I've been doing some reading to prepare for a course on environmental theology and ethics that I'll be teaching here at the Sanibel church this fall. I just finished a really fine essay by Jurgen Moltmann from his book Creating a Just Future. It dates back to 1989, but it feels very contemporary. He sees things in relational terms, and at one point observes: "The living relationship between a human society and its natural environment is determined by the techniques by which human beings extract what they need to eat and live from nature and return their waste products to it." (52)

Clearly, in the current crisis here on the Gulf, there have been techniques which have failed. I don't have the technical expertise to determine if they are good techniques gone awry, or if they were faulty from the start. Indeed, that is a question that bis being asked about deep water drilling in general. Here in Florida, as we enter this election cycle, it's a hot topic. To drill or not to drill? Should Florida's coastline be open to drilling? Or is drilling a technique which is fundametally harmful to the relationship?

While I can't judge the technical merits of drilling, I do have a bit of training in the realm of relationships. And in human relationships, technique does matter. I've spent many, many hours working with men who abuse their wives and lovers. Often, part of that counseling is all about technique--learning new ways of communicating that don't tear at the heart of the relationship.
But there is more to it than technique. For ultimately such men need to learn a whole new way of thinking about the women in their lives. Ultimately they need to come to see them as partners, as equals, as people deserving of their love and respect. And while good technique can be helpful, in the end, it needs to grow out of a transformed attitude, and a transformed understanding. Without that transformation, things never change.

Drilling may or may not be a good technique. We need to figure that out. We also may need to invent some new techniques. But more than that, we need to change our attitude about the earth itself. We need to see the natural world as a partner, deserving of our care and respect.