Category Community Building

CBC

There is disturbing evidence coming from a CBC report that a fundamentalist group is actively working to radically change the Canadian landscape, through direct political intervention.

“Liberty Coalition Canada, a conservative Christian advocacy group, is trying to raise $1.3 million to recruit hundreds of Christian politicians and campaign staff to run at all levels of government.

In a document marked “please keep classified” that was obtained by CBC News, the group says its ultimate goal is “the most powerful political disruption in Canadian history.”

The details are extensive, and disturbing. I won’t repeat them all here, but do encourage you to read the full article. The essence of the work is that they believe in a very fundamentalist version of Christianity, one which goes against Canadian anti-discrimination laws, among other things. It’s hostile to various minorities, and reinforces a very negative patriarchal structure that belongs far in the past.

CBC

What matters here, for today, is this:

Often, progressive and inclusive faith groups and others have been content to simply quietly act inclusively, while accepting the discriminatory policies of others, even within the same denomination, in the name of “unity.” Basically – “if you want to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and I don’t, we’ll each do what we want and turn a blind eye.”

Personally, I don’t think discrimination is one of those “we can agree to disagree and still have unity” kinds of things. And, I think that, if the discrimination was on any other factor (eg skin colour) – “You only want to allow whites in your church and believe in allowing minorities”, I don’t think we would be so quick to agree-to-disagree in the name of “unity.” We simply do not allows congregations within our denominations (at least any that I am aware of) to choose whether or not to allow racial minorities into their buildings or not.

However, even if we thought that worked in the past (which I don’t think it did), we are absolutely past that point now. Ultra-right wing Christian nationalists are passing anti-LGBQT+ (and other) laws in the US at an incredibly rapid rate, and those influences are coming into Canada, faster than we would like.

Doing inclusion quietly, without rocking the boat, is not enough. We need to speak up, be loud and open about what we believe in. Well funded groups are working intentionally and directly to use the electoral system to take away basic rights from many Canadians. We can not let this happen. As Canadians, we are polite and nice. That should not change. However, we need to make our voices heard – clearly and in mass mobilizations, to elect governments who will not let these terrible things happen.

Let’s amplify our voices, and put an end to the discrimination. We can do it, together.

After we move into the weekend (and after a bit of a delay with posting here – sorry about that!), let’s talk sustainability. Sustainability means a lot of different things:

• reducing/eliminating our carbon emissions, by downsizing, radically reducing our flying, switching to a plant-based diet, and more
• ensuring that our programs are well designed and achieving their goals
• electing governments that have truly sustainable policies at their core
• and so much more

So, for today – here’s the question:

What’s one (or more) areas of sustainability that you are interested in learning more about? What’s something that you would like to see more of? What resonates with you?

Share in the comments, and I’ll build your answers into future posts. Let’s talk!

Here is today’s International Women’ Day Public Service Announcement…

Trans women are women! All women deserve equal rights and protection – legally, morally and every other way. Instead of women fighting with other women, we need to support each other.

Instead of attacking trans women, let’s recognize that patriarchy and other destructive systems are the real problem.

Let’s commit to ending discrimination and the pain that patriarchy causes – in families, faith groups, communities, nationally and internationally.

Share your hopes, dreams and goals in the comments, and we’ll support each other!

Decades ago, at least in my circles, I was assured that churches (ones that I was connected with, at least), had long since moved past any old or outdated policies on gender or sexual orientation. The somewhat spoken – and somewhat unspoken – message that I got was “Of course we’re inclusive, and everyone younger knows it. We just aren’t talking about it widely because that would upset the oldest members. In a few years, everyone here will be safe and inclusive – just be patient for a few years.” Now, it’s totally possible that I completely misread the assumptions of organizations that I was with, and others might report something completely different. However, I waited patiently, and gave organizations the benefit of the doubt, and yet now, decades later, things haven’t changed to a degree that matches what I was expecting. In fact, things are far short of what I – and so many others – have been “waiting patiently” for.

Now, still, so many faith groups (and the family units within them) discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, whether actively or passively. “Weaponized unity” as described by Jemar Tisby, is the perfect description of this phenomenon – “Just wait a bit longer for your basic rights to be accepted. Don’t rock the boat. As long as you wait quietly and don’t say anything that will upset the people who are hurting you, and don’t ask for more, we can all still come to the same services/family gatherings/spaces. But if you speak up, others will be upset and the disruption will be your fault.”

It’s yet another variation of blaming the victim. Instead of demanding that people stop discriminating, we’re asking some people to hide their true identities, or accept less than full equality, while others, in power, discriminate without consequence.

If the only thing holding our families or faith groups together is the fact that some people are allowed to discriminate, we don’t have unity. Plus, we have been asking people to “just wait a bit longer” for way too long. At the same time as people are leaving the church in rapid numbers (and leaderships wonder why), too many denominations use “weaponized unity” to keep those who are being discriminated against quiet, so that those who are discriminating don’t get upset.

