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Sacred Earth, Holy Tension:

A Social Justice Reflection

Throughout the Bible, a striking tension emerges: the Egyptians, Canaanites, and Samaritans are often condemned for “worshipping nature”—their reverence for the sun, rivers, trees, or high places labeled idolatry. Yet the Hebrew psalmists, prophets, and even Jesus himself routinely use cosmic and earthly imagery to describe God’s majesty. In Psalm 104, for instance, God is robed in light, rides on the wind, and plants the cedars of Lebanon. Creation is not dismissed—it is revered as a direct reflection of divine power.

This tension reveals a deeper truth: the Bible does not reject the sacredness of nature. Rather, it challenges the human tendency to disconnect reverence from justice. When we sing with the mountains and clap with the trees (Isaiah 55:12), we acknowledge that the Earth itself participates in divine worship.

This has profound implications for today’s environmental justice movements. As the planet groans under the weight of exploitation—deforestation, climate collapse, poisoned rivers—we must recognize that to harm the Earth is to dishonor the Creator. When militarism threatens nuclear war, sacrificing human lives and irradiating ecosystems for the illusion of power, we are not just breaking treaties—we are breaking covenant with the Earth itself.

​Radiation knows no borders. Nuclear fallout does not distinguish between sinner and saint, soldier or child. It kills indiscriminately. Such violence is not merely a political misstep--it is a theological crisis. It represents humanity falling catastrophically out of alignment with creation, with nature, and with the will of God.