Aldo Leopold once said "To have an ecological education is to walk alone in a world of wounds".
As an Environmental Studies student this statement rings true. For the past two years I have been walking often in excitement, and increasingly with a sense of heaviness, learning about the world that we live in.
What I have learned and come to believe is this:
We as humans are spiritual creatures and we live in a world created by God.
There is increasing destruction, pain and brokenness in God's creation, at the hands of one creature: us.
We as humans have failed to understand the natural world as God's rather than our own and we have often failed to understand this destruction as the product of spiritual misunderstandings as well as physical actions. (This idea is not my own, it is a common theme in the expanding Religion and Ecology Movement).
Thankfully, through an awesome program at Seattle University I have also learned that faith communities around the world are taking this tragedy seriously. They are discussing it, acting on it and learning about how it impacts and is impacted by their faith traditions.
This blog is a part of that discussion. It will look specifically at what motivates people of faith to become active in living lives of stewardship toward creation, and what prevents them from doing so. Thus, this blog is a space for discussion and reflection on empowerment and disempowerment in regard to environmental-faith activism.
Please read on if this interests you and respond when you feel led to. I welcome all comments, suggestions and conversation.
Peace and Blessings
Mikaila
