For the social statement from my own denomination, I chose to read "Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice." This article states its purpose as calling us to "a faithful return to the biblical vision."
The ELCA sees creation as a gift from God and as a means for God to come to us; through earthly creation. Since humanity is made in the image of God, humanity is then called to care for creation in the way that God cares for creation. I liked, however, that the ELCA addresses the call to have dominion over the earth by stating, "God's command to have dominion and subdue the earth is not a license to dominate and exploit." This sentence shows careful attention to the Biblical witness we have.
Since humanity rebelled and disrupted creation, humanity feels nature as one of God's ways of judgment. "A disrupted nature is a jugdment on our unfaithfulness as stewards." Moreover, all humanity is united in this way and when one person makes a decision, it will inevitably affect the entire creation, the entire planet. The ELCA proclaims that God enters into our sinfulness by sending his Son to us and gifting us with forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
The ELCA calls its churches and members to partake in the main principles of participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability. We are called to be God's caregivers and to do justice in this way. Individual members are encouraged to live out lifestyles that create health for the environment. Worshiping and learning communities are encouraged to see the congregation as a creation awareness center, have creation emphases during the church year, educate and communicate to people through worship and education opportunities, and provide programs that encourage environmental education and work.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A Look at the United Methodist Stance on Environmental Stewardship
One of the assignments for this blog was to write about a social statement that comes out of your own denomination that regards environmental issues and also one from a differing denomination. This is my look at a social statement from a different denomination than my own (since I'm ELCA).
I looked at a social statement titled "Environmental Stewardship" that the United Methodist Church first adopted in 1984 and then revised and readopted in 2000. In this statement, the church gave basic definitions of its theological claims related to God and creation and then listed the items that the church advocates for at a governmental basis as well as an individual basis for its churches and the members of those churches.
The Methodist church posits that since all creation is under God's authority, we are brought into a covenantal relationship with God to "be stewards, protectors, and defenders of all creation." In this, each human being is given the charge to work toward wholeness (described as shalom) for the world and for what belongs to one another. They go on to say that shalom/wholeness was broken when sin entered the world, but that God's redemption is way to restore this shalom. So then, our stewardship is to continually work toward wholeness; reconciling, reuniting, healing, and making whole.
Some of the items that the Methodist church advocates for is responsible and equitable use of our resources, governmental working to clean up our world and to apply laws that will protect creation, clean air, minimization of our chemical use, the responsible use of land, preserving the diversity there is in life, clean water, responsible use of technology, and finally, minimization of our military's impact on the environment.
The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004. UMC.org
I looked at a social statement titled "Environmental Stewardship" that the United Methodist Church first adopted in 1984 and then revised and readopted in 2000. In this statement, the church gave basic definitions of its theological claims related to God and creation and then listed the items that the church advocates for at a governmental basis as well as an individual basis for its churches and the members of those churches.
The Methodist church posits that since all creation is under God's authority, we are brought into a covenantal relationship with God to "be stewards, protectors, and defenders of all creation." In this, each human being is given the charge to work toward wholeness (described as shalom) for the world and for what belongs to one another. They go on to say that shalom/wholeness was broken when sin entered the world, but that God's redemption is way to restore this shalom. So then, our stewardship is to continually work toward wholeness; reconciling, reuniting, healing, and making whole.
Some of the items that the Methodist church advocates for is responsible and equitable use of our resources, governmental working to clean up our world and to apply laws that will protect creation, clean air, minimization of our chemical use, the responsible use of land, preserving the diversity there is in life, clean water, responsible use of technology, and finally, minimization of our military's impact on the environment.
The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004. UMC.org
Monday, April 19, 2010
"Simpler Living Compassionate Life", edited and compiled by Michael Schut
"Simpler Living Compassionate Life" is a collection of essays from a Christian perspective based on ways that people can start living more simply, losing the headaches of trying to go, go, go or trying to accumulate all the goods we can. There are essays in this collection about how we view our time, what we do with our money, and how the way that we live impacts the environment, both socially and ecologically.
I appreciated that in this book moreso than the other books we read for this class, a Christian perspective was brought into play. The other books were good and I enjoyed what they had to say and teach, but they were devoid of any reference to how our care of creation affects or is affected by our faith. This book brought this question into the forefront of discussion.
The essays that resonated the most with me were the ones on our time and how we spend it. We are always going, going, going and we hardly take any time to slow down and see what we have around us. This is an issue I deal with in my own life all the time. Between between a mother and a wife, a student, working 3 jobs that are all "part-time" (but not really) and maintaining friendships and everything else; time is scarce to come by for me!
