The AllCreation Podcast

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(Greetings, FRIENDS, this episode of Called to Care is entirely in Spanish. Watch with English subtitles on YouTube.) EN ESPAÑOL: ¡Saludos! Estamos orgullosos de presentar este episodio completamente en español. Nuestro segundo episodio de Llamados a cuidar, 2023, presenta al Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, Rosa del Valle Araoz de Machaco (miembro de la Asociación Benditos Los Pobres) y Alirio Cáceres Aguirre (Movimiento Ladauto Si, Red Eclesial Panamericana).

Ellos discuten: "Litio, Fe y Justicia Climática. ¿Qué es una Transición Justa desde la perspectiva de las comunidades religiosas en el Sur Global donde se extrae el Litio?"

“Nada se puede hacer solo. Todo tiene que hacerse de manera comunitaria”. — Rosa de Machado

Los autos y las computadoras modernas requieren un aumento dramático en la extracción de litio y otros minerales críticos, extraídos de la Tierra, para funcionar. Esta poderosa conversación, creada y dirigida por el Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, reúne a dos ambientalistas católicos, Rosa del Valle Aráoz de Machado y Alirio Cáceres Aguirre, para discutir experiencias de primera mano con el tema, cómo se relaciona con su fe. , y cómo avanzar hacia una identidad más “circular”.

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"Llamado a CARE: Explorando el cuidado como identidad en el mundo moderno".
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PROGRAMA0:00 Bienvenida
2:45 ROSA
5:30 ALIRIO
9:00 NEDDY
9:30 Music video, "Todo está interligado" (https://youtu.be/uQvRnfPsn6g)
16:00 Q1?
16:45 Rosa
23:30 Alirio
31:30 Neddy
34:00 Q2?
34:30 Rosa
47:30 Neddy
49:00 Q3?
49:30 Alirio
58:00 Rosa
1:03:00 Neddy

Sobre Anfitriona e InvitadasRDO. DR. NEDDY ASTUDILLO (Anfitriona). Eco-teólogo venezolano y pastor presbiteriano radicado en EE.UU.; co-fundador, Angelic Organics Learning Center; coordinadora del programa de Español Justicia Climática y Fe en el Seminario Teológico Luterano del Pacífico. El Rev. Dr. Astudillo fue recientemente editor invitado de nuestra colección Eco-Teologîa. Actualmente enseña en todo el continente americano y se publica ampliamente. Es coautora de la histórica declaración del Consejo Nacional de Iglesias, La tierra de Dios es sagrada, y del libro, La tierra de Dios es sagrada.

ROSA DEL VALLE ARÁOZ DE MACHADO. En sus propias palabras, “Aráoz es el apellido de mi padre (el de mi madre desapareció en los registros oficiales de identidad de las personas). Y Machado es el apellido de Lacho, mi compañero de vida, con quien sigo transitando este camino de encuentro y transformación. esa es nuestra existencia. Nací en 1950, a los 15 años me enamoré, y en 1970 tuvimos al primero de nuestros siete hijos, cinco niños y dos niñas. Mi segundo nombre es "del Valle", y efectivamente , nacimos y crecimos en un valle, con el abrazo de los cerros, de esas magníficas y prodigiosas fuentes de agua que nos permiten vivir, soy parte del Territorio habitado desde la antigüedad por el pueblo Diaguitas, y que oficialmente la historia llama Catamarca, en el noroeste de la República Argentina. También formo parte de las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, de la asociación Be. Pe., "Bienaventurados los Pobres", y, en representación de estos espacios territoriales, soy parte de la Comunidad Eco-espiritual de la Red Iglesias y Minería (Red de Iglesias y Minería)."

ALIRIO CÁCERES AGUIRRE. Diácono Permanente de la Arquidiócesis de Bogotá (2002). Casado con Andrea y padre de Daniel Esteban, David Felipe y Laura María. Ingeniero Químico, especialista en Educación, Magíster en Teología. Fundador y Coordinador de la Mesa Ecoteológica Interreligiosa de Bogotá - MESETI. Actualmente trabaja como Campaña de Incidencia Hispanoamericana del Movimiento Laudato Si'. Asesor de la Red Eclesial Panamazónica, REPAM y de la Red Eclesial Ecológica Mesoamericana, REMAM. Miembro de varios equipos de Ecología Integral de la Iglesia Católica en América Latina y el Caribe.

Mas: http://www.allcreation.org/care

Gracias por su atención.Creado, grabado y presentado por Neddy Astudillo.
Producido y editado por Chris Searles.
Presentado por AllCreation.org y BioIntegrity.net.Visite AllCreation.org/Care para obtener más contenido.

To view this conversation with English subtitles: 1) Go to the YouTube video here. 2) Click the wheel on the screen, then choose: Subtitles, then Auto-translate, then English, and close the window. 3) Click play on the video, then click on "CC" for closed caption subtitles.

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At age 17, Nick Loffree was diagnosed schizophrenia and after years of searching for solutions he ended-up discovering QiGong ("Chi Gong"). Today Nick is a leading QiGong instructor and historian, helping people help themselves by reconnecting to their bodies and Nature around the world. In this conversation, Nick and Tom VandeStadt, co-founder AllCreation.org, discuss QiGong, the history of Asian energy practices, Nick’s journey from illness to mastery, and more.

About Nick
Learn more at NickLoffree.com.

References (links coming soon)

Qigong (“Chee-gong”) - Vital energy cultivation; the skill of cultivating vital energy
Chi (Chinese)
Kei (Iapanese)
Pranna (Yoga)
Ruak (Hebrew)
The Taoist Five Elements: Metal, Earth, Water, Wood, Fire

Program

0:00 Intro & Welcome

BASICS
4:00 What is Qigong? (Chi-Gong)

6:20 What is Chi? (Kei, Pranna, Ruak Hebrew)

NICK’S STORY

7:20 How has QiGong helped your personal healing?

NICK’S VIEWS

15:30 You say, “Most of Toaist practice, including QiGong, are a disciplined return to Nature” — what does that mean? Why do we need a discipline to return?
21:00 Does getting back into our bodies help us experience ourselves as natural beings?

23:00 What are the Shamanic roots of QiGong?

27:00 Can QiGong help us experience our animal selves? (Aren’t we animals, after all?)

30:20 Contrast the Taoist medicine understanding of the body with the Western medicine understanding .

33:20 How is QiGong an antidote to modern-day stress?

38:45 Can Taoism and QiGong serve as a spiritual practice that moves us to restore as much of this damaged connective tissue as possible, not just in our bodies but in the world around us?

WRAP UP
42:50 Thank you, Nick, for inspiring this issue of AllCreation!

Quotes

“From the Taoist perspective, Nature has an energy to it and different natural environments have different energies. So, a lot of Taoist monasteries would be built at the top of mountains… If you needed more of a physical healing you might want to go somewhere more Yin, to the valley of the mountain where the waters collect and you can more nourish your body with that sort of energy…”“I think most people who’ve spent a lot of time in a city and then went camping or something like that, you notice a difference in the way you feel in your body, just being in Nature. And, the Taoist perspective is that that’s because there are energy fields… The trees, the mountains, the Earth, and everything are emanating an energy field our bodies are evolved to attune to with, harmoniously.

“At the psychological layer, there’s no real, pure return to a natural state, but theTaoists try to push in that direction. So Taoism is often seen not as a movement forward and upward towards heaven or enlightenment, but a movement backwards towards sort of an innocent, child-life wonder, a return towards a simpler, more natural state.”

"If you really wanna look at the Taoisst path authentically, it’s a disciplined return. You don’t just fall back into Nature, you have to train yourself to fall…”

"In Chi-Gong we mirror nature in our movements, and you can never quite draw distinctions between where one movement ends and another movement beings."

“Our bodies have a lot of information they give us that I think we’ve kinda been culture out-of being able to listen to. The body’s full of intelligence.”

“I think the body has a lot of wisdom that we tend to try and think our way out of… “

“You’re actually trying to become the Tiger and look through its eyes as you’re practicing. And so researchers think, that because this is the oldest known form of CQiGong it probably Qigong came from Shamanism.”

“A lot of the postures are still named after Nature, things like “mountain” or “moving like a river” or “standing like a tree.” But it really is those older forms where you were really being the animal, and looking and moving like these animals.”

"Speaking of people creating the future who don’t want to be animals, if you look at Silicon Valley where I lived for seven years, it’s full of people who are just up in their heads. And they think they can turn their consciousness into binary code and just stick it in a robot and become immortal that way. . . I think a lot of them really are out of their body. They often have a very hard time with the dating world. They can have a hard time figuring our how to navigate women, because women are looking for an animal. They’re looking for an animal that can think and do smart things… they’re looking for a physical being. QiGong I think really puts you in touch with that animal side of yourself. I think one of the undertake about benefits of QiGong is it actually really helps your sex life…"

“There’s a weak interface between body and mind for most people, especially well educated, smart upper-class people. I think people who work in those kind-of mental fields need something like this.

“Stress narrows our perception.”

“All the great spiritual teachers have tried to tell us to go past the nation, to go past the tribe, to go past the religion. “

On tithing: “There’s a very weird relationship between the energy you’re putting out, generosity, and the universe.”

This podcast is part of our series, Restoring Connective Tissue.

Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

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About Christina

Christina Conklin is an artist, researcher and writer. As a former religious studies major, she spends a lot of time exploring the intersections of belief systems and natural systems. She shares deep insights, stunning artworks, and terrifying research from her latest book, The Atlas of Disappearing Places.

Show Notes

At the very end of this podcast, AllCreation producer Chris Searles jumps in with a final question for Christina.
To see the video or this presentation go here (link coming later today).

References

Deep Time
Stephen Jay Gould
The Life Timeline
Deep Ecology
Arne Naess
Deep Adaptation
The Atlas of Disappearing Places (book)
Jeremy Lent
The Deep Transformation Network
Deep Adaptation Network
Global Colab
Transition Towns
Breakthrough Communities

Program

0:00 Welcome & Intro

TERMS

1:40 What do “Deep Ecology, Deep Adaptation, and Deep Time” mean?

THE OCEAN

5:10 What important roles does the ocean play and how is everyone on Earth connected to it?

8:30 What are some parallels between the Oceans, bodies of water, and our own bodies — also bodies of water

CHRISTINA’S SLIDE PRESENTATION

12:00 “THE ATLAS OF DISAPPEARING PLACES: OUR COAST AND OCEANS IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS"To see the video or this presentation go here (link coming later today).

FOLLOW UP

36:00 If the ocean were a body, how sick would it be?

38:45 How optimistic are you we can make the changes we need to?

CHRISTINA’S ARTWORK

44:00 It’s stunningly beautiful, tell us more

DEEP TRANSFORMATION

46:00 What are your hopes from participating in the Deep Transformation Network?

48:30 (An interruption from producer Chris) How does the metaphor of “restoring connective tissue” relate to your ecological work and understanding?

52:00 Wrap Up

Quotes

“We’re used to thinking in terms of decades and centuries, but really we’re on this much bigger timeline of Life, and I like locating myself on that timeline, it’s more grounding to me. Seeing the continuity between humans and other species, AlLL the way back into the algae, right? Let’s go ALL the way back and see the continuity.”“We’re pretty sick and headed toward the hospital.”

“So much of what needs to happen is a paradigm shift where we re-member, Re-Member, like “belong again to the world,” and stop the idea of extraction, mastery of resources… All of these ideas came from a specific place and time in history. They have not always existed. It is not necessarily capital T, truth, in any sense.”

“Every religion in the world has pointed to humanity’s role as stewards of nature, as parts OF the natural order.”

“In much of the Developing World this is real right now.”

“The planetary systems are remarkably resilient. if you just leave them alone for a little while, they will find their homeostatic place again. We saw that with Covid. So, we really do have the opportunity to write new stories.”

“I think it’s about everybody waking up and doing everything they can. It’s now. Now is the time.”

