Leaving the untilled edges

at the edge of my yard

A few days ago, Tom and I were talking about gardening practices, and he remembered a story that one of our pastors told in a sermon years ago when we were young and still attending the Baptist church. This preacher used a farming story as an analogy for sin. He said that early Norse farmers had a practice of leaving the edges of their fields in weeds; they did not till up to the edges of their fields. Now, Tom didn't know how true this story of Norse farming was, and in several minutes of searching on the Internet, I couldn't find any reference to Norse farmers leaving the edges of their fields untilled. However, that's the story the Baptist preacher told; he probably got it out of a book of illustrations for sermons.

 So, what, according to this pastor, was so bad about leaving the edges of one's fields untilled? Weeds would flourish there, seed, and then disperse throughout the tilled land, infiltrating the harvest. A field with untilled edges is like a person who leaves just a little bit of sin in her life, the pastor said. That little bit of sin will spread its seed and poison the pure actions of a Christian. The Christian should be careful not to follow the practices of pagans; sin must be weeded out of every area of one's life. That Norse farmer would have a better harvest if he pulled out every plant not associated with the fruit of his harvest. 

This story struck us because it emphasizes a worldview that is inimical to any kind of chaos, that prefers an authoritarian control, that categorizes everything as good or evil, black or white, sin or innocence (and innocence is suspect). It's a worldview that preaches "dominion" over the earth, as if humans are the ultimate arbiters in and over Nature.  And it's a worldview with devastating consequences.

When every bit of arable land is pushed to the maximum in farming practices, the natural world suffers. Habitat is destroyed, and the creatures that depend upon that habitat are diminished as their habitat is diminished.  According to a comprehensive survey of American bird life in a report titled "The U.S. State of the Birds,"

[m]ore than 97% of the native grasslands of the U.S. have been lost, mostly because of conversion to agriculture. As a result, grassland bird populations have declined from historic levels far more than any other group of birds.

You see this worldview of authoritarian control over nature in suburban yards, where all the grass is one species, poisoned and pummeled to punish any plant that dares to raise its inflorescence above the height required by neighborhood lawn control. An unholy number of lawn and pest control products enable suburbanites to become little dictators to nature: herbicides and weed killers, fungus and disease control, algae and moss control, animal repellents (deer, rabbit, snake, mole, bird, bat, goose, cat and dog repellents), pest controls of all kinds. According to a 2002 fact sheet of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Americans use more than a billion pounds of pesticides each year to combat pests on farm crops, in homes, places of business, schools, parks, hospitals, and other public places." (my emphasis)

Everyone knows that our addiction to pest and weed control is hurting us and the planet, and yet we continue to slather the stuff on our lawns and public spaces. It just goes to show how powerful a metaphor can be: the American lawn is a stand-in for the soul--weeds and pests are the dark stain of "sin." Untidy lawns, the untilled edges of a field, are indications of moral failings.

So let's exterminate the metaphors that equate the natural world with sin.

 And leave the edges of the field untilled.


note:
Advice for creating a healthy yard, from Audubon

"Weaponized Christianity"--THIS is What Jesus Would Do?

In Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner, the homicidal Assef, childhood bully of the main character and his friend, has joined the Taliban. Afghanistan is under an extreme-fringe interpretation of Sharia law. The law is really whatever the Taliban rule. Mobs of young Taliban men massacre people in the streets and destroy centuries-old artifacts. In a climactic chapter of the novel, the first-person narrator, Amir, is confronted by his childhood enemy, Assef, who describes to Amir the massacre of members of an Afghani minority group:

"You don't know the meaning of the word 'liberating' until you've done that, stood in a roomful of targets, let the bullets fly, free of guilt and remorse, knowing you are virtuous, good, and decent. Knowing you're doing God's work. It's breathtaking." He kissed the prayer beads, tilted his head.

It's a horrifying scene and a horrifying philosophy, that rampant murder of innocent people is blessed by God. As the writer of the novel wants to convey, that philosophy does not reflect the true philosophy of Islam, that it is the philosophy of fringe elements, bullies, thugs.

As I read the novel, I realized that we have our own religious fringe elements, people who say they are "Christians" and yet who tout a philosophy not unlike that of Assef. They might not be massacring people on Mainstreet, U.S.A., but they are communicating that philosophy politically through other means, and even, yes, with weapons.

Here are a few examples of how this idea of a "weaponized Christianity" is spreading, intentionally in some ways, unintentionally in other ways, yet no less creepy and insidious.

The war in Iraq has particularly brought out the militant in the Christianity fringe. We see evidence of this in stories about Blackwater, the military contractor that sent many people to Iraq to guard government personnel. The owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and his company have been under investigation for some time for illegally smuggling arms into Iraq and for killing Iraqi civilians. Now Prince is getting a closer look: A former employee of Blackwater and an ex-Marine who worked in security for the company have filed sworn statements in court against Prince and his company:

The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." (from "Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder," by Jeremy Scahill, in The Nation, posted August 4, 2009.)