One essay in particular that really hit me was "Entering the Emptiness" by Gerald May. In his essay, he talked about the necessity for space--space that isn't filled with other things. He writes, "Something is amiss when wasting time is something we feel ashamed of, when we must ask a quiet person, "What's wrong?" (43). In his essay, he talks about why it is that many of us are simply afraid of having space and this was especially meaningful to me. He wrote,
"At any given moment, we all have a number of worries, fears, guilt feelings, bad memories, and things we are procrastinating about that we are simply putting out of our minds. The difficulty with space, especially interior spaciousness of soul, is that it allows such repressed and suppressed annoyances back into awareness. When I pause for a moment and let my mind settle down, what comes in? The things I have put off, the worries I have been avoiding, the bad feelings I have stifled. Space is like sunlight and fresh air toward which the buried uglies of our souls crawl in search of healing. It is a very healthy thing. Space is not only potentially restful but also therapeutic. But like many therapeutic processes, it can be painful. And in matters of healing consciousness, as in love, there can be no anesthesia" (44).
I appreciated that in this book moreso than the other books we read for this class, a Christian perspective was brought into play. The other books were good and I enjoyed what they had to say and teach, but they were devoid of any reference to how our care of creation affects or is affected by our faith. This book brought this question into the forefront of discussion.
The essays that resonated the most with me were the ones on our time and how we spend it. We are always going, going, going and we hardly take any time to slow down and see what we have around us. This is an issue I deal with in my own life all the time. Between between a mother and a wife, a student, working 3 jobs that are all "part-time" (but not really) and maintaining friendships and everything else; time is scarce to come by for me!
One essay in particular that really hit me was "Entering the Emptiness" by Gerald May. In his essay, he talked about the necessity for space--space that isn't filled with other things. He writes, "Something is amiss when wasting time is something we feel ashamed of, when we must ask a quiet person, "What's wrong?" (43). In his essay, he talks about why it is that many of us are simply afraid of having space and this was especially meaningful to me. He wrote,
"At any given moment, we all have a number of worries, fears, guilt feelings, bad memories, and things we are procrastinating about that we are simply putting out of our minds. The difficulty with space, especially interior spaciousness of soul, is that it allows such repressed and suppressed annoyances back into awareness. When I pause for a moment and let my mind settle down, what comes in? The things I have put off, the worries I have been avoiding, the bad feelings I have stifled. Space is like sunlight and fresh air toward which the buried uglies of our souls crawl in search of healing. It is a very healthy thing. Space is not only potentially restful but also therapeutic. But like many therapeutic processes, it can be painful. And in matters of healing consciousness, as in love, there can be no anesthesia" (44).
May describes the problem we feel with space beautifully here. When we allow ourselves to have that space, our consciousness is allowed to breathe and we realize the things we would rather not realize. This paragraph was very moving for me. May finally goes on to say, "To miss our emptiness is, finally, to miss our hope" (47). From a Christian perspective, this hope is the only thing that can soothe a soul that has been given space. What a wonderful thing to remember.
I also found it helpful that this book included resources to work through this book as a study of sorts, with discussion prompts and questions and such to guide the leader. This would be a great book to work through with congregation members in the future.
I also found it helpful that this book included resources to work through this book as a study of sorts, with discussion prompts and questions and such to guide the leader. This would be a great book to work through with congregation members in the future.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
"Earth in Mind" by David W. Orr
This book was very interesting and was put together as a grouping of essays written by Orr. Writing the book in this way made it seem like a quick read because instead of long chapters you're reading shorter essays, which makes it easier to read one or two at a time and then move on to something else in order to come back later. Good for the busy reader!
Orr's essays revolved around the way in which we put education and care for creation together. Orr also encourages us to think about education in different ways. For instance, he says that education is itself environmental education and he talks about the way in which we can foster these ideas with the curriculum we teach and even the way in which we construct the buildings where we teach and learn inside of.
One of Orr's conjectures that I thought was interesting was his proposal that colleges and universities should be ranked on the basis of 5 criteria that have to do with care of creation rather than things like their peer reputation, SAT scores, endowment sizes, books in the library, and publications by faculty and so on. Orr lists these 5 things as what we should be ranking schools on: "how much the institution consumes or discards per student", including paper, water, materials, and energy; "the institution's management policies for materials, waste, reclycling, purchasing, landscaping, energy use, and building"; whether or not "the curriculum provide the essential tools for ecological literacy"; whether or not "the institution uses its buying power to help build sustainable regional economies"; and finally, "on the basis of what their graduates do in the world" (Orr 89-92).
