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Religious Voices Loud and Clear at Keystone XL Protests
Thanks to Catherine Woodiwiss over at Center for American Progress for a good article on religious involvement in the movement to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. She writes:Beth Norcross, vice chair of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, believes that environmental concerns are squarely in line with religious social traditions. “It’s all interconnected,” she said at the rally on Sunday. “You can’t work on poverty and ignore the environment.”
Rose Berger, a Catholic poet and leading tar sands activist for the Christian social justice network Sojourners, agrees. “Most environmental groups were motivated by faith and spirituality at their root,” she says, so “it’s not surprising that faith is involved. Climate change affects the poor first.” In fact, Berger estimates, due to increasing awareness of climate change, “creation care” has become one of the top concerns of many congregations nationwide.
Numbers bear her out: Research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life indicates that nearly half of those who attend worship services hear about environmental concerns from their clergy, and the environment consistently ranks above abortion and gay marriage as a priority for all Christians except white evangelicals. — Catherine Woodiwiss
Read Woodiwiss’ whole article.
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Photo: Office Worker on Ledge in NY to Support Occupiers
I took this screen shot while watching the LiveStream of Occupy Wall Street this morning. As Occupiers shouted “Out of the offices and into the streets,” one office worker climbed out on his window ledge to offer encouragement.
There’s a National Day of Occupy Action on Thursday, November 17. It’s time we were all in the streets.
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Stephen Colbert Interviews Bill McKibben on “Delayed Until Denied” Keystone XL Pipeline
“They are getting the oil out of the oil sands. On the upside, doesn’t that leave us nice clean sand when we are done, which Alberta will need when it is water front property in 50 years?”–Stephen Colbert
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Joan Chittister: What is the Divine Feminine?
Where does this notion of the Divine Feminine come from? Is the question of the Divine Feminine simply a current fad? A silly notion of even sillier feminists? Or could it possibly have deep and ineradicable roots in the tradition itself?
However much we mock the idea, the truth is, ironically, that every major spiritual tradition on earth carries within it, at its very center, in its ancient core, an awareness of the Divine Feminine. In Hinduism, Shakti–the great mother, the feminine principle–is seen as the sum total of all the life-giving energy of the universe. She is the source of all. In Buddhism, Tara is seen as the perfection of wisdom, and, in Buddhism wisdom is life’s highest metaphysical principle! Tara is considered the light and the prime source of Buddhahood and so of all Buddhas to follow.
And in the Hebrew scriptures–the ground of the entire Abrahamic family, Jewish, Christian and Muslim–the spiritual foundation on which you and I stand–the God to whom Moses says, “Who shall I say sent me?” answers not, “I am he who am;” not “I am she who am;” but, “I am who am.” I am Being! I am the essence of all life, I am the spirit that breathes in everyone: the source that magnetizes every soul. I am the one in whose image all human beings, male and female, Genesis says clearly, are made. “I am” is, in other words, ungendered, unsexed, pure spirit, pure energy, pure life. And that assurance we have, note well, on God’s own word: “I am who am.”
Let there be no mistake about it: woman or man, man or woman–the full image of God is in you: masculine and feminine, feminine and masculine godness. Hebrew scripture is clear, and the Christian and Islamic scriptures, as well. God is neither male nor female–God is of the essence of both and both are of the essence of God.
