THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT PHILADELPHIA
CHILDREN AND CREATION:A CHANCE TO GO OUTSIDE
SUBMITTED TO DR. KAREN BLOOMQUISTIN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
ICS 100 THE CHURCH IN SOCIETY
CHILDREN AND CREATION:
A CHANCE TO GO OUTSIDE
Two incidents sparked the writing of this paper. The first
was my mother telling me how our church childcare program had
remodeled the small natural space available for the children by
removing the tree and replacing the grass with plastic sod. As a
childcare provider, my mother was indignant that they had taken
what she saw as a green learning environment and turned it into a
sterile plastic playground. The second incident was my reading
George E. “Tink” Tinker’s American Indian Liberation: A Theology of
Sovereignty. In this book, Tinker critiques the notion of Western
society that it is “enough to replant a few trees or to add
nutrients to the soil.”1 He insists that, to reverse the current
ecological crisis, human beings must engage in a relationship of
reciprocity with nature. Reciprocity is an Indian American way of
life that involves “maintaining a balance [with nature] and
tempering the negative effects of basic human survival
1 George E. “Tink” Tinker, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 70.
2
techniques.”2 It requires a change that is deeper than a few
discrete actions, i.e. planting a tree, and instead demands a
change of perspective. In this paper, I wish to investigate how a
change of perspective such as Tinker envisions could happen by
changing the way that children engage with nature.
The urgency of this problem is demonstrated by the
development in our culture of the ailment diagnosed by Richard
Louv as nature-deficit disorder, that is, “the human costs of
alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses,
attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and
emotional illnesses.”3 The problem not only affects children and
youth in the United States. Louv cites research from England,
Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands, which indicates that today’s
children are engaging with nature less than generations past.4 In
one specific Israeli study, “researchers revealed that nearly all
adults surveyed indicated that natural outdoor areas were the
most significant environments of their childhood, while less than
2 Ibid.3
Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008), 36.4 Ibid., 33.
3
half of children ages eight to eleven shared that view.”5 Today,
nature is less likely to be an important part of children’s
lives; this has potentially harmful consequences for children’s
health.
Louv demonstrates the far-reaching effects of nature-deficit
disorder by citing various studies that show how exposure to
nature impacts child development. In terms of mental health,
studies indicate “that exposure to nature may reduce the symptoms
of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and…can
improve all children’s cognitive abilities and resistance to
negative stresses and depression.”6 Nature also contributes to
healthier physical development. In Norway and Sweden, studies of
preschool-age children demonstrated that, after playing in
natural settings for a year, children tested better than their
cohorts in motor fitness.7 Robin Moore, who studies postmodern
childhood play, argues that “a rich, open environment [such as
nature] will continuously present alternative choices for
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., 35.
7 Ibid., 49.
4
creative engagement. A rigid, bland environment will limit
healthy growth and development.”8 Nature stimulates children’s
intellectual creativity. Overall, exposure to nature can help
children to be more emotionally balanced, mentally focused,
physically fit, and intellectually creative and engaged.
The need for attention to these areas of development is
apparent in our society. One current issue that concerns
children’s health is the child obesity epidemic. While many
factors contribute to the epidemic, three contributors have been
prominent in public debate: television, junk food, and lack of
exercise. Many people have pointed to sports as an answer to the
problem, but Louv notes that “the obesity epidemic coincides with
the greatest increase in organized children’s sports in
history.”9 Another disturbing trend in children’s health was
exposed in a survey completed in 2003 and published by Psychiatric
Services which shows that “the rate at which American children are
prescribed antidepressants almost doubled in five years; the
steepest increase—66 percent—was among preschool children.”10 A 8 Ibid., 66.
9 Ibid., 48.
10 Ibid., 49.5
reevaluation of the relationship of today’s children with nature
could reverse some of these disturbing trends; however, cultural
and religious obstacles stand in the way.
