Patricia K. Townsend, Ph. D.
Environmental Fellow of the
Society for Applied Anthropology
Draft--Comments invited to pkt@acsu.buffalo.edu
May 27, 2000
This bibliography is not intended to be exhaustive. It does not attempt
to include all of the large literature on environmental justice or another
large body of literature on creation theology and the stewardship of creation.
From those topics I have sampled only a few representative works of particular
relevance to my concern with faith-based groups and hazardous waste sites.
Many of these references do not deal directly with Superfund sites, although
all contribute something to understanding the conditions under which faith-based
groups minister to Superfund communities.
Arp, W. and K. Boeckelman (1997). “Religiosity: a source of Black environmentalism
and empowerment?” Journal of Black Studies 28(2): 255-268.
This study examines the environmental activism of respondents
to door-to-door personal interviews in the industrial corridor between
New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Communal environmental activism
(writing letter, signing petition, attending a hearing, etc.) was correlated
with church attendance for blacks but not for whites, Income was also positively
correlated with environmental activism for blacks.
Ball, J. G. (1997). Evangelical Protestants, the ecological crisis and
public theology, Ph. Dissertation, Drew University.
The author is Executive Director of the Evangelical Environmental
Network, the evangelical participant in the National Religious Partnership
for the Environment (NRPE) along with Reform Jewish, Roman Catholic, and
Mainline (NCC) streams. He earlier worked for the Union of Concerned Scientists
on climate change. He is ordained as an American Baptist minister. His
concept of public theology is particularly helpful. His dissertation reviews
Evangelical Protestant literature from 1970 through 1995 as it relates
to the ecological crisis. He proposes that a public theology to enable
constructive involvement of Evangelicals in environmental policy-making
needs to be based on their relationship to Christ and that of Christ to
the cosmos (Colossians 1:15-20). Changes in individual consumption are
insufficient since the problems are systemic.
Beaulieu, D. (n.d.). “It's easy being green: Six ways your parish can
help save the earth.” Salt of the Earth, reprinted as http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/envir/beaulieu.html.
Practical suggestions for Catholic parishes to be involved in
environmental issues, giving case studies of parishes, including
some who worked to defeat legislation weakening a state superfund law as
well as others encouraging lifestyle changes. Tone is cautious, stressing
that "stewardship" is less threatening than the more radical term "environmentalism."
Bhagat, S. P. (1990). Creation in crisis : responding to God's covenant.
Elgin, IL, Brethren Press.
The author is staff person for Eco-Justice and Rural Concerns
of the Church of the Brethren. Because he holds degrees in agriculture
and agronomy in addition to being an ordained minister, one might expect
neglect of urban issues, but on the contrary, this statement gives explicit
attention to hazardous wastes. He discusses Woburn, Massachusetts, at length
as a model for church involvement in the eco-justice arena. There
the Reverend Bruce Young, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, ministering
to parishioners whose children died from leukemia, joined with them
to organize FACE (For a Cleaner Environment), and testified in the Senate
hearings that led to the passage of CERCLA in 1980.
Brown, P. (1993). “Popular epidemiology challenges the system.” Environment
35(8): 16-31.
The events in Woburn, Massachusetts, are analyzed as a case study
of the phases through which laypeople go in detecting and acting on environmental
hazards and diseases. The author, a sociologist, develops the concept of
"popular epidemiology," a concept of great utility for work with Superfund
sites. The differences between popular epidemiology and traditional epidemiology
are not those between shoddy and respectable science, indeed they may reach
the same conclusions through very similar methods. Popular epidemiology
emphasizes social structural factors in the chain of causes, and challenges
some basic assumptions of public health, including the level of statistical
significance needed to take action to protect public health. While the
Woburn example began with the lay investigation of a childhood cancer cluster,
it eventually led into several other studies that suggested other health
effects from exposure to contaminated water. The author takes a positive
view of popular epidemiology both for its potential in educating the public
and for its potential as a corrective to institutionalized science that
is too ready to defend the status quo.
Brueggemann, W. (1997). Theology of the Old Testament : testimony, dispute,
advocacy. Minneapolis, Fortress Press.