Actually, lest we be fooled by our own patriarchal inclinations to make God in our own small, puny, partial male images, the Hebrew scriptures are full of the female attributes of God. In Isaiah (42:14) the Godhead, “cries out as a woman in labor.” To the psalmist (131:1-2) God is a nursing woman on whose breast the psalmist leans “content as a child that has been weaned.” In Hosea (11:3-4) God claims to be a cuddling mother who takes Israel in her arms. In Genesis (3:21) God is a seamstress who makes clothes out of skins for both Adam and Eve. And in Proverbs, God-she, wisdom, Sophia, “raises her voice in the streets,” “is there with God ‘in the beginning,’” (8:22-31) “is the homemaker who welcomes the world to her table” (9: 5) shouting as she does, “Enter here! Eat my food, drink my wine.” Clearly, after centuries of suppressing the female imagery and the feminine attributes given in scripture in order to establish the patriarchy of lords and kings and priests and popes and powerbrokers as the last word and only word of every failing institution in humankind–no wonder we are confused about who God is. But God is not! Scripture is clear: God does not have–and clearly never has had–an identity problem. Our images of God, then, must be inclusive because God is not mother, no, but God is not father either. God is neither male nor female. God is pure spirit, pure being, pure life–both of them. Male and female, in us all.–Joan Chittister, OSB
From Joan Chittister’s chapter “God our Father; God our Mother: In Search of the Divine Feminine” in the recently released, Women, Spirituality, and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power (Sky Lights Paths Publishing)
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Jeanette Winterson: Financial Industry Committed ‘Crimes Against Humanity’
“I’ve watched with increasing dismay the widening gap between rich and poor the huge injustices in our world the way that we’ve exploited other countries way that we’ve exploit our own work force. And I feel really uncomfortable with that. You know, I love the fact that we’re camping out occupying Wall Street, occupying St Paul’s – just saying, this cannot go on. So if that’s political, then I am political.It amazes me that everyone has been able to carry on with business as normal as though there are not crimes against humanity … whether that’s dead bodies in Iraq or whether it’s the fact that the global economy has tipped over into complete chaos, it doesn’t happen by chance. It happens because people – usually men – take enoromous risks with the lives and well-being of the rest of us, usually to make money.–Jeanette Winterson, author of Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?
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Video: Michele Bachmann Gets ‘Mic Checked’ in Charleston
This is what liturgy looks like. Occupy Charleston addressed Michele Bachmann at a public appearance on the USS York in Charleston harbor. They provide a very fine example of what “speaking truth to power” looks like. Even the call-and-response of the human microphone hints at the kind of power that could be present in religious gatherings.
Also note the classic nonviolence tactics. When one leader is approached by the police, another leader emerges. The “authorities” are confused. To the policeman’s credit, he realized quickly that he couldn’t control the crowd so he controlled what he could, which was Bachmann’s “safety.” So he escorted her out.
In a Facebook post following the event, Occupy Charleston wrote:
“To the people: Today Occupy Charleston shut down a speech by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Together in unison we took advantage of the moment to address the system and the people within it as to the unjust role of corporate money in politics. Michele Bachmann was not our target in this action; she is a representative of the institutional and legal corruption that has infected our country–a system of corruption that values profit over people and is driven by the financial interests of the few against the many.
Political candidates have the finances to create a spectacle to promote the interests of the 1%. This is an ability that is not afforded to the vast majority of the people. Our actions were an attempt to break that spell and to give voice to the 99% and their interests which have too long been ignored by the political establishment. This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue, this transcends petty party politics.”
See what else Occupy Charleston’s got going on.
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Bishop Blaire: Climate Change and Migrant Farmworkers
” … Excess greenhouse gases – primarily from the burning of fossil fuels – are seriously impacting our climate with significant consequences for humanity. Just as in the Diocese of Stockton it is the poorest people (migrant farmworkers, the elderly, the homeless) who are most impacted by our local air pollution, so too it is poor people around the world who suffer the most from climate change. They do not have the resources to protect themselves from extended droughts or severe flooding. They do not have insurance policies to guard against crop failures, homes lost to floods or diseases exacerbated by hunger and thirst. Scientists tell us that erratic weather patterns are likely to intensify with a warming planet, causing people around the world to suffer their effects. Unless we begin seriously to address our carbon footprint, future generations may experience even greater hardship.”–Catholic Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, CaliforniaRead Bishop Blaire’s whole address at the recent Festival of Faiths conference in Louisville, KY.