According to one of these former Blackwater employees, Erik Prince deliberately hired men who

shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.

Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince's executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to "lay Hajiis out on cardboard." Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince's employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as "ragheads" or "hajiis."

Despite these allegations and previous investigations, Blackwater, which has been renamed Xe, continues to be hired by the Obama administration to provide security overseas. (See "U.S. Still Paying Blackwater Millions," Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, 7 August 2009.)

As Jeremy Scahill relates in an interview with Keith Olberman, one of these former employees of Blackwater was also in management in Blackwater, someone who would be intimately familiar with the culture of the company. He and the second Blackwater employee provided this startling information in "sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia." Jeremy Scahill has been researching the use of privatized armies for some time and has written a book based on his research.

These are not frivolous allegations, and their content unnervingly reflects an apocalyptic viewpoint expressed by other people in our government, including, evidently, former president George W. Bush. Jacques Chirac, president of France when the Bush administration was pushing invading Iraq, has revealed the language President Bush used to try to convince France to join the coalition:

"Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. ... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. ... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins." (from "Agog over Bush's Comments on Gog and Magog," Saturday Gazette-Mail, posted 22 July 2009, by James Haught--h/t to David Crisp; See also, Mitch Potter, "Did He Feel the Hand of God?: Apocalyptic fervor may have held sway in White House," Toronto Star, 29 May 2009, posted on TheSpec.com--h/t to Kevin Drum)

Evidently puzzled by this language President Jacques Chirac asked a theologian at the University of Lausanne to explain the strange references. Thomas Romer, the theologian, later "recounted Bush's strange behavior in Lausanne University's review, Allez Savoir." He explained to Chirac that the arcane references were to Biblical scripture from the books of Ezekial and Revelation. It's troubling to me, as it should be to all Americans, that our president may have been making decisions of war based on an interpretation of Biblical scripture that remains in great dispute among Christians.

Also evident in these stories is the racist attitudes expressed toward Muslims and citizens of Middle Eastern countries. People who incline toward racism in the first place are emboldened when their attitudes are supported, tacitly or explicitly, by their leaders. In his article for Harper's, "Jesus killed Mohammed: The crusade for a Christian military," Jeff Sharlet describes how a Special Forces unit in Samarra carried out their military mission: by openly denigrating the religion of the people they were there to "liberate." Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey and his squad of nine men were assigned to guard the 10th Special Forces Unit, who called themselves "the Faith Element." He recalls how the men that Easter Sunday were shown Mel Gibson's bloody re-telling of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Then the 109th National Guard Infantry rolled out to confront insurgents; they returned under fire from a furious crowd, and the compound remained underseige for the rest of the day.

Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey describes how the men in the compound prepared four Bradley Fighting Vehicles to run from the compound in order to draw enemy fire and how "his lieutenant, John D. DeGiulio," and a couple of sergeants were snickering because they had convinced their interpreter, an Iraqi from Texas, to paint in Farsi on the side of the vehicle: "Jesus Killed Mohammad." At dusk, this tank, along with the others, rolled into the streets of Samarra, a holy city of Iraq, with its militarized Christian message on its side and the Iraqi interpreter shouting from a bullhorn, "Jesus kill Mohammad, Jesus kill Mohammad," while local Iraqis were being called to evening prayers. Of course, the tank came under increasing fire, and its superior firepower exploded house after Iraqi house. Who was firing from those houses? Just insurgents? Or perhaps, also, Iraqi civilians angered by the lack of respect shown their religion?

"Humphrey heard Lieutenant DeGiulio reporting in from the Bradley’s cabin, opening up on all doorways that popped off a round, responding to rifle fire—each Iraqi household is allowed one gun—with 25mm shells powerful enough to smash straight through the front of a house and out the back wall."

According to Jeff Sharlet, a militarized version of Christianity permeates American armed forces. He cites example after example of highly-placed military leaders who view the United States' intervention in Iraq through apocalyptic lenses; they are holy warriors. How, then, do they--and we, if we do not work diligently to maintain our Constitutional ideal of separation of church and state--differ from the Assefs of the world?

Sources and Further Reading:

• James Haught, "Agog over Bush's Comments on Gog and Magog," Gazette-Mail, 22 July 2009.
  
  
• Mitch Potter, "Did He Feel the Hand of God?," Toronto Star, 29 May 2009, posted at TheSpec.com.
  
  
• Jeremy Scahill, "Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder," The Nation, 4th August 2009.
  
  
• Jeremy Scahill, "US Still Paying Blackwater Millions," The Nation, 7 August 2009.
  
  
• Jeff Sharlet, "Jesus Killed Mohammad: The Crusade for a Christian Military," Harper's, May 2009.
  
  
• Scott Horton, "Blackwater's Dark Secrets," No Comment, Harper's, posted 6 August 2009.
  
  
• Bill Moyers interviews Jeremy Scahill on PBS's Bill Moyer's Journal about the use of Blackwater mercenaries on U.S. Soil, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. See, also, Bill Moyers' website on PBS: Information about Blackwater and extended interview with Jeremy Scahill.
  
