Download Spirituality in African American Environmental Activism: Reconnecting for Justice and more Study notes Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity! Symposium – “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters”: The Role of Spirituality in African American Environmental Activism in the US South Give Mother Nature Space in the Movement Rev Dele Justice is first experienced within Nature and then duplicated among humanity. Nature must be restored as integral to our justice culture. This essay is about moving the conversations about nature and environmental justice from national campaigns to practical, on the ground work in real people’s spaces. This movement requires that we walk a path of communion and balance. Communion and balance will not only create space for Mother Nature in our environmental movements, they will create space for Mother Nature to refill our souls with compassion and grace. The tricky part – given that we are speaking to a Western mindset – is not separating the spiritual realities from material realities in the process. A cornerstone of Western philosophy is an either/or mindset and the separation of sacred from secular life. I invite you to enter the African and Eastern mindset that uses the intellectual tools of both/and; plus a mindset that sees spiritual and material realities as intertwined and inseparable. It is the somewhat ephemeral presence of wisdom that people want to separate from daily discourse about healthy living environments for human beings. Wisdom is knowledge achieved through using our intuitive faculties and heart-based intelligence in addition to knowledge gained from using intellectual faculties. And it is precisely that ephemeral presence of wisdom that we want to reinject into human daily behavior. 1 In the beginning, Wisdom/Mother Nature guided God in the formation of Earth and was in communion with humankind (Proverbs 8 Green Bible New International Version). She found both companions delightful in what I call our first Beloved Community. There was intimate knowledge of one another, communication was respectful and kind. Diverse species were observed; as were boundaries of each other and between one another. Because the human being was created for communion with our Creator, replicating communion is important in many spheres of our lives. Just as we experience communion as we care for one another within our justice movements we must make room for communion in creation. Communion can be explained as those sacred moments when we are in balance with nature, one another, and the Holy One. Communion can be explained as appreciating and operating in harmony with the diversity of ecosystems as they were created. Only when we can maintain personal, internal balance with nature will we have the wherewithal to maintain social balance/justice in society. Mother Nature as wisdom in this passage is a sentient being to be honored and related to on her own terms. Accordingly, Mother Nature must be seated at the table of the Beloved Community not as a table decoration, but as a voice to be heard and principle to be followed. The Beloved Community is a concept made popular by Martin Luther King Jr. at the end goal of the Civil Rights Movement (The King Center 2019). This philosophy says that all of humanity is meant to live together in harmony with one another. While Martin Luther King Jr. championed the ethical use of environmental wealth, there is no mention of Nature having her own voice or integrity. We unseat Mother Nature when the solutions to climate crises are all human-centered policies to the exclusion of practical solutions which engage us in Earth care. When Mother Nature is heard we revert our lawns back to their original ecosystems and plant food crops as polycultures that interface with animal systems. In performing these simple practices we will re- open our dialogue with Mother Nature and necessarily re-engage her natural cycles of land use and land rest. As we resume natural cycles of work and rest, we regain the abilities to tell time by 2
