Waldensians are of many minds about every important issue. A recent seminar on ecology and theology held at a Waldensian facility in Uruguay demonstrated the truth of the saying that wherever two or three Waldensians are gathered together, there will be four or five opinions. Nevertheless, our sisters and brothers in South America thought it would be interesting for Waldensians and their friends in the rest of the world to know what one of the presenters said about the relationship between theology and ecology.
The worlds of theology and ecology came together in an international seminar at the Centro Emmanuel in Valdense, Uruguay on April 26-28 of this year. The event was organized by the Centro Emmanuel and coordinated by the Methodist pastor and theologian, Nancy Cardoso.
Using the title "Conversion and Ecological Transition" and building on an in-depth examination of the Old Testament book of Hosea, the seminar explored the relationship between biblical teaching and ecological activism.
The pastor and theologian Nancy Cardoso explained that, during the time of Hosea, the worship of Baal with its temple prostitution and fertility rites coexisted with the worship of Yahweh. Implicit in the relation between the two forms of worship was a difference between two models of production and the way those two models of production received religious validation.
On one side, there was the Baal cult, a fertility rite-oriented cult, a cult which Nancy Cordoso described as 'pornographic', which was focused on ostentation, festivity and abundance. This cult served a powerful god who needed armies and merchants.
On the other side, there was the Yahweh cult, a cult of a desert and mountain deity, which valued small-scale production and living without luxuries and was more focused on local, tribal and family relationships. She designated this cult 'erotic' because it valued a sensual relationship rather than an exploitive relationship with the world and the people in it. This cult served a more pastoral god who could be adequately served by a modest local agricultural economy and who had less need for ostentation.
During the seminar, two empty chairs were positioned in the middle of the room, symbolizing the 'pornographic' cult of Baal and the 'erotic' cult of Yahweh, and participants were given time to choose between the two opposing possibilities.
Nancy Cordoso described the seat representing Baal's 'pornographic' relationship with Mother Earth as entailing a totalitarian and standardized way of production and a wealth-oriented social structure that is imposed by force and deprives people of their cultures of origin. She described the other seat representing the 'erotic' ways in which human beings who worship Yahweh might be involved with Mother Earth as entailing the use of the senses and building non-exploitative relationships, relationships that encourage introspection.
Some of the participants reflected on this exercise in the following ways:
When we looked at those chairs and commented on what we thought about them, we realized that we live with plenty of pressures from both directions. Becoming aware of those opposing pressures is a process or transition that results in our no longer accepting imposed blindness but recognizing real life.
If we wish to continue in discarding our old blindness and seeing real life more fully, we need to deconstruct the image that we have of God and Mother Earth.
Commonly, we associate the Earth with the image of a mother. It is the Mother Earth who provides, who protects, who satisfies hunger and sings to sleep, who receives, who devotes herself. All are maternal roles in which the Earth is sacrificing herself, giving everything to her sons and daughters without getting anything in return. Hers is a martyr-motherhood, an image that was and is spread by the Judeo-Christian way of thinking.
But what about thinking of the Mother Earth as a lover? If we think this way, our relationship with nature is transformed. Our relationship with nature becomes a link of reciprocity, of watchful openness, of respect and acceptance, a relationship that is renewed in every meeting, in every pause, in every gesture. It is the image of a Mother Earth who loves and desires to be loved too.
Nancy Cardoso recalled a very interesting image with which Jesus identifies himself with a hen who wants to take care of her chicks, even though they are unwilling to be cared for (Mt.23:37). Here, Jesus takes for himself a maternal image, an image of a mother who is self-sacrificing and rejected at the same time.
In a way, it seems that our way of relating with Mother Earth is similar to the attitude Jesus ascribed to the chicks. Although many times we honor her as a protective mother, in fact this mother has been turned into a servant, into the slave of a system that behaves like a tyrannical, hedonistic, brutal, bitter child. This is a system that asks its mother for shelter only when it needs it, but it doesn't answer when she looks for it. This is a system capable of pecking its mother to death.
Nancy Cardoso says we shouldn't forget the image of our Earth as a mother, a mother who asks us for reciprocity and offers a demanding love that creates a culture of care and mutuality, a culture that brings us together.
That is the motherhood we must celebrate and recognize in our Earth. This is an Earth that teaches us, since we are little children, to sustain an ethic of care. That is an Earth that we can turn to, not so we can exploit it, but so that we can learn about love.
Nancy Cardoso is a Methodist pastor and theologian in Brazil. This article was written by Javier Pioli and translated by Verónica Biech. This article was condensed for use in this e-blast.
