Weekly Reaction #2 - It's Not About Us

I have been enjoying the Andy Catlett book and the discussions that have stemmed from it’s simple storyline. There are a multitude of relatable parallels that spark memories of my childhood and remind me of some of the underlying themes in our culture. The idea of young Andy living in two different worlds and the nostalgia of small town life are two such examples. Something I had not thought about was the connection we made in class between the racial struggles of Andy Catlett’s time and the modern dilemma of a clean Earth. How could there possibly be something similar about the morally-heated civil rights era and the modern discussion of how to feed our growing population?

A quote I particularly liked (which we also discussed in class) in the Catlett book reads, “We were living in a history of ‘race relations,’ to be sure, but, like everybody else, we were living as ourselves in it” (57). When looking back at past events in history, it is so important to remember that real people were living real lives with their own real hopes and struggles. I feel that we tend to look back at the time of slavery and civil rights with a sense of disgust at the apathy of the people during that time. How could any human being treat another human being with such disdain or sit by and do nothing as people are being oppressed? The problem with this thought process is that we are looking back at an issue that, in our eyes, has a clear moral boundary of right and wrong. In reality, race relations were (and still are) a complicated issue not only morally but politically, historically, and economically. I am by no means claiming an excuse for the enslavement of other human beings. What I am trying to show is that living in the middle of an issue like slavery (or, as I will talk about in a bit, earthly stewardship) is quite different than looking back at it.

This is where the discussion about Andy Catlett’s experience and reflections about slavery and civil rights connects with our current issue of sustainability. We unfortunately are living right in the middle of the “green movement” and the crisis of feeding our every growing population. This makes it immensely difficult to find a clearly correct solution and a method of implementing that solution. We are living with politics and opposite opinions as the article The Truth About Greenhouse Gases and the book “For the Beauty of the Earth” demonstrates. The article points out the flawed process of peer-review in several scientific journals while chapter two in the book gives valid evidence of environmental crises. We are also dealing with real life and real economics. Are we willing to sacrifice the comforts of our modern life for the sake of the health of our planet? Significant changes in lifestyle will affect our country (and others) economically as well. Besides all of this, we each have our own individual lives with our own distractions and struggles.

All of this to say, the issues of race relations and earthly stewardship are similar. But not just because they both have underlying political, historical, and economical complications. They are also similar morally. Now in class, a few people felt that both issues can are not comparable because slavery is ultimately about how we treat other human beings and the green movement is about how we treat the planet. I disagree. We should be fighting for a cleaner Earth and more sustainable practices in our lifestyles because of human beings. Not that plants and animals and the land are not important and should not be a reason we push for green practices. But making sure the planet is safe and healthy for future generations is why we need to wrestle with this problem. It is not about us or about the polar bears or about the trees. It is about others; about caring for other people’s needs. We as Christians are commanded to put others before ourselves. Doesn’t this include being good stewards of creation in order to provide clean water and enough food for those generations that come after us?