Obedience to Whom?

By Abby Brockway
As a Christian, obedience is a theme that has been in my life and appears as I study scripture. My story of obedience began on a cold January evening when I spoke at a climate rally in Seattle. After the talk, a spiritual leader representing an indigenous group called Idle No More encouraged me to think more about obedience. I did just that.
Last summer, Lummi leader and Master Carver Praying Wolf Jewell James stopped at Saint Marks Cathedral in Seattle on a journey with his totem pole from Montana to Alberta. Letters of apologies signed by various church leaders in the Northwest was presented to James Jewell and to the Lummi Nation acknowledging the historical disrespect of Native American spiritual practices and traditions. In the letters, the leaders of our denominations “promised to honor and defend the rights of Native Peoples …”
“In this decade a new threat has arisen against Native Peoples, the mining, transport, burning, and disposal of fossil fuels. Proposed coal export terminals would damage native fisheries protected by longstanding treaties and poison our shared air and water. Coal trains servicing these terminals would cut across sacred lands and impact the health of those indigenous communities. In this generation we also acknowledge that the mining and burning of fossil fuels creates terrible threats of climate disruption, ocean acidification, and pollution to harm all, especially the poorest.”
“Tribal leaders have asked us to keep our past promises, and to stand with them in defense of their sacred lands and fishing rights. And so we call upon the Northwest Congressional delegation and other elected officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and all people of goodwill to uphold the treaty rights of Native communities of the Northwest. We ask that all environmental and cultural harm to Native lands and peoples be considered when making public policy decisions about the mining, transport, and export of coal and other fossil fuels.”
“As religious leaders, our greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Putting this ethic into action, we stand in solidarity with our Native neighbors to safeguard the traditional lands, waters, and sacred sites of their peoples from destruction.”
James Jewell asked the people to stand with the Lummi Tribe to protect front line areas facing extreme extraction and exploitation. He explained that the Salish Sea has salmon that have tumors and peeling skin, and starfish suffering from a disease causing their bodies to dissolve. The waters are now so acidic that baby oysters are being raised in Hawaii and transported back to the Sound when they are strong enough to endure the acidic waters.
He asked us to stand up with the Lummi Nation and all Tribes to protect our sacred lands from the destruction of extraction, such as the Lummi burial grounds, which are being threatened by the proposed construction and operation of a coal export terminal. These and other expansion projects for coal and oil also disturb the herring breeding grounds vital to salmon survival and threaten the stability of our Salish Sea.
Not only am I concerned I question the overall stability of our climate. With increased fossil fuel transport, I see fires, floods, drought and destruction happening in record-breaking numbers. Increased atmospheric CO2 thicken the greenhouse blanket allowing more heat to be trapped causing global average temperatures to rise. If we keep at the current rate, the average temperature around the world could increase by about 4 to 12° F by the year 2100. We need to maintain at least 3/4 of all known reserves of fossil fuels in the ground in order to keep the earth’s temperature from rising above 2º Celsius.
In September 2012, oil trains began coming through Seattle loaded with dangerous Bakken crude from North Dakota. In 2014, the number of these oil trains passing through Seattle on their way to refineries in Skagit and Whatcom counties grew to around 14 per week. This could double once the Philips 66 refinery in Ferndale completes its oil-by-rail-unloading facility in December 2014, and if the Shell refinery in Anacortes is granted a permit for its own unloading facility.
On September 2nd, I joined Rising Tide Seattle in erecting a steel tripod in the Everett Delta train yard in front of a parked oil train. Four others locked their bodies to the feet of the tripod while I climbed to the top and sat for 8 hours actively petitioning our government. We launched both an online and ground campaign to demand that Governor Inslee enact an immediate moratorium on all fossil fuel trains and deny permits for all coal and oil shipping facilities proposed in Washington. We built positive relationships with the large fleet of police officers, FBI agents and firefighters; sang songs; and explained the urgency and the need to be heard. We spoke to reporters and waved in solidarity to trains passing by and to truckers honking in support. This Act was done with careful consideration, respect and prayer.
I know I must act. We all must act on what we believe. We must protect what we love with our hearts, our mind and our entire being. As a citizen I have participated as fully as possible, attending over 40 hours of hearings; meeting elected officials and speaking about my concern for our region’s energy policy; gathering signatures and voting. I do not feel heard and feel unaware of what is happening in our region. I desperately want to make changes for the common good. I risked my safety, my reputation and my comfort to call out for what I believe to be global climate justice. My currency is my passion, love, vulnerability, will and faith.
I am prepared to face the legal consequences and the financial cost of my actions. I choose obedience to the earth and all who dwell on it. Please join me in the fight for the health and the sustainability of our region and the world.
Abbyontripod

Leave a Reply