What this system of ranking schools does (and the rest of Orr's essays in general do) is tell us to re-frame our ideas of the status quo. We go along with things because it's teh way we've always done them and we fuel our society with the ideas of money as everything, social reputation as the top of the wish list and we fail to help our communities look around them and see where we can change things to better our world and our communities. According to Orr and this book, this is where we fail ourselves and our students; we fail them and ourselves in that we refuse to change things in order to make things better and we assume that if we keep going like we are that everything will right itself, which is a giant myth.
Orr's essays revolved around the way in which we put education and care for creation together. Orr also encourages us to think about education in different ways. For instance, he says that education is itself environmental education and he talks about the way in which we can foster these ideas with the curriculum we teach and even the way in which we construct the buildings where we teach and learn inside of.
One of Orr's conjectures that I thought was interesting was his proposal that colleges and universities should be ranked on the basis of 5 criteria that have to do with care of creation rather than things like their peer reputation, SAT scores, endowment sizes, books in the library, and publications by faculty and so on. Orr lists these 5 things as what we should be ranking schools on: "how much the institution consumes or discards per student", including paper, water, materials, and energy; "the institution's management policies for materials, waste, reclycling, purchasing, landscaping, energy use, and building"; whether or not "the curriculum provide the essential tools for ecological literacy"; whether or not "the institution uses its buying power to help build sustainable regional economies"; and finally, "on the basis of what their graduates do in the world" (Orr 89-92).
What this system of ranking schools does (and the rest of Orr's essays in general do) is tell us to re-frame our ideas of the status quo. We go along with things because it's teh way we've always done them and we fuel our society with the ideas of money as everything, social reputation as the top of the wish list and we fail to help our communities look around them and see where we can change things to better our world and our communities. According to Orr and this book, this is where we fail ourselves and our students; we fail them and ourselves in that we refuse to change things in order to make things better and we assume that if we keep going like we are that everything will right itself, which is a giant myth.
"Living Downstream" by Sandra Steingraber
This book was my favorite read for our care for creation class. In this book, Steingraber looked at the possible environmental causes of cancer and how they affect the quality of our lives. At the same time, she interweaved her own story of battling with cancer as well as other stories of people with cancer. I like that she did this because it made it a more interesting read--notjust about the sciencey stuff, but about real experience too.
This book really opened my eyes to the things that we as humans do to the earth that we are given charge of taking care of--sometimes without even realizing it. Sometimes though, the possible negative impacts of what we are doing are realized and are just ignored, with horrible affects on people and the land and animals and creation in general. Weed-killers like DTZ are an example of this, where we saw the negative impacts but ignored them and did it anyway.
This type of study is so hard because, as Steingraber wrote, "decades can transpire between the time of exposure to cancer-causing agents and the first outward symptoms of disease" and "When someone we love is diagnosed with cancer, questions of cause are often of less immediate relevance than questions about treatment" (27). It's also hard I think because we've been taught that cancer is something that "just happens." It is true that we all have genes in our body that are more susceptible to cancer than others (as Steingraber also points out in her book) and I think cancer is often pushed aside as something we can't control. When my children ask why some people have cancer, like their grandmother who died from pancreatic cancer, I myself even explain it away as something we don't have an answer to. The question then becomes, what are we doing in our world that could be adding to the amount and kinds of cancer that we live with on a day to day basis but just explain away as some unknown phenomenon.
At times when I was reading this book I felt my attitude change to a rather pessimistic one, thinking that there isn't anything I can do without increasing my chances for cancer. I can't go outside because who knows what fertilizers are being put on my grass and I can't breathe in the outdoor air because of the car exhaust in the atmosphere and so on and so on. But while this is a thought I may have had from time to time, the book reminds us that there are things that we can do, however small, anything at all is helpful at this point.
All in all, this book told me to open my eyes to the world around me and stop pushing away the illnesses we have in this world. I don't know that we can ever reconcile what has happened to this point, but closing our eyes to the matters at hand definitely isn't helping us at all either. I feel more aware of the world around me after reading this book.
This book really opened my eyes to the things that we as humans do to the earth that we are given charge of taking care of--sometimes without even realizing it. Sometimes though, the possible negative impacts of what we are doing are realized and are just ignored, with horrible affects on people and the land and animals and creation in general. Weed-killers like DTZ are an example of this, where we saw the negative impacts but ignored them and did it anyway.
