Currents of Faith: Open and Unfolding Reflections

In the midst of many negative happenings in our world I see signs of hope. I have described a number of transformations in my faith brought about by my theology. I now  point to significant events in the wider world where creative new ideas have emerged. Some of God’s possibilities for the world have found a home.

I heard Dr. Wes Jackson speak at a conference in Santa Barbara in 1987. I was impressed then and I continue to be impressed. He is an agronomist and an adventurer. As a faculty member in agriculture at a major university, he became increasingly disturbed by the research which was funded by grants from large agribusiness corporations. This research fostered the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and petroleum products. Plowing, cultivating, planting, fertilizing, applying pesticides, and harvesting large sections of a single crop required frequent use of petroleum driven equipment. In addition soil was lost by erosion, damaged by manufactured chemicals, and carbon compounds entered the atmosphere.

Over twenty years ago he decided to find a better way, one which used nature as the measure. He would farm in “nature’s image.” He would listen to the prairie. On land in the heart of Kansas near Salinas, he founded a small oasis for experimenting, The Land Institute. Using his knowledge of agronomy and his skills in research he began the adventure of fostering a new agriculture. With others who shared his vision he searched for plants which would yield a crop comparable to traditional farming, preserve and build the soil, keep the nearby river free of eroded soil and the prairie air free of carbon compounds, while using methods which are sustainable. Agriculture and ecology would be wedded.

They created a mission statement for the Land Institute: When people, land and community are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members, but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting nature as the source and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. [www.landinstitute.org]

Their goal became “to improve the security of our food and fiber source by reducing soil erosion, decreasing dependency upon petroleum and natural gas, and relieving the agriculture-related contamination of our land and water.”

Graduate students in agriculture were invited to carry out research on many aspects of this new approach to farming. Findings would accumulate and build a reliable body of knowledge. Through lengthy and laborious steps they finally reached a heartwarming conclusion. They could produce as much yield per acre with perennial plants as was grown through traditional farming.

Since over 75% of human calories worldwide come from grains such as wheat and corn, having an alternate grain which does not erode the environment is an awesome accomplishment. They were well into developing an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops. Theirs was not simply an interesting idea, it was one which could compete in the market place!

With no plowing, no pesticides, no commercial fertilizers, no eroded soil in the river, and carbon compounds in the air only once a year during harvesting, they had created a new design for agriculture.

They are now seeking funding for a research center on Natural Systems Agriculture which would increase their breadth and depth of knowledge about sustainable agriculture.
They hope over the next quarter century to solve the 10,000-year-old problem which began with our ancestors who made the transition to agriculture millennia ago.

Hoorah, they are growing “granola!” They are living out the value placed on creation by my theology.

We turned off the major highway about 70 miles north of Phoenix onto a gravel road which soon became two tracks in the sand. After following the winding tracks, which reminded me of the ranch at Roseworth, we saw the sign: Welcome to Arcosanti. We had taken a day of our week in Sedona to see what we had heard about for years. We were delighted to finally set foot on the site of this daring and creative project in the middle of the high desert of Arizona.

We knew the name Paolo Soleri. In the 1980s, our Sunday class studied his book Arcology, a vision which combined architecture and ecology. We leafed through the pages, showing the variety of cities he had designed for the different terrain and climate of the world. We found them fascinating! While Paolo Soleri is now nearing his 90th birthday, he remains actively engaged in the construction of this experimental town designed for a population of 5,000.

Arcosanti was begun in 1970, and seeks to demonstrate ways to improve urban conditions and lessen our destructive impact on the earth. The total number of facilities will occupy only 25 acres of a 4060 acre land preserve. Large scale greenhouses provide gardening space and act as solar collectors for winter heat. A water treatment system, where waste water is gradually restored to useable water by natural means, is located near the small river winding through the preserve. Waste management includes using solid waste for the nearby gardens.

Living quarters are situated on several levels above the heating system, thereby efficiently using the rising heat for warmth in winter and the shade for cooling in the summer. All units surround the Colly Soleri Music Center, the hub of the community. Walkways take people to the green areas and gardens in minutes. No commuting is needed here to go from home to work to garden to concert to desert surroundings.
Volunteers and students come from around the world to study the arcological philosophy and participate in the ongoing construction. There are workshops which create the Soleri Bells, sold to help fund the construction. Over 5000 past participants have assisted in the construction of Arcosanti and 50,000 tourists visit the site each year.

Arcosanti is an experimental model, yet the vision of Paolo Soleri is heard throughout the world. During our visit we learned that he had just returned from a consultation in China and had received an honor in his home nation of Italy.

Paolo Soleri is doing for cities what Wes Jackson is for the land. Both foster living lightly on the earth and cooperating with nature. They win my applause! They give me hope!

Adrienne and I are active members of the Process and Faith Council, that program which deals with the relationship of the process theology to the local church. We have attended those meetings twice a year since its beginning. We were pleasantly surprised when asked to attend the steering committee of the Center for Process Studies, of which PF is a branch. There we have heard through the years about a fascinating project.

