Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Caring for our Common Home

November 7, 2015November 6, 2015 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Earlier this week I had the chance to hear Cardinal Peter Turkson speak on Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’ “. At one point he talked about the beginning of his concern for the creation. It was when he was growing up in Ghana (he is African) and saw the degradation to his beautiful land caused by the surface manganese mines.

In that moment I realized I had something in common with Cardinal Turkson. I grew up in Youngstown. I saw the stark contrast between the Mill Creek watershed, and the river into which it flowed–the Mahoning. I watched how on one hand we were thankful for the clouds of smoke over the valley that represented jobs and paychecks and how we fled to the park or places like Pymatuning or Cook’s Forest for cleaner air whenever we could.

I realized that seeing these things was the beginning of my concern for the creation, what Pope Francis calls caring for our common home. I know lots of people these days argue back and forth about the science or how rigid our environmental standards should be when jobs are at stake. I find the idea of caring for our common home far more compelling.

Let’s take Youngstown. A number of you who read these posts do so because you loved growing up in Youngstown, and for some you love it so much you still live there. I have friends working for the renewal of neighborhoods in various parts of the city.

What do we love about the city? Of course there is all that good food. But beyond this, here are some of the things I think of:

The fact that there are so many vantage points where one can see across the valley and see much of the city, day or night.
I think of the hill above downtown with St. Columba’s Cathedral and First Presbyterian Church overlooking downtown, and as it were, blessing the city.
I think of St. Elizabeth’s by the freeway, inviting the sick and the injured to find solace and healing.
I think of the river, slowly becoming the site of restaurants. Could it be a place of walking trails, fountains similar to the riverfronts in many cities?
Of course there are the lakes and trails and pavilions of Mill Creek Park. Lanterman’s Mill and Suicide Hill, the Silver Bridge and Fellows Gardens.

It seems that this is a time when Youngstown can have a new beginning…or fall prey to outside interests who would degrade it once more. It has taken 30 years to clean up the sites of the old mills, “brownfields” in environmental terms, and begin to develop new businesses. The old Ward bakery has been converted to artists studios. Downtown is coming back in a new form.

Cities take decades to develop or re-develop. Youngstown is particularly vulnerable to predators who think the city so desperate for jobs that it will allow those big interests access to the natural resources of the city and degrade them.

Youngstown has the chance to both attract businesses with its location, tax incentives and low overheads and do this in a way that is safe for our land, air, water, and people. Both are possible. We had a hundred years of trading the beauty and health of the Valley for jobs. If we care for our common home we won’t let that happen again. There’s too much we love and count precious.

What do you love about Youngstown that you believe is worth preserving and enhancing?

Review: Laudato Si’

November 2, 2015November 13, 2015 / rtrube54 / 3 Comments

Laudato Si’, Pope Francis. Vatican City: Link is to online version of the encyclical (.pdf version available at site), 2015 .

Summary: Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, advocating an “integral ecology” that links care for the creation with care for the poor, the quality of life in our cities, and a way of life emphasizing spiritual rather than material priorities.

Encyclicals are circular letters from the Pope to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church addressing important matters of church teaching. The title of the encyclical is taken from the first two words of the encyclical in Latin. This encyclical, “on care for our common home” begins with the words Laudato si’ or “Praise to you” and are the first words of a song of Saint Francis. The remarkable thing about this particular encyclical is that it has been addressed not only to the Catholic faithful, but “to the whole human family.”

The encyclical begins with a review of prior church teaching on the environment and particularly that of Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom the Pope draws his inspiration for what he terms “integral ecology.” For Saint Francis, the love of God and his creation transcended the separate categories in which we often place science and faith, care for the environment and care for the poor, the pursuit of stewardship of the earth and social justice. One commentator has noted that the most significant word in the encyclical may be the word and because Pope Francis associates things we often separate.