Several trends in recent years have resulted in the
estrangement of children from nature. One trend is a replacement
of experience with theory. Louv notes that today’s children have
a greater intellectual awareness of ecological crises than
children of previous generations but spend less time actually in
nature.11 Another trend that estranges children from nature is
their disconnection from food sources. Louv writes that, “In less
than a half century, the culture has moved from a time when small
family farms dominated the countryside…to a transitional time
when many suburban families’ vegetable gardens provided little
more than recreation, to the current age of shrink-wrapped, lab-
produced food.”12 Yet another factor is the elimination of
natural space to accommodate urban and suburban expansion. A
young girl, whom Louv interviewed and who identified as a poet,
spoke evocatively of a neighborhood wood where she used to play;
11 Ibid., 1.
12 Ibid., 21. 6
when it was cut down, she said, “It was like they cut down a part
of me.”13 A final factor that has estranged children from nature
is what Louv calls the “the criminalization of natural play.”14
Louv tells one story of a neighborhood where children were first
banned from fishing in a local pond, then banned from
skateboarding on their sidewalks, and finally forced to build a
skate park ten miles away.15 In her book, Breathing Space: A Spiritual
Journey in the South Bronx, Heidi Neumark tells a related story of an
immigrant community who attempts to plant a tree in her community
as a sign of thanks to the church and is unable to do so because
of stringent city ordinances.16 All of these factors contribute
to children’s estrangement from nature: physically, mentally, and
emotionally.
Underlying these factors are deeper cultural and religious
mindsets and realities. Fear is a major obstacle which divides
children from nature. Some of this fear is the parents’ fear:
13 Ibid., 13-14.
14 Ibid., 27.
15 Ibid., 27-28.
16 Heidi B. Neumark, Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx, (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003), 101-102.
7
fear of letting their children outside without an escort and fear
of not knowing where their children are at all times.17 An
abstract by the Children and Nature Network includes studies from
England and Australia that indicate parents limit their
children’s access to nature based on concerns for safety,
including street traffic, gangs, and strangers.18 Some of the
fear is also the children’s fear, especially those who have
experienced violence. For them, nature is associated “with war,
with hiding,…with the neighborhood park, which is controlled by
gangs.”19 Underneath this mindset of fear is the reality that
people in poor, especially urban, neighborhoods are more likely
to be estranged from clean, safe natural space, while the power
to address this inaccessibility lies with those who have access
to such spaces.
The reality is that children in certain areas lack access to
any kind of clean, safe space, much less clean, safe natural
space. Ivone Gebara, an ecofeminist scholar who ties abuses of 17 Louv, Last Child in the Woods, 125.
18 Cheryl Charles and Keith Wheeler eds, “Children & Nature Worldwide: An Exploration of Children’s Experiences of the Outdoors and Nature with Associated Risks and Benefits,” Children and Nature Network (2012): 27-30, http://www.childrenandnature.org/downloads/CECCNNWorldwideResearch.pdf.19 Louv, Last Child in the Woods, 145.
8
the earth with abuses of the female body, writes about her native
Brazil and notes that the spaces of the rich are kept clean by
the poor while the rich dispose of their waste in the spaces of
the poor, producing health hazards.20 Neumark writes of a similar
situation in the South Bronx in New York City where the garbage
of the city pollutes the neighborhood of her church and adversely
affects the health of its inhabitants.21 This “environmental
racism” has resulted in abnormally high death rates by asthma for
the children of the South Bronx.22 Neumark sarcastically notes
that “someone did tree research and discovered that locust trees
can be planted…in the area because they are resistant to
pollution. Unfortunately, a breed of resistant children has not
yet been discovered.”23 In unsafe and polluted urban areas like
these, the challenge of putting children in contact with nature
is extremely difficult.
20
Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 3.
21 Neumark, Breathing Space, 7-8.
22 Ibid., 7.
23 Ibid., 9. 9
Another underlying factor in the separation of today’s
society and its children, from nature is individualistic and
anthropocentric cultural values. In a society that values
personal gain and human beings above all else, nature becomes a
commodity to be sacrificed or ignored for the sake of
consumerism. Louv describes a car commercial where a family
drives past beautiful natural vistas, and the children sit in the
back seat completely mesmerized by a television.24 In an
interview with elementary age children, Louv recalls a boy who
told him that “computers were more important than nature, because
computers are where the jobs are.”25 This disregard for nature is
rooted in prioritizing the needs of the individual and human
beings over the earth. The reality, however, as I already
discussed is that human disregard for the creation, ultimately
impacts the well-being of humanity.
