Tag: religion

Making Biodiesel Kosher

  • Glycerin is a common ingredient in foods. It's made from fat from animals, or oil from vegetables. So automatically, there's kosher glycerin and non-kosher glycerin. (Photo courtesy of Wakefern CC-2.0)

The next time you’re near your cupboard, check for kosher food items.
The packages have specials symbols, like a “U” or a “K” with a circle around it.
The kosher label shows Jewish people the food was prepared with ingredients that meet religious guidelines.
Shawn Allee learned rabbis had to work overtime to keep kosher food separate from the byproduct of an alternative fuel.

Transcript

The next time you’re near your cupboard, check for kosher food items.
The packages have specials symbols, like a “U” or a “K” with a circle around it.
The kosher label shows Jewish people the food was prepared with ingredients that meet religious guidelines.
Shawn Allee learned rabbis had to work overtime to keep kosher food separate from the byproduct of an alternative fuel.

The world of futuristic alternative fuels got tangled up in ancient Hebrew food laws.
To understand how, I talk with a rabbi in the know … Sholem Fishbane of Chicago’s Rabbinical Council.

To start, I admit I don’t understand the key word: ‘Kashrut’ in Hebrew … or ‘kosher’ in English.

“How about your Yiddish?”

“Not so good.”

“Not so good, OK.”

“The word kosher means straight, correct. So when it comes to consumer items, and especially food, how does this play out?”

“The basic concept is that you are what you eat. You become the character of what you’re consuming.”

For example, in the Hebrew Bible, pigs are unclean, so pork’s not kosher.
But even some ‘clean’ foods are not kosher if you mix ’em …

“A very big thing in kosher is not to eat, uh … milk and meat together. meat representing death. milk representing life. Those are things that shouldn’t be coming together.”

So, you separate kosher food foods from non-kosher foods and even each other at times.

Well, Rabbi Fishbane’s job is to keep all this straight at big food factories.
He inspects food equipment and ingredients.

If everything’s kosher, he lets factories use the little “K” character on packages.

So, a few years ago, Rabbi Fishbane was at this factory, inspecting paperwork.

“All of a sudden you see an increase amount of glycerin receipts and hey, what’s going on? You usually have X amount a month and now it’s tripled.”

Glycerin is a common food ingredient, so Rabbi Fishbane thought, ‘no big deal.’
Until … he saw glycerin prices plummet, and his factories substituted it for more expensive ingredients.

“This is now a pattern. When we see a pattern, that’s when we get nervous.”

So, Rabbi Fishbane dialed up a teleconference with other rabbis.

They noticed the same thing … loads of cheap glycerin hitting the market.
The rabbis started sweating.

“glycerin has always been a kosher-sensitive item.”

This is one of the other rabbis on that conference call – Abraham Juravel of the Orthodox Union.

Glycerin keeps food sweet or moist.

It’s a clear, slick goo … and it’s made from oil or fat.

“The fat can be from animal or that fat can be from vegetable. and so automatically, there’s kosher glycerin and non-kosher glycerin. As a food ingredient it’s very common in all kinds of products. They actually use glycerin as a sweetener in certain candies.”

Rabbi Juravel started tracking down the source for all this new glycerin.
After some detective work, he found it was coming from factories that make biodiesel.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel made from oil or fat.

You chemically process the fat … and you get fuel for cars and trucks, but …

“What you’ll also get is very crude glycerine, which is the waste product.”

Several years ago, new biodiesel factories were popping up and they looked for whatever fat they could find … kosher or otherwise.

“So, they buy used oil that you fried french fries in, and who knows what else you fried in there. if you made french fries and then you also made southern fried chicken in that oil, then that oil’s not kosher.”

Again, if the oil’s not kosher … neither is the glycerin and whatever food glycerin goes into.

There is a happy ending here.

Rabbis worked overtime to keep non-kosher glycerin out of the kosher food supply, but they actually made biodiesel operations part of the solution.

Some factories switched to all-kosher oils, so now their waste guarantees a steady supply of religiously pure, kosher glycerin.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

Related Links

The New South, With a Tinge of Green

  • Some are calling Alabama the future 'green hub of the South.' (Photo source: Wikimedia Commons)

When Forbes Magazine ranked states
by their “greenness” the usual
suspects topped the list – Vermont,
Oregon, and Washington – all progressive
states known for their environmental
movements. Maybe not surprisingly,
seven out of the ten “least green”
states were in the South – the land
of coal mines and timber plots.
But as Tanya Ott reports,
there’s a growing environmental
movement down south and some of
its members might surprise you:

Transcript

When Forbes Magazine ranked states
by their “greenness” the usual
suspects topped the list – Vermont,
Oregon, and Washington – all progressive
states known for their environmental
movements. Maybe not surprisingly,
seven out of the ten “least green”
states were in the South – the land
of coal mines and timber plots.
But as Tanya Ott reports,
there’s a growing environmental
movement down south and some of
its members might surprise you:

(sound of cars driving past)

I’m standing in a vacant lot in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. I see overgrown weeds and closed businesses, but James Smith sees something entirely different. He’s President of an international company called Green Building Focus. When he looks at this lot, he sees an uptapped market. He wants to build an eco-industrial park here.