Six chapters follow this introduction. Chapter 1 explores “what is happening to our common home?” and considers pollution and climate change, water supplies, biodiversity, and the decline of the quality of human life and the breakdown of society, and global inequalities. Chapter 2 is titled “the gospel of creation” and explores a Catholic theology of creation. emphasizing that our dominion of creation was not domination but tilling and caring for it. It movingly states:

“Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.” (paragraph 92)

Chapter 3 turns from God’s intent to the “human roots of our ecological crisis”. The encyclical sources this in an inordinate reliance on technology–technocracy, in the globalization of the technocratic paradigm, and an excessive anthropocentrism that paradoxically compromises human dignity as we exploit not only the environment but other human beings as well. This chapter ranges widely considering everything from genetically modified food (and the usurping of smaller landholders by big agribusiness) to the dignity of human work and the need for gainful employment. Chapter 4 then turns to the remedy of these woes in “integral ecology” that concerns environmental, economic, social, cultural and everyday ecology, the common good and justice between generations.

Chapter 5 considers “lines of approach” and has to do with various public spheres in which environmental advocacy and action must occur. I was struck how often the word “should” was used here in ideas for international, national, and local policy. Perhaps the most trenchant remarks in this section are in the Pope’s call for transparency in dialogue and decision-making and in his call for a rapprochement between religion and science around environmental concerns.

The final chapter concerns “ecological education and spirituality” and turns to the impact a Catholic eco-theology might have at the parish level. In a section on “Joy and Peace” the Francis writes:

“To be serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, opens us to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment. Christian spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack.” (paragraph 222).

He also calls for a kind of ecological conversion and considers the relation of the Trinity, and of Mary to the creation. He concludes the encyclical with two prayers, the first “a prayer for our earth” and the second a “Christian prayer in union with creation.”

I found much to commend here. Here is an ecology that is pro-human life from the uterus to the grave, and at the same time fully recognizes the dignity of all creatures. Francis recognizes that it is often those who have contributed least to our ecological problems who suffer the most and sees the issue of justice and not simply ecological concerns in this suffering. He also recognizes that most profoundly, we need a conversion from the materialism and consumerism that is neither ecologically sustainable nor spiritually satisfying. With his namesake, he eloquently argues for how our lives are inextricably bound up with the life of the whole creation.

He speaks prophetically to those in political and economic power. And I found myself wondering here whether in fact it will be the weak of this world, the powerless, who will, under the grace of God, confound the mighty and whether change, if it comes, will not come from the politicians or big business interests but from a grassroots movement. My own hope is that such a movement might be nurtured by Christian communities whose faithful presence and witness in these matters captures the imagination of others, as did the church in eastern Europe during the fall of Communism.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” I’m troubled that we have not lived in such a way to leave a healthy, verdant world to our children. The kind of world their children find may well hinge on whether both the church and the wider human community heed this passionate plea for our common home.

[Note: after publishing this post, a friend asked for the source of this Bonhoeffer quote. It appears on a number of sites but there is no source information on any of these and a search of Google Books and questions to some who know Bonhoeffer’s work well have failed to turn up the actual source of this quote. So it may be more accurate to say that this statement is attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, actual source unknown.]

Review: Wild Idea: Buffalo & Family in a Difficult Land

September 4, 2015August 25, 2025 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Wild Idea: Buffalo & Family in a Difficult Land. Dan O’Brien. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

Summary: Dan O’Brien continues the story begun in Buffalo for the Broken Heart, describing the growth of the Wild Idea Buffalo Company, the move to a new ranch, and the challenges of a maturing daughter, an aging friend, and the struggle to build an ethical and ecologically sound business on the ever-challenging Great Plains.

In Buffalo for the Broken Heart (reviewed here), Dan O’Brien chronicles the challenges of cattle ranching on the Great Plains and his conversion to raising buffalo, which he argues are better adapted to the harsh environment, better for the grasses of the Great Plains, and better for people. That book ended with the beginnings of his relationship with Jill, and the launch of the Wild Idea Buffalo Company.

