A Declaration of Interdependence
a sermon preached by The Rev. Tony
Lorenzen
at First Parish Church in Weston, MA
Sunday, July 1, 2007
On Sunday morning, May 18, 1980 at 8:32 in
the morning Pacific Time, Mount St. HelenÕs erupted. Blown away by an earthquake registering 5.1 on the Richter
scale, the north side of the mountain went sliding down in a catastrophic
avalanche. A mushroom cloud of ash rose thousands of feet in the air. Hundreds
of square miles of forest were literally blown down by the explosion and buried
in the avalanche and volcanic ash.
The event lasted over eight hours and turned day into night in eastern
Washington State. [1] 47 people
died. Fortunately, Mt. Saint
Helens is in a relatively remote area. Had this event happened anywhere near a
population center, hundreds or thousands could have perished.
Perhaps
you remember this event. I
do. I was days past my fourteenth
birthday when it happened; a month from finishing junior high school.
In
1982 the President and Congress created an 110,000 acre national monument
around the mountain for education and research where the environment is left to
respond naturally to the event of May 18, 1980. [2]
Last
week, while members of the United Church of Christ gathered for their synod in
Hartford, CT and members of the Unitarian Universalist Association gathered in
Portland, OR for General Assembly, I rented a car and drove north from Portland
to Mt. Saint Helens. The country
is beautiful in the pacific northwest and the land inside the 110,000 acre Mt.
St. HelenÕs national volcanic monument, perhaps even more so. As I drove toward Johnston Ridge
Observatory on Route 54, I looked out in awe at the natural beauty around me. I passed the first observation station
and kept going, but at the next I stopped and got out to look around. I was
still almost 30 miles from Johnston Ridge. I looked down into the valley. What I saw could best be described as a
glacier. But this glacier was not
made of snow and ice, but of ash and mud and rock.
ÒSome
say the world will end in fire, some say in ice,Ó I recalled
ÒFrom
what IÕve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fireÓ
I
looked down at the river of mud and ash
ÒBut
I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction iceÓ
I
looked up the still snow-capped hills,
Òis
also great and would sufficeÓ
I
returned to my rented car and continued the drive. About 15 miles from Johnston Ridge, coming around a hairpin
turn, Mt. St. Helens came into view for the first time from the road. A purple mountain majesty, surely - and
with all the power any monarch ever wielded.
Religious
liberals, liberal Christians, Unitarian Universalists, tend to be touchy-feely about nature in
a spiritual way. We like our
nature-based spirituality heavy on the Mary Oliver and the Wendell Berry and
the Robert Frost. We hug our trees
and get our Rocky Mountain High, listening to GodÕs casual reply. The experience I had at Mt. St. Helens
ripped that away from me like an exploding volcano.
I
drove past tree trunks, bereft of branches, all pointing away from the blast,
the ground, twenty-seven years later still barren. Massive stumps like tacks
and push-pins stuck into the ground, their trunks gone these last two and a
half decades. Not much in the way
of grasses or flowers. I lost the
mountain to view for the last few miles and as I entered the Johnston Ridge
parking lot. I hiked up the path
to the observation station and was struck into awe by the mountain rising
before me. Still three miles away as the crow flies, it seems I could have
reached out and touched it. It was
one of the most beautiful things IÕve ever seen. And yet there it was, the lava dome IÕd read about, with its
fissure spewing steam into the crisp cold air and the surrounding clouds. It would most likely erupt again, the
only question was when, and how badly.
The destruction it could cause was all around me. IÕd been taking it in for the last twenty-five
miles. The power and the glory.
The holy terror. Beauty and the beast. Standing there I felt sacredÉ.and small.
We
do not have dominion over this planet.
I canÕt believe that anyone or anything, let alone God, put us in
control of this environment or this world. If we human beings disappeared
tomorrow the rock and the river and the tree, the mountain and the ocean, the
whale and the bird, the elephant and the amoeba would neither notice nor
care. I sometimes wonder if they
all wouldnÕt be better off without us. None of them dump toxins into the
environment; none of them destroy the natural habitat of the others in the name
of progress. None of them has the
gall to consider themselves the crown of creation.
No - I donÕt believe we were given
divine right to dispense with this planet as we wish. However, I do believe
that if we work at it, we may learn to be able and competent caretakers. Even in the awe-inspiring aftermath of
the Mt. St. Helens event, some human beings knew enough to let the environment
be and reclaim itself. Some with
foresight had planted small signs in the ground near the paths at the Johnston
Ridge Observatory ÒThese plants grow by the inch, but they are ruined by the
foot. Please stay on the path and watch your step.Ó
We
are but an interdependent part of this creation, not its master. In that
spirit, as we approach the celebration of Independence Day, I urge you to make
a declaration of Interdependence.
You will not be the first to have done it. It is not a revolutionary idea.
No
less than a dozen Declarations of Interdependence have been proclaimed, in one way,
shape or form, since 1936. These
declarations have been made in an ecological context, but have also dealt with
racial and religious tolerance as well as interdependence among nations and
cultures.