We all deserve protection from discrimination – and it’s not OK to take the protection that we get and turn it around to offer someone else less than we get. It goes every direction and overlaps in countless ways. Women, minorities, Muslims, gays and so many others are legally protected from discrimination (even though it still happens). If we, as women, don’t want to be discriminated against, we can’t promote discriminate against Muslims or LGBTQ+ families. We as LGBTQ+ families deserve protection, and need to extend the same respect to our Muslim neighbours – and expect the same respect to be shown to us. We can not, in good conscience, expect someone else to tolerate discrimination that we wouldn’t accept for ourselves.

We can – and must – do better.

We always have new people joining – and it would be great to hear from all of you!

Please share your responses in the comments (to any or all questions)!

• Where are you from?
• What is one sustainability-related goal that you have?
• What is one sustainable thing that you would like to do, but have a question?
• What’s one thing that you would change if it was easier to do? (Might be something that you are already working on, but haven’t fully achieved).

Here are my answers:

• I am in Canada (in SW Ontario (about an hour from Toronto)
• I am always working to reduce my emissions (food, travel, housing etc)
• I would use public transit more, if we had a better system AND
• I would tow our little camper trailer with an EV – if we could find an affordable option
• Plus, I would make sure that every faith group is completely LGBTQ+ safe and welcoming! 🌈

Looking for more info?

• Check out the website!
• There are lots of great zero-waste and sustainable items in the website store!
• Questions? Ask me in the comments, or book a meeting with me via Upwork (link on the website).

I look forward to hearing from you!

We all know that community – in all kinds of ways – is important. However, it’s not always easy or present in the ways that we might hope it would be.

Families might exclude members for being LGBTQ+, faith groups may not be fully welcoming or people may lose connection for many other reasons. The family gatherings available to some people aren’t always available for everyone.

Even separate from direct, active forms of exclusion, many people are looking for more connection, and sometimes it can be hard to find. So, today, we’re starting the conversation. In the comments, if you are open to it, please share your experiences with community.

Where have you been included? Where have you been excluded? How have family, friends and faith groups welcomed (or excluded) LGBTQ+ people?

If you would like something more or different, what would you like? What would help you feel more connected to others?

Do you reach out to others? Do others reach out to you? Where have you had your best or worst experiences? Please share your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll start working together to create better, safer, more inclusive spaces!

Have a great day!

There has been some work going on behind the scenes, and I invite you to check out the new and improved MennoAdventures IG page! There are still a few updates being integrated, and I appreciate your patience as those get fixed.

In the meantime, in the comments, please introduce yourself and share where you live – and one sustainability change you have made in the past that you are excited about. Have you reduced or quit flying? Switched to more plant-based eating? Become vegetarian or vegan? Encouraged your office/school/worship space/extended family/friends to be more actively LGBTQ+ safe? Something else? I look forward to hearing what everyone is up to!

After a quieter than expected spring and summer here, due to some scheduling conflicts and vacation time on my end (sorry about that!), things are back up and running – and there are some big ideas being worked on to build up and improve the website over the fall and winter.

You may have noticed that the online store has been growing slowly and steadily. If you haven’t checked it out recently, I encourage you to do so. One of my favourites, from this summer, is the Lomi home composter – we tested ours on some camping trips this summer, and it performed beautifully!

I also had the privilege of attending my first Toronto Pride Parade this summer, visiting with some family and friends, and finding time for some much needed vacation.

Now, we are into fall, and that means it’s back to work! For the website, fall and winter, this year, means an increased focus on all things sustainable, looking at both individual and systemic changes that we need to make, as well as individual changes that lead to systemic changes.

Looking for things that you can change right now, to help build a better tomorrow? Here’s today’s list:

• Eliminate (or very significantly reduce) consumption of animal products
  • Animal products are a very significant contributor to the climate crisis (plus a Whole Foods Plant-Based diet is far healthier!).
  • Want to go all the way and go into winter plant-based? Use up what you currently have in your fridge or freezer, and don’t by anything else. Instead of adding chicken or other meat to your pasta (for example), add a tin of chickpeas or kidneys – it’s more sustainable, healthier and cheaper. Why pay more to wreck the climate?
• Quit flying
  • If you can’t quit all the way now, cut the worst flights first:
    • short and medium haul flights, as well as any flights for a short trip eg flying to a resort for a week in winter, flying out for a conference/meeting etc. Instead, find somewhere local for a holiday, and join the meeting remotely.
    • If you must fly, limit it to only the absolutely essential trips, and limit yourself to one flight/year or less (as your max – less is much better). Can you challenge yourself (and others in your circles) to reduce yourselves to one flight every 5 years? Every 10 years? Something else?
• Advocate for better choices and policies at the institutional level
  • Ironically, some faith groups (and others) are still acting in a manner that seems completely backwards – actively refusing to do what’s needed to address the climate crisis, while ALSO putting huge amounts of time and energy into things like ensuring that they continue to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, newcomers, women, minorities and others. It’s wrong, and the only thing that will change it is if we all speak up and demand something better.
  • We need to put all of our time and energy into doing what’s right – saving the planet and ending discrimination.