This book develops the story from those beginnings. It interweaves the story of his partnership in love and business with Jill and the concerns many parents will identify with as Jill’s daughter Jillian comes of age, makes and later regrets some choices in love as she figures out her own life.

Central to the story is the growth of Wild Idea. First they take on the challenge of purchasing a much bigger ranch (with much bigger debt) adjacent to federal lands where they can also graze buffalo, allowing them to acquire a much larger herd to meet the demand. This in turn requires the acquisition of a mobile slaughtering setup since on-site harvesting could sometimes be more than two hours distant from meat packing plants.

A crucial turning point comes when a socially conscious investor who has purchased their products and loves what they stand for comes on board for a stake in the company. Suddenly the subsistence rancher and his wife, who was running the business side of Wild Idea out of a closet based on her restaurant experience, confront spreadsheets, production goals, and the need to further expand their business capacity–building a production and storage facility, hiring additional personnel, and finding sources of buffalo beyond their own ranch. O’Brien is honest about the struggle between his lofty goal of transforming ranching and the ecology of the Great Plains, and the realities of growing the business operation that must succeed with the workforce at hand in a difficult physical environment.

Life happens in all kinds of challenging and wonderful ways in the middle of this. Jillian, struggling with depression after a breakup adopts a rescue dog who rescues her, and she meets Colton, another dog owner and student, who she eventually marries in a beautifully narrated scene at the end of the book. Erney, Dan’s friend for forty years, has a stroke, and both struggle to adapt to Erney’s physical limitations and yet real place in the family, as he returns to the ranch. The two of them had spent their lives training falcons, including Oscar, who Erney took care of. But it was several years since they had last gone out for grouse, what with Erney’s stroke, and the growing business. The account of what happened when they did was a highlight of the book:

“There was a tiny flicker of silver far above and the chuckle of flushing grouse below. It was all I could do to keep my eyes pointed upward. Another few flicks of light and the anchor shape consolidated, accelerated, and began twisting in freefall. The sizzle of wings came to my ears. Then Oscar was coming right at me and I heard the grouse whirr overhead.

“There was a puff of feathers and Oscar shot skyward as the grouse tumbled to the ground. He reached his zenith and flipped to spin downward and settle on the grouse halfway between my position and where Erney sat in the ATV….Then I turned to call the dogs to me. They came at a sprint and we tumbled into the grass in a pile of laughter and wagging tails.

“When we got to Oscar, Erney had driven the ATV to within a few feet. He sat down looking at Oscar as the falcon ceremoniously plucked grouse feathers. Hank and Tootsie [the dogs] lay down, waiting for their cut of the spoils, and I smiled at Erney. ‘So what did you think of that?’

“He didn’t answer right away, and when I looked, I noticed he that he was choking up. ‘Probably the last really good flight I will ever see,’ he said.” (pp. 255-256)

This book seemed less evocative of the atmosphere of the Great Plains and the challenges of sustainable ranching than Buffalo for the Broken Heart. That book was more caught up with a vision, and this one with the nitty-gritty of turning that vision into reality. The circle of people closes in more around family and close friends–Gervase, Shane, and their investors. Yet what made this book stand out from just an article in Businessweek, was tough love and affection, between Dan and Jill, as parents for their daughter, and with their circle of friends, all trying to eke out a decent life on these Great Plains. And there is the almost mystical relationship with the buffalo for whom they care, and who care for them in turn, as Native American stories would say.

The Month in Reviews: June 2015

July 1, 2015June 30, 2015 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Hands down, I think I read some of the best books I’ve read in 2015 during June. From a Pulitzer Prize winner that lived up to its reputation to a David McCullough biography of two heroes from my own state to a classic of environmental writing to a significant book on spiritual friendship, I read some great books! In addition, I just finished a book on leisure and spirituality and an older book on the academic vocation that is still quite relevant in upholding the worth of teaching. So with that preview, here’s the list (all links are to the full reviews on this blog):

1. Preaching with Accuracy, Randal E. Pelton. This book contends that to preach with accuracy, one needs to find the big idea in the text, but not only that, to understand that idea in the context of the book, and ultimately all of scripture, which means connecting it to the person and work of Christ.

