Silencing the Choir of Creation

In the Book of Revelation a terrible plague is revealed to the Holy Apostle John that will take place near the time of the end of the world: Fire, hail, and blood will fall upon the earth, killing one third of the trees and grasses (Rev 8:7). Modern man, rather than doing everything possible to avoid such a fate, seems to be fulfilling it himself with his use of chemical herbicides.


From the very beginning of the South as a distinct cultural region, she has been described as an image of the Garden of Eden. Such is her natural beauty and bountifulness. But Dixie is coming to resemble more the image of Gehenna, of desolation, as our people wage chemical warfare on the natural world. Dead grass and saplings, completely barren patches of dirt, the decline in once abundant critters like lightning bugs, dirt dobbers, and grandaddy longlegs, the horrendous spike in cancer cases in farm communities – this is the New South we are creating.


Nature is not an adversary to be conquered, but we have been treating her like one. The attitude Southerners once had toward the creation is expressed well by a recent saint of the Orthodox Church, Elder Joseph the Hesychast, who fell asleep in the Lord in 1959. In a letter to one of his spiritual sons, he invites him to spend some time with him in the countryside:


‘We will speak with God and about God. Come and enjoy Him Whom you miss. Listen to the wild boulders, those secret and silent theologians, while they develop deep thoughts for you and guide you, mind and heart, to the Creator. . . . The voiceless theologians theologize, the beautiful rocks and all of creation, each with its own voice or with its voicelessness. . . . Everything here has a voice and, with the blowing of the wind, as they are moved, they join together in a harmonious musical doxology towards God’ (Herman Middleton, Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, Protecting Veil, 2011, p. 117).


‘The heavens declare the glory of God,’ writes the Psalmist (Ps. 19:1). And not only the heavens. The whole of creation, says Elder Joseph, offers her praise to God. By our actions of late here at the South, we have been silencing that wonderful choir of creation, burning millions of acres with millions of pounds of herbicides. That is reprehensible.


There is a better way. Organic gardening and farming associations are now widespread across the South. The federal government under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, is promoting regenerative agriculture. We should continue in this direction.


Eden has become obscured in Dixie, lost in the haze of glyphosate, atrazine, and dicamba. But with repentance toward God and sacrificial love for His creation, we can recover the vision of her in a new blaze of beauty. May the Lord bless our efforts. Amen.