One does nothing alone.
I acknowledge first the beauty and healing power of the Earth and especially the sensation of breezes on my flesh during my morning jogs and the glorious colors that welcome me to the new day. They feed my spirit. Secondly, I thank my ancestors for passing on to me the gift of life and the knowledge that comes from them to me and to my children in ways that I do not fully comprehend.
This book would not exist were it not for the many people who have shared with me their stories of life on the “underside” of advanced global capitalism—that is, the exploitation they have experienced and the courageous tenacious struggles for life that they have maintained. To them I am accountable. May this book be one small way of honoring their lives, integrity, and struggles.
I am immeasurably grateful to many friends and colleagues who make life worth living, and who nourish my energy and Spirit. Their support, encouragement, reality checks, and trust—especially when my spirit flagged—were a godsend. So too has been their forgiveness for my spending far too much time on this book and far too little with them. Among these people are dear friends and colleagues at Seattle University who bring joy to my daily work life, my marvelous sisters in the circle of Lutheran Women in Theological Studies, and the splendid “tribe” of friends/colleagues associated with Union Theological Seminary as alumnae or fiends of alumnae.
Ideas and critical consciousness change lives and societies. My gratitude goes to people who have stimulated, in particular, my thinking about the workings of white privilege and white racism in important ways that contributed to this book. They include Tracie West, Mary Hobgood, Emilie Townes, and Jennifer Harvey.
I thank the people and organizations who invited me to participate in colloquia or to give presentations that prompted crafting or refining various parts of this volume, particularly Allen Boesak for the invitation to present a paper at a consultation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in South Africa; Karen Bloomquist and the Lutheran World Federation for bringing me into a number of projects that she initiated; the World Council of Churches for inviting me into its work on globalization; and Professor Gordon Lathrop and his invitation to address the Societas Liturgica in Sicily.
The ingredients of a book are many, one of the most precious being time. I thank the Association of Theological Schools and the Lilly Foundation for the Lilly Theological Research Grant, Faculty Fellowship 2010–2011, which allowed me to take a full-year sabbatical for work on this project. Deep appreciation goes also to the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religious Studies for a summer grant that enabled significant progress on the book.
For the last year of work on this volume, I thank the Seattle University community and, in particular, the office of the provost for awarding me the Wismer Professorship in Gender and Diversity Studies that provided course release time for scholarship. I am grateful to Provost Isiaah Crawford and Associate Provost Jacquelyn Miller for structuring that professorship to be dedicated primarily to scholarship and to Jacquelyn Miller for guiding me in wise use of that time. I am grateful also to Seattle University’s College of Arts and Sciences and its dean, David Powers, for two grants to fund research assistants and for a summer research grant.
One cannot write without a place to do so. I am indebted to Ron Young and Carol Jenson, and to my dear sister, Suzan Stegemeoller, and Phil Stegemoeller, for giving me precious work time in their lovely cabins. I thank a number of Seattle area coffee shops for providing a welcoming environment away from home or office in which to work, sometimes for hours on end, and for their endless flow of exquisite decaf. A few baristas even put on a fresh cup of decaf as I walked in the door or offered the occasional cup on the house. How kind you were!
I will be grateful forever to Larry Rasmussen and Bev Harrison for shaping me as a Christian ethicist and for shaping my sense of critical consciousness in the service of justice-making love.
I thank the amazing artist Kristen Gilje for graciously allowing her painting “Tree of Life” to lend its spirit to the book’s cover. To Michael West, formerly of Fortress Press, I offer my gratitude for believing in this book when it was but an idea and for getting it off to a good start. Will Bergkamp and Lisa Gruenisen carried it forward with patience and wisdom. I thank them both as well as the skilled team with which they work. My thanks go also to Barbara Boardman who stepped in with her skilled editor’s eye when I needed it most. Red and Suzan Birchfield, Carol Jenson, Ron Young, Mary DeMange, Robbie Rohr, Ron Moe-Lobeda, and Leif Moe-Lobeda graciously read chapters and offered helpful input. I deeply appreciate three excellent research assistants—Maiana Curran for work during the book’s early stages, and Eva Jacobson and Gabe Moe-Lobeda in its later.
I am particularly indebted to two people for their direct contributions to this book. Pam Brubaker and George Zachariah read the entire manuscript (parts of it more than once) and provided invaluable formative feedback at a number of stages. I am humbled and inspired by their exemplary intellectual generosity. The book is far better because of them.
To George Zachariah, I am additionally grateful for inviting me to India and arranging an incredible month of meeting and working with people’s movements and graduate schools in that country around issues of eco-justice. I thank also the colleagues in India who—as a result of Dr. Zachariah’s meticulous planning and generosity—shared wisdom and experience with me. They include Vijayan M. J. and Anil T. Varghese of the Delhi Forum; the Rev. Dr. J. David Rajendran, Rev. Dr. M. Gnanavaram, and Rev. Dr. Solomon Victus of Tamilnadu Theological Seminary; Dr. David Selvaraj and Mercy Kappen of Visthar; Dr. John Chelladuria of the India Peace Centre; Rev. Dr. Monica Melanchthon and Rev. Dr. Prakash George Achin and Alice, Rohan and Ramya Achin of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute; Rev. Christopher Rajkumar of the National Council of Churches of India; and Dr. Wati Longchar of Serampore College.
And then there are Larry Rasmussen and Frederica (Freddie) Helmiere! To them I owe the most. Larry not only read the entire manuscript and provided invaluable feedback but also was present with support and wisdom from the book’s beginning to its end. He is the mentor par excellence, and I can hope to repay him only by serving others as he has served me.
For nearly two years, Freddie worked with me as research associate. She brought each of the vignettes in this book from being a small seed of an idea to a carefully researched, artfully written, nuanced window into complex links between people in this world who have too much and people from whom too much has been taken. Her intelligence, creativity, verbal agility, adventuresome mind, integrity, commitment to justice and to the Earth, and ready laughter rendered these stories far more vivid and compelling than they would have been had she not been their primary creator. Working with her was pure pleasure, and I must thank also Mary Evelyn Tucker for putting me in touch with Frederica Helmiere.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, I thank my precious family for their unfailing love and support. My parents—Richard Moe, Marcia Moe, and Lila Moe—and my sister, Suzan Stegemoeller, are a wellspring of empowering love. And my wonderful-beyond-words sons and new daughter-in-law—Gabriel, Leif, and Emily Moe-Lobeda—bring me joy beyond description. Ron, to you, my love, what can I say but that life and love with you are an unfolding and beautiful gift?