Fighting the Keystone-XL Pipeline: Unlikely Partners

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. Faith, Politics, and the Environment

Abstract

This essay describes a relationship between two unlikely groups – a small Baptist Church in South Texas and Tar Sands Blockade in their efforts to fight the construction of the southern section of the Keystone-XL pipeline. Data were primarily collected from published data sources. It is argued that this relationship was made possible because each group held relatively non-gnostic commitments about social justice. This was true even though they had very different religious views. Gnosticism as a social phenomenon is explored and it is suggested that modern idealism with its disregard for the environment is a type of “secular gnosticism.”

Author

• Jerry L. Williams, Stephen F. Austin State University