Anti-Zionism, #LandBack, Battling Big Coal in Baltimore
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi everybody,
Please send in any questions you have for us on the conflict in Israel and Palestine—just hit reply to this email or write to shakethedust@ktfpress.com. We’ll be talking about it in our November bonus episode for paid subscribers. And if you want to be able to listen to that, make sure to subscribe!
And now, on to this week’s highlights as we seek to leave colonized faith for the Kingdom of God.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Being anti-Zionist does not mean that you are anti-Semitic. This truth often can’t break through the noise of this moment in our international discourse. But Adam Serwer in this article from the Atlantic uses his characteristically clear and powerful prose to break down why this conflation is impossible to defend. Moreover, no matter how intense the pain or stress of a political conversation, we must not make arguments that are dishonest, dehumanizing, or dismissive of the suffering of other people. But synonymizing anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism does just that.
Photographer Nick Brandt created Sink/Rise, a series of photos depicting South Pacific islanders posing for the camera under water. CNN reported on the complex and fascinating process of capturing these creative, poignant, and arresting images here. Some of the depicted people even had to go through Scooba diving training to take part. Brandt’s point is to represent the devastating impact of climate change on his subjects’ home nations. Brandt reminds us that, though the contribution of Pacific Islands to the overall warming of our planet is miniscule, the impact of climate change on them and their way of life is massively outsized. Prayerfully, for some, the work that went into creating these powerful pieces will pierce the shallow arguments against a radical reorientation of our society away from fossil fuels and endless consumption.
This episode of NPR’s Code Switch (audio and transcript available) follows youth activists from south Baltimore who are on the front lines of the fight against climate change. Racist policy often places the brunt of the harm pollution causes in poor Black and brown neighborhoods. The activists’ decade-old organization successfully shut down a garbage incinerator, and it has engaged in a years-long fight against the coal shipping industry which runs truckloads of the harmful substance through their neighborhood daily. This story reminded me that young people have much more to offer than society often makes space for. And it gave me hope that the obstacles to a just and right world can be overcome with discipline and diligence. Further, loving our neighbors means taking their problems seriously. The way these activists support one another challenges me to be more prayerful, present, and engaged.
Sy’s recommendations:
An environmental conservation group recently pledged to return 31,000 acres of land to the Penobscot tribe in Maine. This op-ed discusses why modern, Western conservationism has largely ignored questions about justice regarding land ownership, as well as indigenous methods of maintaining biodiversity and fighting global warming. But the return of land in Maine represents a shift in thinking. Some are beginning to believe that submitting to indigenous leadership in caring for creation is both morally right and rather effective. Academics are actually starting to compare environmental outcomes when native people and Western conservation groups handle land preservation. They are finding little difference. I hope this story inspires us to think with more imagination about what is possible when it comes to doing justice for indigenous people and fighting climate change.
In the last several years, there has been a small but growing movement of Black Americans emigrating to escape the stress and danger of American white supremacy. Informally, the movement is called “Blaxit.” There are communities of Black ex-pats forming around the globe,, often with several hundred people, in places like Mexico, Costa Rica, Ghana, Colombia, and many more. This article profiles several such communities. Many of the Black immigrants report finding freedom, peace, and room to flourish like they have never had before, even while struggling to form new identities outside their home context. One woman put it this way: “It’s like leaving an abusive relationship.” Many are also grappling with a circumstance they have never had to face before: their relative privilege in their new countries of residence. It’s a really well-written read about the work marginalized people have to do to find wholeness and joy.
Christopher Blackwell is a journalist who writes about the criminal legal system from a unique perspective; he is currently serving a 45-year sentence for murder. He does excellent work for The Appeal from inside Washington state prisons. This story he wrote in a recent newsletter addresses a subject we’ve touched on before that I think is incredibly important: breaking down the binary of victims and perpetrators. He writes about his experience in a transformative justice group with several other men convicted of violent crime. The facilitators wanted the men to take seriously the fact that they too were victims of violence—eight of the ten men had been shot in the past, and all had grown up in neighborhoods with high levels of violence. The point of reorienting the men’s self-understanding was “not to excuse our past actions but to remind us that we would need to heal to fulfill our potential.” Blackwell argues that healing from violent childhoods, toxic masculinity, and so much more is key to reducing gun violence. But that can’t happen if our primary response is simply to lock shooters up, a method that has proven ineffective over and over even while remaining popular. Listening to voices like Blackwell’s would make us all safer in the long run.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Jonathan and Sy