Still Another Religious Faith Joins the Others to Save Creation

[I recently received the message below in the form of a brochure. I reprint this with the permission of Todd Garland of the Gaia Group, Catholic Committee of Appalachia. Editor]

Powering Down - A Less is More Proposal

The Catholic Church has a strong tradition of encouraging the faithful to make Friday a day of sacrifice and self-denial. In keeping with this tradition, and with the Church’s calls to solidarity with the poor and to respect for all life, we offer the following proposal: that those who embrace justice, peace and the integrity of Creation — conscientious Christians, believers of all faiths, and those who in today’s world find it difficult to believe — abstain as much as possible from using electrical and fossil-fuel power on the first Friday of each month.

We realize that health concerns will not permit everyone to incorporate all these suggestions, especially during periods of extreme weather. When they are appropriate, however, such acts might include some of the following:

This proposal has immediate roots in the recent expansion of "mountain top removal" coal mine permitting in West Virginia, which also threatens other Appalachian states. At a recent public hearing, people from Blair, W.Va. described the rain of fist-sized rocks they endured from blasting, water wells that dried up overnight, and dust so thick they couldn’t see across the road. They cried out at the destruction of their community, their homes, and the streams, hills, and hollows in which they once played and delighted. Their concerns, and their pain, evidently fell on deaf ears, as the coal company executive who had the last word at the meeting observed, "Anyone who opposes this permit and wants cheap energy is a hypocrite."

We believe, however, that God’s word still seeks and brings about justice. "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11) Thus, we suggest an intentional act of solidarity with people whose lives are impoverished by the exploitation of their community’s natural resources, with people around the world who lack access to the abundant resources we use daily, and with all creatures endangered by our degradation of their habitat. Let us abstain as much as possible on the first Friday of each month from using the electrical power and fossil-fuel energy that drive so much of the exploitation of these natural resources.

While this is a proposal to forego simple conveniences for a day, we suggest that it also be embraced as a monthly day of Jubilee (Leviticus 25) -- a day to lay down the bustle and allow our lives a little fallow time, consciously opting for the community of Creation, for "the earth is the Lord’s and all it holds, the world and all that live there." (Psalm 24:1)

Our labor-saving devices often have the contrary effect of making us busier, "freeing up" time in which we simply undertake other tasks. We frequently become slaves to elaborate schedules, and to the very conveniences that are supposed to be liberating. The feeling that we have too much to do and too little time is epidemic. Our ability to jump in the car requires us to go. The ubiquitous television, radio, stereo, and computer drown out our own thoughts, and certainly the rustle of leaves, the shouts of children playing, the songs of birds.

As a monthly Jubilee, a "power-down" day could be a step to recovering the concept of Sabbath -- a time for re-creation. When it’s possible to go without air-conditioning and electronic amusements, we might spend long summer evenings on the stoop or porch getting re-acquainted with neighbors, reclaiming our neighborhoods, rediscovering our families. Offices might turn off the computers and gadgets and spend the day clearing off desks and catching up on filing and planning. Perhaps we might take time to "consider the lilies of the field" (Matthew 6:28), and reconnect the natural rhythms of sunrise and sunset from which our culture and lives have become so isolated. The spirituality that proclaims "less is more" will gradually penetrate who we are and what we will become.

As this millennium draws to a close, many hunger for ways to bring decisions and actions into line with moral principles. The intertwining of commerce makes it increasingly difficult to choose anything -- a piece of clothing, a morsel of food, a watt of energy—knowing that its production from start to finish embodied justice and respect for all of Creation. Power-down days will not provide that pure experience, but they may create a quiet oasis in which we can take first steps.

 


Be praised my Lord because our sister
Mother Earth sustains and rules us
and because she raises food to feed us:
colored flowers,
grass . . .

Saint Francis of Assisi

Teach your children
what we have taught our children—
that the Earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth.
If we spit upon the ground,
we spit upon ourselves.
This we know:
The Earth does not belong to us,
we belong to the Earth.
This we know:
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth.
We did not weave the web of life,
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web
we do to ourselves. . . .

Chief Seattle

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet,
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins


But even now we feel the pain, and for that we ought to be grateful. It may help us to change, and change we must at a very basic level. One of the ways to deal with the ecological despair we feel when we think about the future we are willing to the next generation, is to refuse the role of victim, to become active, to participate in the vocation of the planetary agenda

Sallie McFague

Additional copies of this brochure and other CCA
publications, including At Home in the Web of Life, are available from the following address:

Catholic Committee of Appalachia
PO Box 662
Webster Springs, WV 26288
(304) 847-7215

e-mail to : cca@access.mountain.net