LETTER FROM TIMOTHY CAREATHERS
Former Senior Pastor of Westside Church
God has called us who bear God’s image to be faithful stewards over God’s creation. God’s will for humanity is for us to be faithful managers in taking care of something that does not belong to us but has been entrusted to us.
God created the earth and everything that God made is good and should be used for the benefit of all humanity. Anything else would be an injustice and a misuse of the resources God has placed in our care.
If we be good to the earth, the earth will be good to us. From it we get nourishment and medicinal benefits that enable us to live healthy and whole lives. It is clear that God gave us the entirety of creation to use for our betterment, not for our pleasures only. Using creation for personal pleasures leads to things such as greed, pollution, contamination and obesity. Injustices begin when we use things for temporal pleasures with no regard of the future effect it will have on our environment and generations yet unborn.
Jesus marries social and environmental justice in Matthew 25 when he speaks on feeding the hungry and giving water to the thirsty. The issue of quality food and clean water becomes a generational crisis and a question of environmental equity. Being responsible citizens of the earth requires we be good generational neighbors to ensure that the earth is inhabitable to all. The scripture speaks of leaving an inheritance to our children’s children, and what better inheritance can we leave than a legacy of care and concern for our shared spaces that enables them to live happy, healthy and whole lives. Going outside should be a safe and even a scenic experience no matter the social or economic status of the community.
So, faith communities across racial and social lines should be concerned about how we treat the earth because how we treat the earth says a lot about how much we value one another.
– Reverend Timothy D. Careathers
Environmental Justice and Stewardship Challenges
The Southside Chattanooga Park is the result of a long-term transformation with a community finding its voice. The Alton Park and surrounding communities have been under advisement from the Environmental Protection Agency for years. Alton Park has several former industrial sites that are contaminated with chemicals, and this has been a barrier to getting people comfortable spending time outside.
Alton Park neighborhood leaders along with elected officials from the City of Chattanooga held a community engagement process to create a new green space that would enhance “the vibrancy of the neighborhood and connect residents with options for recreation.” A million-dollar construction project in 2017 delivered the dream for a pavilion with picnic tables, a large open lawn for outdoor games and gatherings, surrounded by a quarter-mile walking path lined with trees.
Alton Park learned to become a listening community and pushed for change. Regular updates from the EPA help neighbors understand that is okay to come outside after many years of fears about lead in the soil in residential lawns and chemical pollution in the air. Availability of soil testing and remediation by the government provided some of the answers the community needed.
Message to others who want to activate your outdoor spaces: Be aware of barriers that may contribute to neighborhood ideas about using outdoor spaces. Get the information for yourself. Have meetings with community leaders. Talk to local, state and federal officials if there are existing issues. Your program leader should be from the community.
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VIEW THE “PUT THE PARK BACK IN ALTON PARK” PROJECT
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