The
first complete declaration that grabbed my attention was one proposed by Will
Durant in 1945. Written by Durant, Meyer David and Dr. Christian Richard in
early 1945, it was introduced into the Congressional Record on October 1 of
that year by Ellis E. Patterson.[3]
A
DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE among All People re-affirms what it call Òevident truthsÓ
by listing five statements of support for racial and religious diversity,
noting that intolerance is the door to violence and dictatorship.[4] The Durant declaration ends with the
following resolutions:
-To uphold and promote human fellowship through mutual
consideration and respect;
- To champion human dignity and decency, and to safeguard
these without distinction of race, or color, or creed;
- To strive in concert with others to discourage all animosities
arising from these differences, and to unite all groups in the
fair play of civilized life.
In
the decades following the Durant declaration the civil rights movement led the
battle for which items in the Durant document into the courtrooms and streets
of America. Declarations of interdependence moved decidedly in the direction of that environmental
awareness.
Originally
published in the Whole Earth Catalog Supplement of September 1969 and again in
the book Sources,
edited by Theodore Roszak (Harper Collins, 1972, p. 388), The Unanimous
Declaration of Interdependence by Cliff Humphrey and friends makes use of
Thomas JeffersonÕs, language and cadence, borrowing freely from JeffersonÕs
historic document to sound an environmental call to arms.
When in the course of evolution it becomes necessary for one
species to denounce the notion of independence from all the rest, and to assume
among the powers of the earth, the interdependent station, to which the natural
laws of the cosmos have placed them, a decent respect for the opinions of all
mankind requires that they should declare the conditions which impel them to
assert their interdependence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all species have
evolved with equal and unalienable rights,
Now
if you think that all species having equal rights is a radical idea, remember
that it was also once a radical idea for all different types of people to have
equal rights, Black, Native, Women, Disabled, Gay.
Éthat among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that to insure these rights,
nature has instituted certain principles for the sustenance of all species,
deriving these principles from the capabilities of the planetÕs life-support
systemÉ. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that cultural values long established
should not be altered for light and transient causes, that mankind is more
disposed to suffer from asserting a vain notion of independence that to right
itself by abolishing that culture to which it is now accustomed.
This declaration goes on in perfect
imitation of JeffersonÕs document until it submits facts to a candid world,
some of which include:
*
People have refused to recognize the roles of other species and the importance
of natural principles for growth of the food they require.
*
People have refused to recognize that they are interacting with other species
in an evolutionary process.
*
People have fouled the waters that all life partakes of.
*
People have transformed the face of the earth to enhance their notion of
independence from it and in so doing have interrupted many natural process that
they are dependent upon.
*
People have contaminated the common household with substances that are foreign
to the life processes and which cause many organisms great difficulties.
This declaration ends, like JeffersonÕs,
with an appeal:
Éappealing to the ecological consciousness of the world for the
rectitude of our intentions, do solemnly publish and declare that all species
are interdependent,
In
1992 The David Suzuki Foundation wrote a Declaration of Interdependence for the
United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It contains many statements laid
out in three sections labeled This We Know, This We Believe, and This We
Resolve. Here are some selections:
This
We Know
We are the
breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.
We are human
animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.
We share with
these kin a common history, written in our genes.
The stability
of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.
Linked in that
web, we are interconnected -- using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the
fundamental elements of life.
When we
compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from
the endless future to serve the fleeting present.
This
We Believe
Humans have
become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow
creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests,
poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.
We are learning
from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new
politics of hope.
We respect and
uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.
We see that
economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of
many are wrong.
This
We Resolve
All this that
we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.
At this turning
point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance
to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to
interdependence.[5]
This morningÕs lesson tells us the story
of the Garden of Eden. The second creation story at the beginning of Genesis
and the older of the two, it paints an idyllic picture of human life in an
Earthly paradise before human beings discovered some inconvenient truths. This story holds out hope for us that
if we can accept ourselves as an interconnected, interdependent part of
creation, we can learn to live with the cycles of the natural world and stop
trying so hard to overcome them, subdue them and master them. It holds out hope because this planet
can be what we need it to be, if we give up always having to make it be what we
want it to be. Yet, - those
inconvenient truths - we are creatures with the knowledge of good and evil and
just because we know better doesnÕt mean we act accordingly. If we donÕt act in our best interests
and the planetÕs best interests, we will die and we will take the planet with
us, forcing the serpentÕs apple upon the rock and the river and the tree, the
mountain and ocean, ripping the tree of life away from them at the roots. Acting for interdependence means owning
up to the truth of inconvenience. It means giving up the SUV. It means buying
locally grown food or maybe for the first time growing your own food. It means demanding sustainable energy
sources and better public transportation.
It means recycling and reusing, all the time, not just when itÕs
easy. Maybe it means brining a
reusable cup with you all day for coffee and water instead of constantly buying
throwaways. Interdependence isnÕt easy, it isnÕt comfortable and it isnÕt luxurious. But it beats death. As a person of faith, I feel called to
it.
Today
I choose life for myself. This morning I choose life for my planet. Here, in this assembly, I declare
myself an interdependent part of the glorious web of creation. I invite you, I
beckon you, I call you É to join me.