Zhihe Wang is executive director and Meijun Fan is co-director of the China Project.
We know that the Center has been involved in many stimulating projects and this one stands out as truly awesome, especially for Adrienne who has visited China twice and decorated our living room with Chinese art and artifacts. This project is interesting in another way. Process theology and process philosophy have not made great inroads into American theological schools or mainline churches. For us this is a sad but realistic fact. But in China process thought is growing by leaps and bounds. This vision of reality may have significant influence on the developments in this growing power in the world. While some in our country are fearful and worried about China as a threat to our nation, many leaders in both Chinese administration and universities are welcoming process thinkers with open arms.

Both directors of the China Project came to Claremont to study for doctoral degrees through the visiting scholars program of the Center. There began the bubbling and creating which led to the birthing of this new venture.

In their own words the project is described: “The China Project, a program of Center for Process Studies, was founded in 1998 to promote the study and application of process thought by Chinese scholars and to enhance mutual understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. The China Project believes that process thought opens the possibility of combining Chinese and Western cultures and integrating premodern, modern, and postmodern insights from both Western and Eastern thinkers. It is hoped that through this interaction process thought will play a vital role in contributing to the well being of China and the global community. The China Project promotes and fosters this constructive interaction between East and West through the sponsoring of conferences, translation projects, publications, visiting scholars programs and establishing process centers in China.” [www.ctr4proces.org/projects/china/chinaeng.shtml]
 
The number of American process scholars who have spoken at Chinese universities is most impressive, just as is the number of Chinese scholars who have studied at the Center in Claremont. I have heard several American scholars tell of the large and welcoming audiences they have addressed, clearly being much more receptive than gatherings in their own nation. At this time there are twelve centers for process thought in China, located primarily at universities. They are addressing psychology, education, science and values, sustainable urbanization, business ethics and ecology. The surprise to me is that the Hangzhou Center is focused on Process Theology! Wow!

Eighteen books on process thought have been translated into Chinese, several are process theology! Ten more books are currently being translated.

I salute the Center and the two Chinese scholars for offering signs of hope! It is awesome to think that the process vision may influence the development of the largest nation in the world!

Marjorie, Adrienne and I saw a film in Pasadena at a small independent theater we attend often when visiting in Claremont. Immediately following the film I went next door to Vroman’s Book Store and bought the book, An Inconvenient Truth. Former Vice-President Al Gore has received many accolades for the film, book, and traveling global warming shows. The Emmy and Oscar awards culminated in the Nobel Peace Prize shared with the UN Panel on Climate Change. I add my voice to those awards.

I found the photographs of radical change in the world awesome in their beauty and frightening in their realism. The numbers presented powerful evidence of rapid change. The one sequence in which Al Gore had to step on an electric lift to take him to the heights to show the extreme changes in the graph was unforgettable. Some are known to say “the book was much better than the film” or “I enjoyed the film much more than the book.” In this instance they are basically identical.

The film and book present the nature of global warming. “The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.”

“The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade. At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.”

“If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences. Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years—to 300,000 people a year. Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.”

“There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now—TAKE ACTION.” [www.climatecrisis.net/thescience]

It may sound strange that I see these dire announcements as signs of hope. I am neither a masochist who seeks out punishment nor am I “Eeyore” the donkey with the dark cloud always over his head. My theology calls me to begin with reality and look for the possibilities within those conditions. The film offers me the place where I must start. In the years when science has been so neglected and maligned by our administration, I tip my hat to Al Gore!

Only Adrienne was able to attend the dinner that evening at the Sleeping Lady Conference Center near Leavenworth. I was singing with the Columbia Choral in that same city for their Spring Festival. She heard Greg Mortenson speak about the experiences described in his book, Three Cups of Tea. She was deeply impressed with both him as a person and the story he told. She described him as a large teddy bear of a man, who radiated warmth and was easily approached, despite his years of relating to heads of state as well as wealthy and famous persons.

The book, which has spent weeks on the best seller list, has a mysterious title. A village chief in Pakistan explains: “Here we drink three cups of tea to do business, the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything—even die.” It was this depth of relationship which Greg Mortenson developed with persons in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Received with kindness, he promised to return and build a school for them. He kept that promise—and many others. To date he has, with financial aid, ingenuity, persuasion and hard work, built 55 schools, especially for girls. This was accomplished in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban.

The goal of his organization, The Central Asia Institute, is to raise the literacy rate in Pakistan and Afghanistan to 40% in the next generation and to 80% in two generations.
By drinking tea cooperatively and respectfully with leaders of these impoverished villages his dream is coming true. In contrast to the recent bloodshed and conflict following the marshal law enacted  in Pakistan, a modern day St. Francis of Assisi quietly and lovingly tills his vineyard. I hold the greatest admiration for Greg Mortenson. [cai@ikat.org; www.ikat.org]

I was able to earn a doctorate without ever sitting in on a class in economics. I have never been good in mathematics and never enjoyed the study of abstractions far removed from a human person. Yet, I realize that if there are any priests in our nation today, they are the economists. It was only my grounding in theology which led me to venture into this unpleasant and unfamiliar area. My mentor, John Cobb had co-authored a book in 1989 with an economist, Herman Daly with the intriguing title For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. I was drawn into it.

