THIS THING WE CALL PROGRESS

Long before environmental issues became such a political football, I followed the writings of Al Gore through the pages of the Southern Baptist Home Missions Magazine. Gore was a Baptist layman and I was a non-Baptist graduate of a southern Baptist Seminary. I was a Michigan pastor that found Gore’s writings helpful in understanding environmental issues as related to climate change and interpreting them in a constructive Christian manner.

The YEAR 2020 finds me retired and relocated in the Kentucky Blue Grass. This has landed me in a very different climate of partisan politics where I face conflicting political views about clean air and water and pollution as well as wind energy and the struggles of coal miners. It is not my purpose to divide readers between issues of wind and the survival of coal. I have friends on both sides of this issue and I can only follow the teaching of The Master Teacher who instructs me to love God supremely so that I might also love my neighbor as myself.

Personally, I find much encouragement in a future energized by the winds that blow in varying amounts at all times and in many places, both advantageously and destructively. I also find much to support when considering the problems of the Coal Industry. My sympathy goes out to those coal miners who today live with black lung disease. I grieve for those citizens that are forced to deal with issues of water, air, and land pollution such as those endured by citizens in places like Martin and Floyd County, Kentucky. I feel the pain of friends whose livelihood is dependent upon the Coal Industry. Far be it from me to make their lives more complicated than they already are.

I do not profess to know the answer, but I look to the Wisdom of the Ages, and “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1 RSV). The one thing I feel most assured of is that His wisdom will leave me loving him so supremely that I am left no choice but to love my neighbor at least as much as I love myself.

This takes me back to something I read a few decades ago, a piece of wisdom shared by J. David Newman in a 1991 issue of Ministry Magazine (p5). For what it is worth, I share it with you to allow us to face our issues today in ways that allow for win-win situations and avoiding the I-win you-lose syndrome. Following is a portion of a letter written by Martin Van Buren, then governor of New York, to President Andrew Jackson on January 31, 1829. For what it is worth, here is Van Buren’s approach to his subject.

“The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as railroads. The federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons.

“One, if boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen, and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for horses.

“Two, boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip, and harness makers would be left destitute.”

Three, canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouglooe with engoand, the Erie Canal wouod ge the hoy means y which we couod ever j9ge the supplies so vital t waging modern war.

“As you may well know, Mr. President, railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by engines that, in addition to endangering life and limb through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the lifestock, and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.”

Fast-forward back to 2020 and I wonder what the Governor of New York would say today about this thing we call progress. Yes; progress makes change inevitable Change suggests that we (I) must be flexible and adaptable if we want to survive changing times. Some are helped by change. Some are hurt by change, but change is part of life and demands the best of wisdom of the ages. The one thing of which I am sure is this: each of us can choose whether we shape the changes life throws at us, or we can let those changes shape us.

Because I love God above all else, I will look above and beyond the hills to the wisdom that comes from above and I will love my neighbor enough to work with him or her or them and we will cooperate and reconcile our progress in ways that allow us to each benefit from our relationship and we will avoid trying to one-up the other.

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