This document discusses various forms of social and environmental oppression and their interconnection. It covers how racism has led to environmental racism, with communities of color bearing the brunt of toxic waste and pollution. Sexism and the oppression of women is also linked to the oppression and domination of nature. The document argues that all forms of oppression, including humanity's disconnection from nature and each other, are intertwined and must be addressed through promoting justice, equity and reconnection with both people and the environment.

1. Poor and Oppressed Unite
By Jason Peters

2. Topics of Discussion
• Why worry about the environment?
• Broad topic
• Theology of creation care
• Poor and Oppressed Unite
• Our argument we will be focusing on
• Racism and Environmental Oppression
• Sexism and Environmental Oppression
• Disconnection and Environmental Oppression
• Concluding Thoughts

3. Why worry about the environment?
• This is Prediger’s question and how he starts chapter 7 of his book For the
Beauty of the Earth
• “Why worry about Galapagos penguins and the jack pine?”
• So, why worry? Prediger says “After all isn’t all this concern for ecology just
another passing fad? And, ultimately, why care for a world that will be
completely destroyed when Jesus comes again?” (Prediger, 2010, p. 156).
• Prediger goes on to talk about 10 reasons/arguments, some that are only
going to be held by a believer and others that are not necessarily purely
faith based.
• He finishes his intro with two questions. He says, “So, what exactly are the
arguments? Why should we Christians speak for the trees” (Prediger, 2010,
p. 157)

4. Theology and creation care
• Important to review some passages before we begin
• Genesis 1
• Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that
they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move
along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them
and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every
living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

5. Theology and creation care
• Genesis 2
• “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take
care of it” (Genesis 2:15).
• Colossians 1
• “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him
all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him
and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the
head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:1-3).
(Creation Care Bible Study and Discussion)

6. Theology and Creation Care
• Prediger affirms that redemption has come through Christ for us and
also for all of creation and it is through him and by God’s grace we are
saved and through him also that all of creation is being reconciled to
God.
• Prediger says, “Because Christ took on human flesh, we believe that matter
matters. Because Christ died on a cross, we eschew domination and, by
contrast, rule by serving others, including the earth” (Prediger, 2010, p. 117)

7. Poor and Oppressed Unite
• Prediger’s 4th argument: “Poor and Oppressed Unite”
• This 4th reason that Prediger brings up affirms a link between various
forms of oppression
• This argument is also known as the ecojustice argument because it is
founded on the cry for justice
• Oppression is defined as “the exercise of authority or power in a
burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner” (Oppression, 2015).

8. Racism and Environmental Oppression
• Prediger affirms that “Ecological sustainability and social justice must be seen as
interdependent goals” (Prediger, 2010, p. 162).
• Social oppression of racism
• “Reverend Benjamin Chavis Jr., the former leader of the NAACP, coined the term
environmental racism in the early 1980s. He described it as "racial discrimination in
environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations and laws; the deliberate
targeting of communities of color for toxic-waste facilities; the official sanctioning of the
presence of life-threatening poisons and pollutants in communities of color; and the history of
excluding people of color from leadership in the environmental movement“” (Davis, 2003).
• “Researchers argue that to limit the understanding of racism to prejudicial and
discriminatory behavior misses important aspects of racism. Racism is also a
system of advantages or privileges based on race” (Environmental Racism, 2009).

9. Racism and Environmental Oppression
• Prediger also talks about racism
• He writes, “Commenting on the revealing 1987 study “Toxic Wastes and Race in the
United States,” Charles Lee states, “The racial composition of a community is the
single variable best able to explain the existence or non-existences of commercial
hazardous waste facilities in that area. Racial minorities, primarily African-Americans
and Hispanics, are strikingly overrepresented in communities with such facilities”
(Prediger, 2010, p. 162).
• The fact that this is going on is well established and has been for some time
• Here is a quote that may strike a spark!
• “More African Americans will die from environmental causes than from police
brutality this year, yet there is no movement to stop the environmental racism that
invades our neighborhoods and homes” (Ellison, 2015).
• ““Racism keeps lower- to middle-income people of color stuck in danger zones,” says
Bullard. “African Americans making $50,000 to $60,000 per year are way more likely to
live in a polluted environment than poor white families making just $10,000 per year””
(Ellison, 2015).

