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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Gerard Manley Hopkins(1)
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Rock-the-Cradle Discussion Questions and Genogram Exercises:
1) There is some evidence that environmental activism is becoming a spiritual discipline for increasing numbers of Christians. Listen to Amy Grant's rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" in her album House of Love. Do you think this signals a new awakening to environmental issues among USAmerican Christians in general and evangelicals in particular?
2) How hard is this statement for your group to affirm: pollution is blasphemy. During September of every year, would you feel comfortable praying for the healing of the ozone layer?
3) Does your church's "Stewardship Sunday" connect people to creation or separate people from creation? Is "Stewardship Sunday" about costly care for creation, or the cost of keeping church? Is it time to move beyond "stewardship" to something deeper? Would "trusteeship" be better or worse for defining the terms of Christian care for creation?
4) Should our environmental concerns be extended to gene pools as well as oceans and rain forests and rivers and forests? Aren't we at a place now where we can pillage and pollute the gene pool in much the same way our ancestors polluted the Great Lakes? Is there someone in your church who can discuss issues related to genetic ecology?
5) Declare yourself an "Earth Steward" by learning and reciting "The Earth Pledge:"
I pledge to protect the earth,
And to respect the web of life upon it,
And to honor the dignity
of every member
Of our global family.
One planet, one people, one world,
in harmony,
With peace, justice, and freedom for all.(26)
6) Discuss the theological implications of this story: Once there was a man who was devout and religious and filled with thoughts of the Almighty. Each morning he would go to church, and so immersed was he in his devotions that he never noticed the children who would call out to him, or the wretched homeless who sometimes begged him for a coin or two. One day, he walked down the street in his customary manner, arrived at church, pushed on the door, but it would not open. He pushed again harder, and found the door locked. Not knowing what to do, he looked up and right before his face, he found a note pinned to the door. It said, "I'm out there."
7) "Is there such a thing," Wendell Berry asks, "as a Christian strip-mine?" What do you think?
8) The Church of the Messiah in Minneapolis, Minnesota practices "vegetable evangelism." They engage kids in low income neighborhoods of Minneapolis in gardening, and in so doing invite experiences and reflections on the meaning of creation, creativity, and spirituality.
9) Organizations/Resources you need to know about:
a) National Religious Partnership on the Environment (NRPE)--Catholics, Jews, Mainline Protestants and Evangelicals joined together to address the spiritual roots of environmental concerns
b) Evangelical Environmental Network, and The Christian Society of the Green Cross (10 East Lancaster Avenue, Wynnewood PA, 19096-3495).
c) Get a copy of a useful four-page guide to making your church more ecological entitled Guide to Making Your Church a Creation Awareness Center (order from United Methodist Rural Fellowship, 108 Balow Wynd, Columbia, MO 65203. Send $1 for postpaid copy)
10) Do you think that vehicles advertised as "off road," expensive trucks that promise to plow over and through anything, will be attractive to busters and millennial kids who care deeply about the environment? Is the future with Detroit's "Big Three"--which is investing heavily in expensive sport-utility vehicles, light trucks and minivans? Or is the future with those German and European companies (Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Renault, Fiat) that are investing in "micromobiles," eight-to-twelve feet long smart cars with two to four seats that are fuel efficient, safe, and cost about $10,000?
11) The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), which was founded in 1993 by Christian organizations committed to creation care, has provided an "Evangelical Kit for Caring for Creation," which has been used by over 1000 churches. Call 610-645-9392 for further information about this collection of resources.
12) Someone has observed that "Satan . . . is Nature: he has fur, horns, claws, scales, forked hoofs and a tail, he's found in the wilderness and he's seldom a white person." To what extent do you identify wilderness/nature as the enemy, as something to be "conquered" rather than celebrated?
13) Michael J. Cohen asks us to "Imagine a group of citizens, picnic baskets in hand, walking into a cathedral and chopping up the pews for firewood, roasting hot dogs on the holy candles, strewing litter throughout the sacred areas, carving graffiti, firing bullets and throwing hatchets into the columns, excreting in the holy water before washing their dishes in t, and then telling the Archbishop to clean up the mess. No citizen would do this, because the very nature of sacred places awakens senses that prevent this from happening. Even in war, we seldom bomb enemy cathedrals."(27)
Why is it so difficult for us to approach nature as a "sacred place" that must be treated with respect and reverence? Should we have more respect and reverence for our handiwork than God's?
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