Archives For Food & Farming

The Fat of the Land is Real (and Good)

Nathan Aaberg —  March 31, 2021 — 2 Comments

There are several references to the “fat of the land” or “fatness of the land” in the Old Testament.

Genesis 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: (KJV)

Genesis 27:39: And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. (KJV)

Genesis 45:18: And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. (KJV)

I don’t know about you, but I had long assumed the term was only metaphorical. In fact, many translations now have changed the phrase to “earth’s richness” or “richness of the earth.”

And then I listened to an interview with John Kempf by the hosts of the Back to the Roots podcast.

John, a great podcaster himself, is one of the leading voice of regenerative agriculture in the United States.  You can find the interview here, and I’d encourage you to listen to it. John is brilliant, humble, and gifted in all that he discusses.

Around the 13:00 minute mark you can hear John bring up the Biblical phrase “fat of the land.” This is not unusual. John frequently brings up Biblical references and concepts in his podcasts and interviews. You can tell he has been steeped in the Bible.

John proceeds to explain the literal truth of that phrase.

Here’s one key quote: “Stable organic matter (in the soil), stable humic substances, are about 40 percent lipids. (In other words) 40 percent fats. So I believe that when we talk about the fat of the land, we’re really having a conversation about carbon storage, organic matter building in soil as a result of microbial activity and accumulating fats in organic matter.”

In other words, land can literally have fat. And healthy land does have fats.

I was driving as I listened to the interview and feel fortunate to not have had an accident.

First, how fascinating is it that something we take as a metaphor in the Bible has actual agronomic truth?

Along these lines, check out this link to a description of a scientiifc finding from University of Colorado Boulder researchers. They’ve found a fatty acid in a soil-based bacterium that appears to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Second, let’s unpack the larger meaning behind what John says.

A farmer only has stable organic matter in the soil if the farming being done mimics the workings of God’s earth in nature. Nature, for example, almost always covers its ground with diverse plants that, through their living roots, feed carbon that feeds life in the soil. Nature also integrates animals into any natural system, and they also add nutrients to the living soil system. Nature does not disturb these processes through plowing and tillage. Nor fungicides and herbicides and insecticides.

Farmers can imitate those same principles and approaches. And some are, as you can see in the video below. Applying those principles and approaches to the specific context of a specific place is called regenerative agriculture.

And much of the focus of regenerative ariculture is building the biological life of the soil. That rich life, including diverse bacteria and fungi, provides the plants with easy-to-absorb nutrients and phytonutrients to the plant. In other words, plants feed the soil, and the soil feeds the plants.

That rich soil life also builds stable humic substances where we find the real fat of the land that John mentioned.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that when we eat plants and animals from land that has that abundant soil life, we get healthier food which gives us healthier bodies.

A number of years back, Jim, a Christian friend of mine, and his wife Joelle had gotten married and were hoping to have children. That wasn’t happening. They turned to doctors for ideas and help. Nothing they heard made sense. They were frustrated and not sure what to do.

Then Joelle’s sister asked about their diet. They described a standard diet of processed foods from conventionally-farmed plants and animals. Joelle’s sister urged them to look into more natural and organic options. They were desperate. So they went all in. They competely changed to a diet of natural and organic foods, largely home cooked.

And before long they became pregnant. In fact, they just had their third child earlier this year. This experience completely changed the direction of their lives (they are now homesteading, among other things). It’s even given them new insights into their Christian faith and what it means for us to be stewards of God’s earth.

Jim and Joelle shifted to a natural diet from a processed, conventional diet when they had trouble having children. They now have three children, including Eloise and Abram (Gus was just born recently) – abundant life from abundantly alive farms and foods.

We now know that we have stripped away that life-giving richness of the land with an industrial, extractive approach to farming. But people like John Kempf, many of whom are Christian, are showing how it is possible to restore and rejuvenate God’s good earth.

By having loving hearts, creative and dynamic minds, and attentiveness to the beautiful systems of God’s earth, we can honor God and provide life-giving food to our neighbors.

Maybe we’re supposed to take Jesus’ words in John 10:10 – “..I came that they have life and have it abundantly” – literally as well?

By making God’s life abundant on God’s earth and in God’s soil, we give others and ourselves abundant life.

Here and now.

 

P.S. Here’s a blog post by a regenerative farmer – Will Harris – about the fat of the land concept and artificial meats.

P.P.S. Here’s a blog post by Rabbi Daniel Lapin about the two different Hebrew words interpreted as “fat of the land” by English translators. While the rabbi explains both words can be translated as “fat” in a general way, one has the meaning of milk included in it, and the other can mean fat or oil. In his blog post, you can read Rabbi Lapin’s idea of what he believes the deeper difference is between the words and what larger message that has for us. It occurs to me, however, that he may be missing a more obvious difference betweent the two words – one word refers to animal-generated fat and the other refers to fat coming from plants. Both animals and plant life are needed for living soil. But I realize it’s more than a little presumptuous of me to question a rabbi about a Hebrew question! So I’ve sent a message to him asking for his feedback on my perspective.

 

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Interview with the Riemer Family: A Farming Odyssey Guided by Faith

Nathan Aaberg —  January 31, 2021 — 4 Comments

This interview with the Riemer family (from left to right: Elli, Jen, Caroline, Bryce, and Kalena) is something I’ve wanted to do for some time. We connected some time ago around faith and farming, and that connection has been a great blessing to my family and me. They hosted the first gathering I wanted to organize of Christians who care about God’s earth. They’ve been good friends. They even hosted our younger son for several days of farm work that I “voluntold” him for. I don’t know if he was initially thrilled about the idea but he came to enjoy the work, their family, and their hearty cooking. 

It’s a bit easy for a person like me to be convinced in theory that a whole Christian faith-life can’t help but include a commitment to doing all that is possible to enable God’s earth to thrive. That’s because I’m not a farmer. Farmers are working squarely at the intersection of the human economy and God’s earth. Their ability to make a living, to put food on the plates of their children, depends on their success at producing food that people will buy.  When farmers like the Riemers decide to honor God in how they raise food, even if that means not following the mainstream food system, they are testing their faith in the real world. 

But that is what the Riemers have been doing. So I wanted to share their experiences and insights of what that is like. This interview is about God-honoring farming. And it’s much more. It’s also about the courage of a family to live out their faith. It’s about glimpses of the abundant life that this world can sustain when people truly reflect God’s image. it’s about being pushed to the limit by the forces of the market that often drive us away from God’s ways. And there’s that empty, lonely feeling that you probably know, too, of being aware that many Christians don’t seem to care about Creation.

