Sacred Activism
Sermon written and preached by Beth Remmes, Coastal Outreach and Resiliency Coordinator for Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL) at Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia on October 5, 2025.
Thomas Berry writes, “It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story.”
In the book Coming Back to Life, which serves as the foundation for group practices known as the “Work That Reconnects”, Joanna Macy and Molly Brown write about the “Three Stories of Our Time” - all of which are happening. Of course, these stories are just one way of making sense of what is occurring in the United States and other industrial growth societies, but I have found them a very helpful orientation as I find myself fluctuating between them on a daily - if not hourly basis.
One current story that most people seem to operate in is the story of “Business as Usual”, where the goal is to maximize profits at the expense of people and the planet. “Faster”, “busy”, and “more” are common mantras in this linear, power-over, extraction-based system built on the fallacy of unlimited growth on a finite planet. In this story, GDP and stock-market numbers are measurements of a healthy economy, we buy now and pay later, putting us in financial and ecological debt, and we revere the myth of the cowboy who pulls himself up by the bootstraps, as if we are not caught in an “inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” as Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”.
While some may resist looking at the Business As Usual story because they no longer identify with this plot, it is important to understand it for a few reasons:
It makes us feel less alone when we hear other people question these assumptions.
When we know the language and theme of this dominant story, it helps us to understand the underlying problems and then craft solutions that will appeal to the stakeholders. This is especially relevant for those of us who work in advocacy.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, when we encounter someone who is firmly tied to this story, instead of getting upset and immediately reactive, we can create a space to step back and say, “Oh, this person is giving their energy to Business as Usual. They are firmly planted in this story!”
Many scientists, scholars, and others waking up from the delusions of consumer-driven society often put much of their energy into detailing how “Business as Usual” is leading to the story of “The Great Unraveling”. This is the story, backed by evidence, of the collapse of environmental, social, political, and economic systems. This story has been going on for centuries, and is pervasive in much of the world, especially in industrial growth societies, but what is unique to this time is that it is a convergence of crises across all of these systems.
Here is Joanna Macy’s translation of Rilke,
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
Macy taught us not to pathologize the pain that we feel during The Great Unraveling. She writes,
“This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.”
This intensity of pain that we feel on behalf of the world can be referred to as our “Blessed Unrest.” Just as pain receptors throughout our bodies send electrical messages causing our body to spring into defensive action, our pain for the world also wants us to respond.
Some people come into this world with a talent and passion, and they know from a young age that they are going to be a musician, a teacher, a doctor, or an athlete. But for many of us, myself included, it was not my passion which directed my life’s work – it was my COMpassion. The despair I felt when I saw senseless, brutal animal slaughters, the scarred earth from clear-cut forests, and the crushing burden of environmental injustice – felt overwhelming – but what battered me became my strength. It pointed me to a community of people who share my heartbreak, and I found ways to be part of the earth’s immune system.
The third story of our time is the story of “The Great Turning” and it’s a turning from our industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society – where we can meet our needs without destroying our life-support system. This story does not give The Great Unraveling the last word. If you choose to put your energy into this story, you see the breakdown as part of the breakthrough. This story involves new and creative responses to shift to a more sustainable, just, and peaceful world.
If you think that this is not possible, it is worth remembering that humanity has been through other major revolutions:
The Agricultural Revolution (domesticating animals and plants took thousands of years) 10,000 BC-1700s
The Industrial Growth Society (took generations), late 1700s-present
These included the First Industrial Revolution, which began with the mechanization of the textile industry in the 18th century, and then merged into
The Second Industrial Revolution began around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the
19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation and then the assembly line, and mass production. Then there’s
The Third Industrial Revolution or the Digital Revolution/Information Age - and now many consider AI part of a Fourth Industrial Revolution.
So, how do we make this shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society?
The three dimensions of The Great Turning, which are mutually reinforcing, are:
Holding actions that slow the damage to Earth and its beings. BLOCKING
Analyzing our current structures and creating more sustainable alternatives. BUILDING
Shift in consciousness, which is a change in perception, thinking, and values. BEING
Many people participate in all three of these dimensions, but may prefer to spend most of their time in a particular area.
When people picture activists, they most likely envision people marching with signs at a protest. This would be the most obvious example of a holding action. Other holding actions occur at the legislative, legal, and political levels, and are basically any actions to slow down the damage to Earth and its beings long enough until the second and third dimensions of The Great Turning are realized.
Some of the holding actions that GIPL is working on are protections for communities from biomass, coal ash and energy burdens, Get Out the Vote campaigns, and also protections for the Okefenokee, Blake Plateau/Deep Water Corals, and the North Atlantic Right Whales. This time of year, it is important to remember that informed voting of our values at the ballot box for the PSC election is also at the very least a holding action and may overlap with the second dimension of the Great Turning.
The second dimension of the Great Turning is where we study the structural causes of the global crisis and then take action to create new systems, without waiting for national or local policies to catch up. This approach is akin to R. Bukminster Fuller’s assertion,
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
A few examples of this dimension include renewable energy, local sustainable food movement, restorative justice, biomimicry - or innovation inspired by nature, and the creation of “B” benefit corporations, which consider people, planet, and profit.