Two images came forth from this study. The first is one I have used extensively, “person-in-community.” It points to the reality offered by process theology that there are no individuals and there are no communities, rather they come blended. The authors draw a clear contrast with individualism or what is called homo economicus, the economic man. This man can live in isolation with singular goals and in competition with other isolated men. They are not connected, interwoven, related, or bound together. In process thinking such a being is unreal and untrue. The problem is that this vision of the economic man has been and is today basic in economic theory.

The second image is the “Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare,” which forms the center of this study. Rather than using the earlier Gross National Product or the Gross Domestic Product as a measure of the well-being of a given people, a new measure was created which included more factors. The earlier measures treated the earth as a simple asset on the balance sheet, not as a number of living entities which can be enriched, enhanced, harmed or destroyed. Seeing earth as a mere asset avoided the long term effect of their yearly financial balance.

The new index included the importance of person-in-community, the land, and sustainability. This was not simply dividing the value of goods and services produced in a given year by the number of people in that population. The measures included in the new index include: Value of the services of highways and streets, Public expenditures on Health and Education counted as personal consumption, Defensive private expenditures on Health and Education, Cost of Commuting, Cost of Urbanization, Cost of air pollution, Loss of agricultural land, Energy consumption as measure of long-term environmental damage, and Net capital growth.[pp443-452]

By using such an index some societies which appear more wealthy in the GDP will not be so in the ISEW. Human and environmental values were brought into the discussion of economic well-being.

I am indebted to John Cobb and Herman Daly for creating a more humane economics!

I would not have thought that the “Golden Arches” promotes peace, but it does. In 1986,  Joan B. Kroc, co-founder of McDonalds, offered a generous gift to fund the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The Institute conducts research, education and outreach programs on the causes of violence and the conditions for sustainable peace.

“The institute’s research agenda focuses on the religious and ethnic dimensions of conflict and peacebuilding; the ethics of the use of force; and the peacemaking role of international norms, policies and institutions, including a focus on economic sanctions and enforcement of human rights.” [kroc.nd.edu/aboutus] 

I wish I could have heard the presentations sponsored by the Institute in 2005. They included, “When Faiths Unite: Religion and U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” “Why do we need the UN?,” “The Ethics of Exit: The Morality of Withdrawal from Iraq,” “Fighting Terrorism,” and “How to Use American Power.” [kroc.nd.edu/research/policy-studies].

Persons who earn graduate degrees from this Institute will surely have an influence on our thinking about war and peace. Thank you, Joan B. Kroc for your generosity and wisdom! Blessed are the peacemakers!

I have personally witnessed signs of hope. The first occurred recently with my friend and colleague, Dr. Bob Anderson. As co-facilitators of Visioning America we meet regularly for lunch to plan our regular meetings. During a recent lunch, Bob said that he had a new idea for a letter to the editor about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Why not a Marshall Plan?” I was awed and pleased to hear Bob’s idea. Israel, with the support of the U.S., could do for Palestine what our nation did after World War II to re-develop the economies of our former enemies.

Shortly thereafter, Bob learned from the editorial page editor Tracy Warner, that an earlier op-ed we had submitted to the newspaper on the Mideast conflict would soon be ready for publication and asked if after this lapse of time we wanted any revisions. Aha, now we knew exactly how to revise. The newly appearing insight about the Marshall Plan would be central. I felt that Bob was expressing a possibility with a divine origin. It seemed consistent with God’s loving concern for all people of the world! Beautiful, Bob!

Another sign of hope occurred several years ago when I was facilitating a lay school class focused upon creating one’s mission. We sought to become aware of the mission which was authentic to each of us. In the midst of our discussions, Blossom Root, a class member, who served on our church’s mission commission, spoke of her concern about how to encourage church members to contribute to the construction of a building for an orphanage in Africa. How would the commission go about this major task? What plan would they follow?

We thought and talked together. Then the idea came like the tongues of fire during the first Pentecost. Julie Gotthold mentioned the toy, Legos, the small plastic brick pieces which fit together for building objects. Julie had a large plastic container with Legos which her two sons played with as children. Others wondered how Legos might help us. Ideas swirled around us. Finally, it came. We would create a miniature orphanage building. We would set up a table in the parlor each Sunday after worship. On the table would be a pile of Legos and a jar. We would ask people to purchase Legos to help build the orphanage. One dollar would purchase one Lego. As the dollar went into the jar, the Lego went on the building. Each week it was fun to see the walls of the little red building grow taller. People were curious to see the construction project. They could see a tangible result of their giving and watch the small building grow.

Our congregation donated over $14,000 to this project! With pleasure and amusement I think back to the possibilities which hovered and swirled around us that day. And it is especially fun to know that where we met was the Upper Room, the biblical name of the earlier location of the tongues of fire!

These are my signs of hope, some bright spots for our world. They may be quite different than those that are seen by others. They are mine! I do believe that God’s possibilities for the world hover near us longing to receive a welcome and seeking to find a home.