I hope you’ll take the time to read this. I also hope you’ll pray for their ongoing success. You can learn more about Riemer Family Farm in Brodhead, Wiscsonsin, here. 

(By the way, you can learn much more about their farm business history and how exactly they farm by listening to this edition of the Edible-Alpha podcast. I’m also embarrassed to admit that this interview took place in 2020 during the fall. It’s taken some time for me to complete the transcription and condense it down a bit. So, here in the middle of winter, you will read of sheep, cows, pigs, and monarchs all thriving on a farm. I appreciated, too, that Bryce and Jen wantd thier three daughters to be part of the interview. And one last thing – we are grateful to Anastasia Wolf-Flasch for allowing us to use all of the images she took of the Riemer family and their farm.)

 

Nathan: In the Edible-Alpha podcast that you did with Tera Johnson, you shared a great deal about the growth and evolution of your business from a sustainable farming and entrepreneurial perspectives. Can you talk more about what role your faith had in how your business has evolved? How has it shaped your decisions and helped get you through tough times?

Bryce: Our faith shapes our business, because it shapes who we are in our business. Our business is kind of an outflow of who we are as people. Jen and I, as a married couple, just keep looking at the gifts he’s given us and the resources he’s given us and just keep asking, “What do we do with our lives? What direction is Jesus taking us together?” And that whole thought process is the process that got us to where we are today.

This business is the best way that Jen and I believe we can use all of our, the gifts, the resources that God gave us to make a big impact on people that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.

Kalena: I probably wouldn’t be able to have the same mindset going out every day and doing the work without faith.

Jen: Well, I think faith was a big part in us getting started with our philosophy of farming with the very deep need to care for Creation and not just grow a commodity, which is not environmentally sound nor very profitable nor very fun. I think that God puts us here to enjoy our work. It’s not supposed to be a slog, although it’s hard work. We set out with the holistic point of view that if we’re going to do this, it’s going to honor God. And it’s going to be something that honors Creation, because that’s what we’re all about.

I think that’s the filter through which we make decisions. Obviously from a marketing perspective, that’s what our customers expect from us. But, we continue to uphold that integrity because we’re Christians and because we’re not going to say something and do something different. That’s our ethics.

Nathan: I know as part of your transition, you were farming Bryce’s parents’ land that had been in more conventional production. Did your faith also help shape how you communicated with your parents and did that transition?

Bryce: Well, obviously, we started with the concept of honoring your parents. There were times early on where there was a lot of tension, because we were changing stuff and Dad wasn’t comfortable with that. So it took patience and valuing relationships over the work or over things. That’s why it’s so hard for a lot of farms to transition to the next generation – they fight about stuff and forget about the relationship.

Jen: And then they lose their relationship with their parents.

Nathan: Can you briefly describe what it is about your farming that benefits or sustains creation?

Elli: When God created the world, he had the cattle grazing. There were no commodity crops and that’s what He wanted it to be. And that’s what He wants it to be still. So we try and mimic the best practices that we could be using while trying to respect the nature of the animal. If the pig is able to root, it is obviously more happy. We don’t humanize our animals. We don’t give them all names and all that, but if they get to express their innate nature, then I feel like that’s honoring God, honoring the pigness of the pig.

Caroline: Except when they get out!

Jen: It’s a lot harder to deal with animals when you’re grazing them. There have been moments where I thought, “Oh, this is why people have CAFOs and feedlots, because the farmer’s day is easy. You just run your machine and feed them and you’re done.”

Bryce: Moving the cattle is very peaceful. We had hundreds and hundreds of monarch butterflies come through here again this year. Even after the cattle graze – they don’t eat it all – there’s still clover there for the monarchs. It’s just the interrelatedness of everything. It just feels like a spiritual experience. And it’s way more a spiritual experience than you would get trying to get the animals to do something that they weren’t supposed to do in the first place.

Monarch butterflies find sanctuary at the Riemers farm – trees for resting in and clover for energy.

Nathan: This is going to sound like a weird question. Do the animals seem happy? Or is that completely anthropomorphic?

Jen: I think they’re happy. The sheep, when they get led into a new paddock, they’ll like literally leap, even big nine-, ten-month old lambs. They’ll still do that. They’re happy.

Bryce: Our cattle especially are. They’re happy now because they’re healthy. They’re happy. They stay healthy. They’re shiny. They’re gaining weight and they don’t beller. Cattle beller when they’re hungry. They’ll complain.

Nathan: “Beller?”

Jen: It’s not like a moo. It’s like a scream. Turkeys will make noise when they’re happy, but generally a quiet animal is a happy animal. If you have a bunch of noisy animals, they’re upset about something.

Nathan: So speaking of the livestock being happy, are they healthy? I’ve heard that with rotational grazing animals stay healthier. Is the case for your cattle?

Bryce: Absolutely. My dad used to have a regular vet who would always come. We had to have the vet this year twice because of some pink eye. Everybody struggled with that this year, but it was only 20% of the herd. Other than that, we have not had any vet issues in the last year.

Jen: Sheep tends to get parasites. We have breeds that are pretty parasite-resistant, so we don’t have to deal with that as much. We move them every three days, especially when it’s hot and humid in the summer, because that’s the parasite cycle. Otherwise they could go back into the same grass and ingest the same parasite that they’ve pooped out. We are very good about keeping them ahead of the parasite cycle so they’re not going to reinfect themselves. Every sheep or goat carries a small load of parasites pretty much no matter what. So movement is key to animal health. And that’s why we were a little late to this interview – we were moving sheep.

Nathan: You have been living on the edge, trying new things, transitioning the farm, raising kids all at the same time. Have you learned things about the faith and has your faith grown because of the way you farmed?

Jen: Well, honestly, part of what I’ve learned, and I’m not going to articulate this well, has been endurance. It’s been a long stretch. There’s been a lot of blessings and a lot of moments where it’s like, “Yeah, God, this is what we are meant to do, and this is what we need to do.” And other times I have literally said, “I really don’t like farming today. Like today really sucks. Things are not going right.”

I say it to myself usually or out loud if I’m alone. It’s Murphy’s Law. It seems like when there’s a rough stretch, it is like all at the same time and it’s hard. But there’s not ever a thought of “I’m done” or “We need to do something else. I give up.” That’s kind of from faith. I’ve struggled at times recently. It’s like, “This is hard. I’m not feeling it.” But we keep moving and keep doing. We move forward because that’s what I want to do and what I know to do. That’s not profound.