One of the few theologians to deal explicitly with toxic wastes
and nuclear wastes, Brueggeman considers them to be the modern analogue
of the disorder that is addressed in Leviticus. In Leviticus, childbirth,
bodily discharges, corpses, and food are the sources of pollution that
require ritual regulation. The specific threats to order may be different
at different times in history, but the holiness tradition is still meaningful
as a way of dealing with them, he claims. In this line of thinking Brueggemann
is influenced by anthropologist Mary Douglas.
Bullard, R. D. (2000). Dumping in Dixie : race, class, and environmental
quality. Boulder, Westview Press.
Sociologist Robert D. Bullard is both activist and analyst
of the environmental justice movement. His book has gone into a third edition,
with updated references to organizations and contacts throughout the South.
In his 5 case studies of environmental justice movements, membership in
voluntary associations was concentrated in the black church, which he regards
as an institution important in mobilizing opposition to environmental injustice.
Church membership was highest in Emelle (Alabama), Alsen(Louisiana), and
Northwood Manor (Houston)-- all above 80%. It was lower in West Dallas
(68.3%) and Institute (West Virginia) (49.5%)
Capek, S. M. (1993). “The "environmental justice" frame: a conceptual
discussion and an application.” Social Problems 40(1): 5-24.
The Carver Terrace neighborhood of Texarkanas, Texas, was constructed
on a creosote-contaminated site that was named to the NPL in 1984 as the
Koppers Texarkansas Superfund Site. Through legal action, the African
American residents won some out-of-court settlements, but through continuing
protest they eventually won buyouts and relocation. The author, a
sociologist specializing in social movements, discusses the role of national
groups in helping residents to frame the issue as one of environmental
justice. The Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church was significant as
one of the chemical "hot spots," the location of the 1989 environmental
justice conference that brought in national activists. It was the home
church of Jeter Steger, head deacon, whose 1987 suit for severe health
problems had provided the test case that disillusioned residents about
getting a hearing through the legal system.
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (n.d.). To till and to
tend: A guide to Jewish environmental study and action. New York, Coalition
on the Environment and Jewish Life.
This resource for synagogues contains fact sheets on environmental
problems, theological essays, resources, and references. The largest section
is a series of activities for different age groups ranging from advocacy
to direct action, education, and rituals. The explicit treatment of environmental
justice, toxic pollution and hazardous wastes (pp. 15-20) is unusual, compared
with comparable packets from the Christian denominational bodies, in its
emphasis on pollution in the Soviet Union and Israel, rather than the United
States.
Devall, B. (1992). Deep ecology and radical environmentalism. American
environmentalism: The U. S. environmental movement, 1970-1990. R. E. Dunlap
and A. G. Mertig. Philadelphia, Taylor & Francis: 51-62.
While Devall comes just short of calling deep ecology a religion,
preferring to speak of "philosophy," he traces relationships between deep
ecology and radical environmental movements that parallel the public theologies
constructed by other religions that foster their public environmental actions.
If for no other reason, this topic needs to be explored in order to appreciate
the fear of evangelicals, in particular, that their environmental concern
will be interpreted as support for the position of deep ecology, with its
rejection of anthropocentrism.
Dewitt, C. B. (1998). Caring for creation: responsible stewardship of
God's handiwork. Washington, DC, Center for Public Justice (and Baker Books).
DeWitt is professor at the University of Wisconsin and Director
of the Au Sable Institute in Michigan. He is a leader of the evangelical
involvement in environmentalism, mobilizing support from the Evangelical
community for the Endangered Species Act in 1995 and 1996, the first occasion
on which evangelicals united to play a conspicuous role in seeking to influence
public policy on an environmental issue. While he does not deal at length
with toxics, as a biologist he emphasizes that living beings have no previous
experience of the synthetic chemicals. Of DeWitt's many publications on
the topic of environmental stewardship, this published lecture is a good
introduction that reveals some distinctive elements of an evangelical approach,
such as the focus on Jesus Christ. His discussants, while supportive,
raise the main objections anticipated in the conservative, evangelical
community, including protecting rights to private property and exercising
caution about coalitions with radical environmentalists who may regard
animals as more important than humans.
DiPerna, P. (1985). Cluster mystery : epidemic and the children of Woburn,
Mass. St. Louis, C.V. Mosby.
Detailed account of the Woburn, Massachusetts, cluster of childhood
cancer, by an investigative journalist. Gives prominence to the organizing
role of the Rev. Bruce Young, minister of Trinity Episcopal Church, together
with his parishioners whose children died, after his initial skepticism
that contaminated well water could be causing the illness. Their
testimony was signficant in the Senate passage of the Superfund Act.
