Blog Post 3

Berry’s hope of removing the discourse on environmentalism from “technopolotics” is certainly a relevant topic. The relevancy has seemed to increase since the books publishing in 2015, with our current president being a climate change denier and pushing projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, and more locally, the Bayou Bridge pipeline. DAPL was hugely considered from an ethical position, and theological in the way a native culture’s sacred lands were facing destruction. I’m an active believer of spirituality in natural places, and I believe this is a motivating force for many to take a stance for environmentalism. Berry’s recommendation of ethical positions fully resonates with my own belief system, and while I’m not a particularly theologically interested person, there is certainly room for organized religion to participate in environmental discourse.

There’s a current push towards protecting and restoring the Louisiana coastline that’s being spearheaded by my (non-religious) peers, though this movement is motivated by both political and conservationist factors. Obviously theological organizations are often shown as antagonists to this movement and similar ones, while I believe many religious folks are allied with the cause. Within my own Catholic education, there was always a push for social justice, focus on the sanctity of nature, and I was instilled with an idea to stand up for what’s moral. Granted, my school was in a rural town in the middle of the woods, but I found these teachings to align with “God’s message”

Religious people and even organizations need to be given room to the environmentalist movement, because many of their ideas on nature and protection of it align with secular-ethical ideas. Strength comes in numbers. Political differences can be put aside for a common cause. etc, etc.