Spiritual Hibernation And American Democracy

Duy Huynh

Daily newspapers report on politicians, presidents, ayatollahs who righteously and regularly proclaim that they lead their nations in accordance with the word of their God; we hear of martyrs who have died because they have refused to repudiate their beliefs, of revolutions, civil wars, holy wars — all waged by people who are willing to fight for the right to believe what they choose. They choose to believe in a God who has issued divine commands; how many honor His divine commands to safeguard the environment? How many instead behave as latter-day Peters, vociferously attesting to their belief in God but denying Him when the opportunity arises to protect the environment as holy writings mandate?”

— Jacques-Yves Cousteau,

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How convenient it was for me as a man to treat women’s rights as something inappropriate to address in a patriarchal religion. How easy it was for me as a white person to consider racism off limits. Without saying a word I was reinforcing my own cultural privilege and doing it in the name of religion.

It was a brilliant ploy for polluters to call environmentalism “partisan” as though any of us was being discriminated against if prevented from poisoning the rest of us. It was as clever as it was cruel for homophobic preachers to first block the LGBTQ community from rights…