Religion, Friction, and Cultural Encounter in the Anti–Mountaintop Removal Movement

This final chapter examines the cultural encounters and points of friction between different activists and stakeholders associated with the anti-mountaintop removal movement. In their efforts, activists sometimes encountered conflicting views on Appalachian place, identity, and religion. These views met in points of friction, in anthropologist Anna Tsing’s term, where they often hybridized or changed to generate new perspectives on the issue or to support previously held ideas about place, religion, and identity. Examples of these debates include discussions of “insider” Appalachian identity and fears of “outsiders” influencing local policies, concerns among some religious activists of having their efforts co-opted by other groups who do not share their same moral visions, differing visions of the future of post-mountaintop removal Appalachia, and various arguments concerning the ethics and efficacy of direct action tactics.

Religion, Place, and Mountaintop Removal

This chapter examines the historical development of anti-mountaintop removal activism in Appalachia in the early twenty-first century. The chapter first examines how twenty-first-century groups such as Mountain Justice emerged out of decades of localized activism against strip mining in the area. It then outlines the theoretical influences from Appalachian studies and religious studies that have shaped this discussion of religion and place in Appalachia, including studies of Appalachian history and development, critical regionalism, and approaches to “lived religion.” Based on these theoretical concepts, the remainder of the book explores multiple religious threads in the re-imagining of Appalachian place by anti-mountaintop removal activists in light of a physically transformed topography.

Conclusion

By 2016 much had changed in the anti–mountaintop removal movement from the intense actions of the summer of 2009. Sadly, prominent activists and leaders, such as Judy Bonds, Larry Gibson, and Sid Moye, passed away, leaving others to carry on their legacies as advocates for Appalachian environments and people. Local coal supporters continued to decry the “war on coal” that they perceived to be costing their jobs and livelihoods, and opponents continued to find new avenues by which to resist the practice. While the direct impacts of resistance to the coal industry during this time period remained unclear, the movement nonetheless presented alternatives to the global economic forces that perpetuated mountaintop removal. For some like Larry Gibson, a solution to these extractive industries entailed seeing the values in life, place, and labor that transcend utilitarian economic perspectives. As he said in a 2009 interview, “Try to understand, even in your lifetime you’re going to have to find what’s important to you, and money should not be able to buy everything.” In their work ...

Introduction

In the summer of 2009, I participated in a rally against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. The rally was held on the grounds of Marsh Fork Elementary, a school situated between the Coal River and Route 3 in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Sitting immediately below a slurry impoundment (a giant reservoir of toxic coal sludge produced by the coal preparation process and retained by an earthen dam), Marsh Fork Elementary also sat at the center of many debates surrounding the safety and justness of mountaintop removal. Activists cited increased health problems for Marsh Fork students due to their proximity to an active strip mine, such as abnormally high rates of asthma, and worried about the potentially disastrous consequences of any stresses or failures in the earthen dam retaining the slurry. The nearby mine and processing plant were owned and operated at the time by Massey Energy, one of the most controversial coal companies in the region. It was led by Don Blankenship, an outspoken and active opponent of labor unions and environmental regulations. Both Blankenship and his company were frequent targets for environmentalist outrage, and for his part, Blankenship seldom passed an opportunity to denounce “tree huggers” and others who, so he claimed, would destroy the jobs of hard-working Appalachian miners. In 2012 a new elementary school was built several miles from the original site, thanks to donations and ongoing political pressure; but in June 2009 these issues remained unsettled....

Caring for Creation

This chapter examines theocentric (or god-centered) perspectives against mountaintop removal, including evangelical Christian visions of Creation Care and Stewardship ethics. The Creation Care movement is most often associated with evangelical Christians in the United States. Supporters of this movement generally argue that over-exploitation of natural resources and increased pollution are violations of a biblical mandate for humanity to be good stewards of the natural world. From this perspective, mountaintop removal is problematic not only because of the harm it does to human communities, but also because it is seen as a violation of the mandate of stewardship. The chapter examines several individuals and organizations, including Christians for the Mountains, that offer this perspective in their work against mountaintop removal.

Seeking Justice

This chapter examines various eco-justice perspectives against mountaintop removal in the twenty-first-century movement, including influences from Catholic social teachings and mainline Protestant social justice work. Many of these efforts first emerged in the War on Poverty era, transitioning into activism against strip mining in the later twentieth century. Advocates of this position often cast resistance to mountaintop removal in a broader historical perspective of activism against social injustice. Mountaintop removal, they argue, constitutes a violation of the rights of the poor and needy, exploiting the lives and labor of rural Appalachians in favor of economic profits. The chapter provides specific accounts of individuals and organizations that offer this perspective in their work against mountaintop removal.

Defending Mother Earth

This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these forms of religious responses posit some sort of intrinsic, spiritual value in natural ecosystems. They often share similarities with biocentric arguments, particularly those associated with Deep Ecology and radical environmental movements. Nature-venerating spiritualities take many forms in the Appalachian movement, including the many types of dark green religion as described by Bron Taylor. Nature-venerating spiritualities are also expressed through a vernacular nature religion, or a localized expression of care for place based out of experience and work in Appalachia. The chapter describes several points where nature-venerating spiritualities entered the anti-mountaintop removal movement.