Humility or Humiliation

Humility or Humiliation

I listened to James Robinson on TV this morning reading from his booklet talking about the choice before us now, humility before god or humiliation by catastrophe. He seemed seriously concerned that the metroplex would come to chaos of failing water and power systems, because we had turned away from God’s laws. His offer of hope involved getting right with God. I couldn’t agree with him more. The devil is in the details however. How do we get right with God?
James Robinson didn’t go into a plan to heal the land or society, but implied that if we confessed Jesus, everything would be all right. What is God’s will if not to live righteously? That means more than keeping chaste; it involves living a balanced life. What is your water source? Are there safeguards to keep it clean? Where does your food come from? Is there any thing more spiritual than bread? Desecrating the flag or allowing gays civil rights is not the source of our problems. The crises we face are natural consequences of our shortsightedness, not the punishment from some less than all-merciful deity who feels neglected and throws a temper tantrum.
I sensed the collapse of industrial cities decades ago. It doesn’t take a prophet to apply ecological science. When you have an overpopulation that poisons wells and paves over pastures, you set the stage for failure. I wrote a paper in high school circa 1970 about pollution and the planet’s imminent demise. The first Earth Day was that year, and a lot of people paid attention to our situation. Alternative technologies emerged, but were dismissed by the profiteers in power. Small-scale innovations continued to improve and be used. Organic farming regained popularity and sustainability and permaculture became adopted as lifestyles. The ‘back to the land’ pioneers were considered quaint or hippie, but they have led the way on living a ‘righteous’ lifestyle. There is Zen saying, ‘Enough is a feast.’ Will Christians be able to learn humility? The first settlers learned how to plant fish with the corn and thereby replenish the soil. Today we pump petroleum back into the ground in the form of fertilizers to coax corn from the mismanaged heartland, and the accumulated fertility of five hundred years washes away in a day. God’s will, one would think, would involve living in harmony with nature. I don’t think it upsets God that there is sex down on the farm, but maybe She is concerned about genetic modification. Common sense says not to ‘spoil you own nest’. The Genesis deity says to replenish the earth, not to rape and plunder.
The churches have let us down, by failing to preach an environmental ethic. The clergy can hardly be blamed though, for they are victims too of a foolish theology that divorces man from nature. Maybe the knowledge we need today went up in smoke with the ‘witches’. There is no escaping the seasons or the limits of our habitat. Where can we learn to live a lifestyle that ‘replenishes’? Possibly from panentheists like Native Americans or biodynamic farmers. Bless our food O Lord, may it be free of poisons. Is our sustenance kosher in the sense that it is free of exploitation? Civilizations don’t crumble when some deity withdraws favor or someone blows a horn, they disintegrate from greed and avarice like overgrazing and government fraud. Getting right with god means composting! Build humus and make the world a better place.