Learn from the forest: diversity produces strength

How do we come to be the person we are? Often it is a book or a professor. My wife, Darlene, began her student career at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Dr. Jane Claire Kirks-Edmunds, a biology professor became one of those life-changers for Darlene.

Professor Kirks-Edmunds conducted a longevity study of an old growth forest of Douglas fir trees in western Oregon. Her research was eventually published in a book titled “Not Just Trees.” Her visits to Saddleback Mountain began in the 1930s, when she was a student at Linfield College. Her visits lasted a lifetime.

Her study covered periods of time when a lot of “clear cutting” of old growth forests was taking place in Oregon. The book is a fascinating tale of a love affair between Kirks-Edmunds and everything that grew on her beloved mountain.

My purpose in writing about a professor and a forest is not a book review. Rather, It is to share fundamental truths that Dr. Kirks-Edmunds shared with students at Linfield College.

When looking at her forest in Oregon, Dr. Kirks-Edmunds knew she was looking at more than trees. She was looking at a giant eco-system with many interdependent parts. When a tree was cut, a whole system was impacted.

When the forest was clear-cut, the entire mountain was thrown into shock. Over the centuries animal life had flourished. Insects abounded. Plant life in unique combinations covered the ground.

Two lessons were to be learned. The first was the interdependence of life. Everything Jane Claire Kirks-Edmunds found on the mountain had a contribution to make and had needs that must be filled. The second lesson was that strength is dependent on diversity.

Professor Kirks-Edmunds became Darlene’s mentor in her understanding of life. Eventually Darlene earned her degree in social work. She found the lessons from the forest applied to the helping professions that would become her career work.

People are interdependent by nature. People need one another in order to be whole. Healthy communities are the product of interdependence. When social systems are encouraged and practiced, community structures are strengthened.

But the story does not stop with Darlene. My life has been spent in the religious world. I have served as the resident theologian for churches and communities. I have been a student of theology for my entire adult life.

A major part of the theological journey is natural theology. Natural theology assumes a creator and that the creator leaves an indelible mark on his/her work. What has been created becomes another one of our mentors. References to natural theology are found in abundance in the Bible literature witness.

My own Christian roots were heavily impacted by the Protestant Reformation. It was then that the authority of the Roman Catholic Church was thoroughly challenged. My tradition that came out of the Reformation was that the Bible was the authority and all other religious authority had to be subservient to the Bible witness.

My own religious tradition insists that “What does the Bible say?” is the great question of life. The tradition of Bible authority has triumphed in American religious conversation. Along the way all other religious authorities have been cast aside. Tradition, reason, experience, creeds and confessions have all been casualties of the rush to embrace Bible authority. However, the loss of attention to natural theology has been a special loss.

This is where the life work of Jane Claire Kirks-Edmunds enters into our conversation. One reviewer speculated that no piece of land has ever been examined so thoroughly as Saddleback Mountain. Her life work confronts the entire lumber industry and, in particular, confronts the practice of clear-cutting of forest lands.

The lumber industry responds with pointing to the tens of thousands of replacement trees that have been planted. However, they can never replace the eco-system that was destroyed in clear-cutting.

In the forest lands, a monoculture of trees has replaced the complexities that produced giant Douglas fir trees. The message of our good professor is actually quite simple. It is “Not Just Trees.”

The messages of the forests on Saddleback Mountain must be heard by Christian churches. Those messages are pounding on the door of every Christian body. The attitude of “we are right; you are wrong” must disappear.

That is the equivalent of clear-cutting forests. It is the equivalent of a monoculture of trees without supporting ecosystems. Old forms of ecumenism, based on creedal or confessional statements, are dead.

One of the lessons of the forest is that the individual function of a part of the ecosystem does not die or lose strength. Rather, it finds new strength and stability in the vital role it should play in relationship with the whole religious ecosystem. Goals of dominance and triumphalism need to disappear. Christians of every kind must turn loose of monoculture religion.

Equally important for our Christian communities is learning to live in a world of many religions. Evangelical evangelism and missionary endeavor have been at the heart of modern Christian practice. What will our religious world look like if we begin seeing ourselves as a vital and necessary part of a healthy and stable religious world?

Can we learn the lessons of the forests, or will we suffer the devastation of Saddleback Mountain?

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.