Spiritual Roots of Environmental Desecration

Ivan Illich, describes the environmental desecration that we are witnessing as being rooted in "a corruption in man's self-image". This assertion brings up very different implications than the "simple survival" motive for political action in defense of the environment. Illich says that the only solution to such a crisis is people learning to work together and care for each other. This can be deomstrated in that idea that its the same tools that destroy the environment also injure social relations. Our environmental destruction is a symptom of the deeper insolation that we have shaped ourselves into. Illich further expands upon this idea but discussing the difference between hope and expectation. Illich describes Hope, in its strong sense, means a trusting faith in the goodness of nature, it centres desire on a person from whom we await a gift. Expectation on the other hand means reliance on a results which are planned and controlled by man, a predictable process which will procude what we have the right to claim. Expectation results in the idea that "Man can do what God cannot, namely manipulate others for their own salvation". Illich points the many "tools" like our education, healthcare, and transportations systems, as well as capitalist industrial logic in general as being focused on expectation rather than hope. Are not these type of systems (or "tools" as illich terms them) built with little or no respect for the limits that the environment needs to exist? Are not these systems the ones that contribute to the isolation we experience in our society? How do we move our society from being structured around expectation, to one of hope which fosters "autonomous and creative intercourse between persons"? Such questions are not easily answered, but hopefully this is a starting point. Illich who comes from a faith background, hints at religion as one element that can provide a deep rootedness that can strongly counter many of the ills we experience today.

Letter From Vanier

continuing with my theme of L'Arche, I just thought I would share with you a letter from Jean Vanier published in our newsletter:

Our greatest all "..is to help each person become more human and governed by less fear. It is about keeping an open heart, creating communities where we truly love one another despite our differences and where we become a source of hope for another and where we celebrate life. It is also discovering how faith in God and the Gospel can help us become more loving, move giving and not bow down to the tyranny of normality: being strong and beautiful, fleeing from suffering and discarding the weak. The greatest value of L'Arche, like Faith and Light, is to show that weak people are not only important, but that they have a message for society and the Church. If we enter into a relationship and trust with them, they can transform us and become a souce of unity among Christians, and among men and women of different religions, or who have no religion. They truly have a prophetic role.""

Home

The room I am staying at L'Arche, has a wall hanging on it that shows 5 different things: hope, home, healing, love, celebration. Although some people think this hanging is really ugly, I have found it a simple but profound summary of some of the deeply shaping aspects of L'Arche. Most significantly the experience of home, even though it is a temporary one has been important for me.
The parable of the master who put on a feast, in which only the poor and the destitute came as all the others made excuses has been especially important for me this summer. I've began to value at a more deeper spiritual level some of my friendships with 'poor' people. Up until recently such friendships have been mostly with street people that I worked with for the last 4 years in downtown Kitchener. It's interesting to now make friends with a different set of poor people. The experience is very different, and reminds me of the diversity that can exist within the kingdom of God. I find that experience of home has been very significant for me. The core members are saved from destitution because they have a safe and loving (although flawed) place that they can call home. At L'Arche, I've been able to come to a better understanding of how a home can function, especially for those who might not have a a good opportunity to have a place of belonging, a home. Here at Maranatha, visitors often see home experienced most deeply in the core member's rooms. They are covered with photos and other memorabilia that build an atmosphere of love, a place where the core member is reminded of his/her own uniqueness and the loving community that surrounds them. Each room is far from the bland institutional layout of other homes, and is as unique as the core member. In Maranatha, we regularily celebrate things, the anniversary of when the core member came to L'Arche or their birthday are big celebrations. Welcoming guests is another big event, and everone in the house does things to ensure the visitor feels comfortable and welcome. These core members have a deep history in this home with some of them living together for over 20 years. There is a deep rootedness in the home that is cause for fun celebration. This rootedness can have its flaws though, the rountines established over many years, provide familiarity for the members of the house, but can also hinder any growth or autonomy in the space. The cycle of assistants who tend to stay for short periods of time takes its toll for the core members who have to frequently experience the grief of a lost relationship. But despite these, L'Arche provides a home that prevents the deep isolation, social exclusion, and transience, that many of the people I got to know in Kitchener experienced. I feel that the experience of 'home' should be something everyone should have, and even those who think they have home, by coming to L'Arche may come to a deep sense of appreciation for their homes and the people in them.