Eckberg, D. L. (1996). “Christianity, environmentalism, and the theoretical
problem of fundamentalism.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
35(4): 343-355.
Included here as representative of a literature using survey
research methods to relate religion and environmental attitudes in the
U. S. Review of this literature suggests contradictory and confusing
findings from studies with methodological differences and problems.
Authors point out that fundamentalism's hostility to environmentalism may
stem not from religious beliefs but from politicization of the issues and
the linkage of "green" positions with religious liberalism.
Edelstein, M. R. (1988). Contaminated communities : the social and psychological
impacts of residential toxic exposure. Boulder, Westview Press.
Primarily deals with Legler, New Jersey, whose 150 families were
notified in 1978-9 that their water was polluted by organic chemicals but
also considers other communities in order to generalize about the social
and psychological aspects of toxic contamination. Faith -based organizations
are not discussed, but the author notes (p. 92) the importance of personal
religious belief as "an important palliative coping tool" in Legler and
every other contaminated community he has observed (cf. Kroll-Smith and
Crouch).
Fouke, C. (1998). Women gather for unique national environmental training,
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
A press release archived at www.wfn.org and several denominational
sources reports on a conference for 50 women held in Columbia, Mississippi,
April 30-May 30, 1998. The event brought together environmental justice
advocates from ten denominations and secular non-profits. It was sponsored
by the Eco-Justice working group of the NCC. Columbia was chosen
because of the Superfund site (Reichhold Chemical plant) and the host was
the local group, Jesus People Against Pollution. The primary site for training
was the Mississippi Rural Center of the United Methodist church.
Fowler, R. B. (1995). The greening of Protestant thought. Chapel Hill,
University of North Carolina Press.
Reviews the emergence of a broad consensus in support of environmental
action in American Protestant thinking between 1970 and 1990. While there
is diversity on specifics of theology, there is remarkable agreement between
theological liberals and evangelicals and between elites, institutions,
and the wider membership on the existence of an ecological crisis and the
Christian responsibility to care for creation. This development has
been largely ignored by secular environmentalists, though there are some
signs that this is changing. Gives no specific attention to hazardous
waste, though he briefly (pp. 165-167) expresses some surprise at the wide
and unquestioning acceptance among green Protestants of the assumption
that government regulation is a major means by which environmental change
may be achieved.
Freeze, R. A. (2000). The environmental pendulum : a quest for the truth
about toxic chemicals, human health, and environmental protection. Berkeley,
University of California Press.
That rare phenomenon, an engineer who can write engaging prose,
Freeze has been a consultant hydrologist at numerous Superfund sites
(as well as comparable sites in Canada). While this annotated bibliography
is not concerned with the engineering aspects of remediation, I include
this the most helpful and current of the reading I did to orient myself
to technical matters. The author's use of anecdotes about sites he
has worked on and his "good news/bad news" approach to the trade-offs involved
in remediation make for a readable account that can be recommended to social
scientists and activists.
Goldman, B. and L. Fitton (1997). Toxics waste and race revisited. Washington,
D. C., Center for Policy Alternatives, NAACP, and UCC Commission for Racial
Justice.
This study updates the landmark 1987 UCC study, Toxic wastes
and race in the United States. The study focuses on 530 commercial toxic
waste sites. It uses U. S. Census data on racial and socioeconomic
characteristics of communities (by ZIP codes). The racial disparity
was statistically significant in 1980 and in 1993 and has increased during
that period. The socioeconomic disparities between communities
with and without toxic waste sites are not as pronounced as the racial
disparities. (It should be noted that there is a large literature concerning
methodological questions about how best to measure environmental injustice
that is not covered in this annotated bibliography.)
Gore, A. (1992). Earth in the balance: ecology and the human spirit.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.
In his book (then) Senator Gore is clear about the Christian
roots of his environmentalism. He is a seminary dropout (Vanderbilt)
who remains active as a Protestant layman. He played a prominent role in
Congressional hearings on Superfund legislation and subsequently, as Vice-President,
in legitimating the environmental justice movement .
Granberg-Michaelson, W. (1984). A worldly spirituality : the call to
redeem life on earth. San Francisco, Harper & Row.
