Convenience

"What is truly convenient? And who is it convenient for? And let’s remember that for all our conveniences there is someone or some place on the other end that may not find it convenient at all." -- Tracy Bianchi, from an article entitled Convenience and its Consequences

You Shall Not Steal - A Shazam Moment

During our Sunday morning service this week, Kevin read another of the 10 commandments. (We've been hitting one a week.)  This week was "You shall not steal." That's pretty short and sweet. But it, and Kevin's commentary after reading it, and the Mountains Beyond Mountains book I finished recently, have all gotten me to thinking about myself and in what ways I steal from others. 

I suppose it was one of those moments when I had had have a concept sitting around in my head for ages and ages but suddenly that concept hit the reality of my life at a specific moment in time and it was suddenly like Gomer Pile had yelled "Shazam!" and little light bulbs started going off in my head. And I pictured myself filling my shopping cart with things at Target and each purchase being just one more way in which I've gathered resources to myself that weren't meant for me. 

The quote that I mentioned in my Mountains Beyond Mountains review is particularly what hit me. 

How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb:"Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant, as Farmer would later explain it, "God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us."

And I realized that it wasn't just someone else buying something they didn't really need that was a problem. ME buying something that I didn't really need was a problem. I've tried to reduce our expenses before and buy things used and so on. But it has been more because I wanted to "reduce" or "reuse" than because I held clearly in my mind the idea that I needed to share the resources that God had given to us (us plural, as in, "us, the whole wide world").

Don't get me wrong. We give. We give to our church, to Compassion International, to the Door of Faith Orphanage, and to several other organizations and people. I feel like I have a grasp on giving. What I didn't have in my head was the picture of the person in need who will be missing out on something because of my purchase. 

I know, there's the whole, "But your purchase gave someone in that needy country a job (where they were able to make 6 cents an hour building that for you)." Yeah, yeah. My purchase isn't greed on my part, it's benevolence. Right. But really that's missing the point entirely. My hoarding of stuff doesn't benefit anyone (not even myself because then I have to find a way to cram that stuff into the house). I need to find a way to live not just with less, but more simply over all.  (And with less doesn't mean that I have less. Just that I buy less. There's the whole "Live Simply" movement that involves buying lots of stuff and then getting rid of it quickly. I really don't think that benefits anyone, even if it looks nicely austere.) 

It seems like I've tried spending less many, many times in the past and then the kids need clothes or I need a new bookshelf or.... Yeah. So, what's the trick to really making it happen? 

Sustainability and the Poor of the Earth

Pam wrote an interesting piece on the intersection of poverty and sustainability (Poor Folks Don't Care About the Earth). The question that particularly struck me was, "Can we help people struggling to survive, live sustainably?" The tension, of course, is struggling between helping those in the here and now vs. protecting the world for those to come. 

Heifer International comes to mind as an organization trying to help those in poverty through a program that is sustainable. I also thought of several organizations trying to provide sustainable cook stoves or sustainable means of making clean water available (such as Trees, Water & People).

But I suppose this is also a local question. How can I help those who are in need in my community live more sustainably? Backyard gardening pops immediately to mind.  I've been involved in the Garden Club at our local elementary school and was excited when I heard that the local middle school (which has a higher percentage of low income families than our elementary school) was going to start one as well. Unfortunately the principal replied to my inquiries by telling me that the garden is still at least a year down the road.   

Do you have thoughts regarding the intersection of poverty and sustainability? Conflicts? Solutions? General ramblings?

Tree Hugging for Jesus

This is a short interview of Tri Robinson. (I reviewed his book, Saving God's Green Earth, awhile back.)

"[Christians] need to understand that God does care about his creation
and has commissioned us to care about it."

Tree Hugging for Jesus from Recycle Your Faith on Vimeo.

