Rescuing God's Creation

Highlights of Restoring Eden’s annual activist week in Washington DC

Two weeks ago fifteen students came to Washington DC to partner with the Appalachian Coalition in our annual Rescuing God’s Creation citizen’s lobby week. They walked around Chinatown at night and slept on the floor at the Washington Community Fellowship. During the three day event, they also made nearly 50 visits to the offices of the Congress. The students were advocating for HB 1310 – The Clean Water Protection Act that would re-instate the original language and intent of the Clean Water Act following a Bush administration ruling that millions of tons of mountain top soil, removed for coal extraction, is not waste and can be deposited on pristine mountain streams. Almost 2,000 miles of streams have already been lost causing irreparable damage to the mountains, massive flooding and pollution of the aquifer.

The Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) is necessary to protect clean drinking water for many of our nation’s cities. It is also necessary to protect the quality of life for Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding and pollution or loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal.

From the east coast, to the west coast, to the states where it’s taking place, Americans want an end to mountaintop removal coal mining. On May 4, 2007, the Clean Water Protection Act was introduced in to the 110th Congress with 55 original co-sponsors. Because Representatives from around the country received thousands of letters from people like you, it ended last session with a record 153 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Building on that momentum, and with a friendlier administration and Congress, we have a real chance to pass the Clean Water Protection Act in the 111th Congress. On March 4th 2009, Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ), Congressman John Yarmuth (KY), and Congressman Dave Reichert (WA) introduced H.R. 1310 with 117 original co-sponsors in the 111th Congress; that’s more than twice what it had at the beginning of last session!

Restoring Eden saw immediate results for our efforts as the number of co-sponsors for the HB 1310 rose from 115 to 141 in only a few weeks in committee. The bill was co-sponsored by conservative Christian Republican congressperson, Dave Reichert of Bellevue, WA. A Senate version of the bill is being worked up. Folks are optimistic. To learn more visit www.ilovemountains.org

Why Engage Political Structures?

Background: Restoring Eden does a lot of our work on nature appreciation and environmental stewardship lifestyle choices but also in conversations about the collective and common good.

For example, energy choices start at the personal level – what light-bulbs do I purchase? do I leave the lights on when I leave the room? – but it also is how does my community generate and regulate energy? What infrastructure do we invest in? Do we build coal plants? Nuclear? Renewable? Light rail? Green space?

As such, social justice issues are seldom solved simply by individual choices alone but by society-wide transformational shifts. The question then becomes “what is the role of collective and common good in creating a just society? Is there room for good government and public policy in the Kingdom? What is the responsibility of individual Christians in a free democratic society to speak out for the voiceless and the powerless?”

This is what we mean by transforming the individual and transforming/redeeming the social structures. This is not an attempt to promote a specific political agenda, but to rethink some of the Reagan-era assumptions that government is inherently flawed, free markets inherently wise, tax cuts are more important than building infrastructure? It is time to at least reexamine these assumptions.

For Restoring Eden, political engagement is not a negative outcome. Instead, we see civic engagement as a privilege of living in a free nation and a responsibility of citizenship. We are nonpartisan, never get involved in campaigning, but we do believe that righteousness can also be re-enforced by common good and collective action.

During Rescuing God’s Creation, Restoring Eden spends three to six days per year teaching students how the political process works, how bills get introduced to Congress, how civic engagement makes a difference. Then they get to meet with congressional aides and Senate staff, especially with practicing Christians, to discuss how faith and public policy overlap.  Lastly, they then set appointments and meet with congressional offices.

While Restoring Eden encourages civic engagement as an active (even essential) expression of faith, it is never a threshold for engagement nor litmus test for spirituality. We do strive, however, to model whole life discipleship that includes right relationship with individual, community and collective engagement as expressions of the Gospel.