“There are many companies out there in other parts of the country who want to have access to the southeastern market, they realize it’s one of the fastest growing markets in the country. And if you draw a 500 mile radius around Birmingham you hit every major developing area in the southeast. It’s really the ideal location geographically to become a regional manufacturing hub for sustainable products.”

Alabama, a green hub of the south? This is the land of mega-churches and Republicans, not environmentalists.

“The federal trend over the last 10 years, longer than that, no doubt has been if you’re a Republican you can’t be an environmentalist.”


That’s Gil Rogers. He’s an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. He says nationally Republicans get a bad rap for denying climate change and trying to roll back the endangered species list. But at the state and local level, things are often different in the south.

“We have a lot of republican champions, as an example, in the Georgia legislature that are Republicans in terms of wanting lower taxes and less government intrusion into a lot of aspects of life. But then will go and realize that there needs to be more done in the way of environmental protection of water resources or of air quality. That those have real public health impacts.”

Rogers says these leaders often have strong ties their own piece of nature – maybe a stretch of land or a river.

“I’m a tree hugging, liberal – I mean a tree hugging conservative, Republican! (laughs) which I know some people may say is an oxymoron. But (laughs)”


But Charlie Houser loves Magnolia River.


(sound of boat motor)

He fires up his pontoon boat to give me a tour. Houser grew up here in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. When he moved back to retire, he worried about what he saw.


“I didn’t see the sea grass. We lost blue crabs, we lost pike.”

He blames agricultural runoff full of chemicals. So, Mayor Houser and the mostly republican town council passed really tough land use rules. All new buildings have to set back 75 feet from the river. New subdivisions have to keep their run-off on site. And it’s working. The brown pelicans are back and the river is less cloudy. The state has named Magnolia River an Alabama Outstanding Waterway.

Gil Rogers, with the Southern Environmental Law Center, says there are still big environmental threats in the south. Coal mining, timber, and other industries. But he’s optimistic.

“People have started to recognize that there’re some real threats from population growth, poor development patterns. So I think there is a movement here going on and it’s unique to the south, I think, in a lot of ways.”

Certainly, it’s creating some interesting alliances – like environmentalists teaming up with hunters. Rogers says, at least in the south, he’s seeing more cooperation than ever.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tanya Ott.

Related Links

Hanukkah’s Green Messages

  • President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama watch as a child lights the Hanukkah candles at a reception in the White House on December 16th, 2009. (Photo by Samantha Appleton, courtesy of the White House)

A lot of people worry that we make
too much waste during the holidays.
But some religious leaders are trying
to change that. Julie Grant reports
on one rabbi who wants people to see
Hanukkah as a holiday about sustainability:

Transcript

A lot of people worry that we make
too much waste during the holidays.
But some religious leaders are trying
to change that. Julie Grant reports
on one rabbi who wants people to see
Hanukkah as a holiday about sustainability:

Jewish people light candles each of the eight nights of Hanukkah – a tradition dates back 2200 hundred years – when the Jews reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from the Greeks.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow says they needed oil to light the temple.

“They lit the menorah with just one day’s worth of oil, and, according to the legend, it lasted for eight days, until the new oil was ready.”

A few years ago, Rabbi Waskow realized this is an environmental message for people today.

“This could be seen as the conservation of oil.”

So Waskow wants people to see Hanukkah as a time to conserve natural resources in their own lives – and in public policy.

He’s encouraging people to drive less,
to support biking, railways and walking paths, and
to rest more, so we emit less carbon.

For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Sustainability in the Sermon

  • Gloria Dei Pastor David Carlson says the Christian bible offers many lessons about the importance of living in ways that sustain other creatures (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)

Many business people are rethinking their

operations. They’ve been influenced by a

science-based approach to sustainability

that started in Sweden. It’s called the

Natural Step. Stephanie Hemphill reports

some non-profits are getting involved.

She recently visited a church that’s

thinking more about its impact on the

environment:

Transcript

Many business people are rethinking their

operations. They’ve been influenced by a

science-based approach to sustainability

that started in Sweden. It’s called the

Natural Step. Stephanie Hemphill reports

some non-profits are getting involved.