Beaver Dams Lead to Spiritual Maturity

High Country News published an article about beavers a few weeks ago. Beavers are considered by many to be nothing more than a pesky nuisance. Their dams have been known to cause flooding across popular hiking trails and even threaten some lake front mountain properties. But there's a new movement to bring back the beaver, and in the end, letting the beavers return may not only restore some mountain habitat, but it could also save taxpayers money. Beavers can help to restore soil that has been badly fire damaged along the Rocky Mountains. And their dams might do a better job of slowing water release from the mountains, which would provide water storage, at no cost, to the people and farms down slope.

The article points out that for millenia, beavers have been an integral part of the mountain ecosystem. It wasn't until trappers invaded en masse that beaver populations plummeted from what the trappers described as "60 to 80 beaver" per mile of stream to an estimated 100,000 total after a century or heavy trapping. Because of that, as European settlers moved into the areas where beavers used to live, they found streams that were wide, shallow and fast moving. Despite how beautiful such a scene might be, with the sun glinting off quickly flowing water, these water systems have actually been corrupted. They are out of sync with how they had been running for thousands of years prior. As a forest service hydrologist explained, we have "internalized a degraded stream as natural." 

That line particularly grabbed my attention. What this hydrologist was saying was that we had not only come to believe a lie, but that we had looked upon that lie as something natural -- beautiful even.

From a Christian perspective, these streams are no longer flowing the way God made them to flow because they no longer have the large beaver populations that God had put in place to manage the water. And yet, looking upon these streams, unless you knew how the stream was supposed to look, it would seem to be just fine. One might even go so far as to say that its beauty somehow reflected the glory of God. And yet in saying such a thing, we'd actually be giving high praise to a system that has been perverted from the way it was created to be!

I began to wonder how often we do that. How often have we not only come to believe the lie, but we even elevate it as something extraordinary, something wonderful?! How many things in our lives -- the way we interact with others, the way we do church, the way we set goals and make decisions -- are predicated upon an understanding that is warped by our constrained knowledge of how things are compared to how God meant them to be? How often do we let the culture we grew up in dictate to us what is right and what is wrong? And how often do we tag those "right" things as being God's right things (whether or not they actually are)? 

The mountain ecosystem can be a metaphor in which the beaver filled landscape represents our lives as they would be in God's perfect world, in Eden. The beavers are managers put in place to care for the water ways, and yet these God-chosen managers are seen by us in our fallen state as pesky vermin. I'm not sure what the exact parallel would be with the beavers. Perhaps they are the people in our lives who can speak the truth to us in love. Perhaps they're the people who slow us down long enough to help us reflect on our lives, our actions, our beliefs. How often do we shut the beavers our of our lives thinking that our speedy, sediment filled rush down the hill is how life is supposed to be? How often do we choose what is wrong in the misguided impression that we're doing what's right?

The Earth Is the Lord's - a Bible study written by yours truly

Ever since we arrived at our little church here in Fort Collins, we've been an anomaly. We're reformed, just like the rest of the congregation, but we're environmentalists. We've studied the Bible for years, but we sometimes come to different conclusions on what it's saying. (Our Sunday school lesson two summer's ago on taking the Lord's name in vain is a perfect case in point. It was an entire hour in which I felt like no matter what Rob or I said, we might as well have been in a sound-proof box because no one seemed to hear us. To my great delight, you can now read some of the things that Rob and I were saying in our new pastor's blog (even though he wasn't in that Sunday school class to hear us say those things).)

Though Rob and I will bring up our differences of interpretation on occasion (like when we explain why we bike to church with our family when we can, rather than drive), we try not to make a big deal out of it.  But in March of 2007, I decided that there was one difference of opinion that, while I still didn't want to make a big deal out of it, I did want to address.  After an unexpected outburst about how silly global warming is, I felt compelled to address the issue--not global warming in particular, but the whole topic of the environment and the role of Christians regarding it. 