Bryce: Being on the edge can be lonely. There’s not a lot of fellowship out here on the edge, which makes us feel like pulling everybody else closer to the edge and saying, “Why aren’t you out here taking more chances?” You know we’re dealing with people that most Christians don’t deal with, whether it’s a business or neighborhood or in town hall meetings and with customers. So we have connections to so many people. It’s a big opportunity to influence, whether it’s our social media followers or through our newsletters.

As far as the faith, there’s a chance to demonstrate it every day. Before we were doing this, when we had regular jobs and went to regular church, we would hear stuff in church and wonder if we’d ever get an opportunity to do that with somebody. Now, there are situations with people in our lives where we can demonstrate what we believe.

One of the ways God’s love has been expressed through the Riemer family has been the way they have made Anastasia (on the left) part of their family when she needed both work and a place to know love and family connection.

Nathan: Psalm 23 talks about the Lord being our shepherd, and Jesus referred to himself as the good shepherd. You have sheep. Does raising sheep make you think differently about when God compares us to sheep?

Kalena: When the Bible talks about how the sheep follow the shepherd, it really is true. And it’s kind of cool to be able to compare that to what we see every day.

Jen: Well, Ellie is really the shepherd of our sheep, and they will respond to her differently than they will to anyone else. We don’t even call them, because if she calls them in a loud voice, they will be like, “Oh, that’s where we go!” It’s just pretty cool. They know her differently from the rest of us.

The Riemers sort sheep as a family.

Nathan: One of my favorite Christian authors is Dallas Willard. In The Divine Conspiracy, he talks about why the early Christians called themselves the Way and what Jesus was about in his life. He was trying to help us understand how the universe really works. God put certain things in place and certain ways of living. And if we’re in alignment with God, even in a broken world, that will bring greater harmony than if we go against God’s pattern, the framework he’s put into the universe. And so one of the things that it’s occurred to me is that with rotational grazing you’re essentially mimicking the pattern of how the natural world works and when you do that, you get healthy animals and healthy food. We don’t have to fight against the universe. We can work with it, if we’re creative and we’re willing to put in some extra effort.

Bryce: Yes, the spiritual and the natural can all line up. You don’t have to fight the system, but the system we do have to fight is the economic system. If it just paid a farmer well enough to be able to go do it (the sustainable way), then everyone would do it the way it’s designed to be done. But right now it’s just hard to do that.

Nathan: What temptations do the conventional farming system offer that make it hard to go the way you’re going?

Jen: Crop insurance – guaranteed prices for things. You can grow a losing crop year after year after year and still make money from the government. It’s mind-blowing really. It’s easier. You buy your seeds from the feed guy. You buy your fertilizer from the fertilizer guy, and you take everybody’s recommendations. You can even hire somebody else to drive the tractor to plant it.

But we’re making hard decisions most days on either production or financials or just when to make hay and bale it. It’s constant, which is not the case with the commodity farm.

Bryce: It’s not farming anymore. Creating jobs and creating work – no, you’ve got to have more technology and bigger machines, so you don’t have to have more jobs. And now it’s CBF – corn, beans, Florida. You don’t want to have to be tied down to all these animals and the old ways of doing stuff.

The temptation used on me to do conventional farming came from the Confined Animal Feed Operation (CAFO) people. When they first were getting to know us and first made their pitch they said, “Why don’t you just sell us your corn silage (that gets harvested a lot earlier than fuel corn)? And then you’re done for the year and you can go buy your Corvette.”

How could I refuse the allure of being done early and Corvette shopping, instead of doing all this other work?

Jen: Which also implies that they had all the answers and they were actually going to pay a fair wage, which we all know is not really the case.

Nathan: So since you mentioned the CAFO, can you share how the struggle against the CAFO operation that has ultimately been built just down the road has challenged your faith? (By way of context, the Riemers, with Jen taking the lead, were part of a years-long community effort to try to stop a dairy factory farm from being built less than a mile from their farm. They were ultimately unsuccessful. Sadly, our government tends to serve business interests far more than long-term community interests. Here is an article that explains more about the issues surrounding diary CAFOs in Wisconsin.)

Bryce: The CAFO is a chapter of our lives that that changed our lives in big ways. It impacted our faith. We were here farming, and, at least in our opinion, we were Christians. And when they came in, it actually rattled us to the point where we thought that somebody else’s bad decisions might prevent us from being able to always be here farming and just be Christians farming.

That’s when the faith became real, the Bible came alive. Because the ideas of going through these tribulations and being that affected by other people’s negativity/stupidity made us have to face the fact that we were holding onto this farm too tightly. It was maybe before God. And then we realized that if this is God’s, he can take it from us, just like he gave it to us, then we need to give it up to God, consecrate it, and say, “It’s yours. If you want us to farm here, we will. We will do it in a way that follows your calling and gives you the glory. And if not, we’ll go do something else.”

This is an aerial photo of Pinnacle Dairy, the dairy CAFO right down the road from the Riemer Family Farm. Six thousands cows will ultimately be housed inside the long buildings. The rectange at the top left is a manure pit which government authorities are allowing to be uncovered.

Nathan: So you had that peace of mind even as you, especially Jen, were leading the community fight against it.

Bryce: Well, it took me a little while to get there. We really had anguish.

Jen: It took me a longer while. It was pretty annoying, actually, when Bryce got the vision a lot earlier than I did. It felt like giving up in that I’m holding so tightly to this thing that I must keep holding tightly to. And it just got to the point of exhaustion. And I finally it was like, “Ok. Well, I’m obviously not in charge here, so this needs to be held loosely, and we’ll move on from here.”

Bryce: It’s kind of confusing at times about how to know how hard to fight for something that you believe is right versus God’s will is going to come through in the end no matter what. It was hard because Jen was the leader of this group. So she had people out there, and so she felt pressure to be that leader and keep going. Yet we knew that God was in control, but the people that she was leading didn’t really know that or believe that. So it was really hard.

Jen: Especially at the end when the greater tension ended up being between our people and what the next steps ought to be. That was the hardest part. It was infighting. People had really good intentions. But they just disagreed about when to say enough is enough and we need to move on or when to bet the house and get a second mortgage and hire a bigwig lawyer and take the CAFO owners to court.

