An open letter on behalf of my brothers and sisters at Coal River Mountain
I wrote this letter this morning to policy-makers as a part of my responsibility as a citizen to participate in our governance. Massey Energy has begun blasting on Coal River Mountain, a furtherance of their immoral crusade to make a tremendous amount of money at the expense of the people of the Coal River area, the ecosystem, wise industrial policy, our society, and the world at large.
Ancient Jewish teachers often reminded us that the actions of one are intimately connected to us all through sayings like, “Those who save one life, save the world.” In Massey’s case, it is, “Those who destroy one life, destroy the world.” Help Massey emerge from their sickness through writing persons with the power to make this stop. Join me by clicking this link to access the form letter to send to the EPA, Office of the Interior, Army Corps of Engineers, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Feel free to use some of the ways I personalized the letter so the recipients could know I care about specifics beyond the form letter.
Secs. Jackson and Salazar, Director Sutley, and the leadership of the Army Corps of Engineers,
I, and many friends, are writing to ask that you put a stop to mountaintop removal coal mining operations on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia, the area’s last mountain untouched by mountaintop removal.
The blasting not only threatens communities in the vicinity, it will also destroy a project that had rallied local residents as a prime opportunity to create permanent jobs and renewable energy. Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to house a 328-megawatt wind farm. Every blast reduces the existing potential for clean energy, permanent jobs, and a stronger and more diverse regional economy.
President Obama spoke forcefully during his campaign of the deep need for us to invest in a sustainable future; both in energy generation (connected with energy independence) and, more generally, a way of doing industry that unites communities with good jobs and a more healthy environment over the long-term. It is a reminder that each of us is “our brother’s keeper.”
Furthermore, the blasting is occurring near the Brushy Fork slurry impoundment, which holds 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry. Should the blasting cause the impoundment to fail, nearby residents would have just minutes to evacuate before they were overtaken by a 50-foot wall of coal slurry that could cost more than 1,000 lives. Not only does blasting near this unlined impoundment increase the risk of failure, but it will almost certainly cause more of the toxic coal slurry to enter the groundwater. In nearby Prenter Hollow, dozens of residents have become ill from drinking water contaminated with coal slurry.
Mr. Salazar, Mrs. Sutley, and Mrs. Jackson specifically, you have the power to direct your agencies to work together to halt the blasting, defend the safety of the nation’s citizens, and preserve some of Appalachia’s most valuable resources. I anticipate at least hearing back from your offices to know this is a concern for you, because my brothers and sisters in West Virginia don’t have the luxury to wait this one out. “We the people” of the United States need policies that are forward-looking, sustainable, and wise in shaping the nation. Please step up to the plate on this issue.
Thank you,
Nathan Myers
My letter to Senators Voinovich and Brown
Our country is in desperate need of citizens who rise from the malaise of work and mindless television to play an active role in shaping the future of our society. We are cynical, jaded people about the problems of the world primarily because we haven’t had a way modeled for us to find joy and meaning in working together for common goals that contribute to the common good. And when we have been riled up by perceived problems in the system, it’s primarily been led by buffoons like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and the like who don’t shape us to be wise citizens, but knee-jerk sheep obeying their command. I’m struggling to leave that prior life of the cycle of work and distraction to contribute to my society in a meaningful way, and this is one way I’m working to shape our society..
The following is a simple letter I wrote to my Senators from Ohio. The second half of the letter is a form letter set up by the ilovemountains staff, but the first half is my own construction. I’ve heard from groups that form letters, while better than nothing, have less effect because the congressmembers know you haven’t spent time to sit down and thoughtfully engage the issue at hand. I am engaged, learning, and wanting to act.
Senators Voinovich and Brown,
My name is Nathan Myers, a relatively recent resident of Ohio, but already a proud one! I am writing you for two reasons.