She recently visited a church that’s

thinking more about its impact on the

environment:

The folks at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Duluth Minnesota are studying
more than their Bible these days. They’ve been learning about how the
ideas in the Natural Step can make their church operate more sustainably.

One Saturday in the church basement, about a dozen people from churches
around the region are talking about what sustainability means.

Judy
Isaacson is from a small church in the country.

“It’s a growing understanding that we as individuals have to be responsible
for what we do, and then I think a big part is helping people understand
it’s not that difficult to live up to what our values are and what we see
happening.”

Isaacson says it’s easier to talk about the practical ways to be
sustainable than to expound on the theory. She’s been learning how to
encourage everyone in her church to get involved in making small changes.
Like using less electricity.

“We’re the newbies at our church; we’ve only been in the church six years.
And by having someone who’s been there forever change the light bulbs, it
was very easy because she had credibility within the congregation.”

For many Christians, the Natural Step fits right in with what they call
“creation care.” For them it means taking care of what God created.

The Natural Step publishes its principles on the internet, along with
inspiring examples of how it’s working in various places around the world.

In Duluth, a non-profit group brought the Natural Step to town. Experts
from Canada gave several day-long training sessions to about a dozen
businesses and organizations that committed to a year-long effort to put
the ideas to work.

Sue Anderson took part in the training. At the Saturday workshop in the
church basement, she mentions some of the things the church has done.

“The use of glasses and cups, reuseable items. We kind of got that going
through a lot of different committees, you know our neighborhood breakfast
and things like that.”

No more throw-away styrofoam cups. That fits in with one of the principles
of the Natural Step: don’t wreck the earth by building more landfills than
you absolutely have to.

Another principle is: use less fossil fuel, and other resources that have
to be mined from the earth.

When they replaced the roof at Gloria Dei, they added a lot of insulation.

David Carlson is pastor of Gloria Dei. This year he used Lent as a chance
to educate the congregation. He asked people to go on a “carbon diet” for
Lent.

“There’s usually a confession and forgiveness of not only the brokenness
that we have with God and between us and other people, but also the
separation that we have with creation. And this is one way that we can
participate in the healing of God’s creation.”

Carlson says a lot of church members are taking on projects. One man is
promoting the idea of ride-sharing to church.

“He is offering a free pillow-pack of fair trade coffee to anyone who comes
to him during coffee hour and says that they car-pooled that day. It’s
trying to remove barriers for people that may be in the way of taking
further steps. And they may be small. But they may make a difference.”

The biggest difference this group might make is offering their experience
to others. The non-profit group behind the Natural Step in Duluth is
documenting their progress and hoping others will join in.

For The Environment Report, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.

Related Links

Mountaintop Mining (Part Three)

  • Christians for the Mountains field worker Robert "Sage" Russo standing on Kayford Mountain overlooking an MTR site in West Virginia (Photo courtesy of Christians for the Mountains)

Environmentalists have been fighting to stop mountain top removal coal mining for
decades. They say they want to preserve the mountains, the water that’s polluted by the
mining and the people. But many of the people don’t want the help. They want the jobs
provided by the mining operations. Sandra Sleight Brennan reports the struggle
between the two sides is complicated. Now churches and synagogues are introducing
religion into that struggle:

Transcript

Environmentalists have been fighting to stop mountain top removal coal mining for
decades. They say they want to preserve the mountains, the water that’s polluted by the
mining and the people. But many of the people don’t want the help. They want the jobs
provided by the mining operations. Sandra Sleight Brennan reports the struggle
between the two sides is complicated. Now churches and synagogues are introducing
religion into that struggle:

The line drawn between environmentalists who want to stop mountain removal
coal mining and the coal miners who depend on it for jobs has always been
smudged.

Often the environmental activists had relatives and close friends who worked for
the mining companies. There aren’t a lot of jobs in the Appalachian Mountains.
Of the jobs that are there, the coal mining jobs pay the most.

In the small Appalachian towns in the coal fields, the God-fearing families who
depended on the mining jobs have often seen the environmentalists as people
who were out to destroy their way of life.

But lately some people are seeing things differently. More than a dozen churches
and synagogues have passed resolutions against mountaintop removal mining.

Allan Johnson is the co-founder of Christians for the Mountains, a group that’s
sided with the environmentalists.

“It’s a serious issue, ultimately it is a moral issue and, as a moral issue, we’re appealing
to the religious communities, the Christian communities. We’ve got to do right. We
cannot destroy God’s creation in order to have a temporal economy.”

And Johnson is getting help from other Christians. Rebekah Eppling is an
Ameri-Corps VISTA volunteer. She’s working with Christians for the Mountains.