A noted evangelical spokesperson on ecological theology, Granberg-Michaelson
is currently denominational executive of the Reformed Church in America,
after serving on the staff of the World Council of Churches. He wrote this
book and several others in the same vein, calling the church to assume
responsibility for environmental protection, during the years he spent
on the journalism faculty at the University of Montana. He directed the
New Creation Institute in Missoula, a non-profit group eventually subsumed
in the AuSable Trails Environmental Institute in Michigan. Prior
to moving to Montana he had been chief legislative assistant to Senator
Mark Hatfield.
Hall, C. F. (1997). “The Christian Left: Who are they and how are they
different from the Christian Right?” Review of Religious Research 39(1):
27-45.
This study surveyed opinions on social issues among a sample
of members of organizations selected selected on the basis of their typical
concern with liberal or conservative issues to represent a the Christian
Left (Sojourners, Bread for the World, Evangelicals for Social Action,
and Justlife) and others to represent the Christian Right (Focus on the
Family, Prison Fellowship, Americans for the Republic, and Concerned Women
for America). Except for a shared opposition to abortion, members supported
two distinct ideological packages with respect to issues such as poverty,
women's rights, homosexuality, and sex education in the schools. Of interest
to this project, not surprisingly, the Christian Left is significantly
more likely than the Right to support the position that "more environmental
protection is needed." Both groups are high in religious commitment
and they are demographically similar to a remarkable degree (income, age,
gender, education, occupation).
Hessel, D. T. (1996). Where were/are the U. S. churches in the environmental
movement? Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide. D. T. Hessel. Maryknoll,
New York, Orbis Books: 199-207.
For many years the author was within the denominational bureaucracy
of the Presbyterian Church USA from where he provided leadership in denominational
social justice initiatives, including those of eco-justice. Subsequently,
he has led efforts to make ecojustice part of the curriculum in theological
institutions. He reviews mainline, ecumenical involvement with environmentalism
as falling into five phases since the 1960s: 1) awakening to ecotheology
and ecoethics, 2) sustainable food systems, 3) energy issues (from 1974),
4) fostering the environmental justice movement (from 1987) 5) leadership
development for eco-justice (including the work of the National Religious
Partnership for the Environment in the 1990s). He sees religious involvement
in environmentalism as still being quite anthropocentric, and is perplexed
by the failure of the churches to formalize institutions around environmental
concerns to the same extent as other concerns (e.g. peace) in the same
period.
Hoffmann, M., Ed. (1987). Earthcare: lessons from Love Canal--a resouce
& response guide. Niagara Falls, Ecumenical Task Force of the Niagara
Frontier.
Largely devoted to a 15 step guide to organizing an inter-faith
response to hazardous waste problems, based on a decade of work at Love
Canal and holding workshops at other locations. Some inspirational essays
on "What we learned," from several people in the religious community involved
at Love Canal. Now primarily of historical interest, but a forerunner
of works such as the National Council of Churches 1999 manual.
Jackson, B. P. and R. D. Bullard (1998). From plantations to plants:
Report of the emergency national commission on environmental and economic
justice in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Cleveland, Ohio, United Church
of Christ, Commission for Racial Justice. 2000.
This Commission was established at the request of the St. James
Citizens for Jobs and the Environment, a grassroots organization formed
to stop the siting of a Shintech polyvinyl chloride plant in an area already
heavily impacted by chemical companies. The report is concerned not only
with stopping a single plant siting but more broadly with development issues
in the Lower Mississippi Industrial Corridor. The United Church of Christ
Commission for Racial Justice continues to play a leading role in environmental
justice, as indicated by its publication of this report. However, in the
decade separating its 1987 report from this one, the long list of co-sponsoring
organizations indicates the amount of organization- and coalition-building
that has gone on in the area of environmental justice. The coalition
that produced this work included leading members of national church, labor,
and environmental organizations and provides some sense of what resources
can now be mobilized by a grassroots group with a compelling cause.
Johnson, G. S. (1996). Toxins! Tocsin: The North Hollywood Dump in Memphis,
Tennessee: a community's struggle against environmental racism. Ph. D.
Dissertation in Sociology. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The author conducted 50 face-to-face open-ended interviews over
a period of nine months with key informants concerning the North Hollywood
Dump Superfund site. At the time of the research the dump was no longer
much in the news as remediation was nearing completion. Indeed most
controversy over the site ended in 1984, a decade earlier. About one-third
of those interviewed were residents of the Hollywood community, others
were politicians, officials, and professionals living elsewhere in Memphis.
