interview

On spiritual environmentalism

A few weeks ago, I sat down for a long chat with Rabbi Michael Lerner. The first half -- most directly related to environmental issues -- is here. The second half, wherein in we discuss general spiritual and theological issues, is below.

In his new book The Left Hand of God (you can read an excerpt here), Lerner says the religious right offers what he calls the right hand of God: a stern authoritarian father, who punishes sin, demands self-reliance, and inspires fear. The political right has gained momentum and adherents in recent years, Lerner says, because only conservative Christianity has been vocally and unapologetically addressing the spiritual needs of Americans, their quest for meaning in a materialist, consumerist culture.

Lerner thinks progressives should offer an alternative: the left hand of God, a loving, nurturing presence that forgives imperfection and inspires a sense of hope and wonder.

Rabbi Michael Lerner calls on environmentalists to develop a spiritual vision

As we strolled through downtown Seattle in search of coffee, Rabbi Michael Lerner casually pointed over my shoulder and said, “That’s where I was in jail.” Rabbi Michael Lerner. Photo: Mark Werlin. He was referring to his membership in the Seattle Seven, a group of Vietnam War protesters whose 1970 arrest and trial sparked a […]

An interview with integration advocate Sheryll Cashin

Space is the place where race, poverty, and the environment get sorted out, for better or worse. And the spaces where we live, work, learn, and play are the places where integration succeeds or fails, argues Sheryll Cashin. The Georgetown University law professor wrote 2004’s The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining […]

Tirso Moreno, farmworker organizer, answers questions

Tirso Moreno. What’s your job title? General coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida. What does your organization do? We work to empower communities of farmworkers and the rural poor, focusing on a wide range of issues, from workplace and community organizing to disaster preparedness and response, from vocational rehabilitation to immigrants’ rights advocacy for […]

Francisca Porchas, clean-bus campaigner, answers questions

Francisca Porchas. What work do you do? I am a lead organizer with the Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Bus Riders Union‘s Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses Campaign, based in Los Angeles. How does it relate to the environment? The Strategy Center has engaged in environmental-justice and civil-rights campaigns for the last 17 years, […]

An interview with the founder of Worldwatch and Earth Policy Institute

There are few titans remaining in the environmental world — figures that command respect not only inside the movement but in the larger global political milieu as well. Lester Brown is one of them. In 1974, he founded the Worldwatch Institute, one of the first think tanks to focus on the global environmental situation (its […]

Tomasita González, environmental-justice organizer, answers questions

Tomasita González. What work do you do? I work as a community organizer at SouthWest Organizing Project, based in Albuquerque, N.M. What does your organization do? For over a quarter century, SWOP has worked to build an environmental-justice movement in disenfranchised, working, and people-of-color communities. In the ’90s, we sought to challenge the mainstream “Group […]

Alan Hipólito, creator of green jobs for low-income people, answers questions

What work do you do? I run a very small, very new nonprofit organization called Verde. What does your organization do? What, in a perfect world, would constitute “mission accomplished”? Verde offers a helping hand in the form of green jobs for low-income folks. Photo: iStockphoto. The mission of Verde is to increase the economic […]

Steve Frillmann, community-garden guru, answers questions

Steve Frillmann. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I am the executive director of Green Guerillas, New York City’s oldest community-gardening group. What does your organization do? At Green Guerillas, we help people carry out their visions for what community gardens can be in a dense, vibrant urban area — urban farms, botanic gardens, […]