“We present ourselves that we are a Christian organization and we are working for
Creation Care and we are following the Biblical mandate to take care of God’s planet – it
brings a different sense of what we’re doing to people. So a lot of people who
traditionally wouldn’t be interested all the sudden start to realize the different aspects of
it. It kind of hits a different spark for them.”

Creation Care is how some Evangelical Christians describe their brand of
environmentalism. One of the most prominent spokesman for Creation Care is
Richard Cizik. He’s a former Vice President of the National Association of
Evangelicals.

“We say Creation Care because first of all we believe the earth was created and
second of all we know from God’s word in Genesis that we are to care and protect
it. So, we call it Creation Care.”

The group, Christians for the Mountains, works with many different
denominations. They teach people who want to get involved about the issues
surrounding mining. They go into detail about how the short term benefit of the
destructive form of mining not only alters the mountains, but pollutes the streams
and ultimately the drinking water. They point out that once the coal fields are
mined, the jobs are gone and the communities are left to live with the damage to
the environment.

Volunteer Rebekah Eppling says there’s resistance to the message.

“The term environmentalist is kind of a dirty word in the coalfields region. Since we are a
religious organization that puts us in a unique spot.”

“We do get some pretty harsh criticism.”

Allen Johnson with Christians for the Mountains.

“We are concerned about people’s jobs. We want to have a healthy economy. And it is
not a healthy economy in that area. If you go down into the area with the mountaintop
removal is going on it in some of the impoverished areas in the country.”

Like the more traditional kinds of environmentalists, these Creation Care
environmentalists have ties to the community. Eppling says her family comes
from an area that’s targeted for coal mining in the near future.

“My family is very supportive of what I’m doing. Because they see the place where they
used to live are now being destroyed. The mountain very close to where my
grandmother and father grew up its being blasted away. My father and his family are
from Boone County – which is one of the big coal producing areas. Coal River runs right
behind his house where he grew up.”

The Christians for the Mountains know the families that depend on the coal
mining don’t always understand why anyone would want to stop one of the very
few industries that offer good paying jobs in the region. But Rebekah Eppling
says there has to be a better way than blowing up the tops of the mountains and
filling the valleys with rubble.

“It’s not just environmentalist versus workers. It’s a very complex. It’s not just about
stopping coal – it’s about bringing in more options for people.”

And some of those options include preserving the environment by finding alternatives for
the region – such as wind energy, tourism, and not letting the mining companies decide
the fate of the Appalachian Mountains and the people who live there.

For The Environment Report, I’m Sandra Sleight-Brennan.

Related Links

Greening of Religion

  • The Dalai Lama giving a lecture at the University of Michigan on April 20, 2008. (Photo by Mark Brush)

There’s a change going on in the religions
of the world. More people are hearing a green
message when they go to their place of worship.
Mark Brush reports major religious leaders are
spreading a message of caring for the earth:

Transcript

There’s a change going on in the religions
of the world. More people are hearing a green
message when they go to their place of worship.
Mark Brush reports major religious leaders are
spreading a message of caring for the earth:

The Dalai Lama is talking about the environment. And tens of thousands of people are
packed into this basketball arena to hear his message. This kind of a talk is a natural
fit. In the Buddhist tradition all sentient life forms are sacred. So you might not be
surprised to hear that the Dalai Lama thinks we need to cut our cravings for more and
more material stuff.

“We always want more and more and more – like that. So I think some lifestyle, I think have to, have to change. But this is not my business.”

(applause)

This kind of message is now coming from other religions too. The Vatican recently
declared pollution a sin. And, when he went to the United Nations, the Pope told
international leaders to work together on climate change and environmental protection.

And many Protestants are now spreading the green gospel. And it’s not just the more
liberal members of the church. Leaders on the left and the right are going beyond the
pulpit to preach about the environment. You can even catch them on primetime TV.
Here’s a clip from a commercial by ‘We Can Solve It dot org’. Preachers Al Sharpton and
Pat Robertson sit side by side on a couch by the ocean.

“Al lets face it. We’re polar opposites.”

“We couldn’t be further apart. I’m on the left.”

“And I’m usually right. And we strongly disagree.”

“Except on one issue. Tell ’em what it is reverend Pat.”

“That would be our planet. Taking care of it is extremely important.”

While this is a new topic for some religious leaders – other groups have been working for
a long time to green the church. The Evangelical Environmental Network promotes
something called “Creation Care.” And they faced a lot of push-back when they first started.

Jim Ball is the president of the Network. He says the environment was largely ignored
by evangelicals – but now that’s changed. As proof he says 120 senior evangelical
leaders signed onto to an initiative that promises to do something about climate change.
And he says many of them are quite conservative. Ball says these leaders started to change when
they got an earful from their own kids and grandkids.

