(e)mergent Voyageurs

This morning I came across an excellent post my Josh Brown (who was inspired by Jordon Cooper who in turn was quoting Thomas Friedman) about how critical it is to address consumerism (and consumption) if we expect to have any impact on protecting and/or restoring our suffering environment. While Josh doesn’t dismiss the importance of the many popular eco-friendly changes people are adopting (such as using compact fluorescent light bulbs), these small gestures do not address the root causes and contributors to our current ecological situation.

I am not fully convinced that Friedman makes his case on all points, the point is that we can easily become distracted from the core focuses we should be concentrating on. Further, in our market driven culture, our best intentions can often be taken advantage of, resulting in our increased consumption. Many articulations of the eco-revolution are simply too one-dimensional and this must change.

This reminded me of my own journey in search of the relationship between ecology (including, but not limited to, the environmental issues it raises) and Christianity. As I have said in several earlier posts, I truly believe that for all the good it does, the environmentalism movement (or the Green Revolution) is simple inadequate. And yet, many Christians who want to do the right thing ecologically have no other foundation to build from.

I believe that in order for Christians to begin to adequately, responsibly and effectively play our role in the ecology movement, we must first develop a Biblical theology and spirituality in respect to Creation. It is hard for us to understand how fundamentally our worldview has been shaped and shift over the last few centuries to severe the natural relationship to Creation. Most of the Bible is written through those former lenses, and while our understanding of Scriptures is still possible, it does rob us of some of it’s depth. It what I have begun to call moving towards a sacramental ecology.

I will explore what this means more thoroughly in a future post, but I would first like to hear from you:

1. What can we do to rediscover this sacramental ecology in Scripture?
2. In what ways can we adjust out lives to embrace this new worldview?
3. Beyond individual application, what can we do as communities/churches?

It has been nearly 8 months since I first posted my “Homosexuality: A Personal Reflection” post. I was touched by all the encouragement and honesty people expressed as a result. It was a challenging time for me, but very rewarding in so many ways. However, not wanting the topic to become the central focus of my blog, I decided to put it aside for awhile.

However, a recent post by John Stackhouse entitled “Jesus, I’m NOT in Love with You” (ht: Bill Kinnon) brought something to mind. In the post, Stackhouse bemoans the increasing appearance of what he calls the “love songs to Jesus” genre of worship. In a largely fair critique, he points out that to say that we are “in love” with Jesus is an inappropriate expression of worship for any Christian. Jesus, he reminds us, “is not your boyfriend, not your fiancé, and not your eventual husband”. (On a side note, I think that Stackhouse misses the point a little on this one, not placing enough emphasis on the part individualism and poor concepts of romance play in this problem. He also underplays the significance of Christ as bridegroom to be fair).

It was when he said “…it gives me the homoerotic creeps to declare that I am ‘in love with’ another man” that I feel he crossed the line. That he would make such an insensitive and irresponsible comment surprised me a great deal. If he has an issue with saying he is “in love with’ another man, that is his right. However, to say it gives him the “homoerotic creeps” shows no consideration to those of us who live with homosexual orientation every day. Further, if he real experiences homoerotic creeps, that is an issue of his own he needs to deal with, regardless of how legitimate his point might be. He finishes the sentence with “And I don’t apologize for saying so”, which seems to suggest to me that he considered how some might take this comment, but still felt it appropriate to say it.

Let me be clear. I have a great deal of respect for John Stackhouse. I think he is responding to a real issue in this post. It is not my intention to single him out. Rather, I think the fact that this came from someone as widely respected as him, can help us see how easily and thoughtlessly we can casually or inappropriately reference homosexuality. Whether we are trying to be emphatic or deliberately shocking, given the current experience of most homosexuals with Christianity, this is something that we all need to stop doing.

Am I being over-sensitive? Let me know what you think.