So I started reading books. I read saving God's green earth, by tri robinson.  I thought it made a very well reasoned case as to why Christians should be concerned about the environment and so I recommended it to the session (which is the ruling group for the church -- the pastor and the elders). All I ever heard back from the pastor was that the elders had quickly shot the idea down. But he suggested that perhaps we could read Francis Schaeffer's book, Pollution and the Death of Man, instead. So I read through that and, while I liked the book, it seemed rather thin compared to the other book I had already started reading at that point, Redeeming Creation: The Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship, which took Schaeffer's same ideas but fleshed them out much better. But I knew that I couldn't suggest that book to the session because it talked too specifically about issues and I didn't want to go there until we could all agree that the Bible had something to say on the topic first. 

By this point I realized that none of the books I picked up were going to reach the intended audience very well.  The only book that had a chance of making an impression was the Bible. So I started searching for Bible studies on the topic.  I found a few, but to put it bluntly, they all sucked.  So I decided to write one myself.  (Hopefully it doesn't suck.)

I wrote specifically with an audience in mind that reflects our congregation: reformed, conservative, and leery of anything that smells even a little bit liberal. I know that liberals have taken up the environmentalist banner and waved it gleefully. But just because liberals wave that banner doesn't, in my mind, mean that conservatives can't also be concerned about many of these same issues.  No one wants their children to be poisoned by toxins in their foods.  No one wants to die of a disease caused by air pollution or water contamination. There are points we can all agree on.  And the Bible speaks not only to these points but to many other environmental concerns as well. 

I recently finished putting together 10 chapters focusing on various topics for study. I pulled from multiple resources including not only my own studies of the Bible, but also from the books mentioned above and even a Teaching Company class on the book of Genesis (which I highly recommend, by the way.  And it's even on sale right now.)

I've uploaded the study book to Lulu.com, where you can download or order a copy. But though it's written, and it's even on Lulu, I think it could still use a thorough editorial review. So I thought I'd invite anyone who is interested to get a copy (I'd actually be happy to order one for you so you don't have to pay for it. But you'll need to send me your address (in a PM).) and go to town on it.  Tell me where I'm not clear, where I don't make my point very well, where my typos are, etc.  You don't have to be a Christian, nor an environmentalist, to try doing the study. You do, however, have to keep in mind who the intended audience is and tell me when you think I'm missing my mark in addressing them. (You don't even have to have a Bible.  The Bible Gateway is an easy way to look up the verses.)  If you're not interested but you know of someone else who might be, please send them a link to this post. If the study can't stand up to serious scrutiny, then it's really not worth me suggesting to the session that we study it at some point. In fact, if it can't stand up to serious scrutiny, then I might as well throw it in the trash bin.  The last thing the world needs is another piece of junk. But I do think it'll (mostly) stand up to scrutiny and so here I am, setting it on the firing line. Fire at will!

Edit: (1 June 2009) The second edition of this Bible study is now out.  I've fixed several typos and a wrong Scripture reference and while I was at it I gave it a new cover (thanks to Lulu's handy premade cover themes).   ------>

Christians and the Environment

Two years ago, in a gals Bible study that I was leading, one of the gals went off on a completely unprovoked tirade against the crazies who believe in global warming.  (More details on what happened can be found here.)  That incident lead me to try to find a book that we could perhaps study in Sunday school that would help us wade through the topic of Christians and the environment. (Several of those books are reviewed here.)  After choosing the book that I thought would work best given our congregation, and then having the book shot down by the session (ruling body in the church), I decided that rather than giving up, I'd just write a Bible study on the topic.  I have high hopes that with the Bible as the primary source for the study, and our congregation as the primary audience, we might finally be able to tackle this topic in a positive way.  (I personally believe that not tackling it is only leading to disunity in our church and dealing with it will not only bring unity but a better witness of our church to outsiders as well.)