In Christian theology, one story that would need to be re-
appropriated to change this callous and manipulative view of
creation is the creation story, specifically the creation story
24 Louv, Last Child in the Woods, 2.
25 Ibid., 13.
10
in Genesis 1. In his book, Creation and Reality, Michael Welker
analyzes the problematic verse, Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them,
and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that
moves upon the earth.’”26 In this verse, God speaks to human
beings, describing to them how they are to be in relationship
with the earth and its creatures. In this divine instruction,
scholars have problematized the Hebrew verbs, ׁׁׁ ׁ, which means
subjugate, and, ׁׁׁ, which means subjugate or trample under.27
Elsewhere in Scripture, these verbs apply to slaves or conquered
land and could be interpreted here to mean that humanity has an
abusive relationship with the earth. Welker contextualizes the
verse and argues that, in Genesis 1:27, “God’s image” modifies
how human beings are to “have dominion” over animals and that, in
Genesis 1:29, God places human beings and animals in a
“vegetarian community of solidarity.”28 For Welker, the dominion
26 Gen. 1:28 NRSV
27 Michael Welker, Creation and Reality, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 62.
28 Ibid., 71.
11
that humanity is to exercise is demonstrated in the Noah story in
which Noah’s duty as a human being is to “[preserve] the life of
the endangered animal world.”29 Welker reinterprets the
traditional understanding of this text to demonstrate that
humanity is differentiated from yet responsible to the creation
and its creatures.
Welker draws the line at “imagining a community of
solidarity with animals that would make it possible to confuse
children and housepets,”30 but Tinker is willing to take a step
further in leveling the hierarchical relationship between
humanity and the earth. Speaking from his perspective as an
American Indian of the Osage nation, Tinker argues for a
relationship of interrelatedness between humanity and the rest of
creation, which begins with the American Indian spiritual
proclamation that “all life is sacred and therefore I am sacred
as a part of the created whole.”31 American Indians understand
the animals to be their relatives; a relationship which is
29 Ibid., 72.
30 Ibid.
31 Tinker, American Indian Liberation, 43.
12
represented symbolically in the circle: “There is no hierarchy in
our cultural context, even of species, because the circle has no
beginning or end. Hence, all createds participate together, each
in their own way, to preserve the wholeness of the circle.”32
Gebara writes of a similar concept, which she describes not as a
deconstruction of the individual but as attentiveness to the
“Greater Body.”33 She confirms that relatedness is a “cosmic
condition,” which requires us to “welcome the cosmos as our body,
and thus to recognize it as a ‘subject’ and not merely as an
object subordinate to our will to conquer.”34 This theology takes
Welker’s argument and goes a step further: seeing creation not
just as an object, for which human beings are to care, but as an
subject, which is an extension of our very selves and thus a part
of us.
Another Christian mindset that contributes to human
objectification of and disregard for the earth is the dichotomy
made between heaven and the earth. Gebara writes that as
Christians, we traditionally “think of ourselves first and 32 Ibid., 48.
33 Gebara, Longing for Running Water, 52.
34 Ibid., 92.13
foremost as citizens of heaven. The earth is just one planet
among many.”35 To overcome this mindset, Welker offers an
alternative framework in which “according to the biblical
creation accounts, the heavens are in tune with the earth,
ordered in relation to the earth, created in reaction to earthly
creatures.”36 This framework attempts to overcome the
heaven/earth dichotomy by emphasizing the harmonious relationship
envisioned in Genesis. Another framework that can overcome this
mindset is to emphasize God’s relationship with the earth via the
Incarnation. In its social statement on the environment, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America makes reference to Romans
8:18–25, which emphasizes that “in Christ, the Word is made
flesh, with saving significance for an entire creation that longs
for fulfillment.”37 All of creation is impacted by God’s saving
presence via the Incarnation. Gebara also values the Incarnation
for its creation implications but goes in a different direction
than the ELCA, envisioning an “earthly Jesus”: 35 Ibid., 89.
