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Simpler OneEarth Living Podcast
A co-production of Simple Living Works! and The Common Good Podcast (Jubilee OneEarth Economics)
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SHOW NOTES
Jubilee OneEarth Economics is not focused on just one issue, but on a worldview–a way of viewing the world and living in it. That is a strength, because we need this worldview to save us from the devastation of life happening from the practice of the MultiEarth worldview that prevails today. But worldviews are big and reach into all areas of life. That makes them challenging to describe.
This worldview of OneEarth Jubilee guides us in ways similar to how Indigenous peoples have been guided to live sustainably on the Earth for millennia. The Bible also presents this worldview as an alternative to kings and empires. In the Bible, it goes by various names–the Kingdom of God, living acceptable to God, and Jubilee. But in the name of progress, civilization came along and proposed improvements. Some of the ways of progress worked in close interdependence with nature, but most have violated nature and the evolved systems of creation, bringing us death and repeated disregard for life. And now it’s taken us to within a few years of destroying our planet’s capacities to sustain life. Scientists are alarmed. Yet, corporations from pharmaceuticals to banks and meat producers race ahead, valuing billions of dollars over life itself. Indigenous ways continue to suffer, being thought of as in the past or outdated, and the Jubilee worldview has been forgotten from the biblical narrative.
But not everyone.
In this episode, four people understand that the situation of life is dire and that just as surely there is a worldview that saves life. Two of the four are from Mexico; two from the U.S. They are part of circles of other people who share a devotion to living the OneEarth Jubilee worldview in radical contrast to the reckless gamble the powers in charge are making with life on the planet.
Angelica Juarez is a physician and artist in the village of San Mateo, Puebla, MX.
Lindsey Mercer-Robledo is a community organizer in the city of San Cristobal, Chiapas, MX.
John Michno is a former IT person who now directs Jubilee Economics Ministries in San Diego, California, USA.
Lee Van Ham is a co-founder of the nonprofit OneEarth Jubilee Economics, and has worked to deepen his understanding and practice of the Jubilee worldview for over 20 years.
They tell how the Jubilee worldview came to appeal to them, and how they’re devoted to put it into practice daily. For them, it is a spiritual path for living in the midst of the breakdowns happening in the current crises. Notable Quote: ‘Immigration. When people see how people live day by day, sometimes they don’t have enough even to eat, you can be touched. Tools for people to develop their income. You don’t have to go to other places. They can live here, and stay together as a family. In the pandemic, in this time fewer people have gone to the United States.’
OneEarthJubilee.com — Living Within Our One Planet’s Capacities
SimpleLivingWorks.org
Previous Episodes
Ep. 09/21–Eric LeCompte: Forgive Us Our Debts—Woes and Wins in Canceling Student Debt
Student debt is in the news somewhere every day. Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education the past four years, relentlessly followed the notion that every individual is responsible for the debt they incurred. But, so far this year student loan forgiveness has benefitted two groups: Americans with permanent disabilities and borrowers who attended now-defunct institutions such as ITT.
- For disabled students, $5.8 billion in student loan debt has been forgiven for 323,000 borrowers with a “total and permanent disability.”
- For students who went to for-profit schools, $3.7 billion has forgiven the debt of these borrowers.
- But these figures are less than 1% of the 1.7 trillion dollars of all student debt. What is being done for the students who still feel the weight of 99% of student debt?
That’s what we’re talking about today with Eric LeCompte, director of Jubilee USA Network: https://www.jubileeusa.org/
Eric aims to apply Jubilee economics at the policy level of how student debt is structured at the federal level. In OneEarth Jubilee and Simpler Living Works we aim to practice Jubilee economics with the powers of grassroots organizing. Speaking personally, Lee’s personality and call are with grassroots practices. That’s what stirs his passion. Policy work, except at the most local level, drains my energy really fast. So it’s good to talk with a Jubilee colleague who gets energized by policy work with national and international debt policy makers.
If you are part of a family struggling with student debt, you likely know that student debt now totals nearly $1.7 trillion, exceeding both total car loans and credit card loans. Only mortgage loans are a bigger part of economic debt. Rugged individualism holds that I must pay off the debt I incur. But that fails to recognize the structures of debt. Debt is not structured by individuals, but by powerful financial and political groups that make repayment strenuously difficult. For many, impossible. Such debt is immoral and destroys creativity to the extent that all, not just the debtor, suffer. That’s why, in a Jubilee worldview, debt is forgiven after a reasonable period of time. Jubilee refuses to marginalize people in perpetuity because of debt. All people must be treated as kin in the human family and that disallows any perpetual separation into loan makers and borrowers.