10. Sexism and Environmental Oppression
• Prediger quotes Christian feminist Theologian Rosemary Radford
Ruether who says, “”we cannot criticize the hierarchy of male over
female without ultimately criticizing and overcoming the hierarchy of
human over nature”” (Prediger, 2010, p. 162).
• What Ruether is referring to is the oppression of women by men and the
oppression of nature by man
• The argument is that they are linked and that the struggle to stop the
oppression of women is dependent upon the struggle to stop the oppression
of the environment

11. Sexism and Environmental Oppression
• The term ecofeminism was coined as a result of this discussion
• “Combining the words ecology and feminism, ecofeminism embraces the idea
that the oppression of women and the oppression or destruction of nature
are closely connected” (Metz).
• Mary Mellor define ecofeminism this way, “ Ecofeminism is a movement that
sees a connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural
world and the subordination and oppression of women” (Mellor, 1997).
• “Ruether claims: “Women must see that there can be no liberation
for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society
whose functional model of relationships continues to be one of
domination” (Prediger, 2010, p. 162).
• Ruether rightly sees both problems linked by a wrongly placed set of values

12. Disconnection and Environmental Oppression
• This third type of social oppression or perhaps better described as
social breakdown is universal
• And that is disconnection
• In a talk, sociologist Brene Brown says, “Connection is why we are
here, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. This is what
it’s all about. It doesn’t matter if you talk to people in social justice or
mental health or abuse and neglect, what we know is that connection
and the ability to feel connected is neurobiological how we are wired,
it’s why we are here” (Brown, 2010).
• Connection plays a huge part in our well beings and in our society as a
whole

13. Disconnection and Environmental Oppression
• Prediger touches on this when he quotes Paul Hawken who says, “A
Native American taught me that division between ecology and human
rights was an artificial one, and that the environmental and social
justice movements addressed two side of a single larger dilemma, The
way we harm the earth affects all people, and how we treat one
another is reflected in how we treat the earth.” Prediger continues
and says, “The environmental movement and the social justice
movement are two of the “three basic roots” (along with the
movement of indigenous peoples against globalization) of the larger
worldwide movement Hawken exhaustively catalogues and
describes” (Prediger, 2010, p. 163)

14. Disconnection and Environmental Oppression
• A similar kind of statement is made by environmentalist Bill McKibben
• “For a hundred years we've been steadily extending the supply lines of our
economy, becoming ever more globalized. But some have begun to question
that trend, and even to form the foundations of a newer, more local economy.
The main reasons are two-fold: our ever-growing globe-spanning economy is
increasingly vulnerable to the ecological disruption it is causing, with global
warming the prime example; and despite record affluence Americans report
ever-growing feelings of disconnection and loss of community, trends that can
only be reversed if we manage to rebuild local institutions that draw people
together” (McKibben).

15. Concluding Thoughts
• Prediger finishes up his section called “Poor and Oppressed” by saying, “Our passion for justice
should embrace all creatures—for their sake and for the sake of our human neighbors whose
voices cry out for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”
(Prediger, 2010, p. 163)
• This argument of Prediger brings up is valid and I think it does show us that in some way all
oppression is linked. I think what Prediger left out (perhaps intentionally) is that the glue that
links all the different types of oppression is sin and a fallen humanity. Paul in his epistle we call
Galatians that if the people continue to bite and devour each other they will be destroyed by each
other. Right before that he reminds them that all of the law is summed up in the one command,
“Love your neighbor as your self” (ref. Galatians 5). In his epistle Paul also reminds the Galatians
that they are no longer under the law but they are under grace and that they have new life in
Christ, that they are freed from the law. He encourages them to stand firm in Christ, in his love, in
the freedom that Christ died for and to love one another.
• Prediger’s argument titled “poor and oppressed unite” that focuses on the connection of social
and environmental oppression is a good reminder that oppression is wrong and that it destroys us
and the environment.

16. References
Bible (NIV). Galatians. http://biblehub.com/galatians/5-14.htm
Brown, B. 2010. The power of vulnerability. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en#t-227027
Creation Care Bible Study and Discussion. Restoring Eden: Christians for Environmental Stewardship. http://restoringeden.org/
Davis, I.T. 2003. Address to ELCA’s 2003 Caring for Creation New Consultation. Lutheran Earthkeeping Network of the Synods.
http://www.webofcreation.org/LENS/cfcdavislecture.html
Ellison, 2015. Racism in the Air you Breathe: When Where You Live Determines How Fast You Die.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/08/environmental_racism_when_where_you_live_determines_how_fast_you_die.html
Environmental Racism. 2009. Pollution Issues. http://www.pollutionissues.com/Ec-Fi/Environmental-Racism.html
McKibben, Bill. Local Economies. http://www.billmckibben.com/local-economies.html
Mellor, Mary. 1997. Feminism & Ecology. NY: University Press.
Metz, W.F. How Ecofeminism Works. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/ecofeminism.htm
Prediger, S. 2010. For the beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care. MI: Baker Academic.