There was a lot that went into that decision, but that was the hard part at the end. Logically, taking it to court didn’t make a lot of sense. Honesty, we were two, three years in (I don’t even know – it was all a blur), and at that point I just saw that we were not going to win. And I was like, “I cannot do this for the next five years.” Because that’s what it would have been. My family came first. My faith came first. I would have lost the farm by doing that for five more years.

Bryce: I was trying to encourage her by saying that it’s a victory if we stay true to Jesus and have a good witness to people and make people wonder why we’re not upset no matter what, whether the CAFO farm comes in or not. The farm coming is not a defeat. The victory is staying true to what we believe in and not losing our integrity. And Jesus is in control of the ultimate destiny of that farm.

Nathan: At the same time, it’s a fact that the laws and economic system of our country enable that CAFO and other CAFOs to do what they do to communities, animals, and God’s earth. That’s just one thing that make me question whether we are truly a Christian country. The prophets in the Old Testament talked a lot about how the rich and powerful did awful things. The CAFO and the law system that enable CAFOs to go in are examples of our society being run by the rich and powerful against the interests of the vulnerable who God really cares about.

Jen: Absolutely. And it’s done under the guise of them being the good guys doing the right thing. The ones that write the statutes are the staff of the Department of Natural Resources. They hand CAFO owners everything that they need to get these things built. And it’s like, “Wait a second! You’re the guys that are supposed to be protecting rivers and my drinking water, but you’re not.” I don’t say that to diminish all of the DNR staff and all of the things that they do. That’s the reality – the job of the DNR is to permit CAFOs. Who decided that?

Pigs on pasture at the Riemer Family Farm. Pigs, which are highly intelligent animals, do not get the opportunity to enjoy fresh air and to express their “pigness” in factory farm buildings of CAFOs.

Nathan: I’ve heard a number of people call farming a calling like some people feel called to be pastors. Do you feel like farming is a calling for all of you as a family?

Kalena: I, at this point, feel very called to mission in the future. Maybe I could help people farm this way in other countries and still be a missionary.

Bryce: Well, I’m third generation so it’s not like I heard a calling and went to be a farmer. I would have to hear a pretty strong calling not to be a farmer.

Elli: You did not want the farm in college. It was a calling when you woke up to it.

Bryce: Yes. But ultimately selling the farm and letting it go would have been a tough decision. I do feel it’s where I’m supposed to be. I feel more in God’s plan and will now than I ever have. This opportunity to farm is the culmination of all the other things I’ve been doing.

Jen: Well, I think it’s a calling that’s developed. I don’t think one of us could say there has been a strong moment. It’s been a road. It’s been a journey. We’ve kind of planted these seeds. We can’t go back and flick them out of the ground.

Elli: I feel called to protect the environment, probably due to this farm, but it wouldn’t have to be through farming.

Nathan: Have you had spiritual experiences while farming?

Jen: I’d say the roosting of monarchs is pretty spiritual, actually.

Elli: And there’s like hundreds of finches across our road right now because of the sunflowers we planted. It’s crazy to see them all fly.

Bryce: Since school has started this year, we’re all homeschooling. We’re farming together every morning, and we go out as a team and a family and do all the work and then school the rest of the day on good days. My point is that we start the day together for the first time as a whole family. We have a meeting every morning, and we plan the day. We also do devotions, read, and pray together. It’s been really a great opportunity for our family to stay together. I guess that’s not technically while we’re farming, but it’s because of farming

Kalena: It’s happened a couple of times where it’s cloudy but then there’s an opening, and it seems like the sun is showering down right on our farm. And that’s really cool. I kind of think of it like God is just looking down on our farm. And just to look out over the pasture sometimes – it’s like, “Wow! It’s beautiful to see what God meant the land to look like.”

Jen: For me, too, it is energizing to be with the life, the fundamentals of life. And I think that’s the thing with the butterflies and the finches. It’s like the wholeness of the system and the vibrancy. Especially in contrast to our neighbors’ fields right now that are totally bare, because they’ve got corn silage. So it’s bare dirt when everything could be bright green. It’s just this contrast.

I’m an emotive person, so I see that and I’m just like, “Oh, this is horrible!” And then I got into my field and it’s like, “Butterflies! This is nice.” It’s energizing. A creation worshiper would worship that scene, but we worship because it’s a gift from God.

Nathan: Could you give me a brief overview of how the land has been transformed over time through your farming?

Elli: I remember when it was corn and beans. The field would be barren for like half the year. Now there’s always something green or very colorful on it. We never have bare soil anymore. We make hay off of it and that’s pretty much the only thing we do. So we’re not planting or harvesting anything really either. We’re always covering the ground.

We’re surrounded by bare fields (their neighbors’ fields) right now. Dust is flying off of it. There’s no more top soil all around us.

Bryce: My dad had beef cattle, and so he grazed them. He had a cow-calf herd and finished out some cattle on grain. But he didn’t rotationally graze. So the pasture was really short in a lot of areas and really tall and weedy in the others. It was 55 acres, so the cows and calves would walk from one end of the field to the other and back to the water and leave these paths everywhere. So there were ruts and whatnot from which the water would run off.

And so that was the pasture. And now there are no cow paths. There’s no weeds. And the tussocks are only where we want them to be in the old waterways and are providing frog habitat

And the whole farm now looks like that. My dad used to have corn and beans, which he would no-till, so there was no tillage going on, but it would involve spraying weeds. And then there were the alfalfa fields, the hay fields. There was always a constant battle with weeds.

And that’s one of the biggest transformations we noticed this year. Where are all of the weeds? Where are the thistles? Struggles we’ve had in the past just weren’t there this year.

Jen: And we’re running the cattle on another 129 acres. There’s no weeds. We do have some up north where the pigs are, because they’re pigs. But it (the lack of weeds in cattle pastures) is amazing.

Elli preparing to move cattle herd from one paddock to another. By rotationally grazing cattle on a regular basis, the cattle get a heathier diet and the vegetation has a chance to recover while also providing habitat for other living things of God’s earth.

Nathan:, I’ve often felt alone in my conviction that Creation matters, that it is part of the overall story told in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Have you felt alone at times in that conviction as well?

Elli: No church people helped in the CAFO fight. There are environmental people and church people, and the church people don’t really care. Our pastor is kind of getting there a little bit.

