I attended yet another delightful webinar yesterday, this time sponsored by my alma mater, Harvard Divinity School, called " Intersections of Spirituality, Social Justice, and Climate Change." There were three presenters, Roselyn LaPier, an indigenous ethnobotanist at the University of Montana, Elizabeth Eaton, the presiding bishop of the ELCA, and Sofia Betancourt, the interim co-president of the UUA, and was moderated by Dan McKanan, one of my old HDS professors. Much of the talk was very reminiscent of my time at HDS, lots of esoteric discussion with little practical application. I always craved more real world learning at HDS. I mostly enjoyed the deep philosophical debates but ultimately wanted practical ways to apply the lofty ideals I was learning to the real world. Most of what was discussed yesterday was lofty theology/philosophy, but some of it I really enjoyed, especially because so much of it reminded me of my beliefs in interconnectedness.
1. The dichotomy between the "wilderness" and the "urban" environment is a construct that keeps us separate and creates a false reality. We can care for creatures, respect nature, and work for environmentalism anywhere in the world-- because all of the world is the natural world. The air we breathe is everywhere, the rain that falls falls everywhere. Nature is everywhere. It is all interconnected. If we end the dichotomy between the urban and the wild, we can also end the exclusion of minorities (who often live in the most urban areas) from being vested in environmentalism.
2. American Transcendentalism (in which the UUA finds its roots) with its foundational environmental thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau who advocate for connection to nature has a fatal flaw- its emphasis on individualism and solitude. I remember my AP English teacher telling us that Emerson was not and could not be purely independent like he professed. Emerson brought materials with him out to the woods in order to survive, materials that he did not make, but relied on other people to make. His denial of our interconnectedness always bothered me, but totally reminds of the great American lie professing our individual independence. These "self-made men" who tell you to pull yourself up from your own bootstraps and supposedly work hard all by themselves forget that they drive cars they did not make on roads they did not pave with bootstraps given to them by their families. It always frustrates me to hear people say they did it all by themselves. No they didn't, no one ever does.
3. It is wrong of religious people to divorce themselves from their "creatureliness". Some religions put emphasis on humanity ruling over creation, but we have to remember that we are a part of creation, as is the divine. The divine is not separated from the created. If we step away from our creatureliness, we step away from the divine. Even Martin Luther said the divine is "wholly, entirely in all creatures". There should be no hierarchy between us and the divine and the rest of creation. Eaton mentioned that when Christians eat the bread and drink the wine during communion, they eat the land and drink the rain and are connected to those who labored to make them. This is EXACTLY what I used to preach. That we are all interconnected. I used to relate the making of beer to this interconnectedness, but really it's everywhere and in everything.
It was delightful to engage the spiritual part of my being again, and to be reminded of the theological/philosophical thinking I used to revel in. I particularly enjoyed having my theology of interconnectedness shine through this talk.
With delight,
♥Jamie
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