Earth Matters: Unity on and with the Earth

In celebration of the Ecumenical Season of Creation this year, we have been exploring themes of life, death, decay and rebirth on this blog. The first article focused on production, consumption and waste in general and the second was on natural burial.  We continue these themes here with a theological view of oneness and unity:

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All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 (NIV)

The article Humanity and nature are not separate – we must see them as one to fix the climate crisis has been both fascinating me and haunting me lately.

It has a good thesis:  We humans used to see ourselves as part of nature but rarely do so anymore. A more accurate understanding of this would help us address climate issues better.

However, I'm skeptical that we have lost this sense of oneness due to the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the article suggests. That being said, I believe we (I'll speak primarily of Christians here) have a lot of work to do to make a more ecologically-supportive theology more well-known and activated.

There are many theological beliefs in play around these issues. But certainly we can all agree that we are indeed a part of nature in so many basic ways. After all, we breathe in and exhale the same air that was produced by plant respiration. We drink the same water that fish live in. The very cells in our body are formed by the minerals found in the soil. Our food is comprised of other plants and animals. We are literally part of nature as understood this way. 

So not only do the materials in our body come directly from nature, but we are part of the same cycles of water use, respiration, birth, rebirth, decay and recycling/composting as everything else in nature.

Some in the Judeo-Christian tradition would say, however, that humans are ontologically distinct from the rest of nature. Others would say that our souls give us a life beyond this world, regardless of what the material reality. Other theologians remind us that a core Christian conviction is the resurrection of the body. Meaning: It's not just that we have detached souls that will live on in Heaven forever, but that there will be an ultimate redemption of the social order. "On earth as it is in heaven" is a description of the Kingdom that Jesus calls us to and asks us to pray for.

In Genesis 3:19, Adam is told that "for you are dust and to dust you shall return." All too often, Christians understand that the redemption through Christ will remove us from this cycle of life and death which doomed Adam and his descendants. 

Is there where we got off track? One interpretation of that would imply that we are only a part of the earth's rhythms and natural cycles of death and decay until we experience the redemption through Christ.  However, I would caution us in this. We need to understand this using the Lord's Prayer for help: Yes, Christ redeems but that redemption does not totally pull us away from earth but rather makes it so that the earth is like it is in Heaven. See Colossians 1:9-20 and the redemption of all things.

Again, there are many beliefs here. But regardless of what happens after this life, we are here now and so are our descendants. We are still a part of nature and its processes. When the earth gets hot in the summer, we get hot, too. When the earth cools in the winter, we cool, too. When the earth has prolific growing seasons, our food is more available and cheaper. When it doesn't, famine is not far away.

I'm not convinced that the reason for this break is the influence of the Judeo-Christian tradition, as the above article suggests.

I see degradation of ecosystems all over the world, not just where the Judeo-Christian footprint is most apparent. The atheistic Soviet Union, Buddhist China and Muslim Indonesia all have terrible ecological footprints. Of course, it is always possible to say this is a consequence of European colonization and a Christian worldview. Perhaps, but it should be pointed out that when the Europeans (and their religion) were kicked out, few bothered to reinstall a different ecological consciousness.

But on the other hand, we Christians haven't spent a whole lot of attention focusing on the relationship between humans and the rest of the earth. The environment is just that--it's there as a backdrop. We can certainly tease out a theology of the environment. I'm part of groups doing that very work today. But it hasn't been emphasized or developed the way theology around other issues has been over the centuries.

Theologically speaking, there are three primary ways of viewing the relationship of humans to God and the rest of nature:  

1. The first is pantheism. This means that humans, nature and God are understood as enmeshed together. Everything is part of the same oneness, even if we take on different forms and appear distinct. Most pagan religions and even perhaps some Eastern religions tend to be in this camp.

2. The second is the polar opposite, depravity: Creation is generally seen as a depraved place, meaning completely absent the presence of God and thus absent all goodness.  Calvinism is one of the most well-known and extreme versions of this brand of theology, but it is common in varying degrees throughout Christianity, most especially in Protestantism. God may appear in certain forms (such as the person of Jesus) or send his Bible or angels from time to time, but otherwise creation is distinct from God entirely and absent all grace.

