Politics: Less about Institutions and More about People 
politics is less about institutions and more about people
At Swarthmore’s baccalaureate ceremony in June, Professor of Religion Mark Wallace mentioned Mathew Louis-Rosenberg in the same breath as College co-founder Lucretia Mott, women’s suffragist Alice Paul (Class of 1905), and civil rights worker Ralph Roy ’50. He called them all “religious prophets,” singular Swarthmoreans who have resisted the evils of American society—slavery, male dominance, Jim Crow, and now mountaintop removal coal mining.
“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” said Wallace, quoting a motto of the women’s rights movement.
In an interview, Wallace explained that religious prophets “put forth a moral vision … the moral call of their time” and “tap into the deep vein of American psychology that uses religious and moral language to motivate social change.” He put Louis-Rosenberg in this company “because he is putting his life and freedom on the line to advance the … cause of saving the planet.”
Wallace, whose 2005 book Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature explored the theological basis of modern environmentalism, said the use of civil disobedience by the environmental movement is but the latest turn in a time-honored American tradition. Unfortunately, he added, this tradition is under siege. Laws adopted just before and after 9/11, he says, “define environmental civil disobedience as domestic terrorism.” He notes that Massey Energy, which has labeled Louis-Rosenberg and his comrades “environmental terrorists,” is undoubtedly aware of these laws.
By contrast, he points to Abraham Lincoln and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as individuals who mobilized religious symbols and ideas “to touch Americans at their core and motivate them to change social institutions.” Until similar figures employing religious language arise, he said, “the environmental movement will not be successful.”
Former Swarthmore political science professor Jeffrey Murer, now at St.
At Swarthmore’s baccalaureate ceremony in June, Professor of Religion Mark Wallace mentioned Mathew Louis-Rosenberg in the same breath as College co-founder Lucretia Mott, women’s suffragist Alice Paul (Class of 1905), and civil rights worker Ralph Roy ’50. He called them all “religious prophets,” singular Swarthmoreans who have resisted the evils of American society—slavery, male dominance, Jim Crow, and now mountaintop removal coal mining.
“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” said Wallace, quoting a motto of the women’s rights movement.
In an interview, Wallace explained that religious prophets “put forth a moral vision … the moral call of their time” and “tap into the deep vein of American psychology that uses religious and moral language to motivate social change.” He put Louis-Rosenberg in this company “because he is putting his life and freedom on the line to advance the … cause of saving the planet.”
Wallace, whose 2005 book Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature explored the theological basis of modern environmentalism, said the use of civil disobedience by the environmental movement is but the latest turn in a time-honored American tradition. Unfortunately, he added, this tradition is under siege. Laws adopted just before and after 9/11, he says, “define environmental civil disobedience as domestic terrorism.” He notes that Massey Energy, which has labeled Louis-Rosenberg and his comrades “environmental terrorists,” is undoubtedly aware of these laws.
By contrast, he points to Abraham Lincoln and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as individuals who mobilized religious symbols and ideas “to touch Americans at their core and motivate them to change social institutions.” Until similar figures employing religious language arise, he said, “the environmental movement will not be successful.”
Former Swarthmore political science professor Jeffrey Murer, now at St.