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On building walls and loving creation

11/27/2017

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PictureArt by Reba Balint, current YAV in Austin, Texas
by Elizabeth Welliver
​
"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:19)

In the past year, I have struggled to hear the good news of the Gospel over the blaring chaos of our political atmosphere. I have felt despair, anger, and numbness following the current administration's actions to threaten and attack marginalized communities, particularly people who have migrated and those who live in borderlands. 

As followers of Jesus, who lived within and crossed borders between communities, we can see that the wall represents more than an act of "security," "immigration enforcement" or "defense." The wall is an attempt to separate families and communities rooted in racism and economic exploitation. The wall does not serve to foster the kindom of God, or the healing and wholeness of creation in a world too often plagued by violence and walls.

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In November, a group from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship attended the Border Encuentro of the School of the Americas Watch, a convergence of the international anti-war movement. From the communities of Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona, we learned that the wall artificially separates us from our neighbors, harming ecological stability and enforcing draconian immigration policies that threatens death to migrants. We listened for the "new thing" that God is doing by bringing activists, artists, and people of faith and conscience to both sides of the border wall to sing, chant, and resist the wall and all the violence it represents.

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Standing at the border wall, I also felt the weight of complicity that I carry in its construction. In the words of Rev. Mark Adams from Frontera de Cristo, a binational border ministry in Agua Prieta, Sonora and Douglas, Arizona, "The border wall was built for me as a white, U.S. citizen." In this acknowledgement of sin, we are also empowered to repent of the wall and act for justice. How can ministries like Frontera de Cristo sustain ministry in a place divided by a wall? The families in Douglas and Agua Prieta view the border as a place of convergence, a rich and equitable exchange of culture, faith, language, and resources. I believe the "new thing" that God is doing, often in hidden places, is enlivening and emboldening us to work with partners on the other side to overcome separation and hear the voices that the wall attempts to silence.

This letter calls upon the current administration to renounce its plans to construct more border walls. We recognize the damaging effects and consequences of building this wall for all of creation. We proclaim faith that God is making a way, and it is our responsibility to follow the leadership of impacted communities to tear down the wall and invest in peace. 

Elizabeth Welliver is a Young Adult Volunteer serving at Grassroots Leadership in Austin, Texas. She enjoys prayers for creation and living in community. 

Picture
Group from Presbyterian Peace Fellowship at Border Encuentro in Nogales, Arizona
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Climate Change and Sabrina the Teenage Witch

11/12/2017

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by Timothy Wotring

As a child who consumed the pop culture of the 90’s, I was and still am obsessed with Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Sabrina helped me to see magic in the mundane and broaden my imagination. My family also had a black cat, like Salem, at the time Sabrina was a regular on ABC’s TGIF. Lately, I’ve been re-watching Sabrina. What I’ve gladly noticed are the many climate change references and how keenly aware they were of it in the 90’s.

In the fourth season, the episode “Sabrina, Nipping at Your Nose” focused directly on climate change (12/17/99). Sabrina tires of the winter weather and even goes as far to say, “If I see my breath one more time, I’m going smack it upside its head.” In the background, a radio host offers a free trip for four to Jamaica if a caller can answer a science question. Of course, she wins because her Aunt Zelda who is a scientist is able to answer it with ease. Sabrina brightens up and heads off to school. When she comes back, the radio announcer says that all airports are closed because of the winter storm, which means the Jamaica trip is canceled. Angry and frustrated, Sabrina casts a spell to stop the snow storm. The spell backfires and she is turned into a snowman inside the house. Needless to say, the aunts come home to find a melted Sabrina. They quickly scoop her into a bucket and go to Mother Nature in the Other Realm.

Mother Nature is dressed as a corporate CEO, with a business suit and all. When Aunt Zelda, Aunt Hilda, and a melted Sabrina enter, Mother Nature is on the phone saying, “Hello Steve? Hurricane Steve? Yeah, this is Mother Nature. I need you to make a swing to the Virgin Islands later this week… Don’t give me any of that ‘I’m just a tropical storm’ business. Get off your tail-winds and get down there pronto.” These lines hit home since in September, the Virgin Islands were hit hard by Hurricane Irma and Maria. This is such a tragedy along with Puerto Rico, Barbuda, Dominica, St. Martin, and many others. Mother Nature seems to be ruthless.