2. Let Creation Rejoice, Jonathan Moo and Robert S. White. A scientist and a theologian get together to assess both environmental trends and biblical teaching and contend that there are reasons for serious concern, concerted action, and because of the gospel, for hope.

3. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr. Two teenagers, a blind French girl, Marie-Laure, and a German orphan, Werner Pfennig, with a gift for radio electronics, are brought together at the end of World War 2 through underground radio broadcasts by her great-uncle of recordings by her grandfather while a dying German Sergeant Major seeks a treasure in the girl’s possession. This won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

4. Spiritual Friendship, Wesley Hill. This is an exploration of the place of friendship in the life of the Christian, particularly its importance for those who chose, either because of sexual orientation, or other reasons to live celibate, chaste lives.

5. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson. This classic of environmental writing made the case that pesticides were rendering harm to just about everything in the American landscape, including human beings, except for the pests targeted by these chemical poisons.

6. Grassroots Asian Theology, Simon Chan. In contrast to the growing list of “contextual” Asian theologies out of academic “elitist” settings, Chan explores the Asian theologies implicit in the popular church movements and writers in the Asian context, and particularly the significance of Pentecostal theology.

7. The Wright Brothers, David McCullough. The author traces the Wright brothers successful efforts to develop the first powered aircraft to successfully, fly from their home town bicycle shop in Dayton, to their trials at Kitty Hawk, to their global success. The book also highlights the importance of their sister Katherine throughout their efforts.

8. Words of Life, Timothy Ward. A Reformed treatment of the doctrine of scripture that begins from a study of scripture’s teaching about itself, moves to a Trinitarian theology of scripture and finally explores the classical affirmations about scripture. Another significant aspect of this book is its incorporation of “speech-act” theory which Ward uses to delineate the relationship of God and the Bible.

9. Exiles From Eden, Mark R. Schwehn. Chronicles a shift in the academic vocation from one of formation of the mind and character of students to one of making knowledge, reflecting a change from religiously shaped values to a valuing of formal and procedural rationality, and from an integral sense of self to a multiplicity of “selves.”

10. Private Doubt, Public Dilemma, Keith Thomson. This book, drawn from Thomson’s 2012 Terry Lectures, explores the conflict between religion and science through a look at two men who struggled with this conflict, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Darwin, considering how they handled scientific findings that conflicted with their beliefs and the public aftermath and expresses hope for a different engagement in the future.

11. Leisure and Spirituality, Paul Heintzman. An exploration of the connection between leisure and spirituality from a Christian perspective, considering contemporary and classical concepts of leisure, the perspective on leisure we may gain from the Bible, and the author’s own synthesis and critique of leisure concepts, biblical material and contemporary research.

Best of the Month: I had several choices but will say Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Can See. In my review I wrote, “Doerr is a master painter with words, with all the strokes falling just as they should.”

Quote of the Month: The Buckeye in me can’t resist this one from The Wright Brothers by David McCullough:

“If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio.” –Wilbur Wright

Right now, I am reading an Agatha Christie mystery, some historical fiction by Sharon Kay Penman, a book on C.S. Lewis’s writing on the spiritual life, and one on walking the labyrinth. A reading group I’m in is going through a collection of Spurgeon sermons that I will finish in late July-early August. Also look for a review of Rachel Held Evans Searching for Sunday in July.

Summer is a time to relax and replenish the well. Books are just one of the things that help with that, but what fun it can be to lose oneself in a good one! I’ve been fortunate to find several.

