the earth as integral to the Holy Spirit (idea in Leah Schade book; the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”)
The Ecological Crisis represents what is the most direct assault and consequence of the disengagement from life of the gnostic heresy. To segregate salvation and spirituality into some “internal” transaction is a false move and a distortion of the gospel of Jesus. For sure, there are things happening “within us” as we engage the world from within The Kingdom of Continue Reading
I have never believed in invading other countries, except when it is clear that massive numbers of lives are at stake (such as in WWII***). But we might invoke it in this case of the burning of the Amazon forests, along with other countries who might also care enough of the danger this poses to the globe. The global consequences Continue Reading
Taking the ecological crisis seriously and pressing for action IS indeed “partisan”. But it’s not “Partisan Democrat” or “Partisan Republican” as we automatically assume “partisan” to mean. But it is “Partisan to life”. It is being advocates for the kind of politics that seeks first and foremost to preserve life, and to do that so that it honors and enables Continue Reading
The cries of “alarmists” from deniers are going to be reaching new heights, as the realities close in around us, and people who are paying attention are sounding the alarms. What is the church to be saying in times like these? We have a colossal task for pastoral care to aid us in our ability to “cope” with the “Tough Continue Reading
This article appeared today, on a day when the forces represented by Franklin Graham and the likes of Jerry Falwell, Jr., are calling on the people of God to “pray for the President” that he might be strengthened against his “enemies” (many of those being people rising up in defense of Creation). It’s highly ironic that Graham quotes this bit Continue Reading
“The planet on which our civilization evolved no longer exists. The stability that produced that civilization has vanished; epic changes have begun. We may, with commitment and luck, yet be able to maintain a planet that will sustain some kind of civilization, but it won’t be the same planet, and hence it can’t be the same civilization. The earth that Continue Reading
For almost 5 years, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of “comfort” in being able to respond to news such as the Ecological Crisis. The list of other issues that Progressives are very willing to discuss (and I am also), racism, immigration, abortion, Islamaphobia, War and Peace, The Christian Right’s capitulation to the American Empire…all of these things are undoubtedly urgent Continue Reading
My friend Tim Gossett tagged me yesterday re: an article in the Guardian on “language usage about the environment”with this:“You have some new phases to add to your vocabulary, Dale Lature “ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment I replied, which resulted in several comments , which I will post this morning as comments (as often happens in comments as people interact with me on Continue Reading
Dances With Wolves, which I watched in segments over the past week, is like a parable for the ecological damage done to the world. It was more than a parable to the Native Americans who experienced it directly, in many cases all the way to their own premature deaths. When they spoke of “the white men coming” in the film, Continue Reading
“All of our lenses have various perspectival tints, but Western worldviews seem to have several in common, including the foundational influence of Platonic dualism, inherited from the Greeks. This particular influence absolutizes the realm of the abstract (spirit, soul, mind) and reduces the importance of the concrete realm (earth, body, material), disengaging them from one another. In dualistic thinking, we Continue Reading
(Forgive the length of this, but this began as a reply to a comment elsewhere, and turned into a much longer train of thought) A movie called “The Book of Eli” was about a man, in a post apocalyptic world protecting the Bible he obtained/salvaged from an evil despot who sought the book in order to use it to solidify Continue Reading
The final sentence of the previous quote from the Wallace-Wells book provides a good explanation of why I think we need to utilize and “recover” an ancient purpose of the apocalyptic genre: “There is simply no analogy to draw on, outside of mythology and theology—and perhaps the Cold War prospect of mutually assured destruction.” Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. Continue Reading
This guy writes very well. And sees very well. And processes very well. “climate change is .. an “existential crisis”—a drama we are now haphazardly improvising between two hellish poles, in which our best-case outcome is death and suffering at the scale of twenty-five Holocausts, and the worst-case outcome puts us on the brink of extinction. Rhetoric often fails us Continue Reading
This is horrific:“In just the last forty years, according to the World Wildlife Fund, more than half of the world’s vertebrate animals have died; in just the last twenty-five, one study of German nature preserves found, the flying insect population declined by three-quarters.” Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (pp. 25-26). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition. This just in from a phone call Continue Reading