This podcast is part of our series, Restoring Connective Tissue.

Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

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In this interview, Jeremy Lent, "one of the greatest thinkers of our age" according to renown journalist George Monbiot, discusses ecological reality, how we understand it, and what we should do next as a society. Jeremy contrasts our modern ways of thinking about existence with the ancient ways from China and the world's Indigenous communities. He shares how connectedness, "which is to say love," is the essence of these ancient worldviews and today's burgeoning complexity science. Jeremy describes the necessity of "deep transformation" into an "ecological civilization," the reality that "the health of the whole system requres the health of each part of the system", and shares what keeps him going.

About Jeremy

Jeremy Lent is author of two breakthrough books on consciousness and Western Civilization. The Patterning Instinct is a cultural history of humanity’s search for meaning, and The Web of Meaning explores and weaves together wisdoms from ancient China, traditional Indigenous communities, Western philosophy, and today's Sciences. Jeremy also recently launched a global network for ecological civilization called The Deep Transformation Network.

References (links coming soon)

The Patterning Instinct
Web of Meaning
Deep Transformation Network
Confucianism
Taoism
Buddhism
Neo-Confucianism
Complexity science
Director of the UN (tom’s first question)
Coral reefs will collapse
UN predicts billions of people will be facing severe water stress
Jevan/s paradox
Slavlov Zizek
Dualism
Humans and nature are selfish
Systems orientation to the world, how things connect
Gei Wu: to study nature in order to learn how to trive
The Selfish Gene is not true
Mutually-beneficial symbiosis
Consensus trance
Ecological Civilization

Program

0:00 Welcome & Intro

A REALITY CHECK

4:00 How series is the ecological crisis?

7:40 How much disruption & suffering do you envision?

10:30 What’s driving this?

16:15 How have we made “meaning” here in the West?

20:30 Why do we believe Nature is a machine?

A NEW VIEW OF REALITY

24:00 What ancient Asian, Indigenous, and complexity science wisdoms are you drawing from now?

28:00 Chi & Li explanation

29:00 The contrast between neo-Confucian Gei Wu, Materialism’s desire to conquer Nature

34:15 Separation from Nature, our way of life, is madness, isn’t it?

38:00 And the opposite, re-connecting, brings out love?

CONNECTING to an ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION

39:50 So, is the first step to reconnect to our own bodies?

42: 50 What are the moral implications of our modern way of life? What is an Ecological Civilization?

47:15 Please identify some “ecological principles”

51:10 What is The Deep Transformation Network?

53:50 What keeps you going as a “possibilitarian”? What is your spiritual source, what is helping you do this?

WRAP UP

58:00 “How are your connections?”

Quotes

“Even though in the West we’re just beginning to uncover the importance of making these connections, Traditional ways of making sense of things always focused on these connections. So in early China, for example, about 1,000 years ago, they integrated three of the great Chinese traditions from the past: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism…”"You don’t have the universe without all the stuff and all the relationships…"

“Every one of (the big shifts) happened because of symbiosis with other species, where they take their specialist skills … and that is what we get from today, where if we walk in a forest we get … and transfer their seeds … and the fungal network underground… the whole thing is a symbiotic ecosystems. And if we can start to look at our human relationship, not at how can we conquer it, then we have a chance at shifting our trajectory."

“We can really understand “love” as being really, like, the realization and embrace of (our) connectedness. When we open our eyes, to that connectedness, embrace it with our being, that is love. . . It’s all about this recognition of connectedness.”

“I think therefore I am” … is saying that thinking capacity is the only thing that actually is fundamentally my identity… but again, this is where modern science shows how fundamentally wrong that is…”

“It’s actually not the only part of our intelligence… What we really are as human beings is a combined, conceptual consciousness that allows us to think in those symbolic ways, and, what we can think of as our animate consciousness, our embodied wisdom, which actually is that vast bulk of what we are as human organisms and is also a gateway to connect us with the rest of life, because some of the deepest elements of what we have within our bodies are what we share with all life. And again, modern science validates that.

"Half of the genes we see in a banana are shared with us."

"… And that’s not just a gee whiz fact, what that basically points to is that the way in which our bodies organize themselves, the way in which they actually are coherent and allow us to have awareness and consciousness are deeply similar. . . In Biology this is called “homology,” the deep history of our evolution is shared with all these other creatures around us…"

“Once we realize that other animals, far from being machines, are actually sentient, feeling beings. and, in fact that any animal with a nervous system and a brain capable of cognizing, the chicken, cows, and pigs that we put in those factory farms, those are animals that suffer. And they may not think in the same way we do, but they are suffering in every bit just as terrible a way from torture and a diminishment of their own life possibilities, just as humans would. . . There is a deep, a profound, moral implication to that.

It’s quite possible that what we’ve done with factory farming, where 80 Billion animals every year are tortured and slaughtered for our benefit, is perhaps the greatest amount of suffering that has ever been caused on Planet Earth since life began billions of years ago. We have to face up to that.

An “Ecological Civilization” looks at Life itself as the basis for how we actually construct our society.

“Ecosystems are based on principles of Life hat gave allowed them to be flouring in many cases through millions years, through changes in climate, through all kinds of disruptions, these ecosystems can accommodate that and stay healthy and resilient.

An Ecological Civilization asks, “What are the principles that we can learn from nature that we can apply to human Civilization that can allow for flourishing into the indefinite future?"

“The ancient Chinese had a concept called, “Ren.” To them Rev meant this profound sense of deep interconnectedness of all life. This recognition that we have … the opposite is “no Rev”, which translates to anesthesia.

“Perhaps the most important principle is mutually-beneficial symbiosis.”

“When we look at the way nature evolved, it evolved fractally. Basically “fractals” are patterns that repeat themselves at different scales. So you see that in things like lighting, the branching of the bronchia in our lungs, or neurons in the brain, or coastlines, you see it everywhere in Nature because they show self-organized activity. Ad ecosystems work fractally…”

“Similarly, what that means if we apply that to human society is that the health of each part requires the health of the whole system. . . Our society can only truly flourish and make sure that they’re flourishing.”

“There’s millions upon millions of people around the world who recognize there’s something is profoundly wrong, and they often times feel very isolated because they’re part of that consensus trance… We can only get to the transformation we need when we realize we’re part of this deeper systemic shift.”

The Deep Transformation Network is “a global community to share these ideas and to actually work together to realize how deeply interconnected all these transformations are within our society.”

“We need to look very clearly that we are headed into something even worse, unless we do this transformation, and I think we need to recognize that to have those feelings is actually part of what it means to be alive, to have that Ren, to realize that dee[ connection to tother life. . . the sense of expanded identity that “I am life”. . .

“That recognition that I actually am Life, that really drives me… I look to Life itself, as a source of, "What does Life want from me?" And the answer i get is that Life wants me to feel into that pain enough to be energized, enough to care, enough to change what I’m doing in my life, to really struggle for Life’s own future. But Life doesn’t also want me to fall into some sort of pit of despair and get stuck there. It wants me to be engaged, to engage with others… so that together, as a group, we have the potential to turn things around. It’s about how I can amplify and resonate with the work of others, and how as a system of transformation we can make our civilization redirect — that’s what gives me a sense of what’s possible.”

This podcast is part of our series, Restoring Connective Tissue.

Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

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Dr. Darcia Narvaez is Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame and a research pioneer integrating work on child flourishing, human moral development, healthy psyche, and Indigenous Peoples' social values. Professor Narvaez talks about her breakthrough work, the meaning of "The Evolved Nest," and her new book, "Restoring the Kinship Worldview."

About Darcia

Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology Emerita at Notre Dame, a fellow to the American Psychological Association, and a fellow to the American Educational Research Association. She's written, co-authored, and edited more than 20 books. Her book, Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality won the William James Book Award.

References

The Evolved Nest
Neurobiology and The Development of Human Morality
Restoring the Kinship Worldview
Four Arrows (co-author / co-editor of “The Kinship Worldview”)
9 components of the Evolved Nest
Alloparents
Iain McGilchrist, The Master and his Emissary
Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Honorable Harvest (from Braiding Sweetgrass)
Linda Hogan (Chickasaw Nation)
Genevieve Vaughan, Maternal Gift Economy
Nature’s Gift Economy
David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous
Human microbiome
Symbiosis
Melvin Konnor
James Prescott
Allan Schore, neurobiological attachment
Jon Young, Coyote games
Tamarack Song, games to develop intuition
David Bohm, physicist, “The real intelligence is insight intelligence and it comes in from the outside.”

Program

0.00 Welcome & Intro

I. THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

2:50 What is a “worldview”?
4:30 What is a “Kinship” worldview?

6:58 Contrast the Indigenous worldview of connection with the Western worldview of disconnectedness

II. THE EVOLVED NEST

9:35 What are the characteristics of an “evolved nest”?

11:35 Components of the Evolved Nest:

11:45 Soothing perinatal experiences

13:00 Breast feeding

14:25 Lots of affectionate touch, no negative touch

15:20 A welcoming social climate

16:25 Alloparents who are responsive

16:55 Self-directed play with multiple-age playmates

17:55 Nature connection

19:14 Routine healing experiences

22:20 On being an animal

III. RESTORING THE KINSHIP WORLDVIEW

24:55 Talking about the book -- What are you trying to convey with the precepts?

30:18 Darcia: To understand our Nature as a Human species is to understand what Thriving looks like

happy, calm, quiet minds
gleeful, childlike

sense of humor that’s not hostile

holding hands, sitting together, enjoying being together…

try to make the other person laugh and feel safe

there’s no big ego, it’s “us”.
32:00 The Honorable Harvest, Darcia shares favorite quotes,
“Sustain the ones who sustain you and the Earth will live forever.”

34:50 What healing medicine feels like , Tom shares a quote

37:05 Darcia: We have a lot of unhealed grief and trauma we pass on, instead of taking time to heal

37:30 What is the relationship between the Sacred Feminine and The Maternal Gift Economy?

40:25 Communion, holy union, co-creation, and our interconnectedness

41:10 Darcia on Nature connection, or “Ecological Attachment”, experiment

42:30 Rooted and connected: “our roots extend out from our skin and our other body cavities”

43:20 The microbiome; We are communities

44:00 Where does your passion for restoring the kinship come from, how are you teaching this?

IV. RESTORING OUR WORLD
48:10 What should we be doing to restore the nest?

Make sure you yourself are centered; Nature connection is one of the best ways to heal.

Learn to get back to social joy.

Learn to guide the conscious mind into connection; build the communal imagination.

52:12 What is sustaining your spirit right now?

I sing to the 6 directions

I sing on my land

Lying on the Earth, leaning against a tree, huggling with spouse

Try to make my husband laugh, sing and dance together

Keep aware: I am and always will be part of the Earth

V. CONCLUSION

54:30 Final thoughts

The first precept: the recognition of spiritual energy in Nature; find that guardian spirit...

57:00 Tom reads a final quote, on Community Welfare (Dona Enriqueta Contreras)

57:56 End

Quotes

“Everything the baby experiences engraves the brain for life. So you want to make sure you don’t distress the baby because then you’re shifting the trajectory away from wellness towards illness or ill-being or adversity.”“(In a) welcoming social climate, the mother feels supported, the baby is wanted, the community is delighted with having the baby around, and the baby feels like they belong, that they can make a difference, make other people smile and laugh as they are made to smile and laugh…”

“The mother is there to be affectively attuned to the baby’s emotional systems to keep maintaining them in the best bio-chemistry for growth.”

“You want to let children have that (self-directed play) experience when they’re young so they can build self-confidence. . . When you don’t provide the nest, in general, you’re deflating that individual…”

“We can get caught up in ruminations, because of this left brain, especially if we weren’t raised in a nurturing way, we’ll have OCD, worry, depression… all this stuff that goes on when you’re un-nested… So we need healing practices to get back into centeredness, into relational connection with others and the natural world, back into gratitude and into our bodies…”

“Our sociology relies on good biology…”

“If we’re raised in these nested communities, virtue is a byproduct, is the result. You would not survive in a community, dependent on others, if you were vicious. So, virtue is part of our heritage as well.”