Kalena: And during the CAFO fight, there were other people you could talk to who shared the passion for the land, but for me it was mainly because of faith why I didn’t like the CAFO coming in, which I couldn’t really talk to with those people without being weird or being shut out again.

Jen: It was definitely two groups of people. I often get frustrated with every church potluck being full of really horrible food raised in really horrible ways. And the kids get all sorts of little plastic toys made in China by other kids. How can we be so passionate about our faith and not see this whole piece of discipleship?

Bryce: Well, I think this year it’s very clear that it’s political. You didn’t really think about it as much before, but everything is drawn as a line in the sand. Christian churchgoers have to be Republicans, and Republicans are supposed to not be environmentalist. So we have to close our eyes to that whole part of it.

Nathan: What advice do you have for Christians who aren’t farmers in terms of food and farming. What should they think about the food that they eat?

Kalena: They should think about what they’re buying. If they really want to live out their faith in every aspect, they have to think about every aspect.

Elli: Just start thinking about it. That will get you a whole lot farther than you are now.

Jen: I think the word I was looking for before was integrity. If I proclaim Christ, but I do these other things that are not Christ-like then I think we need to think about that more. I think that there are, like Bryce is saying, certain issues that have this elevated priority over the big picture of whole planet health because that’s not what we’re supposed to talk about. But I think that we neglect and we leave off the table this whole depth of what we can be as Christians when we limit our issues that we’re going to care about to abortion and welfare or whatever.

We need holistic management in our hearts.

Bryce: Everything that people eat was alive. And so people need to think about what their food came from. Did it live in a way that it was created to? If they can just start asking that question, they can decide for themselves where to come up with budget changes to find the money to pay for food that is God-honoring.

During the pandemic, many people have had new appreciation for the value of healthy food that is also good for God’s earth. Demand has been strong for the Riemer’s meat. They’ve made available online ordering and on-farm pickups.

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Living Rightly with God’s Earth – Part 1

Nathan Aaberg —  October 3, 2019 — Leave a comment

When I spoke to the North Suburban Mennonite Church earlier this summer, I joked that I had been tempted to shared a list of 700 ways for living rightly on God’s earth. 

Surprisingly enough, several members said they actually wanted such detailed guidance. So I promised to gather my thoughts and advice and share them. With this post I begin to fulfill that promise to a wonderful group of people.

I am dividing my list of suggestions into three areas with a separate post for each. This first epic post is about aligning our everyday habits of living out our faith as it relates to God’s earth. In the second I’ll address how you and I can act for God’s earth beyond our families at the larger scale of our communities, nations, and world.

The third post may surprise you. Its focus will be growing our hearts and minds in relation to God and Creation. I fundamentally believe that our ability to be a good shepherd of God’s earth is shaped in large part by the state of our hearts and the perspective of our minds.

One of the challenges to living out God’s ways in any dimension of our lives is our tendency to allow energetic commmitment to turn into perfectionistic zeal. The reality, however, is that we and everyone else around us will fall short of holiness. What’s more, navigating the complex ways we interact with God’s earth every day in a complex society makes pure living as it relates to God’s earth especially hard to do. 

Striving to live rightly with God’s earth will put you and I in that paradoxical space where grace, faith, an understanding of the tragic fallibility of people, and a fierce hunger for holiness and God’s kingdom all come together. We somehow need to be tenacious and committed without becoming humorless, judgmental, puritanical  zealots who put our attention to God’s earth above all other Christians values. We must give ourselves and others room to get better over time and make mistakes.

This is not easy. We will experience a rollercoaster of emotions in that paradoxical space. We will need God’s help to live out God’s ways with glad and sincere hearts.

WAYS OF LIVING

In Atomic Habits, James Clear writes: “Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

Cover of Atomic Habits book

The fact that you are reading this indicates that you and your family want to be people who preserve, defend, and renew God’s Creation as part of a whole Christian faith. That means creating habits. Habits are intentions translated into consistent actions.

From my experience, changing habits takes an initial investment of energy, new thinking, and change. As we know from physics, it takes energy to move a body out of a state of inertia. The good news, however, is that once new habits are in place, they will become, well, habits and have an inertia of their own. They will become automatic. Once they are automatic, you can free yourself up to be involved in the protection and renewal of God’s earth at a larger scale in a focused way. I would encourage you to read Atomic Habits to gain insights into practical ways you can build positve habits of any kind.

Your changes will not go unnoticed. You will stand out. The larger culture tends to praise us for changed behavior that fits what society appreciates, like fitness and health. But changing one’s life in a direction that challenges society because it honors God can lead to pushback. But that shouldn’t surprise us. What might surprise you is how putting a whole faith into action and facing challenges related to those actions can grow your trust and faith. You’ll also find that once you can create positive habits in one area of your life you’ll be able do so in other areas as well.

Choose Grace-Filled Food 

When you begin to think about the whole faith habits you want to build, start with food.

Our food choices are the single most important way we influence the condition of God’s earth. Three times a day (or more, of course, if you are like me or a hobbit), seven days a week we choose food to eat. That food has come from people using God’s earth. Our food choices make us part of either good systems of using God’s earth or ones that dishonor God. And oftentimes, the systems are somewhere in between.

As Wendell Berry wrote, “Eating is an agricultural act.” So choose, as best you can, to buy food that came from farms where the fruits of the spirit guided how the land and animals of that farm were treated. Choose to be part of agriculture that fits with the values of God’s Kingdom.

Saying Grace by Norman Rockwell - The food we eat should have been produced with grace.

In Good Eating Stephen Webb encourages Christians to consider if there is grace in the food we say grace over. Make it your habit to seek out grace-filled food. (Painting by Norman Rockwell – Saying Grace)

This is not easy. The following are some tips and ideas.

Eat whole foods as much as possible: Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food does a good job of laying out the value of eating foods that are actually food, not processed food-like substances.

Avoid meat from factory farms and fish from fish farms: Factory farms (otherwise known as confined animal feeding operations) are not built on the fruits of the spirit. You will not find love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in those places. Factory farms are also awful to neighbors living nearby.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of meat, eggs, and dairy you’ll find in grocery stores and restaurants come from factory farms. These factory farms can be buildings where the animals spend their whole lives or feedlots where cattle spend some of their lives. This means we need to do extra work to find ethically raised animal products.

Look for certifications that give you extra assurance. This article introduces you to certification options and their relative strengths.  Also look to buy from local livestock farmers who can tell you exactly how they raise their animals.

