I'd
been reading about it in our church bulletin for a couple of years; it'd always piqued my curiosity but I'd never pulled the trigger
on it. I finally decided to do just that and attended a meeting of
the “Care for God's Creation” ministry. As it's a group that
focuses largely on environmental concerns, I wasn't surprised that it
seems to be composed (as far as I can tell so far) of left-leaning
tree huggers. My people.
There
were eight or ten of us and the group seemed to be pleasantly
surprised that there were two new people including myself. The other
appeared to be a twenty-something college kid; I'm in my early
fifties.
The
two of us sat and listened, trying to get a handle on what this group
is all about. Several items were discussed including a St. Vincent
DePaul ministry clothing drive, ongoing fundraising activities for a
sister parish in Haiti and the then-upcoming “Dekalb Beloved
Community Dinner.”
The
latter is a monthly ecumenical thing that rotates among several
churches in our town. It's been going on for just the past two years
and was inspired by Martin Luther King. According
to the King
Center,
King’s Beloved Community “is a global vision, in which all people
can share in the wealth of the earth. Racism and all forms of
discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an
all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.”
Last night, I attended that for the first time as well.
It
was one of these deals where one is encouraged to bring a dish to
pass. I'd made a simple but awesome artichoke dip but unfortunately,
I was about an hour late, having misread the start time. As I
arrived, everyone was finishing up their dinner. Let's just say I
was somewhat tardy with my appetizer.
A
few minutes after I arrived, the entire group began talking about
the questions they'd been given an hour earlier to discuss amongst
themselves at their dinner tables. The main topic was the Trump
administration's immigration policy. Not surprisingly, most of this
group with peace, love and understanding as its compass seemed to be
politically liberal. What conservatives seem to have against those
things, I don't know, but it seems to be something.
The
questions as I can best remember them were:
How
diverse do you think Dekalb's population is?
Do
you know anyone who's personally impacted by Trump's new rules?
What
do you feel you can do to help?
The
more or less universal sympathies seemed to be that the races don't
mix as much as people would like, Trump's agenda is all wrong and
that it would be nice to get involved with the sizable Mexican
population of St. Mary's (the other Catholic church in town – my
own is Christ the Teacher University Parish, associated with Northern
Illinois University.)
My
understanding is that the local Muslim community is interested in
hosting an upcoming dinner, but that they're limited in the space in
which to accommodate it. With Herr Trump in office, it certainly
seems a good time to reach out to them. Hopefully it can happen
soon.
I
was at least partly inspired to attend the CFG'sC meeting by reading
Pope Francis' papal encyclical on the environment, On
Care for our Common Home.
Mystifyingly, many Christian churches – especially evangelical
ones – seem to be disinterested or openly hostile to environmental
concerns. Given that God graced us with (just one) earth to dwell
upon, I have a hard time fathoming how they seem to think that
treating it like an open sewer is consistent with his will.
Details
aside, in
OCFOCH,
the pope doesn't say anything I didn't already know but the details
are pretty extraordinary. It's actually kind
of sciency. It was refreshing to see a Christian leader talk
common sense about the environment and cast the problems therein in
the light of mankind's
sins against God,
which is precisely what's going on. To all but the wicked and
stupid, the severe degradation of the environment is obvious
and must be
countered.
I
hope to do my small part in assisting that effort, as well as helping
with the whole “peace, love and understanding” thing by becoming
part of Dekalb's Beloved Community.