The dissertation presents these as anonymous "voices" with liberal direct
quotations from recorded interviews. The author concludes that there was
little organized response (including that from religious organizations)
by the community to the toxic waste but much anger at environmental racism
and lack of community participation in environmental decision-making.
Several respondents are noted to be active church members or ministers.
Johnson, T. (1998). “The second creation story: redefining the bond
between religion and ecology.” Sierra(Nov/Dec).
This keynote article and related articles in the same issue are
a landmark in mainstream environmental organization publications on the
forming of coalitions with faith-based groups. It opens with a prayer offered
by an African-American minister on a "toxic tour" of the New Orleans-Baton
Rouge corridor organized by the National Council of Churches of Christ.
Kaza, S. and K. Kraft, Eds. (2000). Dharma rain: sources of Buddhist
environmentalism. Boston, Shambhala.
An anthology of writings on Buddhist environmentalism by both
Asian and American writers. The work of poet Gary Snyder and Joanna Macy
is especially well represented. While not directly concerned with
toxic waste, this volume is included as a reminder of the fact that Buddhist
thought has been more influential among American environmentalists than
the mere distribution of practicing Buddhists would suggest. Also, not
yet explored to any great extent are environmental justice issues in relation
to recent Southeast Asian immigrants to the United States.
Ketcham, J. (1999). The "silent" disaster: People of faith respond to
technological disasters, National Council of Churches of Christ in the
USA, Resource Unit on Technological Disasters; Church World Service, Emergency
Response Program.
Educational piece prepared the NCCC for congregations faced with
human-caused disasters, whether acute or chronic. These are defined to
include impoundment failures (such as leaking dumpsites), transportation
and handling accidents, and "sick" buildings. The centerpiece is detailed
advice on how to organize a faith-based task force for action in response
to such disasters. The study resource includes scriptural references,
a primer of terminology related to toxic substances and a summary of relevant
legislation. Extensive resources referenced include books for adults
and children, web sites, and names, addresses, and phone numbers for both
government (USEPA Regional Offices) and denominational/ecumenical contacts
as of press time (6/99).
Kroll-Smith, J. S. and S. R. Couch (1987). “A chronic technical disaster
and the irrelevance of religious meaning: The case of Centralia, Pennsylvania.”
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 26(1): 25-37.
The underground coal mine fire that has slowly destroyed the
community of Centralia, Pennsylvania, is described as a chronic technical
disaster. Unlike natural disasters, this type of disaster does not evoke
religious definition of the problem or the assignment of religious meaning
to the suffering caused by the event. Because the disaster was caused by
humans and technical intervention by humans was seen as the solution, residents
saw their religious culture as irrelevant. Parishioners did not desire
that clergy have more than minimal involvement.
Kroll-Smith, J. S. and S. R. Couch (1990). The real disaster is above
ground : a mine fire & social conflict. Lexington, Ky., University
Press of Kentucky.
Though dealing with a mine fire rather than a hazardous waste
site, this long term study by two sociologists is an model for case studies
dealing with chronic technological disasters and the destructive community
conflict they may produce. A series of seven different grassroots
groups was organized over three years, each with different goals and strategies.
A minor point of relevance to Superfund sites is their description of how
a grant from a religious denomination to one of these citizens' groups
exacerbated the conflict. The granting organization has also made grants
to Superfund communities.
Levine, A. (1982). Love Canal : science, politics, and people. Lexington,
Mass., Lexington Books.
The author, a sociology professor at the State University of
New York at Buffalo, engaged in two years of participant observation and
interviewing in the Love Canal neighborhoods with several graduate
students from August 1978, when the crisis was first seen on local television
broadcasts. This is the classic study of grassroots organization
around a Superfund site in its most intense and stressful stage for
local residents. The author subsequently was consulted by those seeking
to study other sites (e.g. the Johns Hopkins group designing a health study
for the North Hollywood Dump neighborhood in Memphis). Regarding
the involvement of interfaith organizations, she perceives the Ecumenical
Task Force as late on the scene but professionally-led in their involvement
and capable of filling useful, but slightly different, role than
that of neighborhood residents .