3. The third is panentheism. This sees creation as infused and pulsating with the presence of God.  Creation is distinct from God and thus is technically speaking depraved, but we understand that God is present with us. God is with us. We are always in relationship with God and grace can be found here. The sacramental imagination of Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans lends itself to this brand of theology.

Is there something about the Judeo-Christian tradition--or just Christianity more specifically--that lends itself to division? Is our fractured view of our relationship with nature just another symptom of a deeper fracture that gives rise to denominational divisions or the devaluing of life in our social issues? I disagree with the linked article which suggests we need a break from the Judeo-Christian influence and a return to the pantheism of Pagan or Eastern traditions in order to sustainably live on this world.

I believe Christianity has a tremendous unifying message. But I do admit that in the Christian tradition we haven't focused on that enough. Perhaps it is because we don't spend enough time contemplating the mystical, cosmic dimensions of the oneness Jesus calls us into.  To paraphrase Pope Francis, we keep putting walls when Christ has put a bridge.

Yes, that linked article oversimplifies the relationship of Christianity and the environment. But it does raise a fair challenge:  Can every Christian--whether you are a devotee of Calvin, a sacramentally-inclined Catholic or a member of some other theological tradition--articulate and describe your faith in such a way that includes an environmentally sustainable future for humanity?

Whatever our theological traditions, one thing is certain:  We need a theology that can express our relationship to grace while also helping us live responsibly on the earth. 

Natural Burial

Blessed are those who mourn, 

for they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

I had the privilege of hearing this powerful testimony below about natural burial. This man buried his wife and lovingly took care of her remains. This is at Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center in eastern Tennessee. They host a natural burial preserve on site.

[This was an emotional testimony. Minor edits have been made for readability, but we tried not to tamper with it to much.]

If I may just tell a short story of Alice…  My name is Grant, and I’d like to tell a short story of how this came about.  

My wife was a hospice nurse for 15 years.  She knew the process and helped many families walk through this journey.  And she had actually researched out and found this place here.  We had been to South Carolina to research natural burial, as well.  

This is something that she wanted—she had a favorite quilt of her grandmother’s that she wanted to be wrapped in.  

At the start of this whole process, I knew some of it and I didn’t know some of it—cause as a husband and wife we were married for 27 years, she does things and I do things and I don’t know everything that she does. And so, when she passed away, I was like, "Uh oh!”  Here’s some information, I knew basic stuff, but I didn’t know the whole story. That following week after she passed I found the whole story.  

So in general, we knew how she was going to be buried. We knew it was going to be here. I knew the contacts to call to organize. Ok, Alice has passed away, and what was going to happen, then I had six friends of mine that I had employed to come with me. I would call Mitzy or Bill [from Narrow Ridge], and they would have had the backhoe operator to dig the hole, and we would have brought her up that day or the next day and placed her in the ground and buried her. 

Well, God may have had a little alternate plan there, because it was January 6^th and if you go back and look at the calendar, that day this major… I’m sure God’s up there saying, "You don’t have a clue what you’re doing, we’re going to have to slow this thing down!"  What was that thing called? A polar vortex that came down… Cold! And it was like 2 degrees and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground, and so instead of bringing Alice directly up here, from home, I had to call the funeral home. I said, "I just need you to come by to pick her up and take her to your place, don’t do anything to her. Then we’ll figure it out as the week goes on."   

So, I didn’t really know anything beyond just wrapping her up and bringing her here and burying her, and it was a Monday morning early, and so somewhere around Tuesday evening I started. I got on Google and I started Googling “green burials” and “home funerals” and different things like that and I found this YouTube series of videos about people that cared for their loved ones in a deeper way rather than the business model that we have today where the funeral home takes them, they prepare them, and they do everything and you don’t do anything except show up to the funeral home and stand beside the casket for a few minutes and then go to the graveyard.  So, I … so this was Tuesday evening, so Wednesday, I went to the funeral home and I said, "I want to dress her, I want to prepare her for burial, and I said, ‘Can I do that?’ and they say, ‘Why, sure.’" And it was just real candid.  

And so on Thursday, I had a few of my friends to go with me to the funeral home.  I brought her grandmother’s blanket, her quilt. And so, I had the funeral people, they brought her into this room, and we left the room, and I said, "Just place her on that… and put a sheet over her, and let me have 20 minutes, 30 minutes, with her by myself, and then I’ll get my friends to come in." 

