Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Who did you have lunch with today?

This evening the School of Theology at Saint John's is awarding its annual Dignitas Humana Award. This years recipient is 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Environmentalist, Womens Rights and Social Activist, Dr. Wangari Maathi. Dr. Maathi stopped by the Emmaus Hall dinning hall during lunch and answered a few questions posed by some of the graduate students. She made it a point to mention the influence her Benedictine undergraduate studies had on her view of service. It was a great, albeit short, opportunity to interact with one of the leading environmentalists in the world. Dr. Maathi's big program, the Green Belt Movement, plants trees in Kenya to fight desertification that is a result from poor land use practices and more recently a result of global climate change. Although she answered our questions, she also posed a very pointed question to a bunch of theology students - instead of acting like a bunch of domineering power grabbers, when will Christians start acting like stewards of God's creation?

Great question. Great Lunch.

Peace,
Jeff

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