Check out Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown, which is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. There is even a Drawdown Georgia initiative that is building a movement across the state to accelerate progress toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Their goal is to reduce Georgia’s carbon impact by 30% by 2030, and they’ve identified 20 high-impact solutions to help cut emissions. The Drawdown Georgia solutions provide practical steps for congregations to take climate action and lower their personal and institutional carbon footprint. Drawdown Georgia’s list of climate solutions spans across five sectors: electricity, buildings & materials, food & agriculture, land sinks, and transportation.
Partnering with Drawdown GA, we at GIPL sponsor a number of programs to help communities of faith implement these practical climate solutions. This includes offering Power-Wise and Solar-Wise assessments to help faith communities lower their carbon footprints. We also have Zero-Waste and Water-Wise audits to help organizations rethink and reduce their overall food and water waste, advocacy to protect forests and coastal wetlands, mini-grants to create wildlife habitat on their grounds, and assisting with the installation of EV charging stations.
The third dimension of The Great Turning is the “Shift in Perception and Values”. Without seeing interdependence and the sacredness of all life and recognizing our ecological self, it is difficult to sustain the first two dimensions of the Great Turning. Gus Speth, an American environmental lawyer, advocate, and author who co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote many books and articles that are full of policy analysis and recommendations.
But he writes, “I came to the realization that value change is not just part of the equation of the future, it is the most fundamental thing… I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science, we could address these problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these, we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists and lawyers don't know how to do that. Without serious value change, attractive policy ideas will languish. Climate action will stall, or move in reverse, as it has.”
How do we have a spiritual and cultural transformation where we emerge from our ego-self to an eco-self? How do we write a story of interconnectedness? One of GIPL’s core values is Awe. We believe that our reverence for the natural world and a connection with the divine provide our inspiration. We encourage people to take the time to develop a spiritual connection with nature and to experience the divine as it speaks through nature.
A powerful example of this change in perception is in the story of when Joanna Macy met rainforest activist and deep ecologist, John Seed. She writes in Pass It On:
“There facing bulldozers, what he sensed above all was the forest rising behind him. As he described it to me, he felt himself rooted in the immensely larger being that had brought him forth. That primordial cradle of life now claimed him…”I was no longer John Seed protecting the rainforest. I was the rainforest protecting herself though this little piece of the humanity I cradled into existence.”
A few examples of ways to participate in this dimension include:
This fall, GIPL is hosting a documentary series by Emergence Magazine called Shifting Landscapes that explores the power of art and story to orient us amid the darkness of our time.
Platforms like Bioneers, Gaia Education, and Pachamama Alliance, offer many online workshops that weave traditional ecological knowledge with modern science to support personal and collective transformation, which is the catalyst to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.
Counter the false story in Business as Usual of “survival of the fittest.” Survival of the fittest does not mean only the strong will survive. That phrase wasn’t even introduced until Darwin’s 5th edition of On the Origin of Species, after it was coined by Herbert Spencer and applied to his own economic theories after reading Darwin. By “fittest,” Darwin meant that those who are most “fit” – most well adapted to their conditions, able to optimize their energy use, and able to partner well with others – are most likely to survive. Darwin actually noted that humankind’s real power comes in their ability to perform complex tasks together, to sympathize and cooperate. In the more than human world, mutualisms tend to increase in times of stress. During difficult times, like during a drought, organisms become more cooperative. In the words of evolutionary biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis, “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.”
No matter which dimension or dimensions of the Great Turning you choose to participate in, know that activism is much more sustainable when it is grounded in love.
What does the creative ingenuity pulsating through this web of connection look like, feel like, sound like, seem like to you?
Which of these actions feel like joyful, compassionate, loving service because, without those guiding principles, we run the risk of replicating and perpetuating the us v. them, contentious dynamic and systems of oppression that we are trying to alleviate.
For example, if we are working to shut down coal-fired power plants, because ultimately we believe in the Unitarian Universalist shared value of honoring the interdependent web of all existence and acknowledge our place in it, then our tactics cannot include spewing anger and hatred at the people in that industry. It is the belief in the story of separation that allows people to pollute for profit in the first place. So we have to prioritize restoration and reconciliation, rather than shaming and othering. As Audre Lorde famously declared, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
The Stories of Business as Usual (which includes the Story of Separation), The Great Unraveling, and The Great Turning are all happening. It’s up to us to choose where we want to put our energy. Sherri Mitchell, author from the Penobscot Nation, advocates using the 80-10-10 rule. She suggests that we, “Use 10 percent of time and energy on determining and educating ourselves on what is harming us; another 10 percent to stop the harm, or in other words, stand in protection of life without harming other life; and 80 percent on envisioning and actively creating the world we wish to inhabit.”
So yes, spend some time listening to the unraveling and holding back the harm, but then shift the majority of your focus to the many ways that people are working to create a life-sustaining society and put your energy there. What gifts, passions, or COMpassion…can you contribute to The Great Turning?
Before the doubts creep in that you can’t show up because you have your own work to do, in my experience, my personal growth has happened as a result of doing this work.
Joanna Macy writes,
“Because the relationship between self and world is reciprocal, it is not a matter of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the Earth, the Earth heals us. No need to wait.”
Let’s go learn the new story.