“In the primal wisdom, the kinship worldview, life is relationships with everything, with All other relations, animals, plants, spirits, etc.”

“We’re trying to get back to connection, to understand that we are all connected, and that part of being connected properly is to be present, to honor the spider, the tree, the Earth, the computer, these are all things that people are relating to…”

“We are embodied creatures, we’re bio-social.”

“Another piece is holism. The way to be human isn’t just to be in this thinking mind, that left brain eco-consciousness. It’s actually quite distressing to be there.”

“The left brain thinks it knows everything.”

“If your survival systems are overdeveloped and you’re easily triggered, the authoritarian is going to be easy to pull you in. . . We forgot that we need to nurture, nurture the heart. And, you have to be immersed in relationships to build the empathy, the sensitivity, and the understanding, and the willingness to forgive, and be generous… All that is part of the Indigenous way, you’re immersed in that kind of social, loving community. And this then allows you to grow your human potential. Which is another thing we’re not doing…”

“Generosity is part of who you are a human being. But what Capitalism (to the Gift Economy) has done is stop that flow and allowed people to hoard resources, and force others to not have any resources…”

Writing “Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality” brought me to the realization that Indigenous wisdom, the kinship worldview, is our heritage. It is what comes about when we honor our physicality, our embodiedness, our species wisdom, and it’s what will save us…”

The Western wisdoms tell us, "Clear your heart, clear your fear, clear your ego, and then be open to divine energies.”

This podcast is part of our series, Restoring Connective Tissue.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World

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From AllCreation's Spring 2022 edition, "Dominionism: Exploring religious relationships with other life." Guest editor, Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon, interviews Rev. Erin Walter on the Unitarian Universalist understanding of the Genesis 1:26 concepts of "dominion" and "dominionism."

Rev. Erin J. Walter (she/her/hers) is Minister and Executive Director for the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry (TXUUJM), coach for Beloved Conversations, and a community minister at Wildflower Church in Austin, TX. Erin is a winner of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation Sermon Award, a former journalist, and singer/songwriter/bassist for the band Parker Woodland. She is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist (UU), an adviser to the SIMS Foundation, currently serving on the board of Texas Impact.

Program

00:00 Intro
01:39 About Erin’s band, Parker Woodland
02:30 About Erin’s UU ministry and the Texas UU Justice Ministry
03:15 Why is environmental stewardship a priority for you and the TX UU
05:10 Do UUs believe they have “dominion” over the Web of LIfe?
06:20 Dominionism comes from Genesis I. Many people believe that’s an open and shut case for taking without replenishing and having domination. But that changes with the “web of life” connotation, it changes the relationship with the word. What is the identity of humankind in the web of life for a UU?
11:20 The here and now… Seeing the Earth as divine increases our sense of urgency to take care of the here and now… Tell us more about a UU take on the present in contrast with a Christian.
14:00 “When Jesus instructs us how to pray, he gives us two prayers: the Lord’s prayer and in Revelation, which ends with saying that "God comes to live with them" — us! God comes to be with us. Why wouldn’t we want to take really good care of the Creation in order to make way for the Creator?”
19:00 The Christian Climate lament: "Do I work for companies that are going to perpetuate doing with Creation whatever they want? Or, do I help the Earth and go broke? ...That’s the world we’re living in?!" This is difficult to counsel on.
23:00 What are you working on politically right now?
26:30 Is the Creation Coalition limited to UUs only?
27:30 Metanoia. Some of what I’m learning from editing this issue is there’s a common thread, “Nothing’s going to change unless we change our perspective. How we look at the environment has to change. Nothing can be more encouraging than the recognition that I’m not alone. If we can unite across our differences, that will foster more of that change of perspective.
30:53 Where do you get your hope from?

References

Rev. Darrick Jackson
Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary
Rev. Fred Small
The Creation Coalition
UU Ministry for Earth (UUMFE)
Build Back Fossil Free
Beloved Conversations
Woyaya

Quotes

We’re a non-creedal faith, so the folks in the pew sitting next to you might not believe the same thing about the Divine. Our faith connections are around principles and values, not so much around creed or dogma. So for us, one of those principles is the interconnectedness of the web of life that we consider us all to be a part of.

Many of us fall into that category where our spirits are concerned about how we care for each other and how we steward our relationships, our lives, and our actions in the here and now.

I was raised UU, and “dominionism” is really not a word I heard at church.

We meet in a place of community, sustenance, and sustainability for this home.
If all of this is God’s Kingdom, can we treat it as holy? And, what do we have to lose?
Yes, I often just feel incredible awe and gratitude to just be in this world, it’s, it’s amazing.
I hadn’t thought about humankind as being at the top of any living creature hierarchy.
There’s a lot of economic and justice layers to how we make our work choices to reflect our values.

We have this balance to strike, of facing the hard work that we have to do and making sure we have support to do the work.

If not us, who?

Spiritual tools are really important. One of the things I’m constantly talking about is thatwe do not fall into despair. We need our joy practices, our spiritual practices, our sustenance practices, to keep us uplifted enough to be doing the work.

If there’s one thing that I would hope people across all kinds of political and religious differences could unite around, it would be stewardship of the Earth.

I always want to encourage people to find one thing that they can do WITH the interconnected web of our lives; we're not going to each be doing it alone.

I mean, the coalition work feels like "The Way" to me, you know. Again, it's this inherent worth and dignity of every person, like, yes, I want to be affirmed for who I am as an individual, but the liberation for the Earth and for Each other is going to be achieved Together.

We need to be willing to meticulously make small steps, build relationships one conversation at a time, one meeting at a time, one experience at a time, while also holding this radical, amazing vision of the beloved community we can be building together. We need to see the big, glorious picture while also being willing to do what you and I are doing right now, just have one on one conversations.

What’s your theme song?

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Spring 2022 series, Dominionism.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.
See the whole "Dominionism" collection here.

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From AllCreation's Spring 2022 edition, "Dominionism: Exploring religious relationships with other life." Guest editor, Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon, interviews Rabbi Matt Rosenberg on the Jewish, religious meaning of "dominion" and "dominionism," which appear in the Jewish and Christian Bibles.

"And God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.'" (Genesis 1:26)About Matt
Rabbi Matt Rosenberg began his tenure as the executive director of the Albert Einstein Residence Center, Sacramento’s senior Jewish housing community, in January 2021. A California native, Matt earned his undergraduate degree in geography from UC Davis, earned his masters degree in rabbinic studies from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and a masters degree in geography from CSU Northridge. He spent 18 years operating the ThoughtCo.com website, is author of two books on geography, and currently lectures in geography at Sacramento State University.

Program

00:00 Welcome
01:25 Self intro
02:45 Is there an environmental ethic in Judaism & what does that look like?
05:15 Expansions on: "Helping the Earth be all that God dreams of it to be.” Anthropocentrism means humans can take whatever we want. Is there an anti-Anthropocentricism? Is there an interpretation of Dominionism that is not so narcissistic as today’s?
08:00 Are you a vegetarian? To what extent is that rooted in your faith?
08:45 Did you grow up looking at the environment through the lease of the Creation stories, as “God made this?”, or as something that could be compartmentalized?
10:22 Being reminded of our “creaturely identity” comes from being in Nature.
14:40 In Deuteronomy 20:19. I can hear, “Trees are better than you”, how does this ethic expand?
16:30 Would an understanding of Tu-B’shivat now look at the Earth and feel that we’re doing enough?
19:00 In the last 5% of human history, fundamentally, what changed? Why did we go from such a long history of belonging and relationship with the Creation to this?
22:00 “Metanoia” means a change of heart, a change or direction based on a change of perspective. How we see the world is directly going to effect how we treat it. Has your environmental view always been a part of your Judaism or more of a metanoia over time where you’ve been able to incorporate it as a piece of your Judaism?
25:00 What gives you hope?

Quotes

God created the universe and therefore has complete ownership over all creation, and humans are God’s partners in bettering Creation.
Religious traditions are human-focused—they’re not for the whales and the dolphins, but it’s our job, according to my understanding, to maintain the basic balance to this order of Creation. Yes, the mitzvah (the commandment) to not destroy, comes from Deuteronomy 20, which says you can eat of the fruit trees but you cannot cut them down. Trees are people, too, and we should prevent all unnecessary destruction. We have this concept of “All the more so” … If you cannot cut down trees in wartime, all the more so should you not cut down trees when it’s not war.

We can absolutely do better. There’s no greater crisis right now, and we should be observing Tu BiShvat everyday; we’re on this path of destruction of humanity. The Earth will survive for billions more years and I think God has put us on this Earth to find this balance, to find a role where we can use the Earth’s resources and not abuse the Earth’s resources. There’ve been humans on Earth for 200,000 years. We’ve only recently disrupted the balance.

We have but a few years to figure out where we’re going to go from here and how we’re going to protect our planet for our children and our children’s children, truly.

My hope comes from that fact that humans are creative and we can come up with solutions, and there are answers to climate change and the problems we see on our planet, and I have faith that my children’s generation and their children’s generation will do better. I see this long arc towards the betterment of the world.

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From AllCreation's Spring 2022 edition, "Dominionism: Exploring religious relationships with other life," guest edited by Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon. Dan speaks here with Imam Islam Mossaad about Dominionism from an Islamic scriptural perspective.

About Imam Mossaad
Imam Islam Mossaad has served as imam for the North Austin Muslim Community Center (NAMCC) from May 2008 – January 2015 and returned to NAMCC January 2018 to the present time. He has also served as Imam for the Islamic Center of Little Rock from September 2003 until May 2006 and Imam for the Islamic Community of Bryan-College Station January 2017 – January 2018. Imam Islam is a Hafidh of Quran (he has committed the entire Quran to memory) and has received life-long Islamic education from scholars of Islam here in the United States and through his formal studies with Mishkhâh University. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Imam Mossaad has diverse professional experience. He has worked as an engineer, engineering consultant, Islamic school principal, teacher, and Imam. He strives to unite Muslims along the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). He also seeks to educate people on the beauty of Islam while promoting tolerance and mutual understanding. Imam Islam Mossaad is a long-time Austinite, is American born and raised with Egyptian parentage. He is married and has two children. This interview is one of the features from our Spring 2022 collection, Dominionism. Thank you, Imam Mossaad!

References

Names of God:
- Ar-Rahman, The Most Merciful
- Ar-Rahman / Ar-Rahmeen, "entirely merciful, most kind"
- Al-Jabbar, The Compeller
Arabic Words
- Al-Aalameen, encompassing everything except Allah
- Amana, trust, honesty, faithfulness
- Rabb, God (Allah)
- Jinn, spirit creatures preceding humans
Dr. Sayyed Hossein Nasr
- 2009 lecture discussed here
Bible verses
- Genesis 1:26
- Leviticus 18:22

Program

00:01 Welcome & intro
00:30 Self introduction
03:55 Cultural Ambassador. How much of your time is spent introducing Islam to people in the West?
05:20 Islam & the Environment. What is a traditionally Islamic view of the environment, and how do Muslims understand their relationship with the environment in terms of having "dominion" over the Earth?
10:30 Accountability & Relationship. For Muslims, “dominion” cannot be separated from accountability?
13:30 Disconnect. In 1956, Dr. Sayyed Nasr predicted the environmental crisis (paraphrased), “There’s nothing as important in the world. Most Muslims do not realize there’s a disconnect, the environmental crisis is driven by a blindness to [our sacred] teachings about Nature."
21:55 "The All Encompassing." On Nasr's statement, “God is the environment into which we are born, in which we live, in which function, and in which we die.”
26:10 Names of God. Christians see Christ himself, “as surely as you do it to what you see you do it to me." I hear similar themes.
32:40 Self-love. "Love one another as we love ourselves."
37:15 Anthropocentrism. What is the Islamic view on Anthropcentrism, the idea that humans are the most important creatues in the world.
42:00 Sharia Law. Do Muslims actually abide by the environmental commandments of Islamic holy law?
49:20 Right relationship. What will happen to the tree if I don’t do right by it? How can I live in right relationship with the whole of creation?
53:30 Metanoia. How do we need to change how we see? What is the Islamic view of "dominionism" and does that view need to change?
56:25 Spiritual Growth. Has the way you see the environment changed over time for you or your family?