All “The Month in Reviews” posts may be accessed from “The Month in Reviews” link on the menu bar of my blog. And if you don’t want to wait a month to see my reviews, consider following the blog for reviews as well as thoughts on reading, the world of books, and life.

Review: Let Creation Rejoice

June 4, 2015June 3, 2015 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Let Creation Rejoice: Biblical Hope and Ecological Crisis by Jonathan A. Moo and Robert S. White. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: A scientist and a theologian get together to assess both environmental trends and biblical teaching and contend that there are reasons for serious concern, concerted action, and because of the gospel, for hope.

I have an interesting collection of Facebook friends. On any given day, I can find posts predicting apocalyptic consequences for every living thing on earth because of our pollution of earth, water, and air, and equally ardent posts decrying all of this as “bunk”. Sadly, the discourse that seems to be occurring in the halls of government doesn’t seem much different.

What I find rarely taking place are thoughtful conversations between scientists and people of faith considering what we may learn of these things and our call from God from listening both to the book of scripture and the book of creation. This book is a wonderful step in that direction as a scientist and theologian have collaborated to give us an account that is at once challenging, and yet filled with hope, that both considers the data of researchers and the data of scripture.

Following an introductory chapter that decries both the apocalyptics and the deniers, the next two chapters summarize the “state of affairs” in our world today, considering human population growth, the decrease of biodiversity, the growing water crisis, concerns about nitrogen buildups due to artificial fertilizers, our food supply, and finally in a chapter to itself, the growing consensus among serious scientists of unprecedented CO2 buildup in the atmosphere, current warming trends, and, what seemed to me, fairly measured discussion of what might happen in the future.

The next five chapters consider relevant scriptures, both outlining why the creation is not rejoicing, and how it may, and ultimately will. Chapter 4 centers on Jesus’ proclamation of “jubilee” in Luke 4:15-16. Chapter 5 focuses around Romans 8:18-25 and the groaning creation longing for release, that will come along with the redemption of God’s people. Chapter 6 explores 2 Peter 3:10-13 and the common contention of “why care if it is all going to burn.” The authors argue that the burning is one of removing the “veil” of heaven as well as purifying the earth, not consuming it all. It is meant as a warning of judgment that calls Peter’s readers to present faithfulness in all things, including stewardship of the creation.

Chapter 7 considers the coming of Christ as a thief in the night and the call to be responsible stewards ready to give an answer for our stewardship of the creation. Chapter 8, on the book of Revelation, has particularly trenchant remarks about “Babylon” whose wealth is built on the commodification of humans and at the expense of their lives, a warning to any great power that accrues the wealth of the world to itself at the expense of the labor and lives of others. The book closes with exhortation, challenge and hope. We are to live as those “not of this world”, “to always pray and never give up”, to not take refuge in excuses or rationalizations, and to live in love, joy and hope, realizing we can both anticipate the new creation to come in our acts of faithfulness, and yet that it will come as a gift of God and not a human accomplishment.

I was sobered as I considered that when I knowingly consume the earth’s resources in a way that subjugates others and contribute to conditions that lead to the death of others, I am complicit in slavery and death. Reading of God’s concern for his creatures in Genesis 9, I’m struck by how much we have to answer for concerning the extinction of so many creatures God has made. I can rationalize and deny in all sorts of ways. It seems like the only real course is to repent and lament and cast myself on the mercies of God and do what is set before me.

That’s where the hope comes in. God knows that our own feeble efforts to clean up our messes only lead to more mess, and that, while we can begin in a way that anticipates his new creation, our hope is that he will return to finish that work of renewal.

This book moves beyond the polemics to sober appraisal and a call to biblically rooted Christian faithfulness. Ultimately, its appeal is rooted not in the data of science but in the authority of the Bible. At one point one of the authors observes that a climate skeptic he talked to actually lived a humbler, more earth-friendly life stewarding God’s creation than he. It may just be that convincing Christians to live out their call as stewards of creation may be far more effective than arguments pro and con about climate science. This book is a good place to begin