By Sharon Varghese
For one of our recent seminars, we reflected on the passage “Doughnuts, Coffee, and Communion” from Word on the Street: Performing the Scriptures in the Urban Context (Stanley P. Saunders and Chuck L. Campbell, 2000). A few points stuck out to me as reflected on this passage, but I’ll focus on one for this post.
Poor people can suffer devastating consequences as a result of small mistakes or misfortunes – mistakes or misfortunes that may very well have been outside of their control. The same small mistake or misfortune could happen to a middle-class person and not have as devastating of effects – simply because of money, connections, education, and even self-confidence, as the narrator notes.
This point resonated with me particularly because of what I’ve learned through my job experience this year. I’m leading a project, Congregations Restoring Creation, through the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council. In October 2015, we held a retreat promoting the ethics of sustainability and environmental justice as important to the Christian faith in this day and age. One retreat message in particular, The Imperative of the Privileged (given by Reverend Mary Gaut), made me realize more just how much every day actions as a middle-class person can have devastating effects on the poor over time. Furthermore, the poor often do not get to choose to escape the consequences – where they live, the quality of air they breathe, the kind of water they get to drink. But because I may have some money, or some status, or some power, or some relatives, or some connections, I can often move from an unhealthy or unsafe place to a better one, if I wanted to. There are things I have or possess that have often blinded me from the effects of every my every day actions (such as using electricity that doesn’t come from clean energy sources). I often don’t have to see or experience the effects of my actions; the poor do, in their air quality, asthma, birth defects, and more.
I used to unknowingly separate the issues of spirituality, climate change, and the Christian faith in my mind. Yet this year, the interconnectedness of these issues is becoming more real and tangible to me as I learn from and work with various faith communities, faith leaders, and great organizations in Maryland.
Read Rev. Mary Gaut’s wonderful piece on environmental justice here: https://www.cmecouncil.org/AwakeArise.html. Her piece is at the bottom left of our website under “Environmental Justice.”
You can find all of other resources and project updates on our website as well!
I’m looking forward to learning more about the Christian faith and environmental justice as the year unfolds.
Sharon Varghese
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