This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Bioneers. Which is a nation wide conference that stems from California. There are satelite conferences that gather all over the US and are fed the morning lecture through internet links, after which they break into there own workshops and such.
"Bioneers is a nonprofit organization that promotes practical environmental solutions and innovative social strategies for restoring the Earth and communities. BIONEERS OFFERS PRAGMATIC SOLUTIONS THAT HONOR THE LIVING WEB of the natural world as the most fertile source of inspiration and models. Everyone and everything around you shares this web of life." (Source: Bioneers.org)
And yes, as some of you are guessing, there are a fair amount of "crazies" at these conferences. What you may not know is that these "crazies", while they may or may not be Christians and may or may not believe that George Bush is the worst thing that ever happened to our politics, they have a passion and concern for this earth unlike anything I have ever seen in Christian circles.
On Friday night I heard Mary Wood (Founding Director of the U of O Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program) explain how we can, and should, treat the environment like a financial Trust and how legally there is validity in using Trust laws when arguing conservation. It was very stilling and made me wonder if I was taking any responcibility for what is being done to the land that I live in.
Saturday was even better. Joseph McCormick is a nationally recognized player in the goal of getting our hyper polarized parties back to the same tables. He has a goal of the "people" organizing and drafting a document that 80%+ of the american people can agree on and then slamming it down on the desks of the politicians and making them listen. That is over simplified and dramatized, but he really effected me and I am still processing what I heard from him.
There is more but I think I'll stop there. In short, you should attend Bioneers if you ever get a chance. And if the closest city for you to attend is Eugene. I promise that Brielle and I will make some room for you in our Airstream. Pictures to come. No promised about Jackie though.
P.S. For those of you that asked "Yes, the picture from my last post was from a website that sells rubber snakes. Snakes that they stuggested could be used to practice religious snake handling. As depicted in the picture."
P.P.S. No one asked.
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1 comment:
I'm surprised that an organization concerned about the environment would have "Pragmatic" in their vision statement. Interesting. I hate that word because I cannot disassociate it from pragmatism. I think a Christian view of environmental stewardship would be extremely valuable. When the Word says "fill the earth and subdue it" It doesn't mean trash everything just because you can. We should focus on the fact that our actions are eternally significant. Many times evangelicals figure what we do to the earth doesn't matter because we're going to heaven when we die. but I think God gets pretty pissed when he sees how we misuse our resources.
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