First, and most important, there is a region in West Virginia known as Coal River Mountain which has become an area where big business, sustainable industry and energy, the needs of the common person, and environmental concern are smashing together to create a terrible situation. Big business, specifically Massey Energy, is concerned exclusively with the coal seams under the area that can feed their bottom line. This is their overriding concern. In terms of sustainable energy, this is a prime spot for a different form of energy generation for America’s future; a wind farm. In terms of the common citizen, the actions of Massey and other coal giants are shredding their way of life and utterly destroying the area for sustainable, healthy human habitations for centuries to come. And in terms of environmental concern, the destruction of these mountains, resulting coal dust, slurry impoundments, valley fill, and toxic chemicals and metals that will be released into the ecosystem, will have an effect not only on living things in the immediate area, but areas further down the watershed from Coal River Mountain.
Please stand up and be counted as a leader willing to combine a concern for industry with a concern for people and environmental issues.
Second, I am writing to ask you to become a co-sponsor of the Cardin-Alexander “Appalachian Restoration Act” (S 696). This bill is critical for protecting Appalachia’s waters from being polluted and buried by waste created during mountaintop removal coal mining.
Mountaintop removal mining involves clear-cutting native hardwood forests, blowing up entire mountaintops, and dumping millions of tons of debris into nearby streams in order to get at coal seams that lie deep beneath the surface. Already, more than 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations. For 25 years, the Clean Water Act (CWA) allowed for the granting of permits to place “fill material” into waters of the United States, provided that the primary purpose of the “filling” was not for waste disposal. As such, the CWA prohibited mountaintop removal operations from using the nation’s waterways as waste disposal sites. That changed in 2002, when the Army Corps of Engineers, under the direction of the Bush administration and without congressional approval, altered its longstanding definition of “fill material” to include mining waste. This change accelerated the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and the destruction of more than 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams.
To stop this devastation of the nation’s waterways, Senators Cardin (D-MD) and Alexander (R-TN) have introduced the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696)—a simple piece of legislation that restores the original intent of the Clean Water Act to clarify that mountaintop removal mining waste can not be dumped into streams. Passing this legislation would help end the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains, home to our nation’s most diverse forests and streams, the headwaters of the drinking water supply of many eastern cities, and a unique and valuable American culture that has endured for generations. Please sponsor the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696). Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Yours,
Cincinnati resident Nathan Myers
Save America’s most endangered mountain
A call to action from the good people at http://www.ilovemountains.org/ . Please at least read to understand their perspective, let it affect you, and if you feel comfortable, take action through calling or emailing your elected representative. I share this information not as a disinterested individual, but as a Christian obeying the command to care for God’s creation. The situation is dire. As Will Samson writes in his book Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess,
“Men and women are stuck with a coal economy that is devastating their job base and leaving little hope for their future. Children are leaving Appalachia in record numbers, crushing families, some of whom have lived in that area for more than two hundred years. Throughout the coal-mining areas of Appalachia, in almost biblical proportions, neighbor is pitted against neighbor, friend against friend (Isaiah 19:2). One family fights to preserve ancestral lands from being take and blown up to get at the coal seams below, while another enjoys ATVs and a new widescreen TV.” (36)
Massey Energy has begun blasting on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has stated that the mining operation on the mountain is “actively moving coal.” Workers have been seen moving heavy equipment up to the mining zones, and blasting and plumes of smoke were seen and heard near the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment.
he Brushy Fork impoundment is an enormous retention pond holding 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry waste. If the impoundment were to fail due to the blasting, hundreds of lives will be lost and thousands more will be in jeopardy from an enormous slurry flood.
A 2006 study confirmed that Coal River Mountain—the highest peaks ever slated for mining in the state—is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power. Local residents have rallied around this proposal as a symbol of hope, a promise of a new and cleaner energy future, but that hope may be destroyed unless quick and decisive action is taken right now.
6,000 Acres To Be Destroyed
Massey’s plans for the mountaintop removal operation would destroy over 6,000 acres of Coal River Mountain and create 18 different valley fills, devastating the Clear Fork watershed. Over 10 square miles of the most bio-diverse ecosystem in the United States will be destroyed forever, affecting the lives of the local residents by destroying their homeland and polluting their air and water.
Wind on Coal River
A wind assessment study conducted by Coal River Mountain Watch and Downstream Stategies revealed that Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to provide electricity for over 150,000 homes and create stable, well-paying jobs—forever.