Lowry, S. and D. Swartz (1999). Spirituality Outreach Guide: A guide
for environmental groups working with faith-based organizations. Madison,
Wisconsin, The Biodiversity Project.
This guide was developed primarily for secular environmental
organizations to assist them in developing communication and coalitions
with faith-based groups, mostly Jewish and Christian groups. The stated
rationale for such coalition building is that religious traditions have
already been present in conservation concerns, providing language for talking
about the value of biodiversity that transcends strictly utilitarian arguments,
that policy makers are likely to listen to the voice of the religious community
(more than to the stereotypical environmentalist), and that a large
segment of the general public links environmental values to spirituality.
The guide is not likely to be fully satisfying to anyone, but it does helpfully
warn of pitfalls. It gives a current list of contacts with environmental
offices of faith-based organizations including many web-sites (but note
that many of the organizations listed have web-sites that are not listed
here--so use of a search engine is recommended).
Miller-Travis, V. (2000). Social transformation through environmental
justice. Christianity and ecology: seeking the well-being of earth and
humans. D. Hessel and R. R. Ruether. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard
University Press: 559-572.
The author has been engaged with toxic waste and environmental
justice issues since 1986 when she was hired as principal research assistant
on the UCC Commission for Racial Justice project on toxic injustice
(see also UCC 1987 in this bibliography). She reflects informally on her
experiences, including the struggle of her own West Harlem neighbors against
noxious effects of a sewage plant.
Oelschlaeger, M. (1994). Caring for creation : an ecumenical approach
to the environmental crisis. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Of the many works on the Judeo-Christian theology and the environment,
this one is perhaps the broadest and boldest. Broadest, in that Oelschlager's
ecumenical approach encompasses all branches of Christianity and Judaism;
boldest, in the suggestion that only the power of sacred story, freshly
interpreted, is sufficient for the cultural and policy changes needed to
address the ecological crisis. This is so because science, even conservation
ecology, is permeated by the utilitarian individualism that is also the
cause of the crisis.
Pulido, L. (1996). Environmentalism and economic justice : two Chicano
struggles in the Southwest. Tucson, University of Arizona Press.
While dealing with grazing and farm-worker exposure to pesticides
rather than with a Superfund site per se, Pulido's book is useful for its
attention to the importance of religious symbols in Hispanic Catholic communities.
Regan, R. and M. Legerton (1990). Economic slavery or hazardous wastes?
Robeson County's economic menu. Communities in economic crisis : Appalachia
and the South. J. Gaventa, B. E. Smith and A. W. Willingham. Philadelphia,
Temple University Press: 146-157.
The authors are a Native American Baptist minister and a UCC
minister who is Executive Director of the Center for Community Action (formerly
Clergy and Laity Concerned) in Lumberton NC. They discuss the CCA's
organizing efforts against a proposed GSX hazardous waste treatment facility
rather than a Superfund site. Excellent coverage of the different
types of activities that involved of churches, including Lumbee Indian
churches.
Reko, H. K. (1984). Not an act of God: the story of Times Beach. St.
Louis, Lutheran Family and Children's Services.
The Ecumenical Dioxin Task Force that was formed in 1983 to assist
residents in the Times Beach, Missouri, crisis drew explicitly on the model
of the Ecumenical Task Force at Love Canal, employing paid staff to provide
pastoral care and advocacy for the victims of toxic pollution. Funding
came from a dozen denominations and ecumenical agencies. Reko was the Lutheran
pastor who was employed part-time on the staff. He discusses the
role that the Task Force played in relation to residents and agencies,
acknowledging that part of their role was to absorb some of the anger created
by inappropriate or conflicting government policies. Events sponsored by
the Task Force including a Christmas in July, for those who had missed
Christmas due to flooding, and a memorial service, for those grieving the
loss of their community. The Times Beach site became one of the initial
group of Superfund sites and residents were relocated.
Schwab, J. (1994). Deeper shades of green : the rise of blue-collar
and minority environmentalism in America. San Francisco, Sierra Club Books.
Eight case studies of blue-collar and minority environmental
activism, mostly against siting new hazardous waste facilities. Unusual
among journalistic accounts in not being blind to church involvement, e.g.
of Rev. Adolph Coleman in Robbins, Illinois. The author attended some ecumenical
conferences and interviewed church folks. Also judging from his list of
sources, he may have links to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Shibley, M. A. and J. L. Wiggins (1997). “The Greening of Mainline American
Religion: A sociological analysis of the environmental ethics of the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment.” Social Compass 44(3): 333-348.