Quotes

“Allah” is the name in Arabic for “the one God.”
Islam means submission and peace through submission. So we submit along with the trees, the birds, the animals, the galaxy, they are Muslim, meaning they are in submission toGod.“The Prophet Muhammad’s divine inspiration came through being in Nature… We see nature as a sacred sign from God.”

This idea of having dominion, or “to subdue, and to dominate,” those are anathema actually in the Islamic context, but there is definitely an idea of what some modern day authors are [calling] stewardship; so, “halifa.”

You are answerable to God for what you do with the animals and the plants and the streams, and so there’s a lot of this feeling of accountability before God for the Nature that we are entrusted with.
One of the names of God is The Most Beautiful, and so when we see beauty it should draw us closer to the wonder for the beauty of God himself, the beauty in Nature and the patterns and the colors, and as you mentioned, just the wind blowing thru the leaves, and so on. It can take a person to another mystical plain.
How we treat animals really says a lot about our inner spirituality or our inner world and our inner self.
A very powerful feeling to have, is to feel communion not just with your fellow human being but even with the blades of grass, with the molecules in the air, and this oneness with everything. Go out into Nature -- into a stream, into a lake -- and just watch the ripples, and just enjoy that whole feeling that you’re getting of closeness to God.

Nature connects us to God and we don’t want to lose that.

View Details

This is the keynote interview for AllCreation's Spring 2022 edition, "Dominionism: Exploring religious relationships with other life," guest edited by Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon. Dan speaks here with Dr. Norman Wirzba about Genesis 1:26, the context it was written in, and how knowing all that changes the modern Christian perspective.

"And God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.'" (Genesis 1:26)About Dr. Wirzba
Dr. Norman Wirzba is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Dr. Wirzba’s research and teaching interests are at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. He lectures frequently in Canada, the United States, and Europe. His research is centered on a recovery of the doctrine of creation and a restatement of humanity in terms of its creaturely life. He is currently the director of a multi-year, projected entitled “Facing the Anthropocene” where he works with an international team of scholars to rethink several academic disciplines in light of challenges like climate change, food insecurity, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, species extinction, and the built environment. Visit NormanWirzba.com for more.

Written Works

Dr. Wirzba has published and edited numerous books, the latest of which is This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World.

Program

00:02 Dan's Intro
01:57 Welcome Dr. Wirzba
02:37 Dr. Wirzba self-introduction, "It doesn't seem there could be a more important conversation than how to live together..."
08:50 Scripture conversation begins -- Genesis I: "I give you Dominion"
16:45 Understanding the context of the language is very helpful; some biblical metaphors can now be made literal
20:20 "God created us for Intimacy with the Land”
28:00 Distinction between idolatry and iconic perception
34:55 Repositioning of our perspective; What is “Nature” and what is “Creation”
42:40 “The Gospel being for all creatures”
44:40 “Jesus as creator”
51:25 "How to pray", re: The Lord’s Prayer and “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”. You write that in order to make that real we must restore relationships with the actual land on which people live… To make this sacred prayer realized, what are some practical ways we can restore relationships with the actual land on which we live?
56:00 re: Awakening & Connecting to other Life, Metanoia: a change of heart and direction, and Purification: giving one another the ability to see God’s creatures -- I hear that in you saying we need to have time for Metanoia. "What was your metanoia?"

References

Dr. Seyyed Nasr lecture, 2009
From Nature to Creation - Norman Wirzba book
This Sacred Life - Norman Wizba book
The Gerasene demoniac

Quotes

It doesn’t seem that there could be a more important question than to figure out how to live well, in our places, with each other.How can we do this to our world? How can we be damaging it so badly?Scripture assumes a God who loves the world… And the question for me is: how can we say we worship a God who loves the world but not give our love to the world at the same time?

These are Agrarian people.

As a farm kid, the first thing you know is that… you don’t ever presume to do with your land or your animals whatever you want… You know that as a farmer you are only successful in so far as your animals are healthy and your land, your soil, is fertile. Which means that good farmers are always very attentive to the needs of the land, to the needs of plants, to the needs of their animals… It’s the realization that you can’t possibly succeed if the world that feeds you does not do well at the same time.

Subduing means learning to come alongside fellow creatures so that in taking care of their needs you also take care of your own.

We are all together sharers in this divine breath that animates Ground into the diversity of Creatures that we see.

God understands that apart from soil, plant, and animal life, we can’t possibly survive, we can’t possibly thrive, and we can’t possibly be happy.

The first creatures that are presented to “the Adám,” as someone to help them in their loneliness, are animals.

Let’s go to the second creation story. We forget about the Garden. The image you get there is the first human being, Adam, being animated out of soil. God is the first gardener.

We are made to feel connection with soil, plants, animals, and people, because those are all the places where God is active.

Scripture affirms a position in which God is present to creatures all of the time, desiring for them to live into the fullness of their lives.

It doesn’t make sense to talk about human flourishing if everything (humans) need, in the form of water, and air, and food, if it doesn’t flourish at the same time.

All things came into being through His word.

When you’re living the life God wants you to, animated by this loving power, there is no better life.

I think the first thing to do is for people just to get outside, and: Notice. Look. Pay Attention. Smell. Feel. Touch. Grieve.

The thing to start is just to try to calm down and center yourself in your neighborhood.

Children can be our teachers, too.

View Details

"We are commanded to sustain the world."- Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin & Rabbi Avram Resiner “They shall forever inhabit this earth, the result of My planting, the work of My hands in which I glory.” (Isaiah 60:21)

Shmita is a set of commandments in the Jewish and Christian Bibles (The Torah) to practice and celebrate the cyclical "release" of agricultural lands, financial debts, slaves, and ancestral lands. "Shmita Live" was a conversation on Zoom, March 1, 2022 exploring the ancient shmita commandments' many meanings today. The event brought together a number of the amazing people who contributed to AllCreation.org's "Shmita Now" collection, created by guest editor Yaira Robinson. Our fun and incisive hour celebrates these fine folks, welcomes some outstanding guests, and gives everyone a chance to share some truly breakthrough ideas on how to integrate the ancient shmita commandments into our lives now. We hope you enjoy listening. Co-hosted by: AllCreation.org, National Wildlife Federation, Shmita Project Northwest, and Hazon. Presented by BioIntegrity Partnerships. Original event page: Shmita Live.

Background info:

The shmita verses: Exodus 23: 10-11, Leviticus 25:2–7, Leviticus 25:20–22, and Deuteronomy 15:1–3
"Shmita Live" PDF with panelists' names & links (for download)
Shmita explanation on Wikipedia

PANELISTS

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of St. Mary's Seminary, and MDEHR
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom, Interfaith Power & Light, and COEJL
Dr. Mirele Goldsmith of Jewish Earth Alliance
Simcha Scwhartz of Wilderness Torah
Rabbi Laura Bellows of Dayenu
Nati Passow of Dayenu, and Jewish Farm School
Shmita Project Northwest's Deirdre Gabbay
Hazon's Sarah Zell Young
National Wildlife Federation's Naomi Edelson
AllCreation.org's Chris Searles (moderator)

PROGRAMI. WELCOME

0:00 Preroll
0:08 Welcome & Introductions -- by Chris Searles (moderator), AllCreation.org
3:35 "Shmita 101" by Deirdre Gabbay (co-host), Shmita Project Northwest

II. PANELIST SELF-INTRODUCTIONS

6:30 Naomi Edelson, senior dir., National Wildlife Federation. references: Deuteronomy 30:19 (the life verse), and -> Sacred Grounds <- "Sacred Grounds" is National Wildlife Federation's native plant program for congregations.
9:39 Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, conservative rabbi, St. Mary's Seminary; exec. dir., Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights (MDEHR). references: The Kotzker Rebbi ("We are here to hold up the heavens."), Shabbas candles / Luminous light of Creation.
13:22 Rabbi Laura Bellows, dir. of spiritual activism,Dayenu. references: The Talmud, The Boat story, With All of Our Might (Dayenu program).
17:00 Sarah Zell Young, dir. of strategic partnerships, Hazon. references: Hazon's Shmita Project, Shmita Prizes, Shmita Sourcebook.
19:45 Simcha Schwarz, dir. of development and communications, Wilderness Torah. references: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Center for Earth-based Judaism
22:10 Deirdre Gabbay, co-fndr, dir., Shmita Project Northwest. references: Washington Interfaith Power & Light.
23:58 Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, rabbi,Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, chair, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), board member,Interfaith Power & Light. references: Sacred Grounds, Mussar (enlightenment ethics), Anavah (humility), "Taking up the right amount of space," Chesed (loving kindness), Kavod (honor).
26:29 Dr. Mirele Goldsmith, co-fndr, co-chair,Jewish Earth Alliance. references: "messes that we're in": filthy air, mountaintop removal, fracking watewater.
40:57 Nati Passow (arriving later), opr. mngr., Dayenu. references: Jewish Farmer Network, Nati's pdf "Shmita year by year" (coming soon).

III. PANELISTS' CONVERSATION & END

29:00 Deepening connections
43:12 Shmita practices this year
51:00 The Dominion Question
61:47 Quick wrap-up on Shmita today
64:50 Q&A
71:15 GOODNIGHT

CONVERSATION DETAIL:

Deepening Connections

29:08 Deirdre - Appreciation & highlights

31:04 Rabbi Nina - "How do we name each year in the Shmita cycle?"

32:19 Rabbi Laura - We need a reset …

33:53 Simcha - Hakhel, "A moment where we declare the new cycle"

35:08 Deirdre - Creative ideas for deepening connections to Synagogue life

36:00 Rabbi Nina - Rosh Hashanah Sadir plates for seven year Shmita practice

37:02 Sarah - Hazon's Shmita vision summit: the next 6 years + organizational climate action plans from a Shmita frame

37:50 Naomi - “We don’t have to go far away to have a relationship with the natural world.”

39:25 Mirele - “Our connection to the Earth is not only through agriculture.”

40:57 Nati - Shmita year by year (pdf) (coming soon)

42:05 Deirdre - High-level Shmita study group?

42:38 Mirele - Rabbi Ari Hart (for Shmita studies)

42:57 Rabbi Nina - “Do it!”

Shmita Practices This Year

43:12 Rabbi Nina - “What are people doing this year to mark shmita for themselves?”

43:25 Rabbi Fred - Multiple programs, exploring & acting on: 1) Karka (relationship with the lands), 2) Shemitat Kesafim (economic justice), and 3) Shmita rest and renewal. "What would it actually look like to go back and try to do what Leviticus 26 says?”
44:50 Deirdre - list of actions, groups, initiatives, and alignments, "We're trying to be that angel that sees that little blade of grass growing and encourages it."
48:00 Rabbi Laura - on valuing shared resources
49:30 Mirele - Thrive 2050 planning, "Shmita year is also about looking at a vision for society and investing in the future."

The Dominion Question

51:00 Chris, "We do not have dominion?"

52:42 Rabbi Dobb, Leviticus 25 Shmita and Yovel are next to each other; Leviticus 25:23, "The land is mine."
53:25 Rabbi Cardin, "I see Genesis I and Genesis II as a way to respond to that."
55:55 Nati, "When we're exiled (from Eden), the punishment is that we become farmers." Ishmael, Genesis and the Rise of Civilization
59:12 Naomi, "Dominion” as in “domination” has to be taught
60:15 Deidre, Perhaps Love-based “dominion” (the babysitter analogy) is what's intended

Quick Wrap-up on Shmita Today
61:47 Chris shares a few ideas from Israel and the U.S.