The proposed wind farm would help diversify the local economy in an area historically dependent upon sparse, temporary coal mining jobs, pumping $20 million per year in direct local spending during construction and $2 million per year thereafter. Destroying the mountain will also be destroying one of the best wind power sites in West Virginia.
This opportunity, however, depends upon the mountain being left intact. If blasting continues on Coal River Mountain, the wind potential—and the jobs—will be lost forever.
And thank you for helping to preserve Coal River Mountain for generations to come.
Contact your district Representative. Contact your Senator.
And if your Senator is Mitch McConnell, tell him to stop whoring himself out to Big Coal. It’s unsightly to see supposed leaders be such a puppet and lapdog of big business (Nathan’s words here, not the folks at ilovemountains).
Reflections from CCDA Cincinnati Day 1
For those unaware of CCDA, the letters stand for Christian Community Development Association, an organization 20 years young. The organization grew out of the reconciliation work of John Perkins, a long-time faithful, courageous disciple of Jesus whose work for racial justice began in the 1960s and has continued long beyond when “civil rights” didn’t carry quite the sexy feel that it did in the 60’s. In that sense, then, Perkins is a persistent prophet and practitioner of God’s justice who, because of his persistence, has shaped a generation of people to God’s deep concern for reconciliation.
I’m volunteering at CCDA in a variety of roles while being limited by my work schedule, but each night from 7-9 is a public session of music and teaching open to all. Last night, I was on video camera #2 in that public session, where Barbara Williams-Skinner and Soon Chong Rah were the main speakers.
Barbara was the first speaker, and I found great wisdom in her sharing. She spoke of Moses speaking to the people of Israel from Sinai, exhorting them and encouraging them to consider where they came from and to focus on where they were going. She spoke of the temptation to “remain in Egypt” in their minds while neglecting God’s providence and protection to get them where they were. She spoke of the temptation in our day to neglect the deeper call to reconciliation, to settle for what little progress has taken place in the area of racial reconciliation. It’s progress, but “we” (primarily whites and blacks) can’t say we love each other unless we’re spending time with one another. Her words shaped for me the larger question; “How can brothers and sisters in Christ from different races be creative to be ‘with’ one another to show the world unity rather than fragmentation? How do we overcome settling for institutional segregation to love one another and be leaders in the challenge of reconciliation?”
The next speaker was Choong Song Rah, a professor at North Park University in Chicago. Prof Rah offered his perspective on how the church can pursue reconciliation, primarily by emphasizing the issue of power. He challenged those of us in positions of relative power (usually white, middle to upper-middle class) to seek God’s justice through putting ourselves in the position to give up power. It was here that Rah was most convicting, especially given his statistics that showed that Christianity has already undergone a huge demographic shift over the last hundred years. Meanwhile, while this shift has been taking place, we’ve maintained a theology and leadership that remains largely Western and white to this day. We must change our leadership structures and ways of relating to represent this change! One of Rah’s provocative statements was this,
“I’m for the commitment to caring for the environment, for creation care, for being stewards of God’s earth. But because this has become the ‘in vogue’ thing to care about in the larger evangelical movement (mostly white churches), everyone cares about it. But what I find interesting about that is that caring for the environment, instead of seeking racial reconciliation, allows people to seek justice without giving up power. They don’t have to radically humble themselves with others. So the creation care movement can be pursued in a way that ignores other, more challenging aspects of social justice.”
Now, granted, I’m paraphrasing Rah there because I didn’t record his message, but I think I struck at the heart of it. And that’s a powerful statement that strikes me as wise. There’s a deep temptation in humanity, even those of us who serve the God of justice, to take the path of least resistance; the path that requires the least energy for the maximum amount of recognition of our good work. And it is true that the cause of environmental justice requires less interpersonal giving up of power. It’s extremely tough to seek true, deep humility, and to give up power once attained. I want to live with that challenge. I would add, though, that seeking environmental justice requires a very real and very deep self-emptying and self-sacrifice. It is a giving up of the idol of my individuality (comfort, and decision-making centered on self) to the greater communal good, which God is much more concerned about. But that’s just me working out some of the specifics that follow Rah’s proclamation.