When Sabrina eventually becomes materialized by a spell from Mother Nature, she calls out her out, even if it was just quickly. Sabrina says, “Well I’m sure there’s a third-world town you need to reduce to rubble so we’d better get going.” Sabrina clearly understands that climate change hurts the most vulnerable. But at the same time, Sabrina was not able to recognize that Mother Nature is also constrained to human activity. To blame Mother Nature is to point the finger at humanity as well.
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What I appreciate about Sabrina is that climate change, pollution, and a talking cat appear frequently. I continue to look for the magic in mundane, but I am not looking for imaginary solutions to our predicament. We must use and promote alternatives to fossil fuels. Make no bones about it, the transition will be difficult, but we must not give up. Like Sabrina, we must not be afraid to confront the powers with a prophetic word, cast spells even if they only take place in a ballot box, and be willing to make the bold step ourselves to promote the Fossil Free PCUSA Overture to our presbyteries.
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Being Accountable: Who are the people most directly affected by this?

11/12/2017

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​by Emily Brewer,
Executive Director of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship,
​the godparent organization of Fossil Free PCUSA


A year ago, I was part of a group of 11 people from New York, Chicago, Virginia, Oregon, and New Jersey that was making final preparations to drive across the country to North Dakota. We were going to join our bodies and hearts with thousands of others at Standing Rock resisting the greed and destruction of the fossil fuel industry. Since the summer months, we had watched video footage of Water Protectors being attacked by police with dogs and pepper spray. We had seen and read and heard about the courageous nonviolent resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline that was being put through Lakota land, threatening the water supply and violating the Treaty of 1851. And so when the leadership of the camp issued a call for people to come, we went.


All people who showed up to the camp were directed to attend an orientation, which was held daily. This orientation was about where to put trash, where to build fires, and other things you might expect at an orientation, but the majority of the time was spent orienting us to a way of thinking and being that centered Native people, experiences, and voices.  “You will not get this perfect,” they told us, “but while you’re here, you’re a visitor, and you are accountable to the Earth and the native people who call this land home.” That meant taking direction from native leaders, it meant taking turns speaking and not talking over one another, it meant practicing nonviolence in our actions and language.

We traveled to Standing Rock as an act of accountability to the Native people who were being most negatively impacted by the Dakota Access Pipeline. We felt called to go to Standing Rock, because the Lakota leadership had requested people to come and stand alongside them, and we knew that in some small way it was an act of repentance for being part of a society and as individuals ignore the voices of indigenous people in this country. In the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, we were not all guilty, but we were all responsible. Once we got there, we were accountable to the Native leaders—to listen and believe them when they described their experiences and follow them when they proposed solutions.

As we left the camp, and for the year since we left, accountability has meant staying involved in the movement—paying attention to the way that the #NoDAPL is portrayed in mainstream media and saying “that’s not quite it. Let me tell you what I experienced and what the nonviolent water protectors are doing” when the Water Protectors are depicted as violent or anything other than courageously defending the Earth for all of us. It has meant protesting at and divesting from banks that the Water Protectors have deemed the most egregious supporters of the Dakota Access and other pipelines. It has meant remembering the Water Protectors and what we learned there when we do work in our own contexts, even when there are no Native people directly involved. It means asking ourselves why there are no native people involved in our movements or events or leadership if there aren’t.  

In the case of advocating for divestment from fossil fuels as part of the creation justice movement, accountability doesn’t mean that we leave the work to Native people and other people and communities most affected by climate change. What it does mean is that those of us who are non-Native and white and relatively protected from environmental devastation (at least thus far) cannot do this work without being tied to larger movements that are led by most directly-affected communities – Indigenous and native peoples like the people we met at Standing Rock, people like Puerto Ricans who have already suffered from natural disasters made worse by climate change and whose recover process is even more daunting because of the debt crisis (that is a result of being a territory of the United States), people who live near oil refineries in Texas who are suffering health problems after Harvey, people whose land-productivity has been diminished by fossil fuel extraction like the communities we met in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2016.
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Accountability means coming alongside movements led by directly-affected people to take direction and then doing work in our own communities. It means that an essential question we have to ask over and over again in our work is, “Who are the people most directly affected by this? Does our work help or hurt them?” If we don’t know the answers to those questions, we must slow down and find answers before proceeding. It’s not the white, US, fast-paced way of doing things, but it is the Christian way of doing things.

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