I'm just beginning the 9th chapter of the study.  I have, for the most part, kept the introductions to the chapters very short, wanting the Bible to do most of the talking.  But I'm coming to the point where I want to "pull it all together."  Part of what I hope to address in this 9th chapter is the non-Christian environmentalists' take on non-environmentalist Christians. (Wow, say that 5 times fast.)  In re-reading the introduction I've written, I wonder if my characterization of environmentalists is fair.  I "pick" on the New-Age-y environmentalists a bit, primarily because these are the only type of environmentalists that exist in the minds of many of the people in our congregation.  (You know, all environmentalists are tree-huggers and goddess worshippers right?  ... Right.  Whatever.  Let me just tell you, when they met me and my husband, and we weren't singing love songs to the flowers, they really couldn't figure out how we could call ourselves environmentalists.  We've really been a mind bend for them.) My goal, therefore, is to still "pick on" the tree huggers, but I want to do it fairly.  Does that make sense?  In other words, I want to zero in on them still, but I want to do so in a way that's still fairly accurate and fair to who they are and what they believe. 

So I thought I'd post the intro. here and get some feedback.  I'm looking specifically for first reactions.  How does what I say about non-Christian environmentalists hit you? Is it a fair representation?  Am I missing anything?  

Feel free to throw in your thoughts on the questions I ask at the end as well.  

- - - - -

Peter wrote to the Christians in what is now Turkey, saying “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12)  

Think about the pagans (or non-Christians) that we regularly come into contact with.  Given that they’re not Christians, it’s quite unlikely that they’d know anything about how we worship or what doctrine we believe in.  Those are things that they’d really only know if they attended church events with us.  On the contrary, what they see of us is the day-to-day, mundane choices that we make in life.  Non-Christians might not know which hymns we sing on a Sunday morning, but they know what car we drive (and how much we drive it).  They might not know what topic we covered in Sunday school, but they know what food we eat (and how much we eat it).  They might not know our opinions on the fall of man and the salvific work of Christ, but they know how we treat our misbehaving kids in the grocery store and how we deal with a difficult client at work. These little things that we might not even give a second thought to go a long way toward informing non-Christians about who we are and what we believe.

The purpose of this Bible study has been to focus primarily on the environment – what the Bible says about it and how we as believers should think about it.  But it’s important to know also what non-Christians have in mind when they consider environmental issues, because more often than not, no matter why the non-Christian is interested in these issues (whether they think it’s because we’re all connected to some great Mother Earth or because they recognize that environmental issues today have physical repercussions to the future of humanity), there are certain overarching values that environmentalists hold dear and that are intimately linked, in their minds, with living a moral life.

One of these is justice.  In the mind of the environmentalist, pollution is not just a nasty by-product of industrialization, it’s morally wrong. It causes sickness, deformities, even death.  People who are being polluted against their will (such as those whose drinking water has been affected by a nearby factory or children growing up in high traffic areas with higher rates of asthma) are the recipients of injustice.  And those who contribute to that injustice are themselves unjust. So when a non-Christian sees a Christian who doesn’t seem to care about pollution, they believe right away that Christians have no care for justice.  Whether accurate or not, that is the perception.

Another important value environmentalists hold to is love. They tend to get mushy gushy when they talk about it (“We are all connected.”  “We are all children of the Earth Mother.”) but the value itself, love for one another, is admirable. [D] All people hold love to be important. Whether it's family, friends, faith or even the environment, everybody values some thing greatly.[/D] So think of what they see when their Christian neighbors spray pesticides on the peach tree in their own yard and the poisons float down onto the non-Christian’s raspberry bushes. The environmentalist non-Christian is immediately convinced that the Christians don’t even take seriously their own belief that they should “love their neighbor” because they didn’t take into consideration the damage their actions would cause to their neighbor.

So as you read through the following Scripture passages and examples from current news stories, put yourself in the shoes of your non-Christian neighbors.  What values do they see in you as they’re reflected in your day-to-day decisions and activities – especially as they pertain to the environment?  How does your church come across to environmentalists who live in the same neighborhood and see the regular meetings and activities of the church body?

Adam and the Garden

This article was originally posted in the Christian Community group here on Multiply. I started that group back in September 2004, but I've decided to remove myself from there and focus on my DandelionWine site instead. So I'm reposting several posts that I had made over to there.