Travel, and especially international travel, has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. With my first international flights, when I was young, not surprisingly, the carbon emissions of our flights was not on my radar. Even later, as an adult, I was, at times, doing more than one return, trans-Atlantic flight per year, without a second thought.

In the last 5-10 years (maybe a bit more), in my circles, at least, I have started seeing increased awareness of the fact that the way we are travelling (either for work or for fun), is not sustainable. At the same time, even in my circles (which include many people who are very aware of the climate crisis, as well as others for whom climate awareness is fairly low), very few people (other than the most highly dedicated climate activists among us), are reducing their flying. People are still flying for work trips (which could perhaps have been done remotely) and still flying long distances for short vacations.

For the climate, Covid was, in many ways, a blessing in disguise. It forced us to stop flying unnecessarily and cut down on endless hours of driving and commuting to work, among other things. However, now that we are two years into Covid, some people are starting again with flying and other high-emissions activities, in some cases with a premise of “we’ve got 2.5 years of missed flying to make up for, so we’re doing extra now…”

Disclaimer for chart on right:

Among other things, this is trying to estimate carbon price/person for a fixed unit (eg an airplane) with inconsistent variables (eg number of people on the plane). If, as it often the case due to Covid etc, a plane is less full than the baseline for this calculation, the emissions/person will be much higher than indicated in the chart.

So, what does this mean? How do we move forward more positively?

• Tourism is responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. (link). Flying accounts for a significant piece of that, and is a very easy piece to eliminate. Not only do we save $ by not booking expensive flights for holidays, we also significantly reduce our climate impact, especially if we are very intentional about choosing an alternative that is much more climate safe.
• Short and medium flights are very damaging, and are a very carbon intensive way to travel. This is even harder to justify if the trip was non-essential, or could have been done in any other way (eg train etc).
• Long-haul flights are lower emissions/km traveled (in some cases) but the damage is still there from the high number of total KMs travelled. As with shorter flights, many long-haul flights are non-essential and could easily be cancelled.
• Many trips in which a long-haul flight is booked, at least one shorter flight (if not more), is also included in the itinerary eg a short flight from a starting point to a major international airport, for example, and again on the return. Therefore, many trips are adding both the damage from a short-haul flight, with the extensive KMs of a long-haul flights, resulting in very high emissions for what may be a very short vacation.

As we start looking at how to spend this time summer, what changes can we, collectively, make to ensure that we build community and explore, while also not adding unnecessary damage to the environment?

For me, I will not be flying anywhere, as tempting as it is, because of the carbon emissions. What can we do instead?

• camping (in a tent or trailer)
• train trips
• exploring nearby cities or outdoor areas (eg provincial or national parks)
• explore something related to the region you want to travel to, but closer by eg want to travel to Italy? Your nearest big city probably has lots of great Italian restaurants and grocery stores to check out! Want to explore the ruins of an ancient city? Check out your nearest museum instead.
• others?

So, for this summer, and beyond, what changes will you make to how you explore the world, without damaging the climate? Let’s do this together!

Pyramids are often uses as a model within development and other spaces, whether correctly or incorrectly eg pyramids of needs, food pyramids and others. Some work well, some not so well. However, I did come across one recently that I think has value for where we are at right now.

These days, there is far too much of every level of the pyramid – including anti-LGBTQ+ laws in countless places, pointless wars, genocide, a climate crisis that is being ignored and many other challenges

There is far too much hate (for people and the planet), and not enough love, peace, kindness and inclusion and sustainability.

So, why did I post this today?

Far too often, I still see people posting (or sharing in other ways), things that land on the pyramid of hate – either the bottom, or even much higher up. Might be something discriminatory, might be support for a politician or law that discriminates against others, might be support for a war that hurts others, might be lack of support for refugees, might be hateful comments about how a minority (eg LGBTQ+ or others) don’t belong in one’s faith group or family or so many other awful things.

So, what would this look like if we flipped it around, and made it a pyramid of inclusion? (Apologies in advance: my design skills are not good enough to actually redesign it here, so we’ll have to use our imaginations.)

Instead of thinking and acting on our negative biases, leading to discrimination and violence, let’s reverse the cycle. Let’s actively include, and find space for others. Let’s stop justifying our own bad behaviour (eg hateful attitudes, discrimation, sexism, racism, exclusion, pollution and others), pretending that “it’s not that bad, and not hurting anybody” (or any of countless other excuses and justifications). Just because somebody else’s behaviour is worse, doesn’t make our behaviour OK. Both can be wrong, in different ways. We all have ways to improve and learn how to do better.

The Giza pyramids have been around for a long time. Likewise, our legacy – of hate, discrimination and climate destruction OR love, inclusion and a safe planet – will last just as long. So, which do we choose?

If we want a pyramid of inclusion, we need to face our own areas where we need to learn more, find ways to be more inclusive, take radical action to to love creation (switch to a plant-based diet, quit flying, get rid of our gas-powered vehicles, downsize our homes and many others, depending on individual circumstances etc).

So, as we start a new week, what kind of pyramid are we going to build? 🙂