This type of study is so hard because, as Steingraber wrote, "decades can transpire between the time of exposure to cancer-causing agents and the first outward symptoms of disease" and "When someone we love is diagnosed with cancer, questions of cause are often of less immediate relevance than questions about treatment" (27). It's also hard I think because we've been taught that cancer is something that "just happens." It is true that we all have genes in our body that are more susceptible to cancer than others (as Steingraber also points out in her book) and I think cancer is often pushed aside as something we can't control. When my children ask why some people have cancer, like their grandmother who died from pancreatic cancer, I myself even explain it away as something we don't have an answer to. The question then becomes, what are we doing in our world that could be adding to the amount and kinds of cancer that we live with on a day to day basis but just explain away as some unknown phenomenon.
At times when I was reading this book I felt my attitude change to a rather pessimistic one, thinking that there isn't anything I can do without increasing my chances for cancer. I can't go outside because who knows what fertilizers are being put on my grass and I can't breathe in the outdoor air because of the car exhaust in the atmosphere and so on and so on. But while this is a thought I may have had from time to time, the book reminds us that there are things that we can do, however small, anything at all is helpful at this point.
All in all, this book told me to open my eyes to the world around me and stop pushing away the illnesses we have in this world. I don't know that we can ever reconcile what has happened to this point, but closing our eyes to the matters at hand definitely isn't helping us at all either. I feel more aware of the world around me after reading this book.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The weather has been beautiful here in Minnesota this week. Sunshine, unexpected warm temperatures, and low winds have really brightened the mood of the people here who have endured another Minnesota winter. With this beautiful weather, our snow has mostly all melted, except of course in the places where the piles from plowing were as high as buildings. In these areas the dirty snow is now just a very small pile that we look at with a bit of contempt and wish it would just let go already.
With the melting of the snow the ground has emerged and things are already looking to have a bit of a green tinge to them. Unfortunately, the snow has uncovered other things that have been residing under those giant piles. In one place last week we saw shopping carts sticking out of the melting snow pile next to a bus stop. On the ground though, we've found numerous pieces of trash and litter and things that have been blown around and trapped by the snow.
Driving into our apartment complex every day, I notice the large amount of litter that covers our ground and into the tree line of woods that surrounds our buildings. The dumpster facility for our buildings is close by and things blow out and have been waiting to be uncovered by the warm sunshine. Wanting to get out of the house and let my kids enjoy the warm weather yesterday, it occurred to me that we should go out and pick up the litter. Instead of just complaining about it (which is my normal way of dealing with it), we should grab our bags and go for a little litter walk.
The kids were enthusiastic about it, especially if it meant climbing through the woods in hunt of the elusive plastic bag or shiny wrapper caught on the trees beyond the path. My son lost interest fairly quickly and chose to make the random sticks into guitars instead, but later, as they were just playing, he found a pop can and was very proud of himself for bringing it to me. We filled up two bags of trash and I think we got a good lesson in care of creation as we did it. It reminded me of when I picked up trash on the side of the road with a Girl Scout group on one of those adopt a highway programs when I was younger.
It was a good time outside for a hidden teaching about how we care for God's creation around us--and the treeline looked mighty good when I drove out of the parking lot this morning if I do say so myself!
With the melting of the snow the ground has emerged and things are already looking to have a bit of a green tinge to them. Unfortunately, the snow has uncovered other things that have been residing under those giant piles. In one place last week we saw shopping carts sticking out of the melting snow pile next to a bus stop. On the ground though, we've found numerous pieces of trash and litter and things that have been blown around and trapped by the snow.
Driving into our apartment complex every day, I notice the large amount of litter that covers our ground and into the tree line of woods that surrounds our buildings. The dumpster facility for our buildings is close by and things blow out and have been waiting to be uncovered by the warm sunshine. Wanting to get out of the house and let my kids enjoy the warm weather yesterday, it occurred to me that we should go out and pick up the litter. Instead of just complaining about it (which is my normal way of dealing with it), we should grab our bags and go for a little litter walk.
The kids were enthusiastic about it, especially if it meant climbing through the woods in hunt of the elusive plastic bag or shiny wrapper caught on the trees beyond the path. My son lost interest fairly quickly and chose to make the random sticks into guitars instead, but later, as they were just playing, he found a pop can and was very proud of himself for bringing it to me. We filled up two bags of trash and I think we got a good lesson in care of creation as we did it. It reminded me of when I picked up trash on the side of the road with a Girl Scout group on one of those adopt a highway programs when I was younger.
