Spiritual perspectives
A New American Dream?

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Joan Brown
Special to the Independent

This past week several people from the Jehovah Witness came to my door. Periodically they knock and we have a conversation and they give me their publication. Their publication headline this particular day was “What Is the Purpose of Your Life?”

A simple question. It led me into personal and collective reflection. We live in a critical moment of change, chaos and opportunity. How does my spirituality and ethics guide me? Do I wonder if my life has any purpose? Do I worry only about myself and my immediate family and friends? Do I see my life as part of the planet, the entire biotic community and future children?

“What is the purpose of Your Life?” echoes a question passionist priest Thomas Berry believes is the question of our time, “What does it mean to be human?”

In her recent book, “A New Climate for Theology: God, the World and Global Warming,” theologian Sallie McFague reflects upon the same question through three crucial questions:

1. Who Are We? (Ecological Anthropology)
2. Who is God? (Creation and Providence)
3. How shall we live? (Christianity and Planetary Economics)

While some of you might think these are questions not related to ordinary life, our current experience of economic and ecological chaos reflects a reality where these important questions that guide every day life have not been taken seriously.

Rather, individuals and whole cultures have been co-opted into a “consumptive” or “Kleenex world perspective”: use and discard. Our worldview has led us to live beyond financial and environmental means. We fail to know and understand the basic principles of ecological life which call for a balance of producers, consumers and decomposers where nothing is wasted. The signs of our self-destructive imbalance are all around us.

A recent report of water quality in Western states reveals that 40 percent of all water, including in New Mexico, is polluted by the mining industry. The New Mexico Legislature of 2008 passed a bill supporting GMO chile in the state. Lawmakers and industry often endorse such long range measures without reflecting upon adverse health effects to humans, insects and creatures, in addition, to the possible long-term implications of traditional seeds to feed the world into future generations.

The recent United Nations climate change meeting in Poznan, Poland affirmed the dire state of the planet.

Glacier melt, submerging whole island nations, drought, water and food shortages and a future filled with as many as 600 million refugees are not distant scenarios for a movie.

How does our understanding of God and the Sacred affirm lifestyles that lead to these conclusions? Perhaps, as McFague suggests, we need to revisit the meaning of God, spirituality and ethics in light of ordinary reality.

If we believe we are all one, if we understand that everything is connected, if we feel in our whole being the guiding law of all major world religions — Love — will not our actions of appreciation and care lead to a new reality, a new American Dream?

Appreciation and care lead us to live the reality of Love within each life choice in the private and public sphere. We begin to understand the meaning of being a human being with all the wonder, awe and struggle. We then begin to understand a basic guiding ethics for living. Some of us learned the principles as children: take only your share, clean up after yourself, keep the house in good repair for others, and give thanks to the Creator for all is a gift of Love.

Joan Brown, osf, is a Franciscan sister working in Ecology Ministry in New Mexico. She lives is Albuquerque and works with New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, 1 SKY New Mexico and the Partnership for Earth Spirituality on concerns of climate change and water. You may reach her at joankansas@swcp.com.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues. For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.