Another strong statement by Rah was this; “If you, as a white person, want to move into an urban setting and do ministry, and you don’t have any non-white mentors, you’re not a missionary, you’re a colonialist.”
That statement hurts, but it rings true to me. Can we truly be reconcilers without our lives living and breathing reconciliation? Can we teach reconciliation if we are not modeling it? In that sense Rah’s comment reflects Skinner’s earlier comment that we need to be with one another in order to love one another. We cannot deeply love others by remaining at a distance from them, especially if we live next door. By submitting ourselves to the mentoring of persons of different races and cultures, we are forced out of our own cultural lenses to see the world from their shoes. And that’s essential. ESSENTIAL.
Rah placed these strong statement in the wider context of God’s grace for broken people. It was Rah’s shaping of the wider context that saddened me, however. Rah’s emphasis was the same most evangelicals emphasize, which is “It’s not about human works, it’s about God’s grace.” There are other variations on the same theme; “Human striving doesn’t accomplish anything unless God’s power is present,” “We all fall short, so God’s forgiveness is what matters,” etc etc. I am saddened by this line of thought because the deeper I travel into the Scriptures, the more I find the dignity of human striving. Not a striving to achieve salvation (which, by the way, isn’t a Biblical concern, but is an evangelical concern), but a striving to be obedient to our Creator (which is salvation, as I explain from my perspective in another place).It seems clear in the Bible that God wants people to be obedient to what they were created for, and when we do so, we find joy and meaning and fulfillment. God clearly knows we have shortcomings, and reveals himself to be grace-filled and deeply forgiving, but that aspect of His character doesn’t negate the central call to obedience.
And it’s that last sentence that leads me to be saddened and disappointed when people keep making the main issue of Christian faith a works/grace issue. Clearly, when we are aware of the call to total obedience, we have a strong temptation to “make lists,” as Rah highlighted through his personal story. And it is true that God doesn’t stand over us, waiting to punch us in the mouth or make us feel like hell when we fall short. Yet isn’t it also true, Biblically, that when we are aware of our shortcomings, we have a strong temptation to make life all about grace in a way that completely de-emphasizes our strivings for faithfulness? What I’m saying is this. Can’t we shape a message for God’s people that holds together God’s great grace with God’s great expectation of obedience? And when we take this message seriously, won’t that dignify human effort and put it in its proper place as the natural response to the call of our Creator? And when we dignify human effort, we might find some scales fall off our minds to see that salvation, Biblically understood, is centered on being saved from rebellion and saved to humble obedience. That includes life after death, but is centered on God redeeming humans to be faithful today. It is that message, and not Rah’s, that gives me ultimate hope, that gives me a life worth throwing myself into.
So I’m grateful for Rah’s willingness to speak courageously and boldly, but I’m saddened that he placed his comments in an, ultimately, unhelpful context. Just some reflections from Day 1.
Pray for Glenn Beck
I received a letter from Sojourners today that I found very wise, and deeply rooted in the lives of the average person. The picture and text above are my work and not Sojourners, so they don’t have to take responsibility for my own input. I quote the letter in full following;
Dear Nathan,
Tell Glenn Beck to tell the truth about health-care reform.
Glenn Beck has received a lot of attention for his inflammatory rhetoric lately. Recently, he shared a personal story about his daughter who has cerebral palsy, which gets to the heart of his fears about health-care reform:
They [the government] will say exactly what doctors said about my 21-year-old daughter: “She may not really have a quality of life. She may not walk or talk or feed herself. But then again miracles happen.” The “then again, miracles happen” part of that will be left out of the conversation. And I will not be able to see my daughter’s 21st birthday, where I can reflect with her how miracles do happen. Because really, as I was told at the beginning of her life: Well, what kind of quality of life is she going to really have? I don’t know, but that’s for God to decide, not the government. -The Glenn Beck Program, 8/6/2009
His predictions that health-care reform would lead to government bureaucrats euthanizing people like his daughter are dead wrong, but we agree with Glenn on this point: God is the giver of life. However, what Glenn fails to realize is that lack of affordable, accessible health care is one of the reasons that people choose to terminate difficult pregnancies.