So you know, I just… one of the things that is so powerful about what took place, there’s no doubt that doing this process was one of the most meaningful things that I’ve ever done in my life, and I can’t imagine doing anything that’ll be any more meaningful but to serve and to take care of my wife during this time. 

And so, I just… I brushed her hair, I wiped her, I cleaned her off, I had some clothes picked out that some of the ladies at church… I took several things and I said okay, "I want this skirt, what goes with it?" so you know, and I got them involved and helped them make a decision.  And so I dressed her, in the YouTube video I had learned how you dress a deceased body, and I dressed her and I got her all in general clothes and I brought all my buddies in and they helped me to tuck her in and make her real nice.

And so, the most meaningful thing that took place in this whole process was she was dressed, she was fresh, she was clean, she was all (whole) in excellent…, you know, I was ready to start closing up the blanket, and so I thought I had made a mistake, because the way I had folded the quilt, when it came to, it just came like this, and I thought, oh no, it’s not going to stay like this…. And the funeral lady said, I got a big needle and some thick thread and so we started down there and we came up just made little stitches so it was just really cozy and really nice and just, it just looked right. 

And so when we got to right here [pointing], when we sewed up right here, all of a sudden I realized this is a moment in my life that will be like no other because whenever… it was time for me to close her face.  And out of everybody in the world that could be the person to do that, who better to do that than her husband, the man who loved her for 27 years?  And it was just a beautiful thing.  It was hard to do.  It was a beautiful thing, it was the most meaningful thing I have ever done. And I kissed her, and I brushed her hair, and I closed her eyes, and we finished.  And then they had a shroud that we had and we finished tying it up and so we stayed there and we talked for about 30 more minutes, and I told my friends, "Okay, I’m at peace. We can do now."  This was Thursday, and then we buried her Friday.

And so, I was totally at peace with serving my wife in this way.

And so we left, went home, and then Friday we came up here, the hole was dug, and we just had a few friends and family, said some proper things, and one of the things that Alice and I did in life our mantra was, we will be participants in this life, not spectators… this is not a spectator sport, it’s full contact. And so I want to be involved in everything that was part of it.  So when it came time to let her down into where the hole was dug, I jumped down in there, I said, "Ok anybody freak out cause I’m jumping in" and all that was around her was the blanket and the shroud, and I knew that, and there was a big pile of dirt right here, and I had my friends, they all brought shovels, and I said, "Don’t wear your good clothes, because we’re gonna work."  And I want to serve her in one last way here.  So I jumped down in that hole and then they brought her over and set her down real gentle.  And I had brought a 5-gallon bucket with me, because I was thinking you know when you start digging in the dirt, I don’t want this dirt to go down and hit her body hard.  And so they filled up this 5-gallon bucket and I would pour it out and I would smooth it out and you know, it probably took around 12, 15 buckets, and then I was like, "Ok, we’re there, can do this," so they helped me out and we filled in the rest of the hole. 

I came up for the first couple of months twice a week. I could not stay away,I had to come up.  I came up and there wasn’t grass growing then, but I would pick around in the dirt, helped to smooth it out, cause it and I got it settled in good.. and when it came time for mowing I asked, "Who mows this?" And they said, "Whoever’s available."  And so I said for the year 2014 I want to volunteer to do that.

And so I’ve mowed it… I let it go, I let it get too high… well, it rained!

Just being part of here, I planted the wildflowers, I mow around Jack in front of her, he’s the recipient of some of these wildflowers, I’m like "Here Jack, here’s a few for you."

That’s the story of what took place.

The takeaway from this that I want to say is that having the opportunity to do this here opened up new avenues for me to express my love to her.  And the emotional and spiritual benefit of taking care of her in that way is the most meaningful… I cannot imagine doing anything this meaningful ever again.

[This was the end of Grant's testimony, but some questions were asked.]

Do you have to work through a funeral director to at least get transportation?

Mine was that way because I had several days involved, when she passed away the weather was pretty ferocious. You can just move from death to burial.  From your house or a hospital pickup, go home.

The funeral home takes care of so many things, death certificate and all that, and you just have to do that yourself?

I need her picked up and kept and then delivered to the burial site, but we’ll figure out the days as the weather changes.  Early Monday morning she passed away and Friday we buried her.  It cost me $1850 to pick her up and bring her here, and they did the death certificate, and had that had not taken place with the weather . . .

