The Environment: a field for biblical social justice

I've been discovering that to help bring about real social justice I need to focus first of all in changing things in my sphere of influence. This means removing myself from systems that perpetuate injustice.

Ronald Rolheiser in his book, Holy Longing, suggests that social justice finds its source in the creation story. He explains that Genesis gives us four truths about social justice (175). These affirmations are:

1. God made all people equal

2. The earth belongs equally to everyone

3. Everyone is equally responsible for protecting the dignity of others

4. The physical earth needs to be respected

It is a holy endeavor to protect the earth. God pronounced it good. It is funny that some right wing evangelicals wish to point out that global warming isn't a consensus issue among Christians. God has declared all creation good to his heart, and seeks to redeem it to himself.

So I've been thinking about how to influence the systems around me and remove myself from systems that perpetuate the rape and depleting of creation.

Here are some of my goals:

• Reduce my carbon footprint and then offset it by buying CO2 Offset
• Here are some ideas:
• Mowing my lawn with my antique rotary mower
• Turing down our heat (even though Elaine will complain, I might get a better response if I get a timer that will turn the heat up just before we get out of bed)
• Unplugging things that heat even when off like the dvd player or those d/c converters
• Turn off the espesso machine at church, even if that means I have to get there an hour early to turn it back on.
• When the coffeehouse gets a building I will remodel it with green ideas, like a light scoop.
• Buying locally produced food
• Switching to Panache EcoTrade espresso for the coffeehouse
• Using E85 in our van