Politics extends far beyond “local.”
Social, economic and, more recently, environmental examples abound. Most comprehensive is the Earth we share. Only in recent decades have we been aware of that blue marble — Earth photographed from space — our commons, tragically being plundered.
The concept of a heavenly afterlife for the faithful (and a hellish one for their persecutors) seems to have become appealing in Judaism during a time of great persecution: if faithfulness was not rewarded on earth, then it would be later by a just God.
Everywhere we look, from majestic mountains or sunsets to the tiniest stamen in a flower, we need to be increasingly aware of how our world is nourished by every living organism around us.
God’s calls us to take care of the earth and we, through dominionistic theology influenced less by the Bible and more by selfishness, think the planet is ours to do with as we please, even when it is God’s and we are called to live in peace with it.