Wednesday Wonder
Some years ago a commercial featured the memorable tag line, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” At the time we thought that was about margarine. We obviously missed that one; Mother Nature always has a way of reminding us where we stand in the grand scheme of things. Consider the case of the volcano in Iceland. That eruption shut down the friendly skies for over a week, leaving thousands stranded and costing the airlines and related businesses a billion dollars. And to think that just a short time earlier the human creatures were laboring under the delusion that they were masters of their fate!
I am the first to say that, unlike the insurance industry definitions, these natural phenomena are not acts of God. They are a part of the predictable movement of natural forces. Tornados, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis – these are not great unexplainable mysteries. An event that represents a threat to human safety does not an act of God make. In the recent movie, Clash of the Titans, the mythical character, Zeus, issues an executive order from on high: “Release the Kracken!” That makes for exciting mythological drama but poor Christian theology. God is never limited to the forces that God animates.
Nevertheless, the vastness of nature with all of its created order and variety reminds us just how small we are. Our inclinations to grandiosity are tempered. We may occupy a unique place in the created order that holds special responsibilities, but that does not mean that we are either the greatest or the most lasting achievement. You might assume that this awareness would generate its own humility. Such is not always the case.
suppose that my numerous visits to Ecuador have created in me a special attention toward that particular place on the earth. I notice events, political movements, and news pieces in Ecuador more than I do in other places. To be sure, matters of equal importance take place elsewhere. It’s just that I don’t notice as much.
In past visits to Ecuador I became very aware of the presence of multi-national corporations that polluted the environment in hazardous ways. I know because I have been there – in the flower hothouses that use insecticides that harm their cheap labor and the cement plants that so foul the air that the people in the villages near the plants where we set up medical clinics always manifested extreme upper respiratory illness. Only the organizing of the peasants could ever make a difference, and at least in the case of the cement plants, it did.
My experience with all this may have primed my attention when I first ran across the documentary, Crude. When the acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger looked upon the Amazon of Ecuador in 2005 he beheld an environmental disaster; toxic waste that had been dumped into huge pits or distributed on soil or in water for decades. People all around the area (called in Spanish los afectados, affected ones) were sick and dying. Cancer and leukemia were rampant, way above averages. It had become a death zone. And why?
Texaco began drilling for oil there in the late 60s and this is how they killed what was a literal paradise on earth – killed the rivers, the land and the people. What remains may be the single largest environmental law suit in the world.
It is not necessary to identify the greed and utter insensitivity to life that underlies these kinds of practices; it is conspicuous. In theological terms we think of pride, as opposed to humility, and a willingness to harm others for personal gain. And that takes us back once again to our relationship with the planet, something upon which the Biblical faith is not silent. We are called to be stewards, not exploiters, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
It is not enough to only assess damage to our ecosystems according to how it affects humans. That is important, but we can’t stop there. If “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Ps 24) we care for it not only for reasons relating to our pleasure, comfort and sustainable life – though those are important. We care for God’s planet because it has value in and of itself. We treat it as sacred ground because, regardless of how it happens to benefit me or mine, it is that.
Mother Nature may fool us; it happens all the time with volcanoes, mudslides and hurricanes. But it’s still not nice to fool her. There is a price to be paid for that and if we forget she won’t hesitate to remind us.