So we continue to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” And for all who pray the other version, which is “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” remember that the greatest trespasses are the structural ones that separate people from one another, dividing us into categories like have-gots and have-nots. With either version of the prayer, we’re praying to forgive economic evils that separate us from one another and from our souls.
Please tell us your thoughts on these subjects. Leave a message on Jubilee OneEarth Economics and/or Simple Living Works! Facebook pages.
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08/21–Brenda Wyss: Feminist Economics Is Creating Just Systems That Meet Current Crises
With every year that passes, evidence mounts that the current economic and political systems cannot deliver the social and ecological justice that is necessary to sustain life on our planet.
Where then do we turn? Women are an obvious and undervalued source—an answer hiding in plain sight. Women are creating systems that are far more just, and far more life-giving than the ones which currently stress the planet and most people. Let me clarify one point. Today’s podcast conversation is not about women elevated to positions of leadership in male oriented paradigms. Rather, our conversation is about women who can act boldly in expressing the wisdom of the feminist ways of running households, businesses, societies, economies, and political policies. Today you’ll hear such a woman—a feminist economist who focuses on economic justice as a primary measure of a healthy economy. She recognizes that focusing on economic growth can never get us to the economy we need in the 21st century. So with hundreds of other women in the economy who are intent on feminist economics, Dr. Brenda Wyss [weess], our guest, points us to the way through, where currently there seems to be no way.
Lee met Brenda 15 or so years ago. He was staying in her home because her husband, Barry Shelley, and Lee were attending and leading a workshop in the Solidarity Economy Network conference happening in Amherst, Massachusetts. Lee’s introduction to feminist economics was just beginning at the time. In this podcast conversation Lee asks Brenda, “What is feminist economics?” She gives us a thorough answer. It’s clearly her passion. Lee also asks her about evaluating an economy by measures other than growth. Her answers are really important.
Brenda Wyss is professor of Economics and Coordinator of Development Studies at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
In her own words, Brenda says: I am particularly interested in issues of economic justice and I bring that commitment to my research, teaching, college service, and my life off campus. I strive to make economics exciting and accessible and to introduce students to a range of viewpoints, issues and questions often left out of economics courses. I’ve been teaching a course about women in the U.S. economy for 30 years. I also teach Foundations of Political Economy which highlights how power shapes the economy and economic outcomes.
Lee’s worked with the Center for Popular Economics (CPE) since the 1980s, providing economic literacy training and analysis to social change activists and grassroots organizations.
For more information, visit these sites:
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Ep.0721-Matt Brennan: An Advocate for Your Congregation and Nonprofit on How to Install Solar Power
SOLAR POWER. Over the past century, industries have determined how we live. And fossil fuels have provided the energy these industries need. But now these fossil-fueled industries have taken us into an ecological crisis—a crisis that’s become an emergency. People are losing livelihoods. Health. Humans have now joined other species on the endangered list. We’ve got to find a different way—one that uses less energy that’s also clean and renewable. We need to change FAST. Life is rapidly becoming apocalyptic. Many congregations and nonprofits want to make the change to clean, solar energy, but face discouraging obstacles. Our guest today, Matt Brennan, VP of sales with CollectiveSun, LLC, a company that helps congregations and nonprofits switch to solar.
Apropos to this show, Juanita and Lee have just decided to install ten more solar panels on our home. It’s part of a program by which California plans to get 50% of its energy from the sun by 2025.
Visit CollectiveSun.com
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Ep. 0621–Carrie Radloff: MidWest Environmental Activism
It’s far too easy to assume that not much good is happening in states that are fertile ground for the growth of right-wing ways of doing things. The states of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota have been just such fertile soils. And yet, precisely in the area where those three states come together along the Missouri River, this effective activist on environmental concerns helps us break through this stereotype that not much good can happen in areas dominated by right-wing politicians and profit-hungry corporations.
Carrie Radloff is an unassuming, persistent Iowan devoted to saving life in the environment of her area. She grew up in northwest Iowa on an acreage that has since been certified as a Century Farm. Her family was very involved in Boy Scouts, and by exploring the land and being raised under the “Scout Law,” she developed appreciation and respect for the environment and all living things. She attended Westmar University in her hometown of Le Mars, and was selected to be a Melton Fellow which allowed her to travel extensively and work with and learn from people from other cultures, including Europe, Africa, China, India, and Chile. Volunteering is the center of Carrie’s life. In addition to the decades-long involvement with the Melton Foundation, her previous service includes terms on the Leadership Siouxland* board and Iowa State University Extension’s Council for Woodbury County. She now focuses on environmental issues. She helped found Loess Hills Wild Ones in 2017. She chairs the Northwest Iowa Group of Sierra Club and serves as its delegate to the Iowa Chapter’s Executive Committee. She’s a current member and former chair of the Sioux City Environmental Advisory Board. Carrie worked for 15 years in higher education at Western Iowa Tech Community College and the Tri-State Graduate Center, where she helped coordinate training for nonprofit employees and leaders. After that, she was an ACA health insurance navigator and a wind energy advocate. Carrie earned a B.A. in International Communication and Mass Communication, an M.A. in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Development… She completed Leadership Siouxland* and Climate Reality Project training, and is a Master Gardener and Master Conservationist. She enjoys connecting and coordinating ideas, information, and people in order to achieve shared goals as efficiently as possible, and is proud of the many things she and her colleagues have accomplished over the years. Carrie lives in Sioux City, Iowa, with her husband.