36 Welker, Creation and Reality, 39.
37 ELCA, “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice,” Social Statement, ELCA (August 29, 1993), 2.
14
Within this perspective, Jesus does not come to us in the name of a ‘superior will’ that sent him; rather, he comes from here: from this earth, this body, this flesh, from the evolutionary process that is present both yesterday and today in this Sacred Body within which love resides.38
These paradigms fight against a cultural and theological
perspective that values a heavenly salvation and otherworldly God
and instead encourage a perspective that values a deeper
relationship with the earth and imagines a this-worldly God.
To live out such a perspective, the church needs to take
action by helping to put children in contact with nature in a
purposeful and healthy way. Louv doubts that environmental scare
tactics, which use the grim picture of our potential future as
leverage to change behavior, will remain effective.39 The
majority of today’s environmentalists were not scared into their
work but inspired by particularly memorable experiences in
nature.40 One study demonstrates a direct relationship between
child participation in “wild nature activities” before the age of
eleven and positive adult attitudes towards the environment.41 To38 Gebara, Longing for Running Water, 190.39 Louv, Last Child in the Woods, 147.
40 Ibid., 150.
41 Ibid., 150-151.
15
develop a healthy relationship with the earth, children need a
balance of “free play” (non-adult directed activity) and mentored
time in nature.42 Today’s children do not need theoretical
education about the hole in the ozone layer: they need to go
outside.
One way that the church can help children go outside is by
making summer church camps more accessible. In the action section
of the ELCA’s social statement on the environment, the church
“commends” to congregations “camps and outdoor ministries,” but
does not elaborate on the accessibility of such camps.43
Interestingly, in the ELCA’s social statement on education, the
church again recommends that children, youth, and adults “take
part in this church’s outdoor ministries” and again does not
elaborate on how or what role such camps play in fostering a
healthy relationship between children and the environment.44 In
an interview with my mother as a childcare provider and leader in
42 Ibid., 151.
43 ELCA, “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice,” Social Statement, ELCA (August 29, 1993), 9.
44 ELCA, “Our Calling in Education,” Social Statement, ELCA (August 10, 2007),18.
16
our church’s Christian education ministry, she mentioned that
children are often able to attend church camp programs only with
the help of scholarships they receive from the congregation.45 I
went on the website of our local camp, Bear Creek Camp, and
discovered that, while its mission is laudable: “to help
individuals explore, celebrate and grow in God’s creation,”46 the
prices are indeed steep: the cheapest experience is nearly $300
for four days at camp, and the programs are not available to
children any younger than first grade.47 Significant financial
assistance is practically dependent on congregations.48 While the
ELCA recommends camps and outdoor ministries, it does little to
make them accessible and has even withdrawn funding from the
organization, Lutheran Outdoors Ministry, which provides
45 JoAnn Steinly, Phone conversation with author, Sellersville, PA, May 5, 2013.
46 “About/Mission.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/about-mission/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
47 “The Experience.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/the-experience/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
48 “Financial Assistance.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/financial-assistance/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
17
education for camp and outdoor ministry leadership.49 While
congregations can continue to provide funding for children to
attend camp programs, I recommend that they look to provide
opportunities for nature experiences to more children: children
in the community who will not necessarily be able to afford or
attain a scholarship for camp and children younger than the age
of seven.
How can churches do this? One way that churches can do this
is to partner with or help form a local chapter of the
organization, Children and Nature Network, which seeks “to
connect all children, their families and communities to nature
through innovative ideas, evidence-based resources and tools,
broad-based collaboration and support of grassroots
leadership.”50 A group formed with the help of this network could
take on issues within the local community that are barriers to
children of all ages engaging with nature. The aim of these local
chapters is to unite already existent local groups and
49 “History of LOM.” Lutheran Outdoor Ministries. http://www.lomnetwork.org/about_us/history/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
50 “About Us.” Children and Nature Network. http://www.childrenandnature.org/about/contact/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
18
individuals who could be advocates for nature opportunities for
children. Partnering with a local chapter of this network, a
congregation can advocate for outdoor experiences to become a
more integrated part of children’s lives and can empower children
and youth to be advocates for nature experiences.
