• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
  • Infrastructure Justice: An Overdue Movement Whose Time Has Come

Infrastructure Justice: An Overdue Movement Whose Time Has Come

by Berndt, Brooks | published on Jun 21, 2016

The First in a Series on Infrastructure Justice

In the Bible, the physical state of a nation at times serves as a reflection of its spiritual state. More precisely, a nation’s infrastructure can signal the state of its covenantal relationship with God. Indeed, both Nehemiah and Isaiah, point to how the promised repair of a nation’s infrastructure announces that a new day is coming. In Isaiah 52, oppressive practices breached the nation’s relationship with God, but God declares that if the nation throws off the yoke of oppression, feeds the hungry, and meets the needs of the afflicted, then blessings will follow: “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” While the United States is a nation of many faiths and persuasions, our collective situation today bearers some striking parallels.

Minnesota_Bridge.jpg
Minnesota Bridge

This past year the sins of oppression in our nation became starkly revealed in the Flint water crisis. Unfolding before our eyes was a rage-provoking story of abdicated responsibility, abused power, and systemic racism. That moment of truth has served as a catalyst for a raised level of awareness and concern for our nation’s infrastructure. The impact of this reckoning has yet to be determined. Recently, someone in the field of disaster relief told me of how he had been to three disaster relief conferences in recent months and a dominant concern at each was our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure. He summarized the general outlook of the conferences by saying, “We have a plan for dealing with the next tornado, the next flood, and the next hurricane, but what are we going to do when the next infrastructure disaster happens?”

Earlier this month, I attended a conference of labor and environmental advocates that had a different focus. Instead of responding to the next infrastructure disaster, they wanted to prevent it from happening in the first place. The conference was tenth annual conference organized by the BlueGreen Alliance. In a panel discussion, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, recounted for the audience how infrastructure was a stated concern for each of the past conferences, but he believed now the time had finally arisen for a more concerted and elevated level of action.

A movement for infrastructure justice is long overdue. For years the American Society of Civil Engineers has been assigning letter grades to assess the state of our nation’s infrastructure in 16 areas which include roads, bridges, dams, drinking water, electrical grids, public transit, and more. Since 1998, our nation has been getting overall grades that are close to failing, due to delayed maintenance and underinvestment. In the organization’s most recent report, we got a D+. These grades are not the product of abstract assessments. They are as real as the 66,749 structurally deficient bridges in our country, and bridges are an area in which our nation scored relatively high with a C+.

The health and lives of our nation’s citizens are at stake when it comes to our infrastructure. We are in need of an Isaiah moment, a moment in which we answer the call to be repairers of the breach and restorers of streets. On the whole, faith communities have been stronger at responding to man-made disasters than preventing them. With a growing awareness of the dangers before us, that situation will hopefully begin to change, or else we will continue to face the consequences of more and more suffering due to inaction. A movement for infrastructure justice can no longer be delayed. The time is now. 

 

 

The Rev. Brooks Berndt is Minister for Environmental Justice for the United Church of Christ.