Response to Dr. Theoharis

Abstract

Thank you Dr. Theoharis for your comments and especially for all the work you do to promote justice in the United States and the world. I respect and admire your ability to make good and necessary trouble in the world. I want to begin my comments with a question I believe undergirds Dr. Theoharis’ discussion – a question that has at its core the issue of ethics and politics. The question is How shall we dwell together? Typically, in Western political philosophies and theologies, this question is primarily, if not solely, the concern of and for human beings. Other species and the earth have not been considered and if they are, they are viewed instrumentally in terms of how other species and the earth can enhance human dwelling. Indeed, if we consider the systemic realities of neoliberal capitalism, militarism, nationalism, and the new imperialism, we observe not only how dwelling is undermined for billions of human beings, while privileging the dwelling of a small percentage of human beings, but also how the dwelling of other species is neglected, or worse, horrifically exploited. Famed biologist E. O. Wilson argues that over half of known species will be extinct by the end of this century as a result of human actions. And it is easy to imagine that human beings will have the dubious distinction of answering the question about dwelling in such a way that makes our own extinction possible. Unfortunately, we overlook the existential fact that the ethical and political aspects of human dwelling necessarily include and depend on other species and the earth itself. I think it is easy to name the culprits of the Anthropocene Age, namely neoliberal capitalism that is destroying the commons and the very notion of the common good.We can add other related systems such as nationalism with its narcissistic preoccupation about one group’s dwelling over all others, and militarism that extends the reach of new forms of imperialism in the twenty-first century. But in the time I have left, I want to shift to another problem – a problem that undergirds these systems and one that is closer to home, namely the problem of sovereignty. When I say closer to home, I am referring to scripture and its use, as well as theologies. Dr. Theoharis uses scripture, as we all do, to ground her points. For instance, Dr. Theoharis mentions, like many liberation theologians, God bringing God’s people out of Egypt. I suspect most of us do not think twice about this, yet our sovereignGod liberatedGod’s people throughhorrific and terroristic acts of violence against the Egyptian people and apparently with not an ounce of remorse. Add to this, the sovereign God’s command to the Israelites to use their armies to ethnically cleanse the socalled promised land. These stories of God’s sovereignty and liberating acts have been used