Consider two very close friends of the Sojourners family who recently found out that their unborn baby daughter has a brain tumor. To protect their privacy, we’ll call her Milagro – meaning “Miracle” – or Mila, for short.
The tumor is the same size as her brain and is causing a build-up of fluid and the enlargement of her head. Significant brain damage is near certain. She’s been given a 15 percent chance of survival and then only with a severely impaired quality of life. And yet, they’ve been told what Glenn’s doctors told him: “miracles happen.”
Mila will likely be delivered in December. With their current coverage, premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for a complicated pregnancy will cost 20 percent of their modest income. But if their total bills exceed $250,000, they must pay all additional expenses. It’s unclear how likely this is, but multiple brain surgeries and the additional care Mila may need could spell deep financial trouble.
But their worries don’t stop there. Our friends receive their insurance through the mother’s university. After she completes her Ph.D. this spring, her coverage will end in August. After that, with the possibility of Mila’s severe pre-existing conditions, they may not be able to get any coverage at all.
Our friends do not fear a future where a government bureaucracy forces them to kill their child. Doctors in the current system have already suggested abortion. Their fear is much more immediate: If by some miracle their child survives beyond the womb, will they be able to afford the care she’ll need once the insurance coverage ends?
Contrary to Glenn’s fears, nothing in any of the proposed legislation would take away the right of a parent to carry her child to term. Nothing in any of the current legislation would deny life-saving treatment to anyone in need.
Those painful decisions would still be left to the families, and ultimately, yes, to God – just like the choices Beck had with his daughter Mary. It’s our current system that does not ensure that families have all the care they need – before or after the birth of a child.
All of the reform proposals being debated include provisions to cap out-of-pocket expenses, end exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and eliminate limits like our friends’ annual $250,000 cap on coverage – removing the financial pressures that currently lead many families to terminate difficult pregnancies.
Tell Glenn Beck that health-care reform is pro-life – consistently pro-life.
Lately, Glenn has repeatedly asked his listeners for prayer:
I’m fighting for you and me, my children, your children. I would ask you for one thing. Please, keep me in your prayers, keep my staff in your prayers, for safety, for wisdom, please. -The Glenn Beck Program, 9/8/2009
It should be no surprise that we strongly disagree with many of Glenn’s views, but we too believe in a God far greater than all of us. So on this point, let’s take Glenn at his word and pray for him to have wisdom as he speaks out on these issues.
Tell Glenn you’re praying for him – that he’ll choose hope over fear.
Pray that stories like Mila’s will help convince Glenn that his fears of a government takeover are dangerous distractions compared to the real-life suffering that Americans are experiencing right now. Campaigns by other groups have shown that targeting Glenn’s advertisers gets real results, so we’re including them in this message in order to hold him accountable for his words.
And please pray for our friends’ unborn daughter – that Mila, like Glenn’s now 21-year-old daughter Mary, will grow up to be a miracle who lives a long and blessed life, regardless of what happens with health-care reform.
Shalom,
Ryan, Duane, Elizabeth, and the Sojourners
An end to racism?
I had a discussion about a week or so ago at Cracker Barrel with some folks who came to eat who are from New Orleans. Our conversation rambled over several different topics, but we eventually settled on the topic of race. That phase of the conversation lasted about 15 minutes, and touched on the racial elements of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, on racial progress in America, and what we saw as the future.
The man of a married couple stated at the beginning of the conversation that he believed racism is on the way out in America, and that the distinguishing lines in the America of the future will be social class and not race. Yet over the course of his talking, he constantly referred to blacks and Hispanics as “them,” as in
“They, like it or not, were the ones doing most of the looting post-Katrina in New Orleans.”
And he finished his contribution by saying, “Well, we’ll see now that they’re in positions of prominence, with a black man as President and a Latina in the Supreme Court. Now they can’t use excuses anymore.”
My thoughts. Constantly using the term “them” and “they” over the course of trying to make the argument that racism is dying is kind of like a person claiming to transition to vegetarianism while eating a medium-rare steak. The supposed goal doesn’t fit the present reality. And second, how’s this for a suggestion.