  
• David Antoon, "The Cancer from Within," Truthdig, posted 7 November 2007. (one man's experience and opinion)
  
  
• Eric Mandonnet, "Chirac, Bush et l'Apocalypse," L'Expresse.fr, published 26 February 2009. (h/t truthout.org).

The Church Channel

Tom is determined to get us off cable and onto free TeeVee. Several months ago he subscribed to Netflix for me, and for the past few weeks he has been trying to set up the equipment for accessing digital television sans cable. Like freedom (as they say), TeeVee ain't free; Tom has already spent $150 on a signal booster, a large antenna, and various tools to install the antenna. And the PBS channels still pixilize ever so often. So we haven't cut the cable yet. However, I've been surfing free TeeVee just to see what's available for us here in the huge metropolis of Atlanta: not much, folks. We receive the basic three networks, FOX, three or four variations of PBS, two or three Spanish language channels, the CW (apparently meant to appeal to women 18 years old to 34 years old), and several "Christian" channels.

And thus I discovered The Church Channel. My sixteen-year-old daughter was in the room while I listened to a little of the "news" on this channel, but she couldn't stand more than about five minutes of it. First she complained; then she left the room. A blond-haired, breathy-voiced woman was reading the headlines (cut out of a newspaper and enlarged for the screen) and then asking an older man named Jack what he thought of each headline. A couple of the headlines were about Gaza and Israel. One headline stated that some EU official blamed Palestinians for the Israeli attack on Gaza; another headline claimed that Jimmy Carter believed the Israelis were responsible. "Who do you agree with, Jack?" the breathy-voiced woman said, after reading the headlines slowly, carefully, as if she expected her viewers to be third-graders. "Well, I agree with the EU official," Jack (unsurprisingly) said. He quoted some verse in the Bible about Israel being God's country or something. And then ended with a praise the Lord and support Israel. A headline about the serious problems with drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals elicited from Jack a long recitation of "plagues" and the observation that such epidemics should make us happy that Jesus is coming soon.

That was it. Every headline was directed toward some version of the "End Times" or some simple-minded support of Israel. Now, there is equally vacuous material on secular television channels, but as a once firm (but evidently not firm enough) believer, I am more disgusted with the pablum on television that passes as Christian. Jeez.....what a long way from St. Augustine to the Church Channel.

Quiverfull of Kids

Hot on the heels of that news item about the Muslim man aspiring to father 100 children is this story in Salon about the Quiverfull movement: "All God's Children," by Kathryn Joyce. This is a fundamentalist Christian movement that encourages women to have as many children as they can, with little regard to the effects such prolific child-bearing might have on the women. Joyce also refers to a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention who claims that married couples who choose not to have children are going against God's will:

the Rev. Albert Mohler, Theological Seminary president of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, argued, for example, that deliberate childlessness was "moral rebellion" against God.

Rev. Mohler has two children, so I guess he doesn't think doing God's will means having a quiverfull of kids; perhaps just one kid meets the reverend's religious standards for married life.

I continue to encounter reminders that support the reasons I left the Southern Baptist church, the Christian denomination in which I was reared. And examples of how wacky religion can be.

Overpopulation? Several news items

This morning I watched a little bit of Good Morning America, which included a story about a man in Dubai who is aspiring to father 100 children. Of course, he has had more than one wife, seventeen, in fact. So far, the man has fathered 86 children, with two more on the way. He is a very religious Muslim and believes that in having a large family, he is doing God's will.

Later, I ran across an article about the effects of population explosion on the planet, which reminded me of a conversation I had with Tom this weekend as we were gardening. While we support organic gardening and local farmers, we realize that modern farming practices have made it much, much easier to feed the planet's population. I remember when population control was in the news in the late 1960s and early 1970s; people thought the burgeoning population would lead to apocalyptic crises. Well, those crises haven't occurred in wealthy countries such as the United States, but it's debatable whether or not other less wealthy parts of the world suffer from population growth. It's true that modern farm practices certainly enable us to feed more people than one could have once imagined.

Of course, there are problems with too many people on the planet. People gobble up natural habitat in their search for food and shelter--understandable, for one wants to live and to support one's family. But other species become extinct, fuel consumption goes up, millions of acres of land are denuded of trees, and greenhouse gases affect the health of the planet. I am certainly not for coercive population control, but I do think we each have individual responsibilities to make the world a better place. I'm not sure that having oodles of children is a way to do that. (Cue here the story of the mother who recently gave birth to octuplets.)While one man's goal to father 100 children isn't going to tip the balance, there would be a problem if many men sought to father 100 children, a problem not just for the planet but for women, too!

If such fecundity is God's will, perhaps he'll provide us with ways to deal with the consequences. And--just in time--NASA is launching the Kepler satellite, which will spend over three years looking for other planets that can support life. Our life, that is, human life. Other earths just waiting to satiate our ravenous appetites. Hmmmmm.......