The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018 - 19

Creation Care
destruction. Like the log on the precipice, we are in our essence
grounded and have the power to resist and alter the forces
around us that seek to destroy by keeping us separate.
Getting grounded in our natural essence, we recognize our
connection to everything in the universe. We can no longer
separate ourselves into races, nations or even individuals. In
our very being we are community. In and on our bodies, we
have trillions of living cells that are not our own. They number
more than our own cells. These include all the bacteria that
digest our food and other organisms like fungi.
Our life is not possible without this larger community of
life. To name any of these cells or any other human or animal
or piece of the natural world our enemy is to deny our essential
being, or as Thich Naht Hanh described it, our "interbeing."
We are integrally connected to everything in the universe.

"We are connected with all that
is around us. As we recognize
this fact, we can no longer see
anyone or anything as an enemy
to be defeated."

the example of Jesus and drive the moneychangers out of the
temple of the Earth?
As people descended from ancestors who were immigrants
in North, South and Central America, we have much to learn
from the Indigenous communities our ancestors attempted to
exterminate. These native peoples never lost their vital connection to the rest of the community of life, giving thanks when they
felled a tree to build a house or canoe rather than clear cutting
and destroying the ecological community of the forest.
When our ancestors-the European invaders-arrived, they
called the Indigenous people "savages." They did not recognize
the inherent wisdom or the advanced cultures of these people.
Today, as we seek to rebuild a peaceful world that works
well for everyone and everything, what can we learn from the
natural world and from those Indigenous people who never
lost their sacred connection to it? Is it not time
* to return to our essence, our interbeing, our connectedness?
* to recognize that gratitude and generosity are values of
the universe?
* to meditate with the trees which give us the oxygen
necessary for life?
* to understand the forest as a community connected by
a network of mycorrhizal fungi transferring nutrients,
carbon and water among its inhabitants?
* to affirm that the sun burns four million tons of itself
every minute to provide all the energy for the Earth?
* to see that we are part of community and not empire?
* to belong and not to conquer?

Once we recognize that interbeing as ourselves, we can no
longer wage war against anyone or anything, because that is
waging war against ourselves. We can only recognize the peaceful
community to which we belong. This connection is a spiritual -Andy Smith is a professional photographer, a longtime member of the
connection to everything. As we affirm this understanding, we BPFNA ~ Baustistas por la Paz and a former board member. He is
recognize that we are children of God or, if we prefer, children also a member of Central Baptist Church in Wayne, PA, a BPFNA ~
of the universe-and we are connected to all that is.
Bautistas por la Paz Partner Congregation.
Our human society today has
forgotten this basic understanding of
life in almost all aspects. Rather than
turning to the way nature heals itself
as our model, we fight disease and pests
and weeds, naming enemies that we
have to exterminate. From our extreme
anthropocentrism, coupled with our
BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz has created a
hyper-individualism, we have created
new issue monograph on Indigenous Justice.
the foundations for destruction of the
Go to http://www.bpfna.org/mobilize/issuenatural world and our own society.
The universe runs itself without
monographs to download a free copy of this
any need for money, yet in our human
great new resource.
society money has become the primary
value. We worship it by making it the
And, while you're there, check out our other
reigning value rather than recognizing a
issue monographs on topics such as Moral Injury
creative power that brought everything
of War, Gun Violence, Climate Change, Migrant
into being. As we give a monetary value
Justice and Human Trafficking.
to everything and commodify it, we lose
sight of its sacredness. Is it time to follow

What Your Church Can Do About

INDIGENOUS JUSTICE

Baptist Peacemaker

JAN-MAR 2018

http://www.bpfna.org/mobilize/issue-monographs

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018