A THEOLOGY OF SNOW
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Why ruin a pristine thing like snow
by tacking on a theology? Then again, why not?
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I was a bit flippant about snow in a
recent blue sheet, referring to the undependable Management not coming through
according to predictions. No sooner do I get that printed, labeled and mailed
than all snow breaks loose, not just back east where it always happens,
but all over the northwest as well.
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I thought I needed to clarify my theology
of snow.
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Actually, I had it pretty well figured
out before I was 10 when I tried to get “dear God” to send down some snow.
I thought I was speaking in behalf of the known universe which included
my three brothers and six cousins as well as all my buddies in the neighborhood
who all wanted a school snow holiday. “Dear God” very rarely gave us any
snow and most of the time it was of inferior stuff that melted on arrival.
“Dear God” proved not to be dependable with regard to weather.
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In spite of all of this early wisdom
I confessed that I still had a childhood wish to see some snow falling before
Christmas.
When all the recent snow began to fall and we saw people stuck in airports
instead of back home for Christmas, cars stuck along the highways spinning
wheels, cities closed down, small business shops that needed a good Christmas
for survival struggling and even going out of business – when I thought about
what snow really means – I hoped no one knew that there was a time when
I actually prayed for snow.
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I had made some notes for this “theology
of snow” piece, then began reading Tom Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded.”
He recounts a conversation with Nate Lewis of CalTec talking about Katrina.
Nate asked Tom, “Did we do that? Or did God do that?” Was it,
as the law sometimes decides, “an act of God?”
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He reminds us that the ancient Greeks
used to tie weather to Zeus as a response to human behavior. These Greeks
debated and worried the question until they finally disconnected human behavior
from acts of nature. So God doesn’t do snow and our good or bad behavior
doesn’t make God do it. God’s not to blame, I’m not to blame. Washed whiter
than the driven snow.
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Not so fast. The building evidence of
human complicity in climate quality and glacier-melting global warming,
casts doubt on the notion that humans don’t have influence over weather.
No, we can’t control Zeus or “Dear God” by prayers or rain dances or any
of the ancient rituals or snow mantras (such as Jean hangs around the house
this time of year!). But there is an increasing body of evidence that human
activity has done drastic damage to the tiny, fragile planet on which we
dwell. Melting snow in the arctic and Antarctic and too much snow in Spokane
may be our fault after all.
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A Hebrew scholar named Aaron Ezrahi
says that the question needs to be asked in a new way:
“Instead of asking; ‘can we control the gods and thus control the weather?’
we’re now asking, ‘can we control ourselves and thus control the weather?’”
(p. 114)
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If I read the intentions of the Obama
administration correctly, we as a people are going to asked precisely that
question: “can we control ourselves and thus control the weather”?
Control of ourselves has to do with some spiritual honesty about responsibility,
some soul commitment to be willing to sacrifice and pay what it costs, and
the political maturity to put survival of the planet above life style.
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If anyone
is still praying for snow you should STOP IT! “Dear God” isn’t listening.
Besides, you’d be screwing up the system. Some people have so much snow
they’re sick of it: Some so little that the ice they live on is melting
away. Besides, the snow you’d be getting us is dirty snow, polluted snow,
poisoned snow. Stop praying a moment and listen to the “God” in the soul
of every living thing on our precious planet – the prayer is God’s prayer
to us – Get control of yourselves and save planet earth!
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That’s my theology of snow. If you can
do better, do it! Happy New Year!
─ Art Morgan, New Years, 2009
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