“So it was the younger generation saying to some of these senior leaders, “you know, you
really need to stop just looking at this and saying ‘you know, that’s for other people.’
You’ve got to look at this and understand this is a serious problem.”

But not everyone is accepting this green sermon. Some in the Christian Church point to
the book of Genesis and believe man should have dominion over nature. They think
environmentalism goes beyond tree hugging and actually promotes worship of nature
instead of God.

Andy Hoffman is a professor at the University of Michigan who speaks on religion and
the environment. He says these kinds of interpretations of the Bible prevent
many people from taking environmental issues seriously.

“Many religious people are skeptical or cautious about environmentalism. They look at
people who care about the environment as deifying the environment. And therefore they
see a challenge there. And that’s really not the case. It’s completely consistent to be
a devout Christian, or a devout Jew, or a devout Muslim and care about the environment
and have those two mesh quite nicely. So to have religious leaders come forward and
articulate this viewpoint dispells that myth and takes away that problem.”

Hoffman says these religious leaders connect people to their moral values. And if
caring for the environment is a part of that – it can go a long way in changing the way
people live.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links

Teachers Criticized for Evolution Lessons

  • Some teachers are struggling with teaching evolution because some disagree on religious grounds. (Photo by Elliot Jordan)

Science teachers in high schools and middle schools are on the front lines of the culture wars. Conservative Christians and others are confronting them about teaching evolution in the classroom. At the same time, teachers are learning about the growing body of evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:

Transcript

Science teachers in high schools and middle schools are on the front lines of the culture wars. Conservative Christians and others are confronting them about teaching evolution in the classroom. At the same time, teachers are learning about the growing body of evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:


Some science teachers got a chance to attend a major science conference recently. Researchers from around the world were in Akron, Ohio to present findings and learn about advances in evolutionary biology. The conference was organized by people studying the dramatic transition whales made when they moved from the land to the water.


It’s only been a few years since Ohio even allowed the concept of evolution into the state’s high school academic standards. Those standards are the basis for the state graduation test that students must pass to get a diploma.


Even though it’s part of the state curriculum, many science teachers get the brunt of complaints from students and parents who oppose teaching evolutionary theory.


THOMAS: “I did have a student come to me and literally say, ‘I cannot sit in this classroom and listen to what you’re talking about.’ And I said, ‘Why not?’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m a Christian, I can’t listen to this.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m a Christian too, so where’s the problem?’”


GRABERT: “Well, I’ve had a number whose fathers are ministers come in and tell me how I need to teach the class, and I have to talk about creationism and I just share with them what we have to teach and how the curriculum is.”


STONE: “There’s a point when you just sort of have to tell the kids, This is what you need to know to pass the test to get out of high school. So, sit down, listen, learn the facts you need to know. I’m not saying you have to believe what I say, but this is what the state says you need to know to get out of high school.”


These are teachers from rural, suburban, and city school districts but they are all dealing with this issue. They try to stay up to date on new scientific evidence to defend their classroom lessons. That’s part of the reason they’re at this science conference.


(Sound of lecture)


This day’s activities are geared toward schoolteachers. The world’s top researchers on whale evolution are explaining their latest findings. Ann Sowd teaches honors biology at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio.


“It’s important to be at workshops like this so that you can, as a high school teacher, be really accurate with your teachings and understand what the evidence for evolution is and why it’s really- what we do know about how organisms change over time. Because the worst thing that can happen is you’re inaccurate and then someone comes with the opposing argument and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”


The teachers are hearing from scientists from all kinds of disciplines from anatomy, to functional morphology, to geo-chemistry. The scientists are showing how their discoveries and analyses fit together and provide a picture of the evolution of the whale as it moved from land back to the ocean.


But one leading researcher says the schoolteachers need more than just new scientific research to defend their lessons in the classroom. Howard University anatomist Daryl Domning says students who question evolutionary evidence are often looking for answers that lie beyond the realm of science. But Domning says teachers often respond with the latest research and recent fossil discoveries.


“And then they’re amazed that it doesn’t convince them. Because even though they’re raising questions about scientific evidence, they’re really not passionate about the scientific evidence. They’re passionate about ‘what is the meaning of my existence?’ and until you get down to that level and surface those concerns and show that hey, evolution doesn’t mean there’s no meaning to your existence, on the contrary, it can mean all these things, it means there’s more meaning then you thought there was maybe, only then is there a way of breaking through this pattern of talking past each other, which is what we’ve been doing for thirty years here.”


Domning says teachers can help students and parents understand that accepting the evidence of evolutionary theory doesn’t have to undermine religious faith.
He encourages teachers to tell students they can believe both at the same time, to point them to places where they can get more information, and to quickly get back to the science lesson.