The motto of WildOnes.org: Native Plants / Natural Landscapes — Healing the Earth one yard at a time. In contrast to her other environmental work, Wild Ones focuses on one thing: getting more native plants into the ground. Native plants are the Swiss Army Knife solution to so many issues, and more people need to hear that message.
*Siouxland is the name for greater metropolitan Sioux City, IA, including South Sioux City, NE, and North Sioux City, SD.
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Ep. 0521–Neddy Astudillo: Adding Environmental Actions to Our Spiritual Practices
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neddy-astudillo-067b449a
https://justiceunbound.org/one-body-with-earth-a-wake-up-call/
SacredPeopleSacredEarth.org
GreenFaith.org
LivingTheChange.net
The climate emergency isn’t coming, it’s now … and it’s been with us for some time. Though slow at first, congregations, faith organizations, and faith-based campuses are now hurrying to develop actions that help save life on our planet. We see a growing awareness that creation is under enormous stress, induced by humans. The awareness includes that the huge changes that need to happen have a deadline. 2030, the year that hundreds of international scientists have agreed is the deadline for actions to keep Earth from heating over 1.5° above pre-industrial levels.
All faith-connected organizations need to lay out boldly that meeting the deadline requires costly discipleship. What we eat, where we bank, what we invest in—all of these are now spiritual practices. None of them is separate from faith.
We can all commit to do something really meaningful. . . And, please promote this important conversation to others.
Lee first met Neddy Astudillo on a farm in northern Illinois. This organic farm has a great story told in the movie, The Dirt on Farmer John. Neddy and her spouse, Tom Spaulding, started a Learning Center on the farm to teach all that goes into healthy soil, organic growing, and farming without pesticides or chemicals. That Learning Center has evolved to train new farmers in organic, regenerative methods. Revolutionary! But our conversation with Neddy today has a little different focus.
As an eco-minister and eco-theologian, Neddy directs Green Faith in Florida and in Latin America. Be sure you go to the GreenFaith.org to learn far more about Neddy’s accomplishments and hopes. How they frame their work:
Religious and spiritual communities everywhere generate a moral awakening to the sacredness of Earth and the dignity of all people. Together, we are building resilient, caring communities and economies that meet everyone’s needs and protect the planet. The era of conquest, extraction, and exploitation has given way to cooperation and community.
The good life is one of connectedness—with each other and all of nature. It is a world of flourishing life that replaces despair with joy, scarcity with shared abundance, and privilege with justly distributed power.
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Ep. 0421–Arborist Robin Rivet on Reversing Climate Crises through Informed Tree Actions
If you’re not so sure you can plant or tend any trees, can you consider making a donation to the OneEarth Jubilee Tree Fund? In 2021, we will be getting trees in the ground in the San Diego region as well as two regions in Mexico. This Fund also gives you a chance to compensate for the CO2 your travel and energy use put into the air. The trees you fund will take it out of the air. Either by planting or donating, we encourage action. The crises underway on our planet require us to act differently, to act in cooperation with nature as our ally. You can donate by check, payable to Jubilee Economics Ministries (designate that it’s for the Tree Fund), or online at www.oneearthjubilee.com/donations.
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Ep. 0321–Mike Little: The Power of Money—Making All Our Money Accountable to Our Faith
Visit FaithAndMoneyNetwork.org
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Ep. 0221–Economist Barry Shelley: Economic Assumptions and Initiatives for Change
In Jubilee Economics Ministries we benefit greatly from Barry because he is an economic advisor to JEM’s understanding and practice of an alternative economy rooted in creation more than wealth accumulation or maximization of profits. This conversation with Barry focuses in three areas: (1) the underlying assumptions of the prevailing economy and the challenges in moving our economy in new directions, (2) the discussions happening among professional economists about changes and different economic models, and (3) local initiatives he considers important in showing that alternative sub-economies can be created within the larger, prevailing economy.
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Invitation to Sign OneEarth Jubilee Covenant for the 2020’s
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The Simpler Living Daily NUDGEs
How Do It Get It (for free): Send NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@Yahoo.com
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Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist
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