4 items

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  Decolonizing Thanksgiving

  "As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the United States, it’s great to think about all the things we can be grateful for. It is good to have a time to pause and reflect, to participate in the seasonality of gratitude for the year’s bountiful harvest, and to gather with family and friends. (We’ll ignore the über-consumerism of the day following Thanksgiving…)
  
  Many of us probably know by now, however, that the story many of us learned in school about the first Thanksgiving is rather inaccurate at best, and racist and paternalistic in many ways, with a focus on the Manifest Destiny idea of the divine mandate for Europeans to conquer the “New World” in the name of Christ and country.
  
  A few questions come to mind (at least my mind), for those of us with European-American roots, such as:
  
  Should we even celebrate Thanksgiving, since it’s so tainted with colonialism?
  What might it look like to “decolonize” our own understandings and our culture?
  How can we do this work in a way that encourages our own folks to partner, rather than making them (our White brethren) feel further ostracized, but while also speaking real truth?
  What can we do this Thanksgiving to begin to reconcile relationships damaged in the colonial era, both human to human and human to this land?"
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  Environmental Stewardship and Conservation

  An article under the Mormon Newsroom from the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that explains the Church teachings and stance regarding environmental stewardship and conservation. The article also links other Church video resources, as well as a few articles, resources, and a book titled, “Stewardship and the Creation: LDS Perspectives on the Environment”. The book is a compilation of 17 essays that aim to inspire Latter-day Saints to strongly consider the importance of being environmental stewards and protecting God’s creations.
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  Overpopulation and the Lifeboat Metaphor: A Critique from an African Worldview

  Many scientists have warned that the earth is nearing overpopulation or has already reached its carrying capacity. Garret Hardin proposed the lifeboat ethics metaphor to address this crisis and proper resource distributions. Okyere-Manu comments that this metaphor does not take into account the African political and cultural worldview. Hardin's metaphor is also reliant on inequality which disproportionately affects vulnerable communities.
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  How Religion Influences Our Relationship With the Environment

  This article, drawing references from a study in the Journal of Religion and Demography, summarizes how religions influence many environmentally relevant behaviors.
  
  The author and his colleagues discovered that countries with a lower religious population utilize more resources and emit more emissions, but they are also better prepared to deal with the environmental difficulties that emerge since they are wealthier. On the other hand, countries with more religious populations tend to use fewer resources, but they also have less capability to address environmental concerns and are more vulnerable to negative consequences, owing to their high levels of poverty and continued population increase.
  
  The link between religion, poverty, environmental impact, and governance is intricate and ever-evolving; the field continues to call for more research.