Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

December 2019 – “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants,” declared Union Theological Seminary (New York City) in a September tweet on Twitter. The statement continued: “Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt, and sorrow in prayer, offering them to the [plants]. …What do you confess to the plants in
your life?”

The sacrilegious ceremony was part of professor Claudio Carvalhaes’s class “Extractivism: A Ritual/Liturgical Response.” Repenting to plants? The Washington Examiner called it “absolute theological bankruptcy.”

onenewsnow.com, 9/23/19;
washingtonexaminer.com, 9/18/19