I understand how you can escape the patriarchal reality of Christianity
with excuses like "God is omnipotent." The fact is that your language
itself, your manner of speaking in terms of masculinity, domination,
"sin", etc. is inherently contrary to both the goals and the methodology
of ecofemism. There is a place for Geocentrism in Christianity - just
don't confuse it with ecofemism. It insults all of us.
P.S. I thought that you weren't going to post to the list anymore.
> :
>
> << I ask Ecolady, have you ever read any academic ecofem
> literature? (Karen Warren, Vandana Shiva, Val Plumwood, Judith Plant,
> Charlene Spretnak, etc., etc.). If you had then you would know that
> it
> is precicely the PATRIARCHAL establishments like Christianity that
> have
> been the systematic oppressors of women and nature.
> >>
> Hi!
>
> Sarah in reply to this question yes - I only read one (twice)
> "Ecofeminism and
> the Sacred" Carol J. Adams, Editor - Authors in book, Rosemary Radford
> Ruether, Delores S. Williams, Catherine Keller, Stephanie Kaza, Judith
> Plaskow, Sallie McFague, Lina Gupta, Karen J. Warren, L. Teal
> Willoughby,
> Ellen Cronan Rose, Andy Smith, Gloria Feman Orenstein, Shamarra Shantu
> Riley,
> Carol Lee Sanchez, Jane Caputi, Rebecca Johnson, Charlene Spretnak,
> Carol J.
> Adams, Marjorie Procter- Smith, Zoe Weil.
>
> The book is broken down to 3 parts - Part 1 - Revisioning Religion,
> Part 2-
> Envisioning Ecofeminism, Part 3 - Emobying Ecofeminist Spiritualities.
>
> The book has gathered writings that "provide vital insights into the
> causes of
> current environmental crises as well as important recommendations for
> addressing them."
>
> I highly recommend it if you haven't read it!
>
> The Christian Theologist in the book says Christians should assert SIN
> as the
> cause of the Eco-Crisis - The sin of Greed - I agree!
>
> Re: Patriarchial religion - The referring to God as White Male in the
> sky -
> has got to go out with yesterdays bathwater - God is Omnipotent -
> Alpha and
> Omega _ beyond human gender comprehension - so then If God just wants
> to be
> referred to as FATHER - not white male god in the sky - I say "Ok God
> - you're
> the boss - I am just your humble servant - amen."
>
> End of fanatic rant.
> Peace!
> Angela
>
>
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Nov 18 08:07:56 1998
From: "Us" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: MK Rawlings: the cosmic mystery of seed
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 09:06:46 -0600
Thanks for this Jane
----------
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: MK Rawlings: the cosmic mystery of seed
> Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 8:18 PM
>
> Hi all,
> An inspirational quote from "Cross Creek":
>
> Who owns Cross Creek? The red-birds, I think, more than I, for they have
> their nests even in the face of delinquent mortgages. And after I am
dead,
> who am childless, the human ownership of grove and field and hammock is
> hypothetical. But a long line of red-birds and whippooorwills and
blue-jays
> and ground doves will descend from the present owners of nests in the
orange
> trees, and their claim will be less subject to dispute than that of any
human
> heirs. Houses are individual and can be owned, like nests, and fought
for.
> But what of the land? It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but
not
> bought. It may be used, but not owned. It gives itself in response to
love
> and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are
tenants
> and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the
wind
> and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed,
and
> beyond all, to time."
>
> Love, Jane
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Nov 18 08:59:01 1998
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 00:03:53 +0800
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: bunny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Compassion to the animals!
Angela wrote:
It occurred to me this morning that a true heartfelt compassion for the
animals is alive and growing in some people and stagnent in others - why?
What makes a person love animals more then another person? What makes one
person complacent to the suffering of other animals and another fervantly
dedicated to them? Is it intelligence, spirituality, culture . . . , all,
more, what exactly does for instance a vegitarian know or think that makes
them different from a meateater? How does a person acquire a heart that beats
for the animals? Is it something we are born with or is it something that is
learned throughout a developing human life?
Peace!
Angela
Angela,
++I feel most people are conditioned to think of animals in a certain way
from birth. We are told that people need meat and dairy foods and that not
to feed your child these products may cause them ill health. There is a
large industry (profit makers) built around such industries including
Agricultural, processing etc. It doesn't matter to some folks that emminent
doctors and scientists have spoken out against the use of animals in our diets.
++Secondly, people are so wrapped up in their lives (consumerism and
education and raising families etc) that many have never considered the
needs of the animals and when they do, they place the perceived problems of
cruelty and exploitation in the "too hard" basket or leave it to someone
else to sort out.
++Thirdly, I don't feel that people are borne any different to each other.
Perhaps we are influenced in our thinking towards animals from an early age
(C'mon son, I'll take you hunting) or perhaps some people are thinkers and
challenge the status quo. Perhaps at a certain point in life some people
question the whole belief system of society and realise that the cruelty to
animals and the fact that they represent whole species repressed and
exploited such as the slaves of old just has to stop. Maybe some people are
so conditioned
that they never wake up to see the cruelty around them or they feel the cruelty
is justified (but would they kill the animals themselves to eat?)
++Fourthly, the way society is based on sanitised specialisation has a lot
to do with the way things are. No one ever sees the animals dragged to slaughter
but they do see smartly presented slivers of cooked ham and neatly packed
sausages and minced meat and pre-prepared chicken pieces. The reality that a
sentient being has had their life taken and had their flesh chopped up to
sell as packaged dead animal in the supermarket does not cross the average
consumers mind more than fleetingly. Yet if those same consumers were
to follow an animal from its life on a farm (not an intensive hell farm but
a farm where animals were allowed to roam and chickens were allowed to
scratch in the dirt) and watch this animal dragged to slaughter to lose its
very life, perhaps more people would carefully consider being vegan and
perhaps more people would consider the lives of animals in general and try
to change things.
++Ecologically and health wise veganism would be much kinder to the environment
than watching more and more land lost to hard hoofed animals etc. deliberately
bred to supply McD's and Burger outlets etc. Even in countries that have had
a high vege content in their diet, the Western Diet is creeping in to cause
increases in diabetes along with our packaged foods etc. This is a bad scenario
for previously healthy human populations and bad for the animals that are
exploited.
Marguerite
