Segregation? count me out. re: Religion and community gardening

**b*@ix.netcom.com**

On 10/09/99 06:14:26 you wrote:
>
>There needs to be more separation than integration:   the topic of this
>forum is gardening not religion............     More people are turned
>off from religion by being hit over the head by it than the cave men
>believe.
>

I am very fortunate to have grown up with 4 different religeous influences: primarily 
Protestant, augmented by French Clatholic, Arab Islam and a host of Native American cultures. I 
do not affiliate myself with any religion. Rather I engage in an Earth-based spirituality, 
drawing influence from every religion I encounter. I take in what I like from various religions 
and leave what does not ring true for me.

I would not be who I am if I had grown up with and held on to an attitude of "separation."

I agree, there is no place for "My religion is the right one" on this listserv, or anywhere for 
that matter. In the end, there is only one source of life, and frankly none of us REALLY know 
what it is.

However, if we are to shut down sharing of religeous/spiritual stories, myths, experiences 
related to gardening, then we are shutting down the very heart of gardening, and reducing it to 
an intellectual, technical experience.

Every religious and spiritual practice is full of "gardening" myth and metaphor. In fact, is 
there anything in our life experience but myth and metaphor  for something larger? This is what 
we must be free to explore, together, with dialog, sharing our religious perspectives WITHOUT 
assuming one is "right" and the other should think likewise.

I am not saying we HAVE to include religion in the listserv. I am saying if, in a dialog about community, we chose to shut down a vital 
aspect of human experience, we are harming ourselves, our society, and generations to come. Earlier in human history, different 
religious cultures did not mingle and interact the way we do now. Such extensive cultural mingling is unprecedented. If we as 
shepherds of community unity shut out dialog on religion, we essentially are shutting fellow humans out from one another.

Yes, it's a challenge. Shall we embrace it or run and hide?

I'll end this message as I end my prayers:

In One Light and One Love,

Happy Gardening!

John Edward Verin
Senior Apprentice
Ecosystem Farm
Accokeek, MD

"...it's going to take a wrenching change of heart in those citizens of the world who have the world's goods in abundance.
Each of us must begin to experience the empowerment to change the world that comes from simplicity and wanting less."

- John Jeavons

Food is power... are you in control of yours?

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