For the GLRC, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Seneca Children Learn to Preserve Culture

Almost forty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a dam in northwestern Pennsylvania. Hundreds of Seneca Indians lost their land, homes and traditions to the dam’s reservoir. Now a new generation of Senecas is trying to preserve a way of life that many believe was nearly inundated by this federal project. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ann Murray has this story:

Transcript

Almost forty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a dam in northwestern
Pennsylvania. Hundreds of Seneca Indians lost their land, homes and traditions to the dam’s
reservoir. Now a new generation of Senecas is trying to preserve a way of life that many believe
was nearly inundated by this federal project. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ann Murray
has this story:


(students playing outside school)


It’s a sunny day in Salamanca, New York. Young Seneca students lurch and lunge in a game of
keep away.


(students playing game: “Let go! Let go!”)


Although they look like any group of kids
at recess, they share a big responsibility.


(kids playing ball outside)


“My Indian name is Gayanose. My English name is Brooke Crouse- Kennedy. I’m here because
I’m trying to be one of the ones to preserve our culture and just learn.”


Brooke and 12 other students are here at the Faithkeepers School to learn the Seneca language
and the teachings of the Longhouse religion. The health of these cultural benchmarks declined
after the Kinzua Reservoir flooded one-third of the Alleghany Reservation and scattered tribal
families. The cedar wood school now rests on the upper reaches of the reservation – a narrow strip
of land that follows the Allegheny River from Pennsylvania to New York.


(Dowdy and kids in classroom)


“What kinds of things do you need that’s growing on earth?”


“Food.”


This morning, longtime teacher Sandy Dowdy, works with very young students. In 1998, she and
her husband Dar rallied the community and started the school. They’re two of only 200 Senecas
who can still speak their language.


“Now do you see why Yoedzade is so important? Everything we need is on Yoedzade.”


Thanking Yoedzade, the earth, and its creator for the bounty of nature is the building block for
learning the Seneca language and ceremonies. Today, this handful of students learns a shorter
version of the thanksgiving speech. The speech stresses the interconnection between the natural
world and the well being of individual people.


(Dowdy and kids recite thanksgiving speech in Seneca)


“We cover just the ceremonial part and the giving thanks part in the morning and then in the
afternoon, we study things. We look into erosion and pollution and all of those things
that we can do to protect those things we just gave thanks for.”


These lessons have a real life application in the school’s small gardens. The early Senecas
depended on gardens to survive. Fruits and vegetables were so important to the tribe’s existence
that they appear in many of their stories and ceremonies. Senecas continued to farm until their
fertile bottom land was flooded by the Kinzua reservoir.


Following the traditional cycles of their
ancestors, Landon Sequoyah and the other kids now help with planting and harvesting.


“The corn’s right there. A long time ago they used to have big things of corn and beans and squash. That’s the Three
Sisters. That’s the Three Sisters. Guindioth and the Three Sisters. He was going back
up to the Skyworld and they grabbed onto his legs and they told him not to go or
they could go with them but he was like,’No, you have to stay down
here to feed our people.'”


Murray: “If you hadn’t been in school would you ever had a garden?”


“I don’t think so cause I was going to a public school and I didn’t know hardly anything about our
culture.”


Many Senecas on the Alleghany Reservation believe their culture was nearly lost when the
Kinzua Dam was built. The Senecas and others strongly protested this project. But their
arguments were turned down in the courts and the U.S. Congress. Tyler Heron is an elder and
Seneca historian. He says that the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 guaranteed that Seneca land
would remain untouched by the United States government.


“But the politics change over 200 years. We weren’t the threat. We weren’t the political power
any more. The threat, I guess, was the river itself to Pittsburgh …the flooding. It was the
threat to the economy.”


Major floods along the lower Allegheny prompted the federal government to act. To make way
for the dam, 600 Senecas were moved from their homes along the riverbanks. In 1964,
contractors burned and bulldozed Seneca houses, trees and public buildings. Churches and
cemeteries were moved. Heron, who was 17 at the time, says life as he knew it has changed.


“Even the ecology of the river itself has changed. My wife, for instance, used to make her extra
money as a teenager by catching soft-shelled crabs and selling them to the bait companies
but I don’t think there’s a soft-shelled crab in the river anymore.”


Aquatic plants were lost as well. The reservoir also inundated hardwoods used for carving
ceremonial masks and many medicinal plants. Heron, whose grandchildren attend the
Faithkeepers School, says these children are learning to identify the remaining plants. They’re
learning to speak the language and lead the ceremonies and carry on for a community that lost its
ancestral home along the Allegheny.


