Hope for the web of life that is creation is within reach. In light of recent incendiary decisions handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), so much has happened since June 12, 1967, when Loving vs. Virginia concluded—with a unanimous SCOTUS vote—that Virginia’s inter-racial marriage ban had violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for equal protection under the law. The landmark civil rights case had profound implications for shifting an ancient domination paradigm rooted in assumed hierarchies of being, patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism, and an inherited socio-cultural and religious mandate that humans (and through the history of patriarchal interpretation, specifically, white males) should “have dominion over” and “subdue” Earth (Gen. 1:28). Anti-miscegenation laws had been in place in the United States since the colonial period, reflecting slavery considerations and the lawful transfer of humans considered “property.” The Loving case challenged the embedded claim to white male supremacy in such a way that it served as a precedent for Obergfell vs. Hodges in 2015, which found in favor of same-sex marriage. After the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergfell” (Griswold, re: contraception; Lawrence, re: sodomy laws; and Obergfell, re: same-sex marriage).
Many eco-feminist philosophers (e.g., Karen Warren, Carolyn Merchant and others) and biblical scholars (e.g., Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, Juliana Claasens, Theodore Hiebert and others) have for decades decried the persistent, erroneous patriarchal renderings of the Genesis 1:28 Hebrew terms radah (consistently translated as “have dominion over”) and kavash (ditto, “subdue”) as the command given by Adonai (G-d) to “ha-dama,” the Earth-creature in relation to the rest of creation. Persistent patriarchal interpretations of Genesis 1’s Priestly creation narrative have formed what theologian Elizabeth Johnson referred to as the “taproot” of the crisis of ecological devastation. Though Genesis 1’s creation story succeeds the earlier Yahwist narrative of creation in Genesis 2, in which human creatures care for and nurture creation as their primary vocation, Genesis 1 has persisted in biblical hermeneutics as the guiding interpretive matrix for subsequent interpretation of creation throughout history. It affects everything we (as inheritors of Western civilization) know or think we know about humanity and our right relationship with creation. Add to this the more ancient philosophical sources such as Aristotle’s fourth century B.C.E.’s Politics, in which the oft-quoted “women are deformed males … without a soul …” claim is found. Aristotle’s biology, anthropology and thoroughgoing misogyny has infused philosophical “bedrock” principles underpinning Western civilization, affecting everything from language, socio-cultural anthropology and practical norms, political philosophy, to legal and penal codes, and many other facets of “civilization” as we know it. Hierarchical patriarchy is embedded in religious, cultural, educational and political institutions. This is a presumed hierarchy that places humans (read, white male humans) at the apex over all creation, and according to its exponents, all creation must serve that paradigm because it is considered the “natural order,” or ordained by G-d.
What was handed to us as a pyramid is emerging as a web of intertwined roots. We are unraveling this great mass of mycelial networks, all dynamically interconnected roots beneath the surface of a mythological Tree of Life. Yes, we can even turn a tree or a human body into a systemic hierarchy! Christianity’s main architect, St. Paul, said it this way: “As it is, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ and the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I do not need you’” (1 Cor. 12:20–21). Elsewhere, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, nor is there male or female. You are all one in Christ” (Gal. 3:28). We are not the head of the body nor the canopy of the tree, not even the highest leaf. Yet we are so precious to the integrity of the whole. So is every being in the great web of Life.
We are learning much from what is unraveling or being deconstructed about the domination paradigm, including systems of subjugation, abuse of power, and “authority” conceived as “absolute control of one race, gender, or class over another.” Prophetic voices around the globe are crying out for a new paradigm, one that celebrates equal protection, egalitarian principles and the common good. “Loving” as an evolutionary and revolutionary paradigm is emerging beyond race, creed, gender and assumed hierarchies of being. Consider Beatrice Bruteau’s The Holy Thursday Revolution, in which dismantling systems of domination and subjugation is considered a Gospel mandate: “Love one another.” We are celebrating inter-dependence and tender care for all creation as a unified, fragile, interconnected whole. The paradigm of domination, shot through with subjugation of creation and all of creation’s denizens, is waning. Isn’t it time for Loving?
—Laura A. Weber, Ph.D., Prairiewoods associate director and retreats coordinator