God Formed the Man from the Dust of the Ground

...the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. -- Genesis 2:7

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. -- Genesis 2:15

God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. Therefore, Adam's relationship to the earth was more than intimate, it was integral. When the New Ager's and mystics croon on about our "oneness" with Gaia (or Mother Earth), in a sense, they're right. We were formed from the very stuff of earth. God certainly could have poofed us into existence, and yet he chose to use a substance that he had already formed, and to remake it and breathe life into it.

It is interesting to note that after the rather short description of Adam's creation in Genesis 2:7, there is a rather longer description of where he was put. It seems that some sense of "place" was important. Adam was made, and then he was given a place to be. In our modern day where we can communicate with people on the underbelly of the earth with only a few clicks on the computer, and where we move from job to job, city to city, with relative ease, we seem to have lost this sense of "place." Perhaps there's a connection between Adam being made from the stuff of the earth and then being placed in a specific place on the earth.

But Adam also had a job to do in his place. He was there to "work it and take care of it." He wasn't told to use and abuse it as many have interpreted Genesis 1:28 to say. Rather, his position was one of a care-taker who had authority (or rule) but who used that authority to govern well (to be a servant leader). If we are Adam's children, then
we also have this same mandate, to care for the "garden."

And women can't claim that this was Adam's mandate only, for in Genesis 1:28, the command was given equally to both of the people that God had created. Ownership of the land was also given equally to both the man and the woman in Genesis 1:29. So Adam and Eve, together, were formed of the earth, were settled in a specific place on that earth, and were told to be governors over the earth and all that was in it. In a sense, they were the first
environmentalists.

Unfortunately, both Adam and Eve were also the first anti-environmentalists. In their disobedience (Genesis 3), they brought sin into the world--sin that affects not only people, but the entire earth as well. They were cast out of the garden (displaced from their sense of place) and in the curse that Adam received, God said, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life." Even Paul refers to this larger extent of Adam's sin when he says, "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8: 20-22)

Christianity and the Food We Eat

This is a repost of a repost. This article was originally published on my meg.dunn.net site (which has long since expired). It was then republished in the Christian Community group here on Multiply. I started that group back in September 2004, but I've decided to remove myself from there and focus on my DandelionWine site instead. So I'm reposting several reposts that I had put there over to here.

(No promises on the links. I haven't checked them to see which still work. I originally posted this in September 2001).