Q&A

64:49 Q: "How can, and can, non-Jewish people practice Shmita?"

Mirele, “Of course you can, Shmita is in your Bible, too!”

Chris, "Shmita is a template I can apply today."

66:14 Q: "What is the “Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights (MDEHR)?”

Rabbi Cardin explains.

66:28 Q: What is Shmita Yisraelit?

Rabbi Dobb explains.

A FEW QUOTES

“Shmita comes with a promise and a warning: Do this and you will live in security and abundance, and If we don’t there will be consequences that will manifest through an increasingly hostile environment.” — Deirdre Gabbay, re: Shmita 101"We need to change how we take care of our yards; change them to put in native plants that will help people and wildlife." — Naomi Edelson

“We have a disconnect with each other, but also Nature and wildlife. This whole reflection gives us hope that we can reset ourselves… to remind that the world is good.” — Naomi Edelson

"The way we can be the very best that we can be is engaging in the external world and seeing how it is beautiful and yet how it needs to be improved." — Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

“Shmita and Shabbat are that moment of getting to say, "You know what? We’re in a raging sea right now, but we have to sometimes release in order to find the people who can carry the enormity of it with us."" — Rabbi Laura Bellows

"We see Shmita as something to strive for, something where we can really think about the world we want to live in." — Sarah Zell Young

“Shmita is (also) an economic consciousness, it’s saying, "Hey, stop, slow down. It’s not about necessarily the accumulation of wealth. Let’s just rest for a moment, let some debts free, and step back and reevaluate.” — Simcha Schwarz

"Shmita is not just waking up on the seventh year and saying, "It's Shmita."" — Simcha Schwarz

“We’re doing Shmita on a multi-faith basis.” — Deirdre Gabbay

"What transformational projects can we envision and then begin to work with when we have a long time horizon, like six years, to prepare for going into the next Shmita cycle?" — Deirdre Gabbay
“Shmita is the grand unification theory of all of our great values.” — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

“Shmita is a year dedicated to sustainability. It’s about caring for Earth and caring for people. It’s the Jewish version of the social, the environmental, and the economic going together.” — Dr. Mirele Goldsmith

“Shmita is in your Bible, too." — Dr. Mirele Goldsmith

"When we were very small... Genesis I's "blessing of domination" worked. But when we hit the capacity we have now, and the numbers that we have now, and the technology that we have now, Genesis I theology ends up being a destructive theology. Which is where Genesis II comes in. Genesis II talks about humanity being in service to the land... Genesis II is actually an antidote to that vision that we are here to dominate the Earth... As we build this glorious civilization that we want to build, let's be careful how we do it and make sure that we don't do it in a dominating and destructive way. I see Genesis II is a corrective to Genesis I." — Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
"Shmita points back into the Edenic way of life... So Shmita kind of keeps that memory alive; reminds us that we were not always farmers... It's a reminder that we're animals..." — Nati Passow

"We are born loving and creative..." — Naomi Edelson

"If we think of the Creator as creating all of these things with love, wanting them to fill the Earth and to be fruitful and multiply, and admiring their beauty and reflecting on their goodness... that form of "dominion" looks very different... Like, "You're the babysitter of my children, I give you dominion over my household," and it doesn't mean that you're going to whip my children, I want them to be taken care of..." Deirdre Gabbay

“The letter of the Torah, in a world of eight billion people, may not be the thing to do anymore. The Spirit of the Torah: Shmita consciousness, is the lodestar for almost everything we’ve been talking about.” — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
"Props not just to the people trying to help Orthodox farmers in Israel this year... But actually to think in the interconnected whole we are a part of... And maybe we can do that in the human sphere and maybe we can do that in the ecological/agricultural sphere." — Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

"Imagine a world where Tech and the laws of the biosphere are integrated successfully." — Chris Searles

“There’s so many things we need to do and can do… We are at the beginning of how we think about how we live together on Earth.” — Chris Searles

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Winter 2021 series, Shmita Now.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Thanks to Deidre Gabbay for co-authoring the script.
Thanks to Naomi Edelson for collaborating on the program.
Thanks to Amie Stone King for helping plan and manage this session.
Created and produced by BioIntegrity Partnerships. Edited by Chris Searles.

View Details

In this podcast guest editor Yaira Robinson explores different ways shmita values are being put into action today. Naomi Edelson, senior director of Wildlife Partnerships at The National Wildlife Federation and Dr. Mirele Goldsmith, environmental psychologist and co-chair of Jewish Earth Alliance, tell us about their projects to restore wildlife on congregational grounds and advocate for a greener, more equal, local community.

About Our Guests
Naomi Edelson is the Senior Director of Wildlife Partnerships for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). In this role, she leads partnerships with state wildlife agencies and other state based partners to secure greater funding to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered, including legislative, communications, grassroots, and coalition building elements of the campaign. On the federal side this includes the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act campaign. Naomi has also developed a toolkit for wildlife leaders on “Strengthening State Wildlife Agencies” that includes securing state-level funding for wildlife with numerous tips, tools, and case studies. She also works with Gardening for Wildlife program to restore wildlife habitat where people live, work, learn, play, and worship, including creation of the Native Plant Finder and Sacred Grounds, a program for faith communities. Naomi is a wildlife biologist with a M.S. from the University of Florida where she studied wading birds and wetlands, and a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith is an environmental psychologist, educator, and activist. She is an expert in how to change human behavior to solve environmental problems. As director of Hazon’s Jewish Greening Fellowship, she guided 55 community-based organizations to save energy, invest in renewables, implement sustainable operations and educate youths and adults. She co-founded Jewish Earth Alliance, a national network mobilizing Jews to raise a moral voice for action on climate change to the US Congress.

Naomi References

Dr. Doug Tallamy
Dr. Tallamy’s native plant research (“super plants”)
Dr. Doug Tallamy, “Bringing Nature Home”
Plantings on sacred grounds
NWF.org/sacredgrounds
NWF.org/gardenforwildlife
NWF.org/nativeplantfinder
NWF.org/nativeplants

Mirele References

Jewish Community Relations Council
Jewish Earth Alliance
Speak Truth to Power: A Guide for Congregations Taking Public Policy Positions
Thrive Plan 2050 (“Thrive 2050”)

Naomi Quotes

“Sacred Grounds” helps congregations green the outside of their grounds. Our effort is focused on what is outside your door and how can we make that more hospitable for both wildlife and people. We’re encouraging the replacement of lawns with native plants. The idea is to replace lawns with the plants that have co-evolved with wildlife, and when you plant them they provide food and cover and homes for wildlife. But at the same time, they help people because they’re actually changing how the water is on the land.

The basic program is to green some of your grounds, and it can be a very small area. Engage your congregation members. Then also reaching beyond your congregation and being leaders within the community, and getting neighbors and other congregations and other institutions in your community to do this. We’re really working to create a movement with congregations being at the center of it.

We want to create, even in urban and suburban areas, biologically-important areas.

We don’t have to just do it on our public lands. We have to help by doing it where we live, work, play, and worship. And we can make a huge difference by, all of us together, putting in these native plants.

Saving wildlife saves us.

It’s a simple food web story that most of learned going to school. And we, in our own yards and at our congregation grounds, can help support that and really make sure our landscapes are Life-sustaining.

It’s very exciting and it’s very fun.

It gave people a way to plant with purpose. Not just to plant something that’s beautiful, but to plant something that really matters for people and wildlife.

The most essential ingredient is getting a green team going.

You could do something for even a few hundred dollars to start, and you’ll have to take out some lawn. But luckily, what’s beginning to happen is, some local governments are offering incentives for this. My county offers congregations up to $20,000 to put in features that will slow the flow. They also offer up to $7,000 for homes to put in native plant gardens.

There’s a huge problem with storm run off and it’s getting worse, and so I do think is something that is going to happen more.

(Some) towns have very updated ordinances around what a yard should look like. And so National Wildlife Foundation have actually created a tool kit to advocate for changing ordinances at the local level so you can change that.

All religions have a concept of “caring for creation.” They may or may not use that exact language. But it is that idea that we’re part of this beautiful world, and we have responsibilities to help it continue, and that we’re totally interconnected and that saving wildlife saves us, and we really need that in this time, and it’s a fun way, positive, very significant way to make a difference in the world a Jew would call, “Tikkun Olam,” repairing the world.

And most religions also talk about caring for neighbors and this is a way we can do that. . . by putting in these native plants.

Mirele Quotes

Congregations are tax exempt organizations, but yes congregations can lobby on legislative issues and policy matters… according go the IRS they’re allowed to engage in lobbying as long as they’re an insubstantial part of their activities. The only thing they’re not allowed to do is engage in political campaigns. Lobbying is to be encouraged. . . We like to say that people of faith walk in a different door than other advocates and may get a little more of an attentive hearing because of that. . . We can really make a difference.

In our congregation and particularly our climate action team we were thinking about, “what would be an appropriate project for us to get involved in that reflects the values of the Sabbatical year?” The Sabbatical year raises some really deep questions about what is a sustainable society, and it challenges us to think about how what we’re doing in the present to create a better future.

It was really successful, because it turned out people really liked to go to each other’s homes for dinner!

Don’t try to do it alone. Look around for a group that you can be part of in your area. And then meet with someone in the group and find out the different ways for people to be involved. That’s the way to do it, and I would just say be brave. Citizen advocacy is really just about showing up, first of all. And then it’s about telling your story and why you care as a citizen. It’s not about being an expert. So just be brave and do it!

I’m an environmental psychologist and the research shows that one of the most important things that we can do as individuals is just talk about our concerns, talk about what we care about, especially about climate change because people are overwhelmed by that… and if they don’t know that other people care and other people are concerned, they feel very much alone. The first step in advocacy is just opening up a conversation. And I think everyone can do that, especially within their religious community.

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Winter 2021 series, Shmita Now.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

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Sharing Shmita: The Shmita Project Northwest
Deirdre Gabbay, director of The Shmita Project Northwest, takes us on a journey of possibilities, exploring how shmita could inspire change in our communities. Does the world need a Shmita year? Deirdre Gabbay shares not only an explanation of what her group is doing, but her inspirations and thinking on the many ways a Shmita year is a good template for how we address modern social crises. Shmita isn’t just about letting the land rest, it’s about the release of debt, slaves, and property, including ancestral homelands. Deidre has a lot of amazing insights, challenging us to think about why need a Shmita and what a Shmita practice might look like today.

About Deirdre
Deirdre Gabbay is director of The Shmita Project Northwest, an organization dedicated to bringing attention to the Hebrew calendar's seven-year Shmita cycle which centers the relationship between the earth and the wellbeing of the human and more-than-human world, through education, inspiration, community-building, and programmatic support. She founded Ahavat v'Avodat HaAdamah, "Love and Service of the Earth," in 2015 to establish an environmental presence for the Pacific Northwest rooted in Jewish text, tradition, and practice, specifically to support a response to climate change. Deirdre is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, Seattle, and a member of the board of directors of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light. She blogs at shmitainseattle.com, where all of her divrei Torah (sermons) can be found.

References

Parshat Behar-Bechukotai
Torah

Quotes

The texts spoke to me and sort of gave me this vision. I was also really taken with the much more scary depiction that if we don't manage to get things right we're going to experience waves of increasing severity of really bad things, brought about by human pride, which actually creates the hostility of the landscape to the human being. . . "So what are you going to do? Are you going to continue along this course or are you going to reverse course?" Until in the end comes exile and the only way to set the land right, in that part of the text, is, you guessed it, through Shmita. The global pandemic and overlapping climate and weather-related catastrophes that we all have been going through I think has taught us some really, really important lessons that I think are related to Shmita. And one of them is: really large calamities, like we read about in the Bible, these plagues, they can happen. They can happen in our time.