The first article in a planned research project to follow the
new environmental activism of the mainline religious denominations in the
United States in the 1990s, beginning with the formation in 1993 of the
National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a coalition involving
Catholics, Jews, and liberal and conservative Protestants. The NRPE was
initially a 3-year $4.5 million project for the "greening" of 53,000 congregations.
This paper analyzes the publication packets made available to congregations
for education and suggested actions. Of the three underlying religiously-based
environmental ethics (see Kearns), all emphasize the stewardship ethic
to some extent (Jewish and evangelical materials almost exclusively so),
and only the National Council of Churches materials make eco-justice
the principal ethic. None fully embrace creation spirituality, and most
refute it to a varying extent.
Somplatsky-Jarman, W., W. E. Grazer, et al. (2000). Partnership for
the environment among U. S. Christians: Reports from the National Religious
Partnership for the Environment. Christianity and ecology: seeking the
well-being of earth and humans. D. Hessel and R. R. Ruether. Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Harvard University Press: 573-590.
Report on the current state of inter-faith collaboration on environmental
issues through the NRPE from three of its four participant groups: Mainline,
Catholic, and Evangelical Christians (the fourth, Judaism, was not represented
because the conference was on Christianity and Ecology).
Szasz, A. (1994). Ecopopulism : toxic waste and the movement for environmental
justice. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Szasz's analysis of the formation of political icons and television's
iconography of hazardous waste is essential to research on this topic.
He is also notable among social scientists for not editing out evidence
of religious participation and motivation in leaders of grassroots organizations,
e.g. p.92 Sue Greer's comment about praying before getting involved with
landfill issues in her community of Wheeler, Indiana.
Tinker, G. E. (1996). EcoJustice and justice: an American Indian perspective.
Theology for Earth community : a field guide. D. T. Hessel. Maryknoll,
N.Y., Orbis Books: 176-185.
Tinker's contribution is one of the papers presented at the October
1994 conference on "Theology for Earth Community" held at Union and Auburn
Seminaries in New York. He includes ecojustice concerns of North and South
American Indians, with primary emphasis on ecologically devastating extraction
of mineral and petroleum resources on indigenous lands. The author is a
professor at Iliff School of Theology (UCC).
United Church of Christ, C. f. R. J. (1987). Toxic wastes and race in
the United States. New York, Commission for Racial Justice, United Church
of Christ.
The study that put environmental justice on the public policy
table by using census data on minorities and EPA data on toxic releases
to demonstrate a pattern of environmental racism. Commissioned by
a church group, it led to major changes in national government policy.
It also led to minority groups re-framing environmental issues as civil
rights issues.
Wallace, M. I. (2000). The wounded spirit as the basis for hope in an
age of radical ecology. Christianity and ecology: seeking the well-being
of earth and humans. D. Hessel and R. R. Ruether. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press: 51-72.
The author, a professor of religion at Swarthmore College, relates
environmental justice issues at Chester, Pennsylvania, to more general
theological issues. This paper is one of the few in this thick
volume of conference papers that contributes to the discussion of toxic
wastes--additional confirmation that conservation of wilderness is an easier
topic for theologians to deal with than urban pollution.
Whiteley, P. and V. Masayesva (1998). The Use and Abuse of Aquifers:
Can the Hopi Indians survive multinational mining? Water, culture, and
power : local struggles in a global context. J. M. Donahue and B. R. Johnston.
Washington, D.C., Island Press: 9-34.
Springs, water, and rain are central in the religious thought
and ritual of the Hopi of northeast Arizona. They attribute the drying
up of their springs to the extravagant use of water by the Peabody Western
Coal Company. Peabody's Black Mesa-Kayenta Mine is the only mine
in the United States that transports its coal by slurry, moving it through
a pipeline to a Nevada power plant that supplies electricity to Southern
California. Complicating matters, the Hopi Tribal Council is heavily dependent
on coal royalties and water lease fees from Peabody. While this paper
does not deal with a Superfund site, the EPA did critically review Peabody's
draft environmental impact statement for the Black Mesa Mine. The paper
is a model for studies of the relationship of Native American spirituality
to contemporary environmental issues.