“Our existence is dependent on us …dependent on us only. And we have to keep our identifiers.
How do we keep our identity? Well,language. It starts right here.”


(Kids playing in front of Faithkeepers school. One child speaks in seneca. Fades into traditional
Seneca chant.)


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Ann Murray.

Soundscape: Sentinel Over the Water

  • Volunteer lighthouse keepers at Big Sable Point appreciate the allure of these historical buildings.

Lighthouses used to guide ships to safe waters. These days they mainly beckon to tourists. The Great Lakes are a popular destination for lighthouse buffs because of the lighthouses lining the shores. All summer long at Ludington State Park in Michigan, visitors walk two miles from their cars and campers to visit Big Sable Point Lighthouse. When they get there, the tourists are greeted by volunteer lighthouse keepers. The keepers have been through a lengthy application process for the privilege of living at the lighthouse for two weeks. During that time they clean the port-a-potty’s, sweep the sand off the stairs, and show visitors around. But each volunteer lightkeeper is also getting a sense for why lighthouses are such an attraction. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney prepared this audio postcard:

Transcript

Lighthouses used to guide ships to safe waters, these days they
mainly beckon to tourists. The Great Lakes are a popular destination
for
lighthouse buffs because of the lighthouses lining the shores. All
summer long at Ludington State Park in Michigan visitors to the park
walk
2 miles from their cars and campers to visit Big Sable Point
Lighthouse. When they get there, the tourists are greeted by six
volunteer lighthouse keepers. The keepers have been through a lengthy
application process for the privilege of living at the lighthouse for two
weeks. During that time they clean the port-a-potty’s, sweep the sand
off
the lighthouse stairs, and show visitors around. But each volunteer
lightkeeper is also getting a chance to try to figure out for themselves
why lighthouses are such an attraction. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tamar Charney prepared this audio postcard:

(sounds of waves)

Harold Triezenberg: “We’d like to welcome you to the Big Sable Point
Lighthouse. Does anyone know why its called big sable? No. No. No.
What
does sable mean? Sable means sand.”

(sounds of waves)

Shirley Mitchell: “It’s a beautiful area lighthouses are in with
the water and that always attracts people. They think of the loneliness
and in a lot of books it’s the source of a lot of adventure. You’re out
here by yourself and have to do for yourself with what you’ve got.
There’s
the thrill of maybe rescuing someone off of a ship. Being the one that’s
responsible for keeping the light going to make sure the ships won’t
crash
into the rocks or into the shore. People are trying to capture a lot of
that We’re not in control. It’s mother nature that is in control.”

(waves fade out)

(sounds of steps being climbed)

Harold Triezenberg: “There’s 130 steps from the bottom to the very
top.”

(steps)

“I think lighthouses are a very important part of our American heritage.
What they stand for. What they’ve done. What they mean. Even though
they
are not necessarily used to guide ships because of global positioning, I
think
a lighthouse is a symbol of mankind. A symbol of us as citizens to be
also
lighthouses to be guides to people to those around us.”

(walking outside & wind)

“When you look out here you’re looking at the same very same scenery,
the
people who built this tower seen. They seen the very same thing the
same
water, beach same probably the sand dunes and the same forest in the
background.”

“Those are little markers that tell us the distance to cities around here
Chicago 160 and as we walk around we see other markers, Ludington 7
miles,
Grand Rapids, 85, Lansing, 130, and as we keep going around we see
more
stickers that tell us the direction and how far the cities are… (wind)
It is very remote.”

(sound of waves)

(wood steps)

Phyllis Triezenberg: “This is one of the bedrooms it happens to be the
bedroom I’m staying in. Very nicely furnished. Lots of closets in this
place and we assume it’s because they had to have lots of supplies for
a
long period of time.
The keepers quarters were built the same time as the
lighthouse, 1867. Their main job was to tend the light back before
electricity they had to keep the lamp burning.”

“I’m very nostalgic. I like history things that people did a long time ago. I
like to see things where other people have been just to think that now I’m
experiencing what they’ve experienced.”

(waves)

Julie Koviak: “It would have been a very hard life – especially the nights
the
fog horn was running cause it would run sometimes for 4 days at a time
and they couldn’t talk. They’d have to time their conversation to speak in
between the blasts of the fog horn.”

“I think I got totally interested in them when I saw this one walking out
here. Just because of the beauty it was almost a religious experience
seeing
that sentinel stand over the water. You know, ‘I am the light, I’ll show you
the way. Know what I mean?”

(Waves)

TAG: Shirley Mitchell, Harold and Phyllis Triezenberg, and
Julie Koviak are volunteer lighthouse keepers at Big Sable
Point Lighthouse near Ludington, Michigan.