Be thoughtful, too, in your fish purchases. Do not buy farmed fish. Buy sustainably raised fish. (I cannot help but be increasingly alarmed, by the way, by the prospect of fish increasingly absorbing plastic from the oceans.)

Seek out plant foods grown with fruits of the spirit: Consider carefully where your other food, especially the food you eat the most of, comes from as well. Annual crops like wheat, corn, and soy beans, which dominate our agricultural landscape, are often grown in ways that, again, are at complete odds with the fruits of the spirit.

Here are two examples of farm chemicals used widely on annual crops that are incompatible with a Christian faith-life. Dicamba easily volatilizes and can damage crops, trees, and other vegetation more than 20 miles away from where it was first sprayed. Neonicitinoid pesticides are another example of human ingenuity gone badly wrong. Learn more here.

To avoid supporting the use of those chemicals and ingesting chemicals like them, I encourage you to look for organic products where possible. I also have deep concerns about GMOs as there is no testing or regulation of them. Buying organic foods or foods with the Non GMO Project label are good ways to avoid them.

Buy Local: By buying food from local farmers we reduce pollution from transportation and build up your local community’s economy. However, making the decision between buying food from an exceptionally grace-filled farm far away (like Wild Idea Buffalo) or buying food that is moderately sustainable but grown very close by can be a difficult one. Do the best you can.

Last thoughts: First, I would encourage you to make your first food habit changes with the 2-3 foods you eat the most of. If your family eats a lot of bread, for example, find a good organic bread (and it’s even better if it’s from your local area or region) and start buying that.

Second, surprisingly enough, choosing to buy food that is compatible with the fruits of the spirit and the value of Creation to God is healthier for you and your family. This is another reminder that the kingdom of God is a wonderful, life-giving state of being.

Third, buying truly good food is usually more expensive. This shouldn’t be surprising. Nor should that fact deter you.

Anything that is important to do well (like relationships and parenting) takes more effort, time, and investment. Your family’s health, the fianncial health of farmers and farm workers, and the health of God’s earth are all very important. Doing right by all of them creates a fundamental tension with the push to offer food as cheaply as possible.

You can find creative ways to figure out how to make God-honoring food fit into your budget. Start by eating out less. Live more simply in general. Again, within the limits of your situation, do the best you can in creative ways and prioritize where you can make the most difference.

Fourth, there are some people who care deeply for God’s earth who believe we should not eat any meat. After many years of being a vegetarian, I’ve come to a more nuanced conclusion. This is partly because the studies that generally state that beef production, for example, are bad for the climate don’t distinguish between sustainable cattle grazing and conventional approaches. Here’s an article that highlights the complexities.

I’ve also come to see that the most soil-building forms of food farming always, like nature, integrate animals for fertility and other benefits.  Animals can be cherished partners in rejuvenating the world. We should, of course, do all we can to avoid meat that is raised and slaughtered in ways counter to the fruits of the spirit. And because meat raised with the fruits of the Spirit will be more expensive, we will likely need to eat less meat. But life is on this earth is inherently paradoxical and built on sacrifice. I’ve come to an uneasy peace with the idea of conscious, conscientious consumption of meat.

Fifth, we should be careful not to judge the character of the many farmers using conventional methods. As I wrote in this blog post, American farmers today work within a system that pulls and pushes them towards using chemicals and valuing production volume over all else. Most are decent, hard-working people. Many are Christian who have been immersed in the theology of dominion and the corporate-supported slogan of “feeding the world.”

Finally, food is at the heart of culture and sociability. Be senstive in how you handle your ethics in other settings when you are offered hospitality. Not everyone sees the linkage between trying to live ethically as part of a faith-life and our interactions with God’s earth.

Bring Life to Your Land

You likely have control or input over how a particular piece of God’s earth is treated. This could be your yard. It could be farmland you farm. It could be land you own that someone else uses for farming or some other activity. Or even be the common spaces of a condominium in which you live or at the church which you attend.

Trail scene in Prairie Crossing. Living rightly on God's earth means carefully using each patch of Creation carefully.

People can bring life to their land on their own home properties and even to the land of whole communities. This is a part of the Prairie Crossing conservation community in Grayslake, Illinois, where I live. Prairies and other natural habitat have been extensively restored, providing habitat for the life of God’s earth.

The more control you have over a piece of land the more effort and thought you should give to having it stewarded in ways that honor God and promote God’s glory. For yards and common spaces, planting native plants and avoiding the use of chemicals as much as possible is key. For farmland, use practices that promote life, especially the life of the soil. These include using cover crops, regenerative grazing, longer rotations (corn-beans-wheat is a longer rotation than just corn and beans), and converting some areas to perennial plants. Whether you’re a farmer, a farmland owner, or both, you’ll be inspired by these words from Christian farmer Joel Salatin.

Reduce and Eliminate Harmful Chemicals

Look for safe alternatives to chemicals for cleaning your home and caring for your lawn. Baking soda and vinegar are surprisingly useful.

Reduce Use of Resources

Energy is a good place to start here. Find ways to reduce your use of energy in every form. Find ways to use renewable energy.

Avoid using disposable items whenever possible. My wife Mayumi, for example, bought us a camping backpack with plates, cups, and utensils. We can bring this to events where people would otherwise use plastic utensils and paper plates. Buy products made with recycled and/or compostable materials. Buy products that will last rather than cheap products that you’ll need to replace much sooner. Try to live close to work so you use fewer resources going back and forth and have more time for family and other life pursuits.

Live Simply

The simpler the way you live the richer your actual life even as you have less impact on God’s earth. Do without whenever you can. Walk or bike when you can. Observe a Sabbath. Value experiences over material goods.

Pray for God’s Earth and Those who Protect It

If we believe that prayer matters and is heard by God, then we should be praying for Creation. We should also pray for the people, like farmers, who use it every day. Urge God to open their hearts so they will be attentive to the fate of God’s life in their hands.

Finally, we should pray for the people who are trying to understand and protect God’s earth. The scientists who are paying attention to the degradation of natural systems and the advocates who are speaking up face many difficulties. They often grieve deeply when they see the earth’s life diminished and destroyed. Because they stand in the way of greed and power, defenders of the earth often face death.

Use Money with a God Filter

This principle applies to food and materials. For example, choose products (like computers) designed to  be easily recycled. Avoid buying products with palm oil unless it has been sourced sustainably. Avoid products with plastic packaging where possible. Try to support companies that do their best to ethically produce the goods and services you need. Consider whether they treat people and Creation well.

