“The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.” (Isaiah 41:17-18a)
Throughout the biblical text, the pattern is clear. When the people sin, the land suffers. When the land suffers, the people suffer. (Isaiah 41, Amos 5, Hosea 4)
We know that racism is sin. And so it too is connected to the health of the land. The suffering of the land is borne unequally by those who are marginalized, by those whose living space becomes collateral damage, whose water is left unprotected by forces beyond their control, those who systems are not designed to protect or benefit.
We know that all creation groans, waiting for the children of God to be revealed and for the restoration of all things (Romans 8). In this series, we will hear stories of the disproportionate effects of environmental degradation borne by people of color, and we will hear stories of God’s restoration and justice breaking into His world, sometimes through Christians and sometimes in spite of us. Let's learn together to think downstream.