The Trump administration recently weakened provisions of the Clean Water Act on the grounds that they place onerous burdens on individuals and business. In February President Trump signed a resolution rescinding the Stream Protection Rule, intended to prevent or minimize impacts to surface water and groundwater from coal mining, a rule that had passed both houses of Congress. How might a religious person, and particularly a Christian, approach this issue?
A Story of a Gift
Imagine for a moment that someone very special to you has given you a small sculpture that they lovingly crafted with all their heart and wanted you to take along with you. They told you that in some mysterious way they are present in it and long to speak to you through it. This way, no matter where you are they will be able to speak to you through it. How would you react to such a wonderful gift? I would wager that you would revere the sculpture because it would be precious to you.
All major world religions view creation with versions of this story.[1] The Christian take on the story is that God joined Godself with creation, becoming “flesh” (John 1:14). The word we usually translate as “flesh,” sarx, probably is better translated as “stuff.”[2] In other words, God become “stuff,” joining Godself to all matter and energy, the stuff of creation. And, as if this wasn’t enough, God then poured out God’s Spirit, God’s self, on “all flesh” as had been prophesied centuries before, making God present and active in all things (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17).
Why did God do such an outlandish thing? According to the Gospel of John (3:16) God did this because God loved the “world” intensely. Of course, the world includes pretty much anything we can think of. In fact, the Greek word we translate as “world” really is cosmos, which is even more encompassing.
So, God dearly loves all things and speaks out to us through them. This understanding goes far back in Chritianity’s history. St. Irenaeus of Lyons (129-203) stated,
For even creation reveals Him who formed it, and the very work made suggests Him Who made it, and the world manifests Him Who ordered it. The Universal Church, moreover, through the whole world, has received this understanding from the Apostles themselves.
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the great reformer, agreed saying,
God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
St. John Damascene (675 ‑ 749) that as a Christian,
I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God.
The Stream Protection Rule and Life Support
So, back to the Stream Protection Rule, which restricts coal companies’ ability to dump dirt, rocks and other debris into streams when they remove the tops of mountains in order to get to the underlying coal seam. From a religious perspective allowing companies to do this resembles taking the sculpture in the story above and breaking it into pieces to use for a retaining wall. It’s blasphemous.
What about the argument that mining companies need to do this in order to provide jobs for locals? With the mechanization of mining and decline in demand for coal mining these jobs have been falling for years. Moreover, when I visited West Virginia for a first-hand look at mountaintop removal, I learned that, at least there, the mining companies brought in their own crews to do the work, hiring few locals.
The repeal of the Stream Protection Rule resembles putting a patient dying of a terminal illness on life support. Imagine entering a room of such a patient, only to find out that the life support system functioned by forcibly taking or shortening others’ lives. Would we welcome such assistance or rather urge the hospital staff instead to put the patient under hospice care where the patient would receive compassionate care and pain management?
I hope we all would be appalled at such a life support system. Allowing mining companies to dump debris into creeks hoping to extend the life of the coal industry is exactly that. It kills and poisons streams, aquatic organisms, trees, animals…and people who live in the area, many of whom don’t work as miners. Mountaintop removal divides families and communities and closes the door on the future.
We citizens of the United States have a poor track record of caring for people affected by changes in our economic and social systems, whether they be people we once regarded as productive assets to be bought and sold, former tobacco farmers, textile workers whose mills left, or older workers whose skills have become obsolete. We face this problem once more with coal miners who have often given their lives that we might have the luxury of abundant electricity. Can’t we do better than putting them on life support? If not, what does this tell us about ourselves? Certainly we are better than that.
[1] For more on how various religions view the sacred in nature see Krueger, Frederick W., ed. The Sacred in Nature: The World’s Inspired Writings on Religious Responsibility for Earth. 2017; McDonald, Barry, ed. Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2003.
[2] Christopher Bryan, Professor Emeritus of New Testament, The School of Theology, The University of the South. Personal communication.