Quite frankly, the weather was a good thing, because it slowed me down to think and to do that part that I needed to do.

It is not required that a funeral home be involved.  Once the coroner comes in and pronounces someone dead, and gets that little bit of paperwork started… you get the death certificate, you have to have that.  But you do not have to use a funeral home for anything.

It’s an ongoing educational endeavor of Narrow Ridge, because hospitals are a little reluctant to hand over a body, even if you have the death certificate.  It’s their practice and custom to hand it over to a funeral director, but that’s not required by law to do that.

There are people who will say it’s the law to do this, but these are assumed laws…and some of those people are saying it in good faith.

Narrow Ridge did offer a home burial workshop and have connections with people who know how to do that and would be glad to share information.

[End of Q & A]

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What are your thoughts on this testimony?

How important is it how we treat others in death as well as in life?

This post is a continuation of the Ecumenical Season of Creation. We previously explored themes of decay and rebrith, and a natural burial is another way to interface with these themes.

A natural burial may seem strange to our modern society, but it was once a regular part of life. After reading this testimony, it makes me pause to think:  Has our modern society divorced us too much from natural rhythms? Have we lost something important in the grief process by outsourcing the burial process to strangers? Have we become too fractured and disconnected? After all, Jesus tells us to turn toward our grief and mourning, and he never suggests we do anything to diminish it.

This piece focuses on the emotional and spiritual aspects of natural burial, but there are others:  There are environmental benefits as well as financial benefits. It is also a witness of simplicity. There are differences between a natural burial and a green burial.  See this link for explanation.

Ecumenical Season of Creation: Patterns of Use, Re-Use, Decay and Re-Birth.

We are right in the middle of the Season of Creation: September 1st through October 4th.

While it is critically important year round, this is specifically a time when churches all over the Christian spectrum have decided to come together in a common witness to care for the home we all share together—the planet earth.

September 1st is the start of the new year in the Orthodox calendar, and October 4th is the Feast day for St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and all things related to the environment. Francis is recognized in the Catholic Church but is one of those universal figures who is beloved most everywhere. Denominations all across the Christian spectrum are partners in this effort.

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This ecumenical season of creation makes me stop and think about how seasons come and go: They cycle and repeat throughout our lives in an unfolding spiral as time presses forward. It makes me realize that God has given us a model of how we ought to utilize the materials on this earth. We should model our use of the earth's resources according to the cycle of seasons that the earth has shown us.

Pete Seeger shows us a way forward:

“If it can’t be . . . 

reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted,

then it should be . . . 

restricted, redesigned or removed from production.”

—Pete Seeger

As you can see from the list, Pete Seeger's recommendations make good sense. The item that gives us the biggest bang for our buck is to "reduce." Simply do not use excess materials in the first place. For example, when it comes to clothing, reduce the amount of clothing you buy. For the clothing you do own, reduce unnecessary washing. Both of these options save on money, chemical pollution, energy usage and your time which could be better spent elsewhere. "Recycling" is a wonderful thing, and I am an avid recycler myself. But recycling is what we do when all else fails. This is even more true lately when there is such a poor market for recycled materials at the present moment.

I believe that Seeger is trying to get us to think about patterns of consumption, decay and rebirth. Everything needs to be part of a sustainable, ongoing cycle. If we have created items that only have a single use and have not devised a way to either re-use them or return them back to the ecosystems from which they came, then we should not be producing those items. Humans have always been part of a sustainable relationship with the earth, but in recent decades our consumption has far outpaced the earth's ability to absorb and mask our impact. Looming global climate change is the most egregious consequence of this, and the predictions are dire.

Pope Francis articulated a similar thought this way:

But our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. We have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them. moved from production.”

Pope Francis, Laudato Si, Chapter 1, Paragraph 22

Any farmer can tell you that whatever comes out of the earth will eventually go back to it. A farmer is wise to take care of the soil, air and water so that farming can be sustainable. If you don't build up the soil after harvesting your crops, it won't be long before the soil is depleted and will not yield nutritious, healthy crops, anymore.

