Her sign read: "The point is not whether to vaccinate or not. The point is whether our body is sovereign." The rights and freedom of women to have power over our bodies – the point springs from very real social justice issues. But mandatory, even voluntary vaccination against the Corona Virus may be a different kind of issue.
Days ago, the U.N. issued a "code red for humanity". Human caused global warming, according to the report, puts our species in danger. Forest fires, heat domes, extreme storms, the Covid 19 pandemic – all are signs of Earth’s imbalance and disease that will grow beyond our means unless!! Unless we think and respond as a species to the real issues of ecojustice.
I wrote the book Evolutionary Dancer, Out, In, and On the Fringe of the Church for those searching to make peace between our tradition’s teachings, today’s science, and the bourgeoning planetary crisis.
Seeking my peace, in the multi-layered complexities of vaccination, I’ve come to this.
Neither my tradition, Christian, nor others, teach ‘put the self first.’ Freedom from self is a universal spiritual value. My new cosmology, likewise, teaches communion - inter-relatedness, co-dependency -- is one of the governing principles of the Universe; it’s the nature of nature and the basis of all existence.” Thomas Berry, one of the Evolutionaries in my book, puts it this way. “Ours is a story of how all creation is a vast communion. ... We are a community of all living species, that includes the human but is always of the greater reality and value.” His point is, in certain circumstances, it's the whole, the Earth family, that is sovereign.
Even though I’ve been raised to be an individual who embraces her power, I am, first and foremost, part of the human species. My choices affect, and are affected by, a larger evolutionary process by which the planet exists. In this time, issues of social justice must give way to eco-justice.
Following the patterns that protect the vitality and resilience of the whole for some may not only be the harder choice, it may be the most powerful.