The ELCA social statement on education identifies children
as both “models and teachers of faith” and “orphans, neighbors,
and strangers in need of justice and compassion.”51 Children are
not only future leaders, they are leaders in their own right.
Maria Montessori is an Italian physician and educator who changed
the face of education by empowering children to be agents in
their education. Her philosophy forms the foundation for
contemporary practices like “free play,” which allows children to
have an active role in their learning environment and encourages
teachers to “notice” and respond to the interests and
observations of children.52 In her book, The Montessori Method,
Montessori lists a number of concrete benefits that result from
using nature as a learning environment for children, and, as a 51 ELCA. “Our Calling in Education.” Social Statement. ELCA (August 10, 2007),15-16.
52 JoAnn Steinly. Phone conversation with author, Sellersville, PA, May 5, 2013.
19
postscript, tells a nature story from her first “Children’s
House” school in Rome. At this school, the children cultivated a
portion of land that was previously polluted by residents of a
nearby tenement:
The inhabitants of the house, therefore, had the habit of throwing from those windows every kind of offal, and at the beginning our garden was thus contaminated. But, little by little, without any exhortation on our part, solely through respect born in the people’s mind for the children’s labour,nothing more fell from the windows, except the loving glances and smiles of the mothers upon the soil which was the beloved possession of their little children.53
In this situation, Montessori, as a teacher, provided the
opportunity for the children to “fall in love” with the earth
and, by their actions, they in turn taught their parents to
respect the earth.
As the church, we need to provide children an opportunity to
“fall in love” with the earth and to become leaders in a
desperately needed movement to transform our current utilitarian,
consumerist, and dominating relationship with creation. This will
not only benefit the earth, but, because we are a part of the
earth, it will benefit us, yielding healthier more balanced
53 Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, (Radford, VA: Wilder Publications, 2008), 128.
20
children and communities. By giving children opportunities to be
in nature through camp and local networking, the church will take
another step to ushering in a kingdom where all have access to
clean air, clean water, and a safe place to go outside.
21
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“About/Mission.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/about-mission/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
“About Us.” Children and Nature Network. http://www.childrenandnature.org/about/contact/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
Charles, Cheryl and Keith Wheeler eds. “Children & Nature Worldwide: An Exploration of Children’s Experiences of the Outdoors and Nature with Associated Risks and Benefits.” Abstract. Children and Nature Network (2012) http://www.childrenandnature.org/downloads/CECCNNWorldwideResearch.pdf (accessed May 9, 2013).
ELCA. “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice.” Social Statement. ELCA (August 29, 1993) http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Environment.aspx (accessed May 5, 2013).
ELCA. “Our Calling in Education.” Social Statement. ELCA (August 10, 2007) http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Education.aspx (accessed May 5, 2013).
“The Experience.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/the-experience/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
“Financial Assistance.” Bear Creek Camp. http://www.bearcreekcamp.org/financial-assistance/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
22
Gebara, Ivone. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999.
“History of LOM.” Lutheran Outdoor Ministries. http://www.lomnetwork.org/about_us/history/ (accessed May 9, 2013).
Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008.
Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method. Radford, VA: Wilder Publications, 2008.
Neumark, Heidi B. Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003.
“Outdoor Ministry: The Church in a Time and Place Apart.” Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Outdoor-Ministry.aspx (accessed May 9, 2013).
Steinly, JoAnn. Phone conversation with author, Sellersville, PA,May 5, 2013.
Tinker, George E. “Tink.” American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.
Wallis, Jim. The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change the World. New York, N.Y.: HarperOne, 2008.
Welker, Michael. Creation and Reality. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1999.
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