I cannot help now, but think — when I see or have cause to think about a depiction in the Superman stories — of the people of Krypton’s reaction to Jor-El’s warnings about the fate of their planet. Sure, this is a modern mythology story, but the archetype here is valid: That “a way of life” has a strong hold on our perceptions, and the thought of destruction is not something we allow much play in our consciousness. And the economic way of life, now firmly ensconced in “The American Dream”, is given the status of a shrine (what we would normally identify as “ideology”, but for many, acts as “idol”; as the foundation of a morality which places ultimate allegiance in the economic ideology of “successful nations” (which for many in America is a spot solely inhabited by “American ideals”).

Of course, the narrative says “In God We Trust”, and this is taken as proof that this is really what has been established by Divine Providence. But this sense of “Divine Providence” diverges from that of a healthy theology which recognizes its foundations in an Ecological awareness of our radical interdependence, and the intricate workings of a universe animated by the divine. I hesitate at the use of the phrase “a universe animated by the divine” because of how easily it can be construed as “Intelligent Design” as narrated by the fundamentalist theology. But this “animation: of which I speak is best narrated by “in whom all things hold together” (but then, be careful here, lest this be merely another synonym for an anthropomorphic, individual being holding the controls, rather than a more thoroughly integrated, inseparable activity that animates EVERYTHING, even the reality of evolution. (And yes, I do affirm it as a REALITY, because the universe has unfolded in that way. And, “It is good, it is very good”)