What is Creation Spirituality: Justice
Essential Six:
Ecological justice is our priority as imperative for the healing, sustainability, and harmony among our species and the entire Earth community.
By ecological, we do not mean environmental justice only, though this is crucial. By ecological, we mean justice for the Earth and all beings on it.
Creation Spirituality recognizes that the whole universe, and everything in the universe, is a blessing. This isn’t about having a good vibe of interconnectivity, it is about having the vigilance to stay awake to how Blessing is diminished, and having the commitment to interrupt that diminishment. If liberation and wholeness are the pathways to Nature and the Cosmos, natural pathways that have been interrupted through deforestation, factory farming, dependence on fossil fuels, etc., Creation Spirituality is about interrupting the interruption. Until we see the Earth as sacred, and all things and people on the Earth as sacred, we will never get at the root of oppression.
Starhawk, a Wiccan priestess and social activist, writes that “the Goddess could be taken as an object of external worship in a context no less hierarchical and oppressive than that of any religion of patriarchy. Let us be clear that when I say Goddess I am not talking about a being somewhere outside of this world, nor am I proposing a new belief system. I am talking about choosing an attitude: choosing to take this living world, the people and creatures on it, as the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, to see the world, the earth, and our lives as sacred.”
Drawing from Starhawk’s image of the Goddess, I believe that the universe is a womb, and each of us, each creature, each particle and molecule, every living thing that ever has been, is, or ever will be is a part of this universe and is intricately connected to each other. Like Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, who mythologically gives birth to the sacred in the texts of Matthew and Luke, so also we are called to give birth to the sacred in our words and actions. Furthermore, we recognize that the universe itself perpetually gives birth to all things, and to paraphrase Genesis chapter one, “it is very good.” All are blessed with sacred DNA. We represent the birthing energy of the universe and are called to give birth to the divine through ecological and social justice.
Creation Spirituality teaches that justice and compassion are the ultimate drivers for the spiritual journey. I like how Matthew Fox puts it: “Creation is what the mystic is awakened to and what the prophet fights to sustain.”
Our concern is not just for Mother Earth, but for all people and groups within it. Even though we may not have the time and energy to engage with every cause, we trust that others are focused in areas different from our own core passions. Together, we create the world we wish to see. For instance, one cannot speak of justice for the environment while ignoring the importance of LGBTQ inclusion, Black Lives Matter, or advocacy for people who are poor. There is an intersectionality of all oppression and, consequently, of all movements of liberation. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated this poignantly when he said, “Injustice against anyone is injustice against everyone.”
We are called to interrupt systems of oppression by celebrating the Original Blessing of all Creation.
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Read An Introduction to Creation Spirituality.
By special guest contributor, Rev. Dr. Sid Hall.
Photo from Creation Spirituality Communities’ Fb page.