But then on the positive side, they really taught us that discontinuity of human behavior is possible... As scary as it was it was (the Covid years) it also encouraging. And now all of us, across the planet, have this muscle memory — that things can actually jump out of their ruts, and honestly we're gonna need to be able to jump out of our ruts if we want to try to live sustainably going forward.

So this pattern breaking, from Covid, in some ways gives us a hints of what a Shmita year could be. We sort of have a choice between, it could either be like the one we just had... and the Torah teaches that it gets worse not better if we don't learn the lessons that we're being offered. Or, we could learn to really welcome a Shmita year -- to actually accept voluntarily and lovingly that a year of rest can be a really positive thing.

What if we were to embrace this, what would a Shmita year look like?

One of the strengths of a Faith-based point of view is that there’s a vocabulary for a sense of commanded-ness... So how do we summon this sense of commanded-ness? One way is to appeal to these commandments.

The maximalist vision I have is that someday the whole world will recognize the need for the land to rest for a whole year and that they will rest alongside of it in some meaningful way.

The cool thing about Shmita, is that it's not even a human commandment at this level. It’s the earth, it’s the land that’s commanded to rest and to observe a Sabbath of complete rest for the Lord. It’s about a relationship that we’re not really even a part of. This is part of the way the world works. It’s part of an operating manual between God and the land. That's a perspective I like to keep.

What if ordinary people were to take a year off from their lives… The Shmita would open this up for ordinary people to think about how to bring this into our culture… I think the Shmita raises the possibility of thinking about this outside of a global pandemic.

Shmita is deeply concerned about social justice. Shmita isn’t just about letting the land rest, it’s about the release of debts, and it's also about jubilee. . . If you can't repay a debt, then you're supposed to be allowed to walk upright. . .We're having a conversation about how much debt is good for a society.

Even more intriguing, it has something to say about the need to prevent intergenerational poverty, the passing down of poor circumstances from one generation to the next.

What could this correspond to today? How might it look?

Inequality that's left to continue and roll-over from one generation to the next, particularly if it causes some people to be squeezed-out of full participation in society; this is addressed in Torah and a solution is put forward in Torah. We too should put forward a solution.

For me, it's really important that we learn to take care of the actual place where we live. . . We need to be rooted in place.

I really hope people feel they have been invited to make aspects of this real...

And just know that this is a very appealing idea that many people are interested in and it can help connect. The belief that we're all in this together is, I think, the most comforting and also the most powerful message we have.

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Winter 2021 series, Shmita Now.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.
Audio processing and improving by Jeff Haley.

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Shmita and the Climate Crisis.In this insightful podcast, Joelle Novey and guest editor Yaira Robinson discuss Shmita, who "owns" the Earth, the rhythms of Jewish sacred time, how to sustain activism, living with paradoxes, and more.

About Joelle

Joelle Novey is director of Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA). She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University where she received a BA in Social Studies and a minor in the Study of Religion. She is also co-author of Green and Just Celebrations, a purchasing guide that Jews United for Justice (JUFJ) distributes to local congregations for assisting families in making greener purchasing decisions around weddings and bar/bat mitzvah celebrations. She is also an active leader in her local Jewish community.

About Interfaith Power & Light

National office
State affiliates

References

Joelle's purchasing guide (book): Green and Just Celebrations
Jewish community Joelle co-founded: Tikkun Leil Shabbat
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
Environmental Torah
Dobb’s source sheet (to inform a Jewish response to climate change)
Rabbi Joseph Karo
5782 is a Shmita year
Faith community land acknowledgements
Jewish Brachot (blessings said before eating and at other times)
Rabbi Simcha Bunim
Rabbi Levy, Talmud scholar
Katharine Hayhoe, Saving Us
Joelle Novey and Katharine Hayhoe discuss Saving Us

Quotes

I come from people who get involved and take action when life is at stake. Certainly, with the climate crisis we are in such a moment right now, and I feel like if I get anything from my tradition in facing this moment it's that I need to take action rather than look for reasons to delay.The older I get the more I feel like we just have to live with irresolvable paradoxes and that if we can navigate through them with some kind of balance, and feeling tension on both sides, that's the wise path, that's the way forward.

I think we have to have weekday consciousness in one pocket and Shmita consciousness in the other pocket.

I am grieving for so much that I love. I am grieving for the people I love who will experience a warmer and more dangerous world. I am grieving for the species that will not make it. I am feeling grief that is grounded in tremendous love. And then suddenly, with my heart open and my hands open, that's a tremendously powerful thing. It's like, I'm gonna be a warrior in the world for the things I love. I'm gonna have fierce, mother-bear protective energy for all that I love. And, I'm in the fight of my life for all that I love.

What I appreciate so much about what I think a lot of our sacred traditions are bringing to this moment is putting an asterisk next to our feeling that we own the Earth, and own land. And there are many ways that I think Shmita and the teachings that, whether or not it feels like you own land, on a regular cycle you have to release it back to some collective--is one way the Jewish tradition, at least in principle, was trying to vet out a way of living in which everyone would sort of have a permanent asterisk after the idea of "owning the Earth." And I see so many ways that the communities we work with are trying to add that asterisk in a world where we are encountering so many negative consequences of not understanding our position in the world as interdependents.

Shmita forces everyone to think differently about land ownership and to put huge brackets and a big asterisk next to the idea that we have pieces of the Earth that we own, on which we can do anything we want, without thinking about our interdependence or the consequences to other creatures and species.
We have to make time to release and restore.

There’ s a role for everyone that’s completely authentic to who they are... Everyone already is who they need to be, to respond to the climate crisis, because they all already love someone who will be harmed by the climate crisis. And, we can never invite people to be someone else, but we can always invite them to be more fully who they are.

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Winter 2021 series, Shmita Now.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

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The Rev and Rav Talk Sabbatical Year (Shmita). Austin clergy Rev. Daryl Horton and Rabbi Neil Blumofe talk about Shmita, the sabbatical year practice described in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy—exploring concepts such as economic justice, human nature, faith, and enoughness. Daryl and Neil are each respected faith and community leader in Austin, TX. They've each served as directors of Interfaith Action of Central Texas, working towards a common good for all.

About Our Guests
Rev. Dr. Daryl Horton is Pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Austin, TX. He has served the Austin community in different capacities and leadership positions. Pastor Horton stands boldly for equity and justice as a leader and resource. His goal is to mobilize disciples for mission throughout the Austin community. Read his full bio here. Rabbi Neil Blumofe serves as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, TX. He is involved in Jewish teaching and learning locally, nationally, and internationally, and is active in civic life and leadership in Austin. Read his full bio here.

Connect
Visit the "Rev and Rav" Facebook page here.

ReferencesQuestion 1: Adventures

Interfaith Action of Central Texas
Rev and Rav Road Trips
Rev and Rav Road Trip travel videos
National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN)
The Legacy Museum (Montgomery, AL)
The Civil Rights Memorial (Montgomery, AL)
Pettus Bridge (Selma, AL))
Slave trade tip of Manhattan (tiny plaque photo)
Slave trade Manhattan
Ellis Island
The Peekskill Riots
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
"" "" > Certificate in Jewish-Christian Relationship

Question: 2 Rest for the Land

Exodus Chapter 23: 10-11
Sharecropping
Historic St John's District Association (Austin, TX)
St. John's District Association garden
Dominion
God grants Adam and Eve dominion over animals (Genesis 1:26)

Question: 3 The Release of Debts

Deuteronomy 15: 1-2
"If we mistreat the land, then the land will vomit us up" (Leviticus 18:28)
Theem Suum, getting out of your own way
Payday lending
Hebrew Free Loan Society

Question 4: Jubilee (Freedom & Returning Home)

Leviticus 25: 10
The Emancipation Proclamation
Juneteenth (June nineteenth)
This is the Hebrew year of 5782
The Hebrew calendar
5782 is a Shmita year
Shmita practices occuring in Israel now
"First Right of Return" (Austin, TX program; the opportunity to return to your neighborhood)
Composting

Quotes

I think it is time to transition to the place, especially in the church, where we understand the need for people to have basic needs met. And so for churches that have enough property, you’re beginning to see churches that are planting gardens… — DarylGod is saying, "You do not have dominion over the Earth." Rather, the Earth is the Lord’s, as it says in Psalms, and you are in fact part of a larger system, a larger ecosystem, a larger rhythm of how this world, your world, functions." — Neil

God is saying, do you have faith in me enough to let the land lie and rest for a year? And I think that that kind of challenge is an incredible challenge, and it’s something that in every generation we get to decide if we are up to. — Neil

So the land is providing food, but we have to understand too, that underneath all of that, ultimately, God provides for us, and we shouldn’t take that partnership or that sense of obligation of that land for granted in our lives. — Neil

Debt is a burden that can bury one or prohibit one from living a free life… How can we help our young people, teach them how to become financially astute? — Daryl

If we are able to bless God with what God provides for us, then God will help to sustain us. It’s a Faith movement. — Daryl

We as a Christian community should help those who are trying to participate in the economic environment in this country, but not be burdened by it. — Daryl

Even if we aren’t able to change the system, I think there are some things we can begin to do. — Daryl

If you come to the synagogue we’re gonna feed you, and we’re gonna feed you every time, and that’s a very holy thing. — Neil

(A Shmita practice today) would be a deepening of our faith… there’s always room to learn to trust God more. — Daryl

We have to pay attention to the linkage between our psychology and what we do in the world. — Neil

What role can we play in the Faith community to honor the challenge and the command that God has given us to not just take care and have dominion over this planet, but to love our neighbor. — Daryl

Shmita is not a year issue. It’s actually more like a two year or even three year issue... — Neil

What can we do to set a foundation so that a couple of generations from now it becomes so normal for us to take responsibility for the planet and each other’s financial status that we don’t even second guess it anymore, it's the expectation. — Daryl

I sit with the juxtaposition that in the book of Deuteronomy it both says, “There shall be no needy,” and “Poverty will never disappear,” and this idea that we can generate hope from that place… — Neil

Maybe it’s embodied in Indigenous cultures, but I think we can (have) the best of both worlds. We can recognize the science of how we grow and manufacture and do, but we can also recognize and tap into those who have been doing this much, much longer than Science. — Neil

Thanks for listening.This podcast is part of our Winter 2021 series, Shmita Now.
Visit the AllCreation podcast site or AllCreation.org for more.
Produced and edited by Chris Searles.

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Coming 12/21/21, our next collection, Shmita: The Sabbatical Year. The full collection, guest edited by Yaira Robinson, explores the meaning of "Shmita: The Sabbatical Year" today and features articles, artworks, and interviews. This podcast features a few short segments from our upcoming podcasts. We are excited to welcome six new guests. Heard in this collection, in order of appearance:

Deirdre Gabbay (fndr,dir., Shmita Project Northwest)
Joelle Novey (exec. dir., Interfaith Power and Light D.C.MA.NoVA.)
Yaira Robinson (guest editor, AllCreation.org)
Dr. Mirele Goldsmith (co-founder, Jewish Earth Alliance)
Dr. Rev. Daryl Horton (senior pastor, Mt. Zion Baptist Church)
Rabbi Neil Blumofe (senior rabbi, Congregation Agudas Achim)
Naomi Edelson (snr. dir., National Wildlife Federation).

The full collection will be published on the Winter Solstice, 12/21/21.
Thanks for listening - Allcreation.org

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Amber Morning Star Byars is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Chickasaw Nation. In this podcast Amber reads her reflections from the Line3 pipeline resistance at Red Lake River in Northern Minnesota. View Amber's article on AllCreation.org to see a photo gallery from the resistance effort and read the text in this recording. This piece is part of AllCreation's Fall Equinox 2021 collection, Sacred Relationship, exploring the Native American sense of sacred relationship with Earth’s other living creatures. The photo here (by Amber) shows Red Lake River, one of just 15 rivers in the world that flows north. Red Lake River, the homelands of the Anishinaabe, and the Mississippi River are currently threatened by the Line3 tar sands pipeline replacement project.