Since white men have gotten a shot at the presidency forty-three times before a black man finally attained it, how about we judge “them” after the forty-third black president. And since there were 110 judges before Sotomayor, with 108 of them being white men, how about we wait until, oh, about 50 Hispanic judges before we judge “them.” Come to think of it, unless we’re claiming to desire an end to racism while maintaining stereotypes, how about we refuse to judge “them” as exemplars of “their” entire race and judge “them” by the content of their character. Then maybe racism will fade, as “us” and “them” will be absorbed into a larger “us” that includes us all.
How’s that for a suggestion?
Irony
The folks I have considered my closest brothers and sisters in Christ in recent years, the Church of the Brethren, are in crisis. Membership rolls are dropping, budgets are being slashed, and everyone has an opinion about why it’s happening. I’m not writing here to add another opinion, though I have mine. And besides, I really don’t have a dog in this fight, as denominations (in my book) are very secondary to the larger call of Christian brotherhood.
But I found this email interesting that I received from said Church of the Brethren. You let me know if you find mixed messages in this email. I’ll give you a photo montage of the place of meeting to help stimulate your imagination to see the mixed message.
The Church of the Brethren invites stewardship leaders to consider attending the “Steward Leaders in Changing Times” conference this November.
In the midst of challenge and change, congregational steward leaders are asked to provide answers and solutions. Plan now to attend:
“Steward Leaders in Changing Times”
Hilton Marco Island Resort, Florida
November 30 – December 3, 2009
The Ecumenical Stewardship Center, of which the Church
of the Brethren is a member, is sponsoring this event.
Good, generative question…
It’s questions like this that deserve to be paid attention to. This is a question of goals, of what matters most, and whether the church we often see is one with proper and wise goals, with a strong sense of what matters most;
“Are our churches and broadcasts and books and organizations merely creating religious consumers of religious products and programs? Are we creating a self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centered subculture instead of a world-penetrating (like salt and light), world-serving (focused on “the least and the lost,” those Jesus came to seek and save), world-transforming (like yeast in bread), God-centered (sharing God’s love for the whole world) counterculture? If so, even if we proudly carry the name evangelical (which means “having to do with the gospel”), we’re not behaving as friends to the gospel, but rather as its betrayers. However unintentionally, we can neuter the very gospel we seek to live and proclaim.”
Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo; Adventures in Missing the Point, pg 11-12
On truth and Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel (second from right) marching with MLK and others in Selma, AL
I think I can safely say I’ve come to a conclusion in my spiritual journey. I’d like to make a statement of that conclusion. Some may find it absurdly simple and self-evident, and I’m ok with that. I’m just processing out loud here.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I judge the truthfulness of a belief system/philosophy/religion by the impact it has on healing and restoring human relationships and human relationship with the rest of creation. Today, not tomorrow, not a thousand years in the future when everything will be ok. Whatever I may hear of, I ask myself, “Does this approach offer hope for the world today? Reconciliation? Radical love? Forgiveness? Today?”
By this standard (though I’m coming from a specific biased place), with my semi-limited knowledge of world religions/belief systems/philosophies, I find historical, traditional Christianity to offer the greatest sense of hope and potential for healing and restoration of all that I’ve come to know.
While saying this, I should add that the religion most caustic, most opposed to radical healing and restoration of God’s creation that I’ve come into contact with is modern Christianity.
There are many reasons why I say this, but the primary one that struck me today is modern Christianity’s world-nial and primary focus on questions of heaven and hell at the exclusion of real, physical life today. In this system of thought, the radical commitment to love of neighbor and enemy, humility, forgiveness, respect for and cherishing of all of God’s creation, the centrality of church to redeem the world; all of these are relativized, made less important, than questions of eternal reward and punishment. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard (and have myself said), “This world is fallen and cursed because of human sin, irrevocably broken beyond fixing. God is not concerned with saving the world, but instead saving humans from the world. And God will be blowing up the world and starting all over anyways, so we’d better be ready for his return.”