Yet, much of our industrial economy is unbalanced—too focused on producing new items. It has given far too little thought to disposal, re-use and recycling of them. I'm sometimes amazed given all the technological advances of our modern society that we have not come up with a better way of handling our trash than simply putting it all in a giant hole in the ground and covering it up. Seriously, that's what a landfill is! At some point, logic dictates that we will run out of land for this, run out of important materials or simply toxify everything. All that waste sitting in those landfills came from somewhere. It shouldn't be "waste" forever but rather allowed to be recycled or returned to the earth. That would match the patterns God has shown for how we are to be a part of nature and care for it.

On Sustainability: No Need to Look Under the Hood

People are working hard to take better care of the environment. We are unraveling generations of bad practices that have unfortunately become commonplace. As Pope Francis pointed out so well in his encyclical Laudato Si, we are living in a way that is simply not sustainable. What we are taking from the earth is not being adequately replaced. The natural cycles of growth and decay are no longer in balance. Sometimes it takes a scientist to show the problems, but often we can see it for ourselves.

The word "sustainable" has just become part of our regular lingo. It's sometimes used in place of other words about the environment. As a result, we often don't pay attention to it. We should pause and consider what it means--if something is not sustainable, that means--by definition--that it cannot continue perpetually. The system will eventually run out and run dry.

If topsoil is eroding faster than it is being created, then once fertile farmlands will turn into deserts. Many of our utilities are powered by coal, but we know that coal will run out and contribute to greenhouse gases and toxic air pollution in the meantime. If we cut down trees to burn wood but do not replant new ones, we will eventually run out of trees--or at the very least, reduce how much forestland covers the earth which reduces habitat for wildlife. There are limits on these resources.

It does not require climate scientists showing mathematically sophisticated computer models to see these examples. If we accidentally dump motor oil into our morning coffee, we have polluted it. Our delicious morning brew is now undrinkable. We are simply saying that this is happening on a larger scale. For example, pollution from burning coal ruins river and lakes, and makes them unfit for swimming, fishing and for drinking water.

The earth does not have an infinite ability to process all these toxins at the rate we are producing them. Humans have historically assumed that the earth was a "bottomless pit" that could absorb whatever trash we threw her way. We now realize that just as we can pollute small areas, like our cup of coffee, we can also ruin large areas, too--up to an including the whole climate of the planet.

Some people accuse the pope of being hopelessly unrealistic, but it's the opposite: The current system is unrealistic. We have gotten accustomed to something that is doomed from the start. The good news is that we do not have to live this way. It is going to take all hands on deck--from individual households to companies to governments. We can all evaluate how our decisions affect the common home we all share.

Imagine I am going to take a car ride from Columbus, OH, to my office in Fairfield, OH. Google Maps says it is a 133 mile trip one-way. I have this wonderful car--a gift from my father. It is not mine, though. It's for my children, but I am free to use it until they are old enough. However, I only have enough gasoline to go 100 miles. In addition, the oil has begun leaking out.

Nobody in their right mind would support my decision to do this. If for some reason the oil does not completely leak out and burn out the engine, ruining the car and risking a highway accident, then the gasoline will eventually run out. The math is easy: Attempting to go 133 miles when there is only enough fuel for 100 makes no sense. This is compounded because I know there's an oil leak. What a sad way to treat a gift that is really meant for my children to enjoy.

This is an analogy of what we are doing with the climate. We are on an unsustainable, suicide mission. On the surface, the car looks fine. It runs well enough. However, looks can be deceiving. Sometimes you need to pop open the hood to get the real story. By the time the car shows symptoms of the problems, it may be too late. But if you are really honest with yourself--you don't really have to look under the hood. You already knew the math doesn't work.

The same is true for the earth. If you take a look outside your bedroom window, you may see birds flying, trees thriving and green grasses. There may be hot days and cold days. It takes a scientist to pop open the proverbial hood to give us another look--bee populations (who do critical pollinating) are dying off. Most rainwater has pesticide residue in it. Virtually all seafood has some level of toxins in them. Plastics are being absorbed into the food chain. The earth's temperature has been steadily rising since the industrial revolution began and the forests and grasslands to neutralize these greenhouse gases are being chopped down. Everything may start to look more bleak.

We can treat the earth with the same common courtesy we would treat a neighbor: If you borrow their car, you return it--with a full tank of gas. If you make a mess, you clean it up. If you damage something, you fix it or replace it. It's just responsible stewardship.