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​February 27, 2020

Creation Justice Ministries applauds the historic Environmental Justice for All Act put forward today by US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.). 

We know that we are entrusted by God with care for creation and love of neighbor.  The transformative change envisioned by this bill is a crucial step forward as a nation to better embody and live out both principles.  We especially affirm the following aspects of the Environmental Justice for All Act:

• The bill creates a Federal Energy Transition Economic Development Assistance Fund – paid for through new fees on oil, gas and coal companies – to support communities and workers as they transition away from greenhouse gas-dependent economies.
• The bill requires federal agencies to consider cumulative health impacts under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act in making permitting decisions and ensures that permits will not be issued if projects cannot demonstrate a reasonable certainty of no harm to human health.
  
  
• The bill strengthens the Civil Rights Act to permit private citizens and organizations facing discrimination to seek legal remedies.
• ​The bill provides $75 million in annual grants for research and program development to reduce health disparities and improve public health in environmental justice communities.

Because environmental justice requires attention to process as well as outcomes, we also affirm the one-year stakeholder process leading up to the release of the bill, which reflects the intersectional grassroots collaboration that is core to our mission.

Creation Justice Ministries affirms the dignity of all God’s children, and therefore we lift up our moral imperative to seek environmental justice for people of every race, economic status, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.  

Creation Justice Ministries represents the creation care policies of 38 Christian traditions, including Baptist, mainline Protestant, Historically Black, Peace, and Orthodox communions. Learn more at www.creationjustice.org

Contact: Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director 202-618-2501 (mobile)

Good evening, members of the Council on Environmental Quality. 

My name is Bishop Carroll Baltimore. I am Vice President of Creation Justice Ministries representing the policies of more than two dozen Christian denominations that join together to protect, restore, and rightly share God's creation. Through our membership, we serve approximately 100,000 churches and 35 million people.

We have grave moral concerns regarding potential changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Proposed revisions to NEPA are inconsistent with NEPA’s central purposes. Among those purposes are three that people of faith hold with special regard:

1. Government should be a trustee of the earth and its natural resources for the benefit of future generations
   
2. We must consider impacts on low-income, minority, and rural communities
   
3. Projects should encourage meaningful participation in government decisions by communities affected
   

These purposes of NEPA mirror Christian community values embodied in Jesus’ Great Commandment: to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

By loving our Creator God, we show respect for what God has made. We are entrusted with the care of creation for our short lifetimes, and to ensure the gifts of God’s creation can sustain life for our children and generations to come. NEPA helps our society evaluate how development will impact God’s creation.

The NEPA process gives us, on a societal level, an opportunity to “love your neighbor as yourself.” It requires project planners to listen to those who could be most impacted by a proposed project, including the most vulnerable. If a project will hurt neighbors by making it hard for them to breathe, drink safe water, grow food, catch fish, or freely practice their religious faith, it is our shared moral responsibility to show love for our neighbors by preventing harm from a project.

As Christian communities, we often find ourselves on the front lines of response to emergencies. We rally resources with compassion to respond to devastating circumstances. Some of the most devastating emergencies in our recent ministry are related to short-circuiting or undermining of the NEPA process.

April 20, 2020 will mark 10 years since the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. BP and other oil companies developing offshore drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico were exempt from standard NEPA planning processes. In its wake, we ministered to fisherman families not only seeking new ways to support themselves, but also devastated by the loss of identity after generations of family business out in the midst of God’s magnificent marine creation in the Gulf. Now, in addition to the Trump Administration’s proposals to expand offshore drilling, this proposal to weaken NEPA means offshore drilling can proceed with little to no review. It would limit the information the government has to evaluate the impact on endangered marine mammals, coral reefs, and coastal ecosystem protection and restoration. Ten years later, have we learned nothing from the suffering from Deepwater Horizon?

We have also witnessed the devastation of Native American burial grounds and sacred sites as a result of an ignored or undermined NEPA process. As Christians, we stand with people of all spiritual traditions to defend their religious freedom. Right now, the wall construction area on the US-Mexico border is a virtually lawless zone where NEPA requirements are waived. As a result, the Tohono O’Odham Tribe burial grounds are being bulldozed this month. Chairman of the Tohono O’Odham Ned Norris said, “There is no difference between what they have done here and imagine someone coming with a bulldozer through Arlington National Cemetery.” Additional sites sacred to the tribe are under immediate threat as construction continues. Some religious leader delegations have gone to the border to witness this tragedy, and call on Congress to intervene. This feels like a repetition of just a few years ago, when the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe watched with horror as their sacred burial grounds were bulldozed to make way for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Faith communities organized to send camp supplies such as firewood, and provide peaceful public support. Just when we thought the NEPA worked to prevent any further damage from proceeding to the river they depend on for bodily and spiritual sustenance, the Trump Administration overrode the result. We were deeply troubled by the expedited review process to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and its opening for leasing. The coastal plain of the Refuge, which is the site of the Gwich’in creation story, and is what they call “the sacred place where life begins.”