Nature Viewed Through Prism of Religion

  • Tom Rakow, right, points out to Kent Rydberg the patch of forest with the tree stand he'll be using. Rakow is the founder and president of the Christian Deer Hunters Association. Rydberg is the membership director. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich).

Conservation means different things to different people. Your interests or your profession might color your view. For example, a hunter, an environmental activist, or a farmer might each define conservation dramatically differently. But other aspects of our lives also affect our views about nature. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jeff Horwich says for some people, the idea of conservation is closely connected with their idea of spirituality:

Transcript

Conservation means different things to different people. Your interests or your profession might
color your view. For example, a hunter, an environmental activist, or a farmer might each define
conservation dramatically differently. But, other aspects of our lives also affect our views about
nature. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jeff Horwich says for some people the idea of
conservation is closely connected with their idea of spirituality:


At one time whole families, whole villages used to live or die by the hunt. So for some hunters, it
seems fitting that before they go out to kill something the afternoons start with a prayer.


“Lord help us to hunt in such a way that it is pleasing to you. . .We recognize you’re
here.. .We just put it in your hands, in
Christ’s name, Amen.”


It’s a cloudy, windy day in the countryside west of Hutchinson, Minnesota. Tom Rakow and
Kent Rydberg stand side-by-side with their bows, president and membership director of the
Christian Deer Hunters Association. The group is based at Rakow’s home in Silver Lake, but
claims hundreds of dues-paying members around the country.


Rakow grew up in Wisconsin, and came to deer hunting long before he came to God.


“Unfortunately I poached my first deer while I was squirrel hunting at age 11, and things just kinda
went downhill from there. Deer hunting was my God.”


A teenage Rakow was carrying an archery permit when he shot his first deer with a .22, an illegal
kill. So, to make it look legal, he stuck an arrow in its side and got away with it.


Rakow went through a religious conversion at 21. He became a born-again Christian. He says he
realized deer hunting was his own false idol. He says either he had to find a way to harmonize
God and deer hunting or the hunting had to go.


“That’s buck manure. And here’s another scrape there.”


We’re moving over a plowed field, into tall grass on our way to tree stands in the forest.
Needless to say, the Reverend Rakow is now at peace with his two passions. He ministers to 80
people in his independent church each Sunday, and spends up to 30 days in the woods each fall.


Rakow’s theology of hunting balances two messages from the Bible. First is the chance to
appreciate God’s natural splendor. Rakow marvels at pheasants, mice, and of course, deer.


“Ultimately God created that deer. What did I have to do with that? You know, he fed that deer in the wild,
caused the antlers to grow, I didn’t have any part of that.”


But the Bible’s second message is the mandate to hunt. Rakow cites Psalm 8.


“There is a hierarchy. Humans, you, I, we have been made in the image of God. We have a
divine responsibility. We should be stewards over creation and part of that is hunting as a management
tool.”


Using the Bible as a hunting guide leads to some distinctive viewpoints. The Christian Deer
Hunter on trespassing:


“If we love our neighbor as ourself, we’re not going to be going somewhere where they don’t want us to
be.”


On authority:


“So as far as you can see, the Bible and the DNR are pretty well in sync with one another?”


“Well, I don’t know if I want to go that far. But Romans:13, Paul writing to the believers in Rome, he
says that powers that be have been ordained of God and we are to submit to those powers.”


And on the plague of chronic wasting disease ravaging deer in his home region of Wisconsin:


“Being from that area, I mean, I know that there are a lot of people that to them deer hunting ranked up there
where it once did for me, where it was more important than God.”


Rakow wouldn’t necessarily call chronic wasting disease a punishment brought by God. But he
does see it as a result of violating the good stewardship rules laid out in the Bible.


And the perspective of the Christian deer hunter raises new questions that have not yet captured
the public imagination.


“I’m completing a book, that one of the chapters is Would Jesus Shoot Bambi?”


The answer is complicated, but it boils down to this: Bambi is not a real deer and yes, Jesus
would.


For an hour we sit in dead silence, 20 feet apart and 15 feet off the ground in tree stands. Then,
behind us, some rustling. Rakow tenses, his bowstring drawn back to his shoulder.


Rakow’s trailing string winds off into the brush.


“I think I just basically trimmed some hairs off his back. When I find my arrow that’s usually not
the best sign.”


But for the Christian Deer Hunter, it’s all right. The membership director, Kent Rydberg, didn’t get
one either. But God talks to him all the time on the deer stand, and that’s something.


“When God’s all around you, it’s sort of hard to put him out of the way. So there’s been some
really good thinking times.”


Of course it’s always better to fill your permit. But these guys have decided it’s not just deer
they’re hunting for out here.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jeff Horwich.