from The Mining Journal April 22, 2011
To the Journal editor:
Healthy religious communities, especially here in the Upper Peninsula, hold at the center of convictions a respect for individual conscience. That’s one of the reasons for the “quietism” of many faith leaders when taking public positions on ethics and public policy.
But when religion tilts too far in this “private” direction, churches and tabernacles become silent, irrelevant to important issues facing us as citizens. Dynamic symbols and spiritual teachings on justice and compassion are robbed of their power for change and reduced to sentimental musings.
At the annual meeting of Rio Tinto in London a few weeks ago, it was announced the blasting of Eagle Rock for Kennecott’s proposed sulfide mine in Marquette County is scheduled to begin in coming weeks. During days ahead, trucks full of explosives and dynamite will be traveling up County Road 550 to begin work.
For those identifying with Christian traditions, these are days of recalling a divine drama of crucifixion and resurrection. It’s also a time when we remember Judas betraying a carpenter and king, his teacher and Savior, with a kiss.
Matthew Fox, Christian theologian, reminds us of the new environmental consciousness transforming the way we all live. He suggests if Christians confess the mystery of the incarnation, they should entertain the explosive possibility that the earth is Christ’s body, that when we support environmental degradation we participate in Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion.
Those who have walked alongside leaders of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the National Wildlife Federation, Concerns Citizens of Big Bay, 200 medical professionals and 100 faith leaders will continue to protest this mine with its looming threat to the health of the people who live in the forests and fish the streams adjacent to the mine site. For a promise of a few short-term jobs, many of us believe Kennecott is buying Marquette County with 30 pieces of silver.
Nothing is over. Contact Wave or Save the Wild U.P. to register your convictions. Whether this mine is stopped or not, people of conscience and goodwill continue to speak, calling our community to vigorously defend our watershed with deeper, more creative visions of a healthy environment and community life.
JON MAGNUSON
Marquette
– Jon Magnuson
April 2011