the Essence of Trosly

Young people like myself who are finding their identity and trying to navigate the shifting tides that are our culture often put enormous amounts of hope that someone -a mentor, a pastor, a soul friend, a staff worker, spiritual director or guru- can help us to make sense of our confusion and show us a path where we can become whole, free and at peace. We look to people with wisdom, insight, life experience and spiritual sensitivity. The author Henri Nouwen suggests that these types of relationships often subtly or not so subtly become unhealthy. The receiver expects too much, and the giver wants to give too much. One person becomes dependent and the other becomes controlling. Instead, Nouwen points to a person with a developmental disability as potentially a qualified spiritual guide that has few of the risks associated with the previously descibed relationship. People with intellectual disabilities can offer the opportunity for others to connect themselves with their inner selves, their communities and their God on profound levels. This was what Jean Vanier soon discovered as he invited 2 people with intellectual disabilities to come live with him in community. Here at L'Arche Stratford, we often talk about people with disabilities as acting sort of as mirrors. In our daily interactions, they often to can reflect ourselves to us and the result isn't always pretty. When a core member at my house gets angry, I often become very irked as I realize his behaviour reflects some deep inner anger I have. But in his deep vulnerability this core member has also led me down the path that I hope will lead me to my healing. This I believe was the essense of Trosly, that people with disabilities can be spiritual guides to us. Many of my friends have read Jean Vanier and have learned from his ideas. It has been a deep blessing for me to come here even for just a short period of time, and receive an experiential taste of what Vanier writes.

Fullness

Love joy peace and hope
We’ve tied them in chains
And ran far from them

But how can we cope
When that in our brains
Tells us to protect

Protect our pride
Our dignity
Protect our wants
Our desires

But we can’t do this
We need to embrace.
Embrace our full and
Broken hidden selves

For it is only in our pain
Our poverty and addiction
It’s in our suffering that we
Understand love joy peace and hope

Sacramental Living

Arguably one of the most misused and misinterpreted sacred text in existence today is the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Scriptures. The book and particularly the two creation stories contained within it have been central to the creation vs. evolution debate. Since Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species’, Genesis seems to have become viewed simply as a scientific account of how things came to be, given to humanity by God thousands of years ago for the purpose of condemning those evil Liberals. The small but vocal Christian right has had a near monopoly on the interpretation of its meaning. To make things worse the Christian right has excluded itself from any meaningful debate on environmentalism, using theological ideas such as the imminent second coming of Jesus to dismiss any notion of environmental responsibility.

But there actually is much more in Genesis than has been brought to the surface by many Christians. If one reads and studies Genesis as a meaning story in line with other creation myths, then a whole new perspective comes from it. Central to this idea is that the earth we live in is God’s creation and it is good. In Genesis, again and again God sees what he has created and declares it to be good. The trees and plants and animals were created by God and reverence and respect should be given to them. Originally it appears as though in the Garden of Eden, man lives in harmony with his surroundings. There is no mention of death or exploitation, man lives with dependence on God, and God provides.

Everything is wonderful, until the whole story with the serpent, and Adam and Eve make the choice to eat the fruit and gain knowledge independently of God. Included in this decision to eat are a series of significant misperceptions about God. Expulsion from the harmony with creation in Eden and a curse for both Adam and Eve is the result of their choice to be independent.

Death enters the picture in Genesis 3:21 where God kills animals (those whom he declared to be good) for their skin to make clothes, in order to accommodate Adam and Eve in their new sense of shame. Creation was paying the cost for humanity’s independent moral choices. It is creation which kept us and is keeping us from feeling the full effects of the curse.

