[todaysdate]
This is part one of a two-part series
By Corbin Croy
When I was getting my undergraduate degree I took a class called, “Eco-Theology.” For the most part it seemed more like a business ethics class. We looked at the typical things like fossil fuel consumption, environmental consequences of a consumer driven economy, and rain forest depletion. But toward the end of the semester my professor asked me what subject I would be interested in concerning the subject matter. I chose agriculture.
If one is going to concern oneself with our spiritual duty regarding our planet then I would suggest that one must begin with agriculture. I was somewhat surprised that my professor had no intention of looking at agriculture in an eco-theology course, because in my mind it was the first place that we needed to start. In high school I learned in my social studies class how important land was in political development, and even in our own fight for independence from the British. Land is life, and agriculture is how we make the land livable. It is more than simply how we make food.
In primitive societies agriculture was the foundation of religion. Deities were fashioned around the idea of harvest and weather, because that is what made food grow. Food, which comes from the land, was not simply fuel. It was a gift from God, or gods. Thus, people learned to develop a relationship with their food. They would set food in front of their idols. In Early Judaism food could only be shared with other Jews. In Christianity food became a symbol for the body and blood of Christ.
The transition from an agrarian to an industrial society has been ravishing upon our souls. We have lost a connection to the land that was vital for our development of faith. Food is no longer a sacrament. It is a commodity. It is no longer a gift from God. It is a package produced through mass production. Food does not come from the ground. It comes from a lab. We no longer pray to the gods of rain or fertility. We now wait upon the masters of industry and politics to give us food. Even in church the Body of Christ has become mass produced into a bleached-thin and perfectly square wafer, and the blood has become watered down juice inside of a plastic cylinder. There is nothing holy about communion. It is not a meal. It is a chunk of cooked flour that gets stuck in the back of your teeth that you have to scrape off once the prayer is over.
Before we can take charge and lead God’s people into saving the ozone layer for Jesus we have to stop and ask ourselves not simply what is the moral or ethical thing to do concerning the environment, but what kind of world does God want us to live in, anyway? Trying to stop pollution and reduce our carbon foot print will certainly help our children in the future and help preserve our planet, but to truly understand God’s heart concerning our planet I believe that we have to begin with agriculture, and we have to understand the intimate connection that exists between how view of food and our view of the planet.
Check back for part two.
