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The Passion of the Gulf

By / 20 July 2010

The heart aches with another apocalyptic wound opened in creation, deep and gushing. Instead of the real healing for which it cries, poisons are poured upon it, dispersing and hiding the mushrooming bleed of underwater clouds. Death will have its day. To one degree or another, all flesh of earth and sea will know it. Suffer the sting.

In the lust for oil, drones sail the deserts and robots sink to the deeps. Thus far the reach of the military corporate maw. And the doxology their choristers chant: Drill, baby, kill!

Make no mistake: The powers, and behind them death, are at work. In their own deregulated design, they slip the grip of accountability to human life. They pretend to sovereignty in heights and depths. They set limits to their own culpability. They make themselves, in the imagination of their hearts, too big for political containments. They place their survival, nay their eternal increase, above the common life of all creation. It is time to name their blasphemies and prosecute their crimes. The Mother of us all will not be mocked.

You and me? With our southern Gulf shore? Our freeways and our ignition keys? Our transcontinental vegetables? We are complicit in our own captivity. We are guilty bystanders to planetary domination. We are the users in a culture of addiction. Such is the bondage of sin and death.

Which is also to say: The healing of the planet and the healing of ourselves, inside and out, are one. Apocalyptic events reveal the truth, pull back a veil, break the seal, set us free. Such is grace. We best get with the transformation, dear friends. Be accountable to the Spirit and community of creation. Another world, one oil-free and domination-free, is actually possible. With earth itself, let us fight for it. Heal into it. Let it be.

Bill Wylie-Kellermann, a Sojourners contributing editor, is pastor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit.

via The Passion of the Gulf, Sojourners Magazine/August 2010 where you will find more reflections and contributions.

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About us

This site is run by the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church.

We seek to nurture justice spirituality and imagination, and engage in advocacy in all areas of life, overcoming poverty and transforming violence.

We encourage people to think and live “justly”, and emphasise debate and action on local, national and global issues.

Although we are Anglican, our vision isn’t so much about being Anglican. It’s about living justly. Justice is about how you live your life, and being just where we are. Working together, we can all flourish.

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