Happy New Year. I have not contributed to a blog in over 4 years. It's not that I have run out of things to say or write about. I guess I spent my time in other ways. Did anyone read what I was writing before anyay? I think I wondered about audience, connection, and interests. Did I have anything interesting to say? Anything worth writing or reading? Also, there are so many blogs, podcasts, videos, and general content out there in the democratized space of amateur journalism that exists in the social media context in which we live our lives, that I doubted I could get anyone's attention long enough. Is that the point? Getting people's attention? Do I want people to pay attention to me? Do I need people to pay attention? To read or listen to what I say? What I really want is for people to pay attention to their own lives and the lives of the people around them. I want people to pay attention to the trees and the birds and the insects and the soil and the wildflowers in the restored meadow behind the Methodist church. I want people to pay attention to their neighbors. And people who pay attention to the divine, to the will of God, to the presence of the sacred. We have got to pay better attention. We have got to wake up and stay awake! This is hard, painful work as it turns out.
A lot of things have transpired nationally in the last 4 years. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. An attempted coup failed. Just when we thought authoritarianism and fascism was defeated, Trump defeated VP Harris in a presidential contest that surprised the world. A global pandemic killed millions of people and climate change is accelerating in various ways, both visible and invisible. Israel and Palestine are at war. Russia and Ukraine are at war. War persists in various other parts of the world. Gun violence and the violence of poverty and addiction threaten American society. Mass shootings have become common. A deep cynicism, uncertainty, and mistrust pervades our society. People want enemies to blame, and strong man leaders to promise easy fixes to hard problems. Demagogues, dictatorships and various forms of religious nationalism are replacing democracies around the globe. Christian nationalism has arisen in the US as a driving anti-demoractic force to restore patriarchy, heteronormativity, and a narrative of dominance and greatness that excludes certain out groups from equal status.
I finished my doctoral thesis in 2024. That was a considerable piece of writing that nearly killed me last year. I had to finish it by February or I would not be able to graduate. I started the doctoral journey in 2016-2017 and COVID interrupted me. But I got to write about the Wittel Farm and how it has changed me, what it has taught me. I'll share what I have learned here.
I took on a third position in my vocational life as a pastor and farmer. In 2022 I joined the staff of POWER Interfaith, a faith-rooted community organizing movement for racial and economic justice on a liveable planet. (I like this tag line). The work is meaningful and has given me opportunity to connect and work ecumenically with faith leaders who are interested in justice as a theological response to the world's problems. It is interesting to think about the political and social implications of an increasingly post-Christian society. I studied the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer this year and taught a course on his life and teachings. I'm presently involved in the campaign for housing equity in Lancaster County. I am working with some amazingly passionate people who want to solve a major crisis, by ensuring that our politcs and economics create conditions of well being for everyone, which includes safe, affordable, adequate, and accessible housing for every person who wants it. We have learned about the politics of housing and why some people are left out of the housing market, are stuck in housing that doesn't meet their needs or exceeds affordability. We have learned about the causes of homelessness and what it takes to move unhoused people onto a path toward permanent housing. It takes money and time. It takes responsible political action rooted in a community- based ethics that sees every person as a human being worthy of respect, safety, and equal treatment. As an organizer, my role is to invite people, who are committed to finding solutions to their communities problems, to engage political actors and responsible leaders in a negotiation around an achievable goal. For example, can we compel county leaders to commit an additional $10 million in county rainy day funds to address the deficit in affordable housing stock? How many people will it take to compel political action? Do we need to have enough people to threaten reelections? How will we know? As an organizer I get to find people and invite them to become responsible actors in public life. I especially appreciate the role of the faith leader as a public actor, moving people of faith to act courageously to resist the status quo and become architects of a better world. This is a major challenge because of the internalized powerlessness most Americans experience today. We see billionaires and politicians aligned in their interess and against the interests of people and planet. What can we do? We can organize. Tune in for more writing about the power of organizing to create social change.
I'm also committed to the writing of John Philip Newell and the Celtic spiritual tradition. It shapes my understanding of an enchanted world, full of wonder and danger and beauty and mystery. The sacredness of the earth and our role as beloved caregivers defines and energizes the work I want to do, both with the farm and with people. Can we move toward a restored ecological harmony? What would it take to do so? How do we disentangle ourselves from the post-industrial worldview that continues to consume, waste, and destroy the earth with every choice we make? What is permissable, what must we prohibit, and what is necessary? Should we sell our cars and divest from fossil fuel consumption? If so, how do we live in this society? I have been reading indigenous wisdom, alongside Newell's work, and I have been listening to the poetry of Mary Oliver. There are agrarian writers like Wes Jackson, Norman Wirzba, and Wendell Berry that are informing my thoughts on our role in the natural world. Habitus, our habits and daily practices of living are shaped by our habitations, the places we dwell in and with. And our habits also shape our habitats in good and bad ways. I am not one for new years resolutions, but I'd like to commit to forming habits this year that will contribute to the greater good of the place to which I have become native. I am committintg to planting 1,000 trees in Lancaster in 2025.
Along with Newell, the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 20th century German Lutheran theologian who resisted Hitler and the Nazis, a clearer way of talking about things that matter the most has emerged in my own thinking and speaking. There are a few important matters that need to be discussed. I want to broaden the discussions from the academy to the home. For one, people of faith need to wrestle with the planet's destruction by human industrialization and fossil fuel consumption. We need to think critically about a theology of creation and what it means to be responsible moral actors on earth. What are the scenarios that climate science anticipates given current global trajectories under the conditions of climate change? Do we really only have sixty harvests left, given the depleted soil conditions? What will warming mean for human populations, as habitation becomes more challenging in places currently inhabited? What should we eat?
I think 2025 is a year of necessary change. Adapt or die. So, what if this blog is a contribution to our adaptation? We need to adopt new ways of being, living, acting, consuming, working, and resting. We need to adopt a theology that frees us to live responsibly toward the neighbor, both human and non-human. We need to experience and embrace humility before God and earth, in order to restore order, balance, and possibility of a future. So, I will contribute a weekly post in 2025 of thoughts on ecology, theology, community, and adaptation. What will you contribute?