			Christianity and the Food We Eat What does Christianity have to do with food? Well, everything and nothing. Christians don't have diet restrictions in the same way that Jews, Muslims or Hindus do. And eating or not eating a certain food (even communion) neither makes you a Christian nor bars you from being a Christian. But for a Christian, a follower of Christ, the choices that are made in terms of what and how much to eat can possibility have quite a lot to do with having integrity. If I pray for the poor coffee pickers in Mexico and yet continue to buy coffee that was grown with the use of pesticides (which is killing those same coffee pickers) how compassionate am I really? And if I pray for the poor of Calcutta, but choose to buy the rug from India that was woven by a child laborer just because it is cheaper, am I really showing the integrity that befits one who bears God's name? We no longer live in a local economy where the guy who made my shoes is the same guy who lives across the street. In a global economy you can buy a product that is several steps (and probably several countries) away from the person who actually made it. I not only can not talk to the maker of the shoe and see how he or she is doing, I'd be lucky to be able to track the person down at all. In a global economy, we have to look beyond which product might be best for us and determine what unconscious choices are we making with our purchase? Am I choosing to buy a product that has or will adversely affect others because of its creation, transportation, or sale? Perhaps I choose to by the organic tomatoes from Italy. I have chosen well to buy organic produce, but how much gasoline was used just to cart those tomatoes from Italy to my local grocer? If I choose to buy at the large chain store because their items are cheaper, and I putting my neighbor's mom and pop shop out of business? (And would those items have cost about the same once I figured in how much gas I had to use just to get to the chain store?) And in determining the cost of items that involve transportation, I might also want to consider the other hidden costs such as the amount of taxes I will have to pay to upgrade the roads because of their use (as opposed to the wear and tear the road would receive if people mostly bicycled on it or took the bus). Or the increase in medical costs or 911 costs or police department costs because of accidents on the road that either wouldn't happen if traffic was reduced or that wouldn't be so deadly. (If two bikes collide, it can be ugly. But if two cars collide, the accident is more likely to be deadly. And if two pedestrians collide? !! If only our neighborhoods were walkable!) Calling yourself a Christian means that you have to consider your choices. Granted, we can't always make the best choice. I may not have the money that eating organically requires these days. But at least I could be shopping locally and cutting down on the amount my food has to travel before reaching my mouth. (Local farmers markets are often cheaper than the grocery stores.) If I call myself a Christian, I should, at the very least, make myself aware of the consequences of the decisions I make. Organizations like the Christian Coalition like to point out that Christians should weigh their decisions in choosing presidents, congress people, etc. but how often do we advocate using that same amount of brain power to make everyday choices that in the end could effect our planet (rather, God's planet) far more? In fact, why aren't Christians leading the way in helping people make wise consumer choices? Why aren't we the chief advocates in protecting the environment (it is, after all, God's creation)? Why aren't we bringing poor working conditions to light? Why are we sitting around folding tables in the church all purpose room eating highly processed, pesticide laden food when we could be eating locally grown, organic (fresher and safer) foods and be accomplishing just as much "fellowship" and making globally sensitive choices at the same time (and healthier choices as well!)? There are some Christian organizations that are trying to do exactly that. And there are even more nonChristian organizations that would happily accept any Christians who wanted to join their ranks. Look them up. Get involved. Think before you choose. Christian Organizations Evangelicals for Social Action "Evangelicals working together to challenge and equip the church to be agents of God's redemption " The Other Side a magazine that "has long explored the gospel from 'the other side' of power and privilege." Web of Creation "Transforming Faith-Based Communities for a Sustainable World" US Catholic Conference Environmental Justice Program "a variety of resources for you to use in your parish, diocese, school, etc., to foster care and respect for God's creation" Target Earth buys endangered lands, protect endangered species, shares the love of Jesus, feeds the hungry, and reforests ravaged terrain Earth Ministry engages individuals and congregations in knowing God more fully through deepening relationships with all of God's creation Other Organizations Worth Mentioning The Sierra Club "Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources. " Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life "Protecting creation from generation to generation" Earthday Network The official Earthday site The National Geographic Society is the world¹s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization Envirolink Network includes information about government policy as it relates to the environmnet, how you can get involved, and suggested products to use. Know of an organization that I should include on one of these lists? Email me. Shop locally, shop organic: find your local food co-op and become a member Other Great Resources Composting Information Throwing food scraps and other biodegradable materials into the trash is poor stewardship. Find out about composting through this site (what it is, how to do it, what to do with the compoast you make, etc.) Seventh Generation Their home page is listed below. This link will take you to their resources page which includes several books to read as well as support groups for those with chemical sensitivities and more. Places to Shop Online (offering alternative options) Seventh Generation Their goal is to provide high quality, environmentally conscious products that are safer for your home, your neighborhood and the earth's environment. They also have information on why the products you may be using now are bad not only for the environment but for your own health as well. Also, check out their resources page for some fantastic links to information on environmental health, Hormone Disruptors, Safe/Non-Toxic Products, Green Building, Technical References for Toxic Chemicals, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Indoor Air Quality, and Recycling Gaiam They've bought up a bunch of the other companies that I used to shop from. I don't like Gaiam's overall look or feel (nor their prices... everything seemed to get more expensive) but if you can't find it anywhere else, look here. Recycled Plastics Marketing Close the loop by buying recycled products. EcoMall At the EcoMall we have made a commitment to the environment and the preservation of the Earth's natural resources. We offer the tools to help begin living a more environmentally-aware lifestyle.