Visit StopLine3 to help support the resistance.
About AmberAmber Morning Star Byars has a BA in Indigenous Liberal Studies and an AFA in Studio Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She will graduate from the University of Arizona College of Law in 2022.

Selected Quotes

"*This article is dedicated to all the brave land defenders and water protectors holding space on frontlines around the world. May the Ancestors bless and hold you.""Line 3 is an oil pipeline expansion constructed by Enbridge, a corporate pipeline giant responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the United States. Enbridge proposed this pipeline to carry almost a million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Canada to Wisconsin, crossing under the headwaters of the Mississippi and endangering the wild rice beds of the Anishinaabe, a violation of Anishinaabe treaty rights."

"To come to the frontlines, I left behind my elderly mother whom I care for, my animals, my work as a full-time law student, and my job as a legal research assistant. Like many others, I dropped everything."

"Yesterday morning I watched as a bald eagle circled over the river, diving to catch a fish."

"I am constantly reminded that in this place and all places, I am not separate from nature. I am the Earth, and the Earth is me. Camp is a reminder of the way we should all be living. We are not meant to sit in an office eight hours a day, staring at a screen... We should be out on the river and sleeping on the earth. We should be working with the land, preparing food for one another, telling stories, and singing songs around a fire. White culture would have us embarrassed at this notion... But I don’t care because to me, it’s the only real way to live. The rivers, lakes, land, animals, plants, stars, wind, and rain are all very real to me... All the best teachers exist in the natural realm."

"To restore balance, we must remember that we are the river... We are all related."*

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Janene Yazzie is a Diné Asa Navajo entreprenuer, community organizer and human rights advocate who has worked on development and energy issues with Indigenous communities across the United States for over 12 years. In part two of this interview, Janene shares about rights-based solutions, community-led efforts to regeneratively care for Creation, ways the world religions are related and connected to Mother Earth and our non-human relatives, and offers some words of encouragement. Janene is interviewed by Vance Blackfox, guest editor for our Fall 2021 collection exploring the Native American sense of "Sacred Relationship" with Earth's other living creatures.

About JaneneAmong her many accomplishments, Janene Yazzie is co-founder/CEO of Sixth-World Solutions and a co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, where she works on climate change, water security, food security, energy development, and nation building. She is also a program manager for the International Indian Treaty Council and a co-founder of the Navajo Nation Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association, where her work ranges from infrastructure policy-making to restoration and protection of traditional ecological knowledge. To learn more about Janene, visit Sixth-World Solutions.
Selected Quotes

“It’s not about luxury, it’s about responsibility.”“Our challenges are so complex. Our histories are so complex, and our solutions need to mirror that. In order to protect and restore biodiversity our solutions need to have the same type of diversity, informed by the limitations and types of relationships that exist within our ecosystems.”

“What are the social/cultural structures that need to be created so that we’re creating communities that are sustainable and regenerative? Those are the types of solutions we need everywhere... It’s going to look different everywhere.”

"Don't give up. Don't give up. A beautiful world is possible and it’s being birthed right now, and it needs all of us to be there to help guide it into existence. We do that by breathing love into the work we’re doing. By breathing love into the relationships that surround us. By breathing love into ourselves, because we often forget ourselves in all of this process. And if we can do that then we can find ways, no matter what challenges we’re facing, to continue to stand in our power and bring life to the solutions that are needed for our world and our communities."

###

Listen to Part 1 of Janene's interview: https://share.transistor.fm/s/99049ea8.

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Janene Yazzie is a Diné Asa Navajo woman from the Navajo Nation. She is a community organizer and human rights advocate who has worked on development and energy issues with Indigenous communities across the United States for over 12 years. In part one of this interview she talks about her background and identity, steps for personal and societal transformation, and how to stay "in a good way." Janene is interviewed by Vance Blackfox for AllCreation's Fall 2021 collection exploring the Native American sense of "Sacred Relationship" with Earth's other living creatures.

References

Philmer Bluehouse (in memoriam)

"Our objective is harmony"
On Navajo peacemaking

Selected Quotes

“As much as I'm seeing the non-Indigenous world really get overwhelmed and experience new things like climate grief — what we’re seeing as Indigenous Peoples are all the necessary signs that are telling us, “A new way is coming. A new way is possible.” And it is our responsibility to rise to that occasion and recognize those signs and dig deeper within ourselves to create those pathways that are needed to change the direction and course of our future by restoring our relationship with all of life on this planet.”“Where do the stars know your name? Where is that place, that moment where you have that first memory of looking up to the stars and recognizing that you’re this speck in the universe. Where is that experience rooted? And how can you use that to reclaim your connection as a human being living on this Earth, tied to an interdependent and interconnected relationship to everything from the stars in our universe to the soils under your feet."

"ALL of our places need to be protected. We need relatives that are willing and able to stand in defense of all sacred life and do it in a way that is meaningful, in a way that is authentic and genuine to their real histories, to where they’re connected, to where they come from."

“When you don’t understand the histories of where (our) practices come from, then you’re not honoring them the way you think you are."

“If we’re not able to tap into something deeper, into a deeper connection and a deeper imagination based on where we’re connected to, to place, then we’re gonna continue to be limited in our solutions and our understanding by that dominance worldview.”

"That’s part of the beauty of it: It’s not a quick fix. We can be patient with ourselves. We each have a responsibility to take on that journey, to take on that path of self-discovery. And when we do that and we invest in right relationship with those around us and with other forms of sacred life, non-human life, that’s how we win.”

“Not only do we inherit the resiliency of our ancestors, we inherit their tremendous love and their tremendous power of believing and hoping for a different way, a different future, different outcomes.”

“We’re not here to save the Earth. We’re here to re-establish and remember our deep connection to our Mother and what a gift that is. But, we’re actually here to really grow and evolve as a species and to remember and restore our connection to each other, and to rebuild our own ecosystem -- the ecosystem that sustains us as human communities so that it’s back in balance with the natural ecosystems that exist around us. And we’re perfectly capable of doing that. For everything we have done wrong, we are capable of creating a solution to heal that, to address it, to take responsibility for it and to create a new way. And that’s what gives me hope and that’s what keeps driving me.”

Listen to Part 2 of Janene's interview here: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b0803102.

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This episode of the AllCreation podcast, part 1 of our series exploring the Native American sense of "Sacred Relationship," was actually recorded during the interviews for our prior issue. Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee nation and a breakthrough Lutheran theologian and minister, explained during that interview that the annihilation and relocation of Native American peoples during the colonization of North America didn't just tragically and traumatically affect Native American lives -- it destroyed sacred practices. Here, Vance shines a light on some of the gaps in the common understanding of Native American spirituality and relationship with our "non-human relatives." The Native American tragedy is not just about lives lost and lands lost, but also the loss of sacred relationships and ceremony.

About VanceVance Blackfox is Desk Director for American Indian Alaska Native Tribal Nations for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Indigenous Theologian and Coordinating Team Member for the ELCA’s Theological Round Table, creator and producer of the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium hosted at Lutheran School of Theology, founder/director of Other+Wise, and Indigenous Theologian for the Faith-Based Initiative for the City of San Antonio. He is also guest editor for our "Sacred Relationship" collection, Fall 2021.

Selected Quotes

"We are dependent upon everything in creation and yet none of the non-human relatives are dependent on us.""We weren’t worshiping the tree, or the land, or the plants, or the animals, or the waters -- we were giving thanks to and honoring the tree, or the plants, or the animals, or the water."

"Everyone says we have to give thanks to Jesus because he sacrificed himself for sins and our salvation… What is the difference between understanding that and understanding that we need to say thank you to the water for giving us life. We have to have water to survive, and this river is full of fish."

"We are dependent upon our non-human relatives for understanding how we are in relationship with Creator."

“Grace is also something that can be understood from our pre-existence here in this land.”

MoreListen to our prior interviews with Vance here (part 1) and here (part 2).
Check out Vance's numerous contributions to the AllCreation website here.

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Mary DeJong, is founder of Waymarkers, a project offering an exceptional collection of curricula, retreat experiences, writings, spiritual companioning experiences, and nature-based art to help Christians and people of all backgrounds restore their relationships to the sacred in each other and the more than human world. "Waymarkers", the word, is derived from Jeremiah 31:21. Mary is also co-founder and chair of Cheasty Green Space, a 43-acre public park rewilding project in Seattle, and a noted theologian. In this podcast we discuss Apocalypse as the end of all things and Apokalypsis as a revelatory uncovering of transformative knowledge.

Mary shares her views on:

The importance of place and how we understand the presence of the Divine
Her journey into a Faith tradition rooted in Earth-based spirituality
Apocalypse and Apokalypsis
Living in "journey consciousness"
What an optimal future looks like

To connect to Mary and learn more about her work visit Waymarkers.net.

Key quotes

It is magical, this profound connection to place. Rewilding is restoring whole relationships.

When we begin to recover ways of seeing the Earth as sacred, as recovering the numinous in Nature, of an imminent and wildly-present God — when we being to reconnect to that reality, then our posture shifts from this “I, it” way of relating to an “I, Thou,” with a capital T… where we see and interact with the Holy in every step we take…

"Put your ear to the Earth." (Job 14) Learn the basics... This is the Apokalypsis -- you’ll find revelation, you will find divine guidance and wisdom, you’ll find waymarkers when you listen well to your bioregion... When we do the work of putting our ear to the Earth, we find that we have revelation and great knowledge right, literally, in our own backyards.

Re-member who you are.

Randy offered me a challenge to convert my Western mind to an Indigenous mind.

We have to have the courage now to emerge in new ways; through listening and learning from Indigenous communities, and that will bring us collectively into world views that will see the Earth as sacred once again.

Will this save us from the Apocalypse? ... Possibly.

It’s very interesting to play with the idea of the apocalypse as invitation to "the (hero's) journey"... And we’re being asked to walk in or walk out, and when we return we’re going to hold The Village to account.

We find the Apokalypsis through listening deeply to our journeys and finding the revelation that leaving the Village provides us, because ultimately the heroine has to come home. Because through this journey you return home utterly transformed.

What we are going for is a collective flourishing within the human and non-human communities alike.

We have our courage as a resource... our flourishing is going to be dependent upon linking arms with everyone and no longer seeing ourselves as an isolated individual... "We are on a common journey on our common home." (Pope Francis)

Terms

Indigeneity
Numinous
Rewilding
Imminent
Bioregion

References

Jeremiah 31:21
Job 14
Martin Buber
Hildegard of Bingen
Veriditas
Randy Woodley
John Trudell
Wendell Berry, "I go and lie down where the wood drake"
Sallie McFague, "Talking about God in the metaphorical language of the Earth"
Joseph Campbell
Laudato Si, Pope Francis

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, co-founder and exec. editor of AllCreation.org.

Waymarkers is currently offering "Wild Summer," part of a virtual rewilding course which provides guidance and accompaniment in moving through the seasons of the Earth with intentionality and sacramentality. Learn more at: waymarkers.net/wild-summer

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"What does Black Advancement look like?" Louis lists numerous facets of Advancement for Black Americans, starting with dismantling White dominance and amplifying Black and multicultural existentialism. Louis discusses institutionalized racism, institutionalized privilege, new ventures for voices that have never been heard or are unvalued. "How do we keep investing into those minds that are going to shape the generations to come for hundreds of years?"

Key quotes

I'm trying to address: "What is the infectious disease of racism in this county?""The root, not the branch." - Nat Turner

In God's kingdom accomplishments, color, mistakes, preferences, will never matter.

In this season of Covid-19 we have been called to make a new mindset shift.

I'm trying to learn how to put flesh on my Faith in order to move forward in this fight for equal freedom of one another.

