Reflections on the July 2006 conference

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

Volume Fifteen, Number Four
July / August 2006

Participants’ Reflections on the NACCE July Conference

One of the highlights of the conference was the overview of history through the window of the law and courts — all in under two days — the concept of reframing and taking a regulatory argument or question back to its roots, before courts set precedents that give advantage to corporations over communities.

I liked Dr. Ruether’s matter-of-fact presentation and casual style in the midst of presenting very important historical shifts in Image as it occurs in the human conception of God, and the emphases and transitions between these sweeps of consciousness.

I realize how much we and our organizations are caught in the corporation’s field of control through the monetary flows. We easily buy into the story of attainable wealth and happiness through the endless pursuit of more and more income.

What I learned gives me more courage to speak out and to seek work in facilitation among different constituencies. The use of reframing and a lot of diplomatic conversation could have a significant impact on the way I myself relate to persons of power.

Exciting that so many local municipalities are being forced to confront corporate power over protecting their citizens’ environment and quality of life! Exciting that it’s happening in several states! Exciting that CELDF is there to help!

I love the possibilities of local ordinances regulating industries, as we are fighting box stores and cheaply constructed, unsustainable building construction by national builders. It gave me hope.

I will probably use the insights from the weekend with my volunteer work with the Environmental Advisory Council in my municipality. I don’t see a use for it in my church, other than to continue telling the New Story in whatever ways I can. Seems we need a new tactic for changing the Christian community. For me, personally, Christianity is no longer as important as Earth Community.

As a Presbyterian minister, I have became a co-founder of “Valley’s Citizens for a Healthy Environment” formed to fight factory farms, belong to Presbyterians for Restoration of Creation, and CELDF.

In many ways, my journey in the church has been lonely, and I have experienced the frustration of ebbing enthusiasm in the community when corporate power seems overwhelming and township supervisors helpless.

For these reasons, the gathering on the Gettysburg College campus was important to me. Richard Grossman and Tom Linzey presented a fast moving and well organized survey of corporate America and its long history.

Rosemary Ruether was an attraction for me, having been an avid reader of Moltmann’s and Sittler’s creation theology, along with the fine works of Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry and Wendell Berry, among others. At times she pushed, I believe, the comfort zone of those who adhere to the Reformed faith.

The interweaving of ecology and theology came from the attendees who represented different spectrums of the Christian faith, asked excellent questions, and shared their work. I hope there will be an opportunity to expand these contacts as we struggle in our respective geographic areas. There is strength to be found in community. With renewed purpose, we have returned home to the struggle of being heard and the attempt to turn the tides which threaten to overwhelm us.

The “Democracy School” project is an effective way of training leaders of local communities to face the legal challenges of true self-government, especially around environmental issues. The legal victories will, of course, be challenged but CELDF has started a movement that ultimately might lead us to more decentralized ways of government.

It is refreshing to know that this “elephant in the living room” has now been named and to hear stories of the courageous communities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and increasingly across the land that have risen up to take control of their future.

The experience of the weekend at Gettysburg gave me new hope in the environmental work I’m doing with Chesapeake Covenant Congregations. It clarified the nature of the resistance we can expect when we seek to lead people to new ways of living with the Earth…not simply as “resources for industry” but primarily as God’s Creation, where all creatures are “our kin” and where we meet the Holy.

It was such a wonderful weekend! I was surprised and thrilled to learn how committed and active most members of the workshop were in their at-home lives. The world is surely going to be a better place because of what they are doing in their home communities. I am inspired to examine the possibilities in my community for some sort of Home Rule.

Why the human race chose to organize itself in this way — where a few, for their own comfort, dominated and exploited the many — is a mystery, tragic and sad. From this chosen social order has flowed slavery, the degradation of women, and the loss of respect for other species.

Since the beginning of civilization, human history is the story of an ongoing and largely futile struggle against this unjust hierarchical system. “Democracy” is the contemporary name for the struggle and “Corporation” is the current name of the dominant ruling class. The Biblical prophets proclaimed a radically new order, which Jesus called “the Kingdom of God.” No religion is true to its origins which does not protest and seek to change hierarchical rule by the few over the many.