Pissing on the Sacred
This morning I trudged up the hill in the snow (the car is broken) to campus to pray with a few Native students for the San Francisco Peaks. The Navajos, knows these mountains as Doko'oosliid, or Abalone Shell Mountain, and hold them sacred as the western boundary of the land Creator gave to them. I learned this morning that traditionally they believe the mountains teach them about family and community, about caring for each other and sticking together. These mountains are sacred to many other tribes in the Southwest, as well.
Arizona Snowbowl, a ski resort on SF Peaks, wants to use recycled sewage to make artificial snow on the mountain. There are plenty of environmental issues tied up in this, but what I see most clearly is the simple symbolic/religious issue - they are pissing on the sacred mountains. They have thus far been blocked in court, but are going back to court today to try to get a different decision.
We prayed that they would be defeated, again, that Creator God would preserve what is still sacred to his people. I'm sure we could debate back and forth the religious/contextual/syncretic/idolatrous sides to this issue, but for me, what it comes down to is that there are very few sacred things any more. We have desecrated just about everything sacred in our land. And it needs to stop. It doesn't please God.
If you are a praying person, and would offer a prayer today that the desecration of the sacred would be stopped, thank you. If you'd like to know more, here's a website: http://www.savethepeaks.org. And here's another one, from the other side: http://www.reclaimthepeaks.com. It's amazing to me, that the developers can call their effort "reclaim the peaks." Reclaim? From the Indians? Are you kidding? Or are you really that blind?
Arizona Snowbowl, a ski resort on SF Peaks, wants to use recycled sewage to make artificial snow on the mountain. There are plenty of environmental issues tied up in this, but what I see most clearly is the simple symbolic/religious issue - they are pissing on the sacred mountains. They have thus far been blocked in court, but are going back to court today to try to get a different decision.
We prayed that they would be defeated, again, that Creator God would preserve what is still sacred to his people. I'm sure we could debate back and forth the religious/contextual/syncretic/idolatrous sides to this issue, but for me, what it comes down to is that there are very few sacred things any more. We have desecrated just about everything sacred in our land. And it needs to stop. It doesn't please God.
If you are a praying person, and would offer a prayer today that the desecration of the sacred would be stopped, thank you. If you'd like to know more, here's a website: http://www.savethepeaks.org. And here's another one, from the other side: http://www.reclaimthepeaks.com. It's amazing to me, that the developers can call their effort "reclaim the peaks." Reclaim? From the Indians? Are you kidding? Or are you really that blind?