If we are to follow Jesus’ Great Commandment, we need structures in place to respect what God has made and to show our neighbors love. Any proposed NEPA changes should enhance our ability as a society to live in the spirit of Jesus’ Great Commandment, not undermine, expedite, or exempt anyone from it.

June 2, 2017 was a day to remember of round-table meetings with government decision-makers and Indigenous leaders from Christian communities. The aim of the meetings was to bring Indigenous and Christian perspectives in support of Bears Ears National Monument and the Bears Ears Commission, and deliver a letter they all helped circulate, calling on Secretary Zinke to protect Bears Ears National Monument.

The day began with prayers and inspirational talks for guidance and direction, to reflect God’s will and voice. These voices stand firm to the premise that diversity and inclusion are central to environmental integrity, preservation, and justice, with the unique responsibility of humans in caring all God’s creation. 

Leaders in attendance were: Rev. Richard Silversmith, a Navajo Pastor of the Indian Christian Center in Denver; Ms. Loni Romo and Jackie Davis-Cawelti, Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal members and active lay leaders at St. Mary of the Lake Episcopal Church, Rev. Judy Wellington an Akilmel O’odham and Dakota Sioux Minister for Native American Ministries in the Presbytery of the Southwest, and Mark Charles, a Navajo activist, speaker, and writer, and Dee Ann Manatowa, daughter of the late chief of the Sac and Fox Nation as well as Environmental Justice Fellow for Creation Justice Ministries.

Loni Romo described her trip with her mother Jackie Davis-Cawelti: "Over the past weekend my mom and I were invited to D.C. to advocate for the Bears Ears Monument. We went as Indigenous Christian peoples. It was a whirlwind trip but was incredible. It was my first trip, I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. We had meetings set up with the acting Director of Bureau of Land Management, Assistant Director for National Conservation Lands and Community Partnerships and a lady from the Secretary's office. We moved on to the Department of Interior Office of External and Intergovernmental Relations. We stopped in at our State of Nevada Senator's offices and met with Cortez-Masto's staff. Any spare time we spent it sight-seeing: museums, monuments and even joined a protest. I am grateful for the opportunity, meeting new people to learn from and especially to have our voices heard."

Rev. Judy Wellington said of the experience, "I am thankful to Creation Justice Ministries who made it possible for a group of us from different native nations to come to DC to advocate for keeping Bears Ears Monument. Together with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition of Utah, we join our voices with sisters and brothers who care about preservation of the land."

Pastor Richard Silversmith said upon his return home, "I am hopeful that meeting with the decision-makers in person had a more immediate impact and leaves a longer-lasting impression than a letter. I think collectively we can help raises a shared witness in the public arena echoing Christ's call for just relationships among all of Creation."

Mark Charles reflected, "It was a great opportunity to challenge the paradigm of our government leaders, representatives and officials by speaking to them, not as oppressed minorities or even as concerned constituents, but rather as the indigenous hosts of this land. I loved it. Creator Ahé'hee."

Today, President Obama used his executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate three new national monuments: Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston, Alabama, the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Reconstruction Era National Monument in South Carolina. He also released a Presidential Memorandum on diversity and inclusion in the U.S. public lands system.
 
The Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston honors Civil Rights Activists who boarded buses there, and were later violently attacked for challenging segregation.
 
The Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument honors Birmingham for being the epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement in 1963. The Birmingham monument includes the A.G. Gaston Motel, 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, Bethel Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 4th Avenue Business District, St. Paul United Methodist Church, and the Colored Masonic Temple.
 
Pastor of 16th Street Baptist Church is the site Pastor of 16th Street Baptist Church Rev. Arthur Price said of the designation: “This national monument will fortify Birmingham’s place in American history and will speak volumes to the place of African Americans in history.”
 
