Creation 3: Creation Justice

What does it mean to seek justice? Thomas Aquinas defined justice as a cardinal virtue that renders to each person what is due to them, or what they have a right to receive. God’s justice, then, honors the dignity of all beings–a foundational principle of the UMRSP and one that is extended not only to humans but to the entirety of creation (see Foundational Principles of the UMRSP post for more on this foundational principle of dignity).

Built on the principle that the natural world, and all that is in it, is created by God and thus valued by God, and that our role as humans is to practice faithful stewardship, creation justice seeks to give people, and all living things, what is due to them.

There are four ways the RSP seek creation justice:

1. Combating Environmental Racism
2. Food Justice
3. Caring for All Creatures
4. Protecting Space

Combating Environmental Racism

The RSP state:

“We confess that the negative impacts resulting from the degradation of the natural world have fallen disproportionately on marginalized communities…” (Stewardship of Creation, A. Environmental Racism)

“. . .the experiences and voices of people most at risk have been largely ignored.” (Creation in Peril, A. Destruction of Ecosystems)

“We…pledge to resist all forms of environmental exploitation, neglect, and inequality.” (Stewardship of Creation, A. Environmental Racism)

Analysis

This section is titled “Environmental Racism,” but also makes note of environmental injustice against people living in poverty and other vulnerable or marginalized communities. I suggest this section be renamed “Environmental Injustice” to more broadly include the forms of injustice stated therein. In the United States, there is a strong correlation between racially marginalized communities and lower income communities. However, this intersectionality is not a perfect correlation, and the RSP ought to be amended to more fully emphasize the role of environmental injustice as it pertains to lower-income communities.

Moreover, this ought to serve as a call for Christians of privilege (political, economic, and otherwise) to oppose structures that continue to protect wealthier communities from pollution and waste as well as the negative impacts of climate change, at the expense of poorer communities who bear the brunt of those negative impacts.

Food Justice

Commitments to food justice in the RSP include:

• Access to healthy nourishment and clean drinking water
• The rights of all people to healthy, culturally appropriate food, produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods
• Local control of food production
• Open-sourced seed varieties
• Policies that reduce carbon-intensive agricultural methods, which increase climate change
• Safety and well-being of agricultural and food processing workers

Analysis

Previous iterations of the Social Principles included some of these commitments, but this is a welcome expansion and strengthening of this section.

Caring for All Creatures

Most of this section is a continuation of the existing Social Principles’ commitment to animal life. The document urges support for the humane treatment of animals, who like humans also have inherent worth and are participants in God’s creation. Two notable additions are an opposition to “forcing animals to combat each other” and urging cooperative efforts to end poaching as a specific aspect of protecting endangered and vulnerable species.

Protecting Space

There is very little change in this section’s content from the existing SP to the proposed RSP. Both assert that the universe (existing SP) or “entire cosmos” (RSP) is part of God’s creation and thus important to protect with acts of faithful stewardship. This includes not only our own solar system but other galaxies as well. To that end, the Social Principles “reject the exploitation, commodification, and militarization of space.”

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All quotes from UMRSP, “Community of All Creation”

Read the full proposed revised UMC Social Principles and find resources to engage your congregation in studying the document here: https://umcsocialprinciples2021.org/ 

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