Creation has paid for other things that have kept us from experiencing the full effects of the curse: medicine, fabric, housing, heat, canning and preservation of food, transportation and mechanization, and water systems. All these things are quite costly to creation, yet they ensure our survival and quality of life. These are merciful, protective, and costly ways God helps us live outside of Eden. Yet humanity and Christians in particular have forgotten this, in our selfishness we have come to see God as a withholder and respond by forcefully squeezing creation for every blessing.

We need to be careful to respond to a need, instead of our ability to get, and to make ourselves aware of the consequences of our consumption. This entails Sacramental Living. Everything we take and use from creation we receive as a gift: one that we are not entitled to, but that has been given generously to us How would it look to live as though everything from creation were a gift? How would our diet change if we truly understood the sacrifice of an animal in order to provide us meat for food? How would our energy consumption habits change if we understood the cost to God’s creation that burning fossil fuels entailed? The Genesis creation story, understood in this way, offers a profound motivation for environmentalism.

Debbie does something more Meaningful

Whether we openly acknowledge it or not, we live in a sexually charged society. Sex and sex related ideas, images, and facts take up a large amount space in the information superhighway that has become our society. Musicians, advertisers and businessmen all realized long ago that sex sells. This can be seen in the sexually suggestive dances of singers like Christina Aguilera, the seductive look of the model on the bus stop, and high proportion of women in service jobs such as waitressing. More explicitly, the internet pornography business has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry. Indeed, the sexual revolutions of the past few hundred years have allowed sex to transform itself from a taboo subject to one that pervades almost every area in our lives. Few would argue that this transformation hasn’t been a positive change, after all humans are sexual beings and to hide that fact is to partially dehumanize ourselves. But the unfortunate fact is that this transformation has occurred in a world where despite the invaluable accomplishments of feminism, men continue to hold the measure of power. The result has been disastrous. Much of the sexual expression in our society degrades woman and relegates them to objects of men’s sexual desires. This is seen in women’s “fashion” where every year the amount of clothing seems to get smaller and smaller exposing more and more skin. Beauty product advertisements and shows like “America’s Next Top Model” subtly purvey the nearly unattainable physical and sexual image that women need to achieve in order to have value in male dominated society. The consequence has not only been an epidemic of eating disorders and other manifestations of low self-esteem among young woman but also a reinforcement of women as merely sexual objects in the male psyche, continuing the cycle of male dominance. The viewing or pornography of all types which has increasingly become a normal and accepted activity amongst males reinforces this cycle exponentially. I believe this is simply unacceptable, not merely because of what it does to women, but also because our society is largely missing in out on a more meaningful way of relating to each other. If we allow value and respect and not sexual exploitation to become the common basis of male and female interaction many of the dominate problems in our society will become solvable. We need to allow a re-emergence of family values (which for some reason we’ve allowed the Republican Party to have a monopoly on) to enter into our discourse. The ideas of feminists such as Andrea Dworkin, and Catharine MacKinnon and the anti-pornography movement offer us much to learn on the way forward. This movement has shown us the violence, degradation and humiliation towards women that is apart of the pornography industry. I’d also apply a similar critique to the beauty industry and the methods they use to sell their products. We need to find to be creative in constructing images, messages and social arrangements that reflect and promote the dignity of everyone in our society, especially women. The government, business and ordinary people would gain a lot from encouraging and enabling women to enter into roles or true power and leadership in our society. The benefits are too many to explain here, but a quick overview of what feminism is about may help. The dangers of pornography are very real, and our society norms that keep it and its use taboo, need to be changed to allow it to become more open where it can effectively be dealt with. Consumers need to change their consumption patterns to send the message to advertisers that the current standards of beauty that they portray are harmful and need to stop. Not only do women need to be more involved in the upper echelons of business but men also need to be more involved in the lower echelons. There are thousands of small but effective changes that can be made to promote a society built on equality in all areas especially in our sexuality.