The Reconstruction Era National Monument in South Carolina is at the site of the Penn Center, which was one of the country's first schools for freed slaves and served as a retreat for Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
 
The Presidential Memorandum is directed toward federal agencies, instructing them to value diversity and inclusion in their work. The Memorandum includes guidance for broad stakeholder engagement by agencies before they make decisions, as well as to prioritize conservation of places and stories important to under-represented communities.
 
Creation Justice Ministries Executive Director Shantha Ready Alonso said of the new monument designations and Presidential Memorandum: “The example set by this Administration and the best practices laid out in the Presidential Memorandum have set the bar high for future administrations. It is important to us that the new Trump Administration upholds these monument designations and prioritizes engaging diverse stakeholders. I am grateful to Senators Booker and Bennet, as well as Representatives Grijalva, Chu, Gallego, and Butterfield for championing this Memorandum.”
 
RELIGIOUS LEADERS CELEBRATE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MONUMENTS
“Our Church, in the South, is seen as an iconic symbol of freedom and justice, just like the Liberty Bell is seen as a freedom symbol in Philadelphia. Given the tragedies that took place here, people come here to reflect on the sacrifice and service of those who put their lives on the line. 16th Street stands as a symbol to those who galvanized a generation, motivated a movement, and turned the bitter days of Birmingham in better days. The designation has done a tremendous tribute to the city of Birmingham, and a tribute to the people who worked for Civil Rights in the ‘60s. Birmingham has a story to tell about the fight in Civil Rights. This national monument will fortify Birmingham’s place in American history and will speak volumes to the place of African Americans in history.”
Rev. Arthur Price
Pastor, 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama
 
“I am grateful President Obama is recognizing and seeking to honor the honor the saints and martyrs of the Civil Rights movement by establishing these new National Monuments in Alabama. Our continuing effort to seek justice and equality for all demands that we remember the legacy of those upon whose shoulders we stand.  Not only are they worthy of our deepest gratitude, but also our strongest commitment to the goal of living as 'one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.'”
Rev. John Mobley
Regional Minister, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Alabama and Northwest Florida
 
“These newly declared national monuments will enter the stories of resilience, courage, and faith into our country’s collective memory for generations to come. President Obama has ensured our African American heritage, too, is officially recognized as part of our national identity.”
Rev. Thomas Bowen
Earl L. Harrison Minister of Social Justice, Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington DC & Progressive National Baptist Convention

Today, using the authority of the Antiquities Act, President Obama declared a new Bears Ears National Monument. The new monument’s signature landscape feature has long been known as the “Bears Ears” because of two buttes that rise from the ground and look like a set of ears on a bear’s head.
 
The effort to establish the Bears Ears National Monument has been led by a coalition of five tribes: the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe. All five tribes claim the Bears Ears area as their ancestral home. The effort to protect Bears Ears has not only been led by tribes but also has celebrated Native American cultures as a primary focus. Christian leaders have vigorously supported the new monument's establishment through commissioning a poll and issuing various statements.
 
Salt Lake City resident Rev. Dr. Genny Rowley of the Alliance of Baptists said, “Christians are called to love of neighbor as a core expression of faith. The creation of Bears Ears National Monument supports neighbor love widely, allowing our tribal brothers and sisters sacred space to live their faith, supports the work of justice for Native communities that have been systematically denied this in our society. I celebrate the protection of God's creation and Native culture represented by this monument."

Many sites within the new Bears Ears National Monument are considered sacred by the tribes. The land includes more than 100,000 antiquities such as petroglyphs, ancient cliff dwellings, and grave sites. This monument designation will ensure that traditional tribal uses such as gathering of firewood, pinon, and plants will be protected. Hunting, grazing, and recreational activities will also continue. Protecting these sacred sites, traditional uses, and antiquities is a high priority for the tribal leadership. The area is also home to significant Mormon history, including sections of the famous Hole in the Rock Trail.
 
The designation of Bears Ears National Monument should lead to greater protection of the area’s antiquities. In 2016 alone, multiple archaeology sites have been irreversibly damaged by looting and vandalism. In July 2016, top U.S. religious leaders joined together in a letter supporting the tribes’ call for a monument, declaring with urgency that “the desecration of sacred places must stop.”
 
Duane Chili Yazzie, President of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation and traditional community leader who attends the Four Corners Community Church said, “We support President Obama’s designation of the Bear's Ears region as a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906. As Indigenous Peoples, our intrinsic relationship and valuing of the natural state of the earth remains unbroken. Our people, particularly our traditional elders and families continue to hold great cultural and religious significance with nature and the protection of the Bear's Ears area will preserve the area in its natural state which is our strong preference.”
 