Terms

Hegemony
Assimilation
Existentialism

References

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, exec. editor, AllCreation.org.
Listen to part 1: https://share.transistor.fm/s/ac361170

Listen to part 2: https://share.transistor.fm/s/3ee55c03

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Ideas discussed

How has community gardening been transformative?
Tell us about working with recently-released incarcerated people

Key quotes

(On ecojustice)... These issues affect us more than other people. It took a while for church folk to get the therapeutic value of gardening.

They wanted to build fences.

You want to have the trust of your community.

**Whatever the penitentiary wants to say, whatever the legal system wants to say, whatever society wants to say, we are still strong, beautiful and gifted children of God, who happen to be Black.

The gardens gave them a deeper feeling, a deeper presence of God.**
But, yes -- it's definitely therapeutic. These are just individuals who wanted to contribute to God's creation. They learned skills and the effects of those skills and they were able to see what God could do, and has done, in their lives.

(The church) realized, "this isn't for us, this is for a greater purpose: the common good."

What does it mean to be a steward?

Success is doing it for a greater purpose.

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, exec. editor, AllCreation.org.
Listen to part 1: https://share.transistor.fm/s/ac361170

Listen to part 3: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d0eb3244

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We begin this 3-part conversation by asking Rev. Louis Tillman to share about his work providing baptisms, funerals, memorial services, counseling services and church services all over the Mid-Atlantic US, since Covid. When asked how he remains rooted under extreme pressure Louis tells about his background as a prodigious but reluctant preacher, the hardest eight years of his life, his parents, his early church life, his passions for: trusting God, helping people in transformative ways, overcoming incredible obstacles, and building relationships in and out of church. He also shares views on Black elitism, in and out of the church and what's ruining Black America, "day in, day out." Throughout this segment Louis interweaves thoughts on the varying generational perspectives of what Black advancement means with his own first priorities.

Questions discussed

Tell us about your last two weeks
How do you find rootedness to be a leader day after day?
Which word is best now? African-American, Black American, Black public, African-descent, etc.
The Black American apocalypse and Black advancement today

Key quotes

There is a lack of equal access. "If I leave my community, if I get educated, then I'll be able to get out of my community and do something better." This is what's ruining us, day in, day out, as a people of color.

We have to be able to create liberation out of lamentation.

In this country, "the land of the free"...

We as people of African descent, we're not fighting for equality, we're fighting for our existence.

The Black public is invisible to a White society that is indifferent to Black life.

This is all because the relationships don't exist. We fear people before we hear people.

I don't see us advancing... Society is constantly reminding me I'm a young Black male, a thug.

It's open season in the streets and in the classroom. . . Individuals running the educational institutions are creating unequal classrooms.

(Advancement is being) the best person today God has created me to be (and to) stop competing against my neighbor and only compete against myself. I want to be better today than that person in the mirror was yesterday and I want to be better tomorrow than this person is today.

"Make the Negro fight the Negro." That exists today. This is one of the main apocalyptic issues we face.

How will the Black community advance over the next 100 years?

If advancement gets focused on self-improvement instead of barrel of crabs competition within the race, then YES, we are talking about actual progress and advancement.

We listen to respond, we don't listen to receive.

Jesus is in the midst of every single mess and everything we're gonna go thru.

Do what you can to enlighten your community.

Terms

Kronos time
Kairos time

References

The Tuskogee experiment
Ecclesiastes 3:2
Louis' sermon on 2 Corinthians, "Cracked Pots"
High on the Hog (Netflix) (Book)

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, exec. editor, AllCreation.org.
Listen to part 2: https://share.transistor.fm/s/3ee55c03

Listen to part 3: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d0eb3244

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Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is director of Other+Wise, coordinator for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Theological Round Table, creator and producer of the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Indigenous theologian for the Faith-based initiative for the City of San Antonio, and a freelance educator on Cherokee and Native American culture. In this episode, Vance explains:

How "Development" has impacted Native Americans, their lands, and their relationships with Creation
What the conversation on "reparations" is like today
What non-Native people should do or learn from Native Americans

To learn more about, or connect to, Vance visit VanceBlackfox.com or contact Vance via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

A few key quotes:

What does it mean to survive in a new way?(Paraphrasing) Our lands were stolen, our diets taken away, we lost our medicines; the gifts of Creation were taken away from us.

One of the things that makes this conversation so challenging... Let the Indigenous population and our unhealthiness, because of our apocalypse, be an example to you for what you're about to experience that you created yourselves, as a people, as a culture...

I don't hate. What I hate is that no one is listening to the experience Indigenous Peoples have had, nor the wisdom that we can offer. Not just for our survival, but so that we can live in a new way.

(America's) need for comfort and self-gratification is so much more highly-valued than caring for your neighbor.

For the most part it's built into the system and the culture in the United States, and now the rest of the world. . . Is there turning back? Absolutely. But will we?

We don't want money, we want to return to our way of understanding how to be most healthy.

Address the many things that can be repaired: relationships, resources held in the lands, get educated about Native Peoples... Who's land are you on? What was their culture?

Become an ally; an advocate.

Appreciate our experience and all the gifts we were blessed with and have been robbed of because of your ancestors.

Our Creation stories are here. Ask, try to understand, what those gifts were like and what it might be like to be robbed.

I want to challenge you to think about what it is that we might still be able to offer you: Take and Live.

Our Creator created all of it that we might live, that we might love.

Terms

Colonization
The Colonial Project
Reparations
Landback

References

Maps of Native American territories: native-land.ca
We have to consider the Seven Generations
landback

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, co-founder and exec. editor of AllCreation.org.

Listen to episode 1: https://share.transistor.fm/s/2abf61b6

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Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is director of Other+Wise, coordinator for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Theological Round Table, creator and producer of the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Indigenous theologian for the Faith-based initiative at the City of San Antonio, and a freelance educator on Cherokee and Native American culture. In this episode, Vance explains:

Indigenous land acknowledgement
What name to call Native Americans today
How Native Americans talk about Apocalypse

To learn more about, or connect to, Vance visit VanceBlackfox.com or contact Vance via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

A few key quotes:

It is important to do a land acknowledgement before meetings and other special occasions. If you know someone's tribal affiliation, citizen or member, name the tribe...

I cannot think of a better description of who we are as a people than "En Dios."

I just need people to talk about us. Learn something about us. Ask the question, learn how to be in relationship with people who are different.

Christianity wants us to believe there's only one apocalypse.

"Kill and take" was not prevalent (for our peoples). Instead it was, "How do we engage with them? How do we care for them?"

They took us away from our places. It was an apocalypse for Cherokee people and for our non-human relatives who's purpose it was to help us survive.

Terms

Survivance
En Dios

References

Land acknowledgement resource: native-land.ca
Vance's booklist: bookshop.org/shop/nativereads
Vine Deloria, Jr. Vine Deloria, Jr.
574 recognized tribes in the US today
Apocalyptic prophecy of the Ojibwe people
The true history of
- Plymouth Rock
- Jamestown
- First thanksgiving
- Pochahantas

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, co-founder and exec. editor of AllCreation.org.

Listen to episode 2: https://share.transistor.fm/s/4ca9b6fd

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What is "apocalypse" and is it happening now? Rev. Matthew Syrdal is senior pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, co-founder of Seminary of the Wild, and founder of Church of Lost Walls. In this interview / conversation between friends, AllCreation editor Chris Searles asks Matt to share his thoughts and views on Apocalypse and Apokalypsis. Matt discusses ancient Hebrew, New Testament texts, mythology, modern pyschology, indigenous identity, and more; worth repeat listenings.

Visit SeminaryoftheWild.com and ChurchofLostWalls.org for more on the content discussed in this interview.

References

"Unveiling" - the traditional Hebrew meaning
"Ontology" - our way of being
The apostle Paul (paraphrased) -- (Apocalypse was) a reckoning of the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intention of the Divine for humanity, in the context of how we relate to Earth.
Thomas Berry, We have been ripped from the universe.
Carl Jung, We are living in an age between myths.
James Hillman, In order to love we must personify.
Sean Kane, Wisdom of the Mythtellers
Bill Plotkin, founder, Animas Valley Institute, and Geneen Haugen, Animas guide
Joel 2:28, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."
T. Berry Brazleton, Touchpoints

Selected writings by Matt:

Liminal Grief (Oct. 2020)
Let It Fall (March 2020)
Christian Imagination and the Return to Myth (Jan. 2020)

Key quotes

When we talk about Apocalypse we're also talking about awakening; new visions. It wasn't necessarily doomsday, it was meant to be understood in a broader context (as) a reckoning (of) the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intentions of the Divine, within the context of how we relate to Earth, how we relate to our planet.

Apocalypse is an evolutionary necessity - that we pass through this time of unraveling so that we can be rewired on a new level of functioning as a human society.

If love is the goal, it changes the whole equation... Loving our planet and the diverse beings that inhabit our planet, we're designed to be in relationship with, is an end goal in and of itself. If we can live from that place, real magic can happen.

We don't know where we're going and that creates unimagined possibilities... We have the capacity to imagine new futures.

Everything has a self. (Genesis)

(Apocalypse is) not just a revolution of ideas, it’s a revolution of ontology and how we understand ourselves to be human.

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Rev. Jared Michaels is a Zen Buddhist priest, therapist, activist, and family man. In this conversation we discuss "Interconnectedness" and Buddhism, psychological health, sacredness, and child rearing. Jared finishes the episode by leading a meditation on Interconnectedness. Don't miss. Visit JaredMichaels.com for more on Jared's breakthrough work.

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This episode begins with two quotes from Paul's book, The Ground Beneath Us, then jumps into the conversation. Paul Bogard is author of The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are, a must-read book about humans and soils. Paul is also author of The End of Night, an internationally-acclaimed book on our vanishing relationship with the night sky. This interview explores Paul's thoughts on soils and the many, many ways we are connected to them.

Here's a rough layout of interview:

0:00 Intro
3:00 Solution
6:00 Physicality
9:30 Community
11:00 Majesty
14:00 Estrangement
19:00 Transgressions
21:00 Sacredness
25:00 Reconnection

Thanks, Paul!

Visit Paul's website for more info.
Visit AllCreation.org for more content.

The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light

The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are

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Rev. Ragan Sutterfield is an accomplished author, journalist, iron man, family man, Wendell Berry scholar, and Episcopalian priest. In this episode we talk about Ragan's views on our "Interconnectedness" with nature. Visit ragansutterfield.com to learn more about Ragan's amazing works.

Discussed in this podcast

What does the future look like if we get it right?
The importance of putting relationship first, in environmental solutions
“Humus beings”
Interconnectedness

Books by Ragan

Wendell Berry and the Given Life
This is My Body
Cultivating Reality
Farming as a Spiritual Discipline

A few quotes

“What if we landscaped our yards in such a way that we provided home (for other creatures), and habitat for insects and birds and on up the trophic cascade? That’s what i’m trying to do in my place.”“If everything was going right, in 20 years my place will be biologically-diverse and rich with insect life and bird life and all of the other creatures, and everyone else on my block will have adopted the same and we’ll be creating a corridor that will provide even more significant habitat.”

“We can do things in small ways in our particular neighborhoods and yards and that’s where i think the relationships can happen, where we can become human in a proper way, and that’s the best thing we can do, recover the art of creatureliness…”

“One of our problems, and it’s an old problem, is that we have avoided the reality that we are created beings, that we are creatures… a being that lives from breath… The Hebrew scriptures make no distinction between the breath of a dog and the breath of a human.”

“Being human and being a creature means that we are absolutely and totally entangled in the life of this world.”

"Going out into the soil, there’s such an amazing network of life going on all around us, all the time, and what we eat and how we live — all of those things are so deeply connected."

"Our lives are very dependent upon the soil. If you were born of your parents, your body is made essentially of the soil and the sun."

This episode is hosted by Chris Searles, co-founder and exec. editor of AllCreation.org.
Visit allcreation.org/ragan-sutterfield to see this post on our website.

Visit ragansutterfield.com for more of Ragan's work.

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