Green Burial

Let your body do what it’s designed to do – return to dust. The traditional approach to burial use bad news for God’s earth. Cremation is one option. Another is green burial where your body is allowed to decompose naturally. The very best option along these lines is what is called conservation burial, where the green burial takes place in a natural setting that is being actively managed for conservation. The number of these kinds of cemeteries is growing, but they can still be hard to find.

Choosing natural burial is a strong statement of your faith and your life principles. It is the punctuation mark for how you have tried to live.

Share Your Joy of Creation

Earlier this summer I heard a harsh, loud sounds coming from our bur oak tree in our yard. I didn’t recognize the sounds. I thought it might be an upset squirrel or a large bird I didn’t know. While looking in the tree, I saw a small bird moving about. Even though the bird was opening and closing its beak in a way that corresponded with the sounds I literally couldn’t believe that this small bird (a house wren) could responsible for such a large auditory impact. I had to share that story and I did.

Share your joy of Creation with others, both Christians and non-Christians. When friends go on vacations to places with significant wildness, for example, ask them what wildlife they saw.

What’s the point? We don’t live in isolation. We shape the mindset and culture of people around us by what we talk about and show pleasure in. Be an agent of change in the family and community culture of which you are part.

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Isolated No More – The First Gathering

Nathan Aaberg —  October 14, 2018 — 2 Comments

Group of people from the gathering walk down Riemer Road

I’ve known for some time that I needed to take a step beyond this blog. Intentions became actions when I organized a gathering of fellow Christians who care deeply about God’s earth on a Sunday late in September. I thought you’d like to read about it.

Thanks to the hospitality of Jen and Bryce Riemer, we gathered at the Riemer Family Farm in Brodhead, Wisconsin. Our potluck featured delicious food: fresh salads, Indian lentils, meatballs made from the pasture-raised animals of the Riemers’ farm, Asian pears, zucchini bread, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies made by the Riemers’ daughters.

While we ate and for awhile after, we shared our faith journeys and how our lives have been shaped by the conviction that God’s earth is of great value and importance. All of us were hungry to do this. All of us also shared the rewards and challenges of living out this conviction.

The attendees included a couple who have been running an ecologically-minded tree care company for decades, the director of community relations from the Au Sable Institute, an artist who is also the volunteer steward of two natural areas in Lake County, a land manager for a forest preserve district, a non-profit staff member working to promote sustainable farming (me), an occupational therapist who also gardens organically and teaches tai chi, and an organic grain farmer.

Later, I shared ideas I have on what collective action we could take going forward. In the discussion that followed, there was general consensus that we need to start with gathering together as a network. Through this network we can find ways to inspire each other, support each other, and even take action together. We closed this portion of the event with heartfelt prayer.

Jen and Bryce then led us on a tour of their farm fields where land long farmed in corn and beans is being converted to perennial pasture for rotational grazing of livestock. Rotational grazing on well-managed pasture has a multitude of benefits. It is good for the land and water, for habitat, for the health of the animals, and for the quality of the meat.

About 400 yards away, we could see a massive dairy factory farm’s new metal structures and barren earth. As this industrial farm facility gears up to full operating capacity, it will eventually house 6,000 cows. These living creatures of God will be kept inside 24/7 365 days a week to maximize efficiency and productivity. The contrast with the Riemer’s farm could not have been more stark.

For three years, the Riemers had led the local fight against the startup of this dairy Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) to try to prevent the damage to community and environment that they bring. This fight was ultimately unsuccessful. Its operations, which are not even at full scale yet, have already forced a neighboring family to move because their their children couldn’t breathe.

Yet, the Riemers have shown amazing grace and are seeing other opportunities to grow sustainable, humane, God-honoring farming out of the situation.

A highlight of our touring was when we passed the trees on the edges of the Riemers’ fields. Clouds of monarch butterflies flew up from the branches of the trees and all around us. The trees offered shelter for the monarchs as they rested together during their long southward migration. This was a fitting benediction to the day.

Thoughts and Insights

Several thoughts and realizations emerged from the gathering and from our conversations:

* The vast majority of people (and not just Christians) are profoundly disconnected from Creation and how it works.

* A feeling of isolation is common for Christians like us. The Au Sable director shared how many of the friends of Au Sable that he had been visiting have started crying when asked why they supported the Institute. They cried because Au Sable is one of the few outlets they have for being part of a Christian community that values Creation.

• We have felt the judgment of other Christians. Stories were told of other Christians suspiciously assuming that if one cared about God’s earth and acted to protect it then one was almost certainly on the road to becoming an earth worshipper and abortion rights supporter.

* Why is it that secular scientists and advocates are the ones mobilizing people to address the destruction being done to God’s earth on an epic scale and not churches and Christians?

* Sharing the message that God’s earth matters to God should be done with patient grace. Zealous judgmentalism will not help.

* Despite the many challenges, we were also reminded of the power of God to change hearts and transform lives. We heard of a Christian farmer who is now in the process of transitioning his 2,200-acre operation to organic methods. He chose to do this, in part, because of his children’s interest and desire to see Creation treated well.

*Our time of fellowship was deeply meaningful. One participant said, “I don’t want to leave and never see you all again.”

Another gathering is in the works. If you are in the Midwest and would like to be invited to the next one, please email me at naaberg19 at gmail.com. If you’re not in the Midwest, know that we hope to share what we learn from these gatherings. We would hope, too, that other groups of Christians will organize similarly elsewhere.

I don’t know where this is going exactly. But, with God’s help, it will keep going.

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A Letter to the Pastors of Sonny Perdue and Scott Pruitt

Nathan Aaberg —  May 11, 2018 — 2 Comments

I’ve noticed that by and large the culture of Christians who care about God’s earth is one of love, kindness, patience, and thoughtfulness. A byproduct of this culture, however, can sometimes be the tendency to avoid speaking truth in love to other Christians who cause needless harm to God’s earth. 

So how do we respond to Sonny Perdue and Scott Pruitt?  These two prominent Christians are in positions of leadership at the nexus of economy, government policy, and God’s earth. From what I have seen, they often advance and maintain policies counter to our convictions. Their decisions, their actions, and their inaction dwarf any smaller efforts of ours.

Will we continue to be polite and courteous and avoid the elephant in the room? Or do we speak up in a way that contains truth in proportion to the scale of the harm being done? And how do we do that while still being Christian?