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Jeanette Winterson: When Bankers Rob the World
“Meanwhile we had riots [in the UK]. David Cameron our beloved PM said that they weren’t politically motivated, as though you can have a bunch of bankers rob the world, get bailed out by our taxes, force a global recession, meet with neither punishment nor sanctions, and expect no social consequences.The message is that a particular class or a particular kind can behave as they like and the rest of us will pay for it. When an underclass riots and behaves as it likes, the police use water canons and kids get 18 months for stealing dustbins and bottles of water.
I hate what happened in the riots but they were nothing compared to the robbery we have all had to put up with from the banks. Pensions are gone, jobs are gone, savings have disappeared. People have lost their homes and their hope. Kids have lost their future, their chance at affordable education, and any sense of justice. They went out and smashed and grabbed. They copied the masters of the universe.
Political unrest means more than organised direct action; it can be a trigger response to an intolerable situation.
Sometimes I walk round the really poor parts of town. Frankly, I don’t know why there aren’t more riots. The toxic message is that life is all about spending power and buying power. You can’t pump that out 24/7 through TV, Web, and Social media and not expect a major mess on your hands when suddenly there is no money. If your only status is your trainers and you can’t buy the trainers what are you going to do? If there are no jobs what are you going to do?
Yes the riots were mindless, malicious, destructive, anti-social. And so was parcelling up junk bonds as A rate security and pushing loans on people who could never repay them. Malicious, destructive, anti-social – but no, it wasn’t mindless – it was done deliberately to turn a profit at the expense of the social order.
And those guys didn’t go to Court, they talked they way around a few Select Committees. They didn’t get fined – they collected their bonuses. They didn’t go to jail – they threatened to leave the country if they were regulated. But none of that was criminal was it?”–Jeanette Winterson, author of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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When the White House Calls to Say ‘Okay, You Win’
It didn’t take long – after news broke this afternoon that President Obama had indefinitely kyboshed the climate-killer Keystone XL pipeline – for my phone to ring.“Hi Rose, I’m calling from White House on behalf of President Obama. We wanted to makes sure you’d seen the President’s executive order postponing the permitting of the pipeline until another environmental impact report can be done, especially focusing on sensitive environmental issues in Nebraska. And we want to thank you for your good work on this issue. We’re just reaching out to let you know that the President hears you and we hope you’ll continue to help us focus on the really critical issues that are facing us right now.”
This afternoon President Obama made an official announcement on the Keystone XL Pipeline that so many of you have been working on these last several months: “Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood. … The final decision should be guided by an open, transparent process that is informed by the best available science and the voices of the American people.”
Wow! What started as an issue among First Nations folks on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border, expanded to the American Midwest where churches, farmers, and environmentalists were warning of corporate shenanigans that could poison the Ogallala aquifer (“America’s well”), and has become an international issue with more than 650,000 people signing petitions to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, has now shifted a United States president and his administration away from their earlier stated intentions.
Developing the Canadian tar sands to extract unconventional petroleum has been a disastrous proposal from the very beginning. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency points out that Canadian tar sands carbon emissions are “82 percent greater than the average crude refined in the U.S., on a well-to-tank basis.” This pipeline is a climate killer. It is morally right for President Obama to delay this decision until he can deny the permit.
We must remain vigilant to make sure powerful corporate interests don’t merely drive the decision-making process underground. We can also thank the President, the State Department, and especially the Environmental Protection Agency for truly acting on our national interest by giving more deliberate scrutiny to this particular pipeline, tar sands development, and push them continue shifting our nation toward renewable fuels and energy and the “clean jobs” needed to take us forward.
This is a great win. Who are the winners? Poor people who are most critically affected by climate change. Midwest farmers who must protect their land and our water supply. Indigenous communities who lives are threatened by tar sands development.Who are the biggest “winners”? People of faith. Our earth is a prayer that we offer back in praise of our Creator. Let us dance and celebrate and praise God for God’s guiding presence – and keep a watchful eye those who would lead us down the road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).
Thank you everyone who is working so hard to stop this pipeline. Take a moment to do a little dance! Because those who don’t dance have run out of steam when the revolution arrives!
[See God’s Politics blog for more on this topic.]
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Rose Marie Berger 