalism has run its course, even in the USA.

We know the answer is in the cultural dimension of earth's life: in the teaching and sharing and celebrating which we do as a planet, not a tribe. And in all this, symbol is the key. One remembers how the Christian students of Germany under the Nazi regime were not allowed contact with other Christians. However, they secretly manufactured very small lapel crosses which they smuggled out of Germany and which were circulated and worn around the world.

We need some such symbol now, perhaps of two faces of the planet and the oneness we find only in the whole. Many of the environmental networks are begging to be united and empowered as a whole — not as a massive organization, but as a network. Perhaps the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology can facilitate this process.