The open letter below to the pastors of Sonny Perdue and Scott Pruitt is my best attempt. I chose to address the pastors because I believe that churches hold responsibility for the way their members, especially prominent members, live out their faith.

Dear Pastors Nick Garland and JIm Perdue:

I am having a hard time understanding something. I hope you can help me.

You are the pastors of Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator for the United States, and Sonny Perdue, the Secretary of Agriculture. These members of your churches profess their Christian faith sincerely and prominently. Secretary Perdue even described this opportunity to serve our county as a call from God.

What I have a hard time understanding is how they came to believe that serving Jesus in their lives of leadership meant going along with policies that serve powerful economic interests at the cost of harming vulnerable people and spoiling God’s earth.

Can you help me understand that?

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt standing at podium

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (photo courtesy of US Environmental Protection Agency)

I know those words sounds harsh and judgmental. I would guess that you and your congregation feel pride that members of your churches would reach such high levels of accomplishment. You are probably already dismissing me as one of “those” Christians.

But please hear me out. I want to speak what I believe is the truth in love. I believe it is important for Christians to see God’s will done on earth. I believe it is especially important that Christians who are prominent live out a whole Christian faith their words and deeds that is an attractive testimony to the Christian faith.

Secretary Perdue recently called a jury award in the case of people around a factory farm in North Carolina “despicable.” As you may know, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) holds thousands of farm animals together in factory-like buildings. Agriculture industry leaders point out these factories give our economy cheap meat. But what is not considered in the cheap prices is the cruelty to God’s animals. Nor do the cheap prices make up for the large streams of waste generated by the confined animals that often pollute streams and foul ground water that neighbors downstream need for drinking.

Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (photo courtesy of the USDA)

Did you know that most antibiotics today are not consumed by people but are given to animals, especially those in factory farms, because they promote unnaturally fast animal growth? This overuse is leading to the outbreak of strains of bacteria, like Staphylococcus aureus (known as MRSA), that are resistant to antibiotics. This is leading to the painful deaths of thousands, like 18-month old Simon Macario in Chicago.

CAFO farms also generate awful smells that cause misery to their neighbors while reducing their property values. Oftentimes, the neighbors of CAFOs are poor and minorities who find it harder to get justice and protection.

CAFOs are just a symptom of our industrial agriculture system. This system has generated great productivity. It has also compromised our public health and God’s earth and emptied out our rural towns. In many ways, as John Ikerd has pointed out, this system has put priority on faith in the market economy over faith in God and over concern for the wellbeing of our neighbors and God’s earth. I have not seen any indication that Secretary Perdue has wrestled with these questions and our country’s industrial approach to agriculture.

For his part, Administrator Pruitt has consistently looked to weaken restraints on business that have otherwise protected people and God’s land, water, and wildlife. A recent example was his decision to exempt Foxconn’s planned 20-million square foot electronics plant in southeastern Wisconsin from rules in place to reduce the emission of smog pollution that harms people’s lungs. This was despite the recommendations of his staff. Pruitt has also shown a consistent tendency to favor powerful industries, even to the point of ethical transgressions.

What you and I have in common is faith in Jesus. Through this belief and trust, the Spirit begins to transform every dimension of our hearts and our lives.

One of the concepts that Jesus taught was that fruit in the form of words and deeds revealed the condition of a person’s heart. Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt profess their Christian faith emphatically. But I see the fruits revealed in key policies they are responsible for to be counter to the God I see in the Bible.

As I know you know, there is a consistent theme throughout the Bible of God’s concern for the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized. These were the people to whom Jesus reached out. Prophets spoke against powerful people like Ahab and Jezebel who misused their power to rob vulnerable people of their integrity and what had been promised them by God. In Psalm 104 and in Job we also see God concerned with and revealed in all of Creation, the Creation that God included in this covenant with Noah in Genesis 9.

So I have sincere questions for you:

Do you believe that what your members are doing in their public roles as it relates to God’s earth and vulnerable people is God’s will?

If yes, is that because of the concept of dominion you teach? Have you considered the nuances of the whole Bible as it relates to our relationship to God’s earth? Have you considered God’s model for dominion over us as seen in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection?

If yes, is that because you believe that God would never allow things he cared about to be destroyed or harmed? Am I wrongly reading Jesus’ response to the Tempter in Matthew 4:7, which shows that God does not exist to save us from purposeful folly?

Will you address Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt and urge them to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit and demonstrate their first allegiance to God’s ways rather than to the interests of the powerful?

Are you concerned that the actions and words of Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt might be the reason people who naturally respond to the beauty of God’s earth are being turned away from coming to faith in Jesus? Could these people know in their hearts the truth that it is wrong to do unnecessary violence to the beauty and complexity of God’s order in Creation?

Francis Shaeffer wrote, “Thus God treats His Creation with integrity: each thing in its own order, each thing the way He made it. If God treats His creation in that way, should we not treat our fellow-creatures with similar integrity? If God treats the tree like a tree, the machine like a machine, the man like a man, shouldn’t I, as a fellow-creature, do the same thing – treating each thing in integrity in its own order? And for the highest reason: because I love God – I love the One who has made it! Loving the Lover who has made it, I have respect for the thing He has made.”

If you look closely you will find that many of the policies of the Department of Agriculture and of the EPA under Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt do not have respect for the things God has made.

What does God make of that?

Above all, can you help Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt question the assumptions behind their policies?

They are in a unique positions to lead good stewardship of God’s earth and to reveal to millions of people what Christian stewardship really looks like. They could be amazing witnesses to the regenerative and restorative power that God offers us and offers the world.

You are their pastors. You are in unique positions to counsel them, open their hearts in humility and sensitivity, and give them the courage to consider carefully what kind of lives God would want them to lead. Without doubt, It takes courage to go against the principalities of this world who tempt bright and charismatic people with riches and crowns.

I know that Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt are probably very decent people in many respects. I know, too, this letter likely challenges how each of you and your churches read the Bible. It may challenge how you think about the connection between Christians, the economy, and the role of government. And I want you to know I know I don’t live out my Christian faith perfectly. I have failings. You could build a cabin with the logs in my eyes.

Nevertheless, please be open to whatever measure of God’s truth I have been able to include in this letter.

I hope, too, you will pray with me for the day when Christians are known for wholly transformed lives that testify to their love of God through their love of their neighbors and their energetic efforts to prosper the life of God’s good earth.

Sincerely,

Nathan Aaberg

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