Creation Justice Ministries Executive Director Shantha Ready Alonso said, “This is a game-changer for the leadership role of tribes in public lands stewardship. We are profoundly grateful to the Obama Administration for making history with this new national monument.”

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Creation Justice Ministries represents the creation care policies of 38 Christian communions, including Baptists, mainline Protestants, Historically Black Churches, Peace Churches, and Orthodox communions. Learn more at www.creationjustice.org

A DIVERSITY OF FAITH LEADERS PRAISE BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT
 
“We support President Obama’s designation of the Bear's Ears region as a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906. As Indigenous Peoples, our intrinsic relationship and valuing of the natural state of the earth remains unbroken. Our people, particularly our traditional elders and families continue to hold great cultural and religious significance with nature and the protection of the Bear's Ears area will preserve the area in its natural state which is our strong preference.”
Duane Chili Yazzie, President of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation and traditional community leader, attends the Four Corners Community Church
Shiprock, New Mexico
 
“As Christians we believe all people are made in the image of God, with inherent dignity and worth. As Lutherans, by our baptism, it is our commitment to respond to the unending call of peace and justice work. A Bears Ears National Monument is a step towards justice for our communities that have suffered dehumanization for centuries. It is with the gift of tribal leadership that may contribute to ongoing healing and preservation of culture.”
Prairie Rose Seminole, Program Director for American Indian and Alaska Native Ministries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
Chicago, Illinois
 
"May we give thanks for this monument, and forever respect the beautiful land and people that it protects."
Jared Meek, President, Brigham Young University Earth Stewardship
Provo, Utah
 
“We must protect our God-given treasures on earth and recognize the treasures of Native Americans. Both are consistent with a number of resolutions adopted by conventions of the Episcopal Church. Certainly protecting the Bears Ears… is a way to ensure that we do not exploit these precious lands that have been so culturally important to Native Americans for centuries, as well as treasures for us for centuries to come.”
Bishop Scott Hayashi, Episcopal Diocese of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
 
“Our national parks and monuments are an extraordinarily powerful tool for the people of the United States to tell our collective story. It is critical to ensure that the story includes historic and current contributions and wisdom of Native people. Rooted in, and in continuity with, our Lutheran faith and ministry, it is with great hope and joy that we welcome President Obama’s designation of the Bears Ears National Monument.
Bishop Jim Gonia, Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Denver, Colorado
 
“The new National Monument is a victory for tribal leadership in preserving our heritage. How can you rebuild history, culture and tradition, when it is gone? By not taking care of this site, we lose our way of live and will only see it in pictures.  Is that what we want to leave to the next generation, just pictures?”
Ms. Cynthia Ann Kent (Southern Ute), Chair of the Native American International Caucus of the United Methodist Church
 
“All creation that is created by the Creator is sacred and we celebrate in the fact that this is a historic event, because five tribes came together to protect Bears Ears and it is now being declared a national monument." 
Rev. Tweedy Sombrero Navarrete, Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church
Yuma, Arizona
 
“MESA (Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance) offers its deepest gratitude to President Obama for taking the necessary steps to protect this spectacular & culturally-rich area of our state called the ‘Bears Ears.’  It is exactly this kind of land that the historic Antiquities Act is designed to protect with 'National Monument' status.  We are also very grateful to the folks at the Dept. of Interior who set an impressive, historic precedent in their amazing efforts to gather feedback from all local groups connected to this land, including the Inter-Tribal Coalition.”
Ty Markham, Chair, Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance
Torrey, Utah
 
“The spiritual voice of the native land speaks through the natural landscape. Bears Ears National Monument allows for the speaking of that voice through the native tongue of the land. This voice is priceless for it is important to allow those who come after us to know and honor the sacred landscape as the elders and the ancients had before them.”
Dr. Bill Blue Eagle McCutchen, Co-Moderator, Landscape Mending
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Tulsa, Oklahoma
 
“Our native peoples have such an intimate connection to land and to all that lives upon it. Protecting these sacred sites is just the thing to do. I thank President Obama for this monument, which honors the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition’s collective effort to establish in perpetuity a place to share their culture, heritage, and stewardship wisdom with the United States.”
Rev. John Dorhauer, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ
Cleveland, Ohio
 
“This is a game-changer for the leadership role of tribes in public lands stewardship. We are profoundly grateful to the Obama Administration for making history with this new national monument.”
Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director, Creation Justice Ministries
Washington, DC