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The night before my oath ceremony to become a U.S. citizen, I read a chapter of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, where she wondered what it would be like to be a citizen of Maple Nation, the bioregion in North America that stretches from the Great Lakes to the northeast corner of the United States and southeast Canada. In Maple Nation, which transcends political boundaries, sugar maples are more abundant than people and, as valued citizens, they provide gifts for the sustenance and flourishing of life, including shade to cool off buildings, syrup to be enjoyed and traded, and beautiful landscapes to adorn the community. Sugar maples make great citizens. But modernity has persuaded many people in the United States that nature is not a provider or sustainer of life, but rather an inferior object to be used and exploited for economic purposes. Modernity claims humans are the only citizens — the owners and rulers of nature – thus fracturing our relationship with nature and with one another as we compete to amass or inherit resources. This voracious system is built to protect those with wealth and their resources rather than to protect human and natural life. The deadly consequences of this paradigm are evident: Last month, the United States experienced the hottest June on record since we began keeping track 127 years ago. Human-caused climate change exacerbated the unprecedented heat wave that swept through the Pacific Northwest. The emergency center of the Oregon Health and Science University was overcrowded with patients, breathless and dizzy, relating stories of sizzling skin. […] But another system is possible — and already exists: Indigenous communities have long shared a more reciprocal relationship with creation, often honoring trees and other natural elements as elder siblings. Mother Earth is the oldest ancestor; she knows our story as peoples and has witnessed our transformation.
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Our Latest Want to Support Haiti? Prevent Western Exploitation (by Archange Antoine) Haiti needs the love of the church more than ever, but not charity rooted in paternalism or U.S. military intervention. The Theology of a Collapsed Condo Building (by David Leong) A stunted Christian imagination divorces our identities from the spaces we inhabit, as if we exist in the abstract. Six Books That Helped Me Think Critically About Race and Theology (by Josiah R. Daniels) Most of the theologians I read in seminary were white, so I created my own reading plan. God Does Not Will Black People to Die for Justice (by Brittini L. Palmer) It's time to end the myth that Black suffering is redeemed when gains in civil liberties follow. |
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From the Magazine How One Local Ministry Is Living Out Its Call to Restorative Justice (by Sophie Vodvarka) Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation creates sacred space in a Chicago neighborhood. |
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White People Talking to White People About Racism Join The Invitation podcast’s summer series, a reading of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance & Repair. Buy the book from a Black-owned bookstore. Gather friends. Read, listen, discuss, pray, and discern action with pastors, activists, and scholars! El Camino: Sermons on the way to a robust understanding of immigration We invite you to read or listen to our collection of sermons and reflections from faith leaders who are shaping the way we think about immigration, accompany our communities, and advocate for just immigration policies. |
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