In fact, in a discussion with a person who’s been a self-confessed Christian for a long, long time recently, they told me, “You’re going to Cincinnati to address problems of poverty. You probably won’t change much.” It was almost as though I was confronting the Nathan of several years ago, the Nathan so concerned about “saving people” for heaven without a deep understanding of the call for justice today. The Nathan more interested in living in a place that is comfortable, safe, where I can shake my head and talk about people “over there” (most often in the city), spend time with persons most like me (in ethnicity and common commitments and social class). Meanwhile, I would be offending and ignoring God’s call to radical reconciliation in the world; the Biblical mandate for Christians, out of all the people in the world, to be the most committed to breaking cycles of poverty, violence, abuse, and social neglect. People of the resurrection, of a God more powerful than the fear of death, should be the most free to be people of reconciliation, yet more often we retreat into our cultural homogeneity. And what’s worse, we justify it with our theology.
We have literally wrapped the gospel of the Bible around the American individualist dream. Shoved the gospel into a hole that doesn’t fit, and therefore trimmed off the gospel to make it more palatable, less invasive, less life-altering.
I’m come to realize how how absurdly out of touch that belief is with the Bible, how it destroys the desire and the motivation in people to work for bettering this world. If God’s just going to start all over again anyways, why invest in a world that’s just “a-passin” away? When we believe this, our Christianity becomes irrelevant, insipid, evil, and empty. And something always fills that void. In America, it is the second-most evil approach in life in my book; self-centered individualism. It is an infection, a cancer in Americans that has metastasized into a disease unto death. I have become so progressively disgusted with this individualism and its unholy blend with modern Christianity that I deeply struggle with self-righteousness when I come into contact with it. Because the God of the Bible is much less focused on my individual life, and much more focused on recruiting people to join him in His project of setting things right in His world again. Or, as I like to say these days, “Christianity is not about God finding his place in my story, it’s about finding my place in God’s bigger story.” The truth of Christianity is thus much less dependent on my personal feelings of God’s “realness” or what have you and much more dependent on whether I see something transcendent, something deeply hopeful, in Jesus and in the God of the Bible. And I do. Much more deeply today that before, which makes my heart ache to see God’s justice and God’s agenda come to pass.
I don’t mind as much when American consumers worship at this altar as their primary belief system. But modern Christianity has so deeply bought into this cultural message. Our worship songs focused on “I” and “me” desiring emotional connection with the God who “fulfills the desires of our hearts” and “has plans for us, plans to give us hope and a future,” who “makes all things work for good” in our lives (all Scripture ripped out of context to focus on the individual, with God being judged on whether we sense His care for our individual lives on a daily basis). Our churches with professional pastors working their butts off to teach well and worship leaders to sing and play and provide an interesting experience for others to consume. Our budgets devoted to buildings for each individual church filled with the latest in modern technology to attract the crowds; flat-screen TVs, Max Lucado book studies full of sappy self-help reassurance that we matter, etc. Sometimes I just want to prophetically vomit in the aisle of the church worship gathering and leave it as a testament to how I think God feels.
This feeling became more acute today as I listened to Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith while scrubbing at brick with a wire brush for hours on end. She interviewed Arnold Eisen, chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary, about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; his legacy, and his prophetic voice in the world. This was the third time I listened to this interview because I became absolutely captivated by the words and leadership of Heschel the first time around, and want his words to sink deeply into my life. One of his key phrases was this;
“The opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference.”
I see the truth, and find great meaning in that, though I would rephrase it to state, “The opposite of good is evil, which is most often expressed through indifference.”
Listen to the interview here. I promise you, if you have a soul that even mildly cares about the world around you, you will be inspired by Heschel to be a more active, more honest, more hopeful presence in the world.
I welcome comments on my thoughts on other religions if anyone’s interested, but I didn’t want to write forever and ever.
“I would say about individuals: an individual dies when he ceases to be surprised. What keeps me alive — spiritually, emotionally, intellectually — is my ability to be surprised. I say, I take nothing for granted. I am surprised every morning that I see the sun shine again. When I see an act of evil, I am not accommodated — I don’t accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere. I’m still surprised. That’s why I’m against it; why I can fight against it. We must learn how to be surprised, not to adjust ourselves. I am the most maladjusted person in society.”
– Abraham Joshua Heschel