It was a good time outside for a hidden teaching about how we care for God's creation around us--and the treeline looked mighty good when I drove out of the parking lot this morning if I do say so myself!
Friday, March 26, 2010
the earth is beautiful from the sky...but I'm glad to be on the ground.
What a whirlwind. This month has been absolutely insane (and it's not even the end of the month yet). Between doing homework for classes which seems never-ending, getting started in the call process, and family life in general, my months are usually pretty busy. But this month I added to the craziness by having three trips to do in the span of 14 days.
In the middle of the month my daughter and I got to fly to St. Louis, MO in order to visit my best friend Heidi and her husband Eric (he's a good friend too, but you know how it goes...). Heidi is in her first call in a town called Mascoutah, Illinois. It was a great trip and good to be with my daughter for a girl's weekend. The only downfall of this weekend was that my husband was sick at home trying to take care of our son while he was sick.
Then came my intensive weekend class (that was the reason for creating this blog). I went to Shalom Hill Farm with my classmates where we enjoyed fellowship, beautiful surroundings, and learning about our care for God's creation. The only downfall of this weekend was that I got horribly sick (thank you honey) and was sort of miserable while I was there. Okay, really miserable. I had to leave early to come back to the Cities and visit our Urgent Care center where thankfully they gave me some meds and I got to come home and rest.
Last, I flew to Omaha, Nebraska (after stopping in Chicago of course--heaven forbid we go directly there). In Omaha I met the other first call candidates that have been assigned to Nebraska and spent time with synod staff. We'll be moving forward with the call process too.
After all of this, I'm so happy to be at my own home sitting on my couch and blogging! It's time to be home. For tonight I get to ignore the pile of homework and housework to be accomplished this weekend and reflect on the experiences I've had over the past month.
As I've been flying through the skies this month (I don't fly for years and then in one month I fly way too much!) I've been looking out the window and "surveying" the beautiful grounds we have in America. But it also makes you look at your everyday surroundings in a much different way and I couldn't help but look down at the busy highways and the metropolitan areas and be a little sad that we're just going, going, going. While we care for our creation, we care for ourselves as God's creation too and with all the going I've been doing multiplied by the going I've witnessed at airports and from the air, I've seen the need for care that I know I have and that others around me need too. In ministry I hope I don't go so much that I forget that we all need a chance to stop going every once in a while and survey what it is we are surrounded by.
Here's to a night of being on the ground and NOT going!
In the middle of the month my daughter and I got to fly to St. Louis, MO in order to visit my best friend Heidi and her husband Eric (he's a good friend too, but you know how it goes...). Heidi is in her first call in a town called Mascoutah, Illinois. It was a great trip and good to be with my daughter for a girl's weekend. The only downfall of this weekend was that my husband was sick at home trying to take care of our son while he was sick.
Then came my intensive weekend class (that was the reason for creating this blog). I went to Shalom Hill Farm with my classmates where we enjoyed fellowship, beautiful surroundings, and learning about our care for God's creation. The only downfall of this weekend was that I got horribly sick (thank you honey) and was sort of miserable while I was there. Okay, really miserable. I had to leave early to come back to the Cities and visit our Urgent Care center where thankfully they gave me some meds and I got to come home and rest.
Last, I flew to Omaha, Nebraska (after stopping in Chicago of course--heaven forbid we go directly there). In Omaha I met the other first call candidates that have been assigned to Nebraska and spent time with synod staff. We'll be moving forward with the call process too.
After all of this, I'm so happy to be at my own home sitting on my couch and blogging! It's time to be home. For tonight I get to ignore the pile of homework and housework to be accomplished this weekend and reflect on the experiences I've had over the past month.
As I've been flying through the skies this month (I don't fly for years and then in one month I fly way too much!) I've been looking out the window and "surveying" the beautiful grounds we have in America. But it also makes you look at your everyday surroundings in a much different way and I couldn't help but look down at the busy highways and the metropolitan areas and be a little sad that we're just going, going, going. While we care for our creation, we care for ourselves as God's creation too and with all the going I've been doing multiplied by the going I've witnessed at airports and from the air, I've seen the need for care that I know I have and that others around me need too. In ministry I hope I don't go so much that I forget that we all need a chance to stop going every once in a while and survey what it is we are surrounded by.
Here's to a night of being on the ground and NOT going!
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