My words are like stars, they don’t set… One thing we know is that the white man may one day discover—our God is the same God. You may think that you own Him – the way you consider owning our land – but you cannot. He is the god of men – the red and the white alike… To hurt the earth is to despise its Creator. Continue to contaminate your bed… and one night you’ll suffocate in your own garbage…
(Chief Seattle of the Duwamish tribe, in Washington State, 1855 to the 14th President of the United States, Franklin Pierce)
It is said of Jesus himself that he proclaimed the gospel of God in the power of the Spirit… What Jesus reads in the Book of Nature becomes for him the image of the basileia, the rule of God: it is not enforced with drums and trumpets, not with spectacular acts of violence, but comes along in the same way as Jesus: on the path of poverty and love, peace and justice, suffering and resurrection.(Bible, Mk 1:9 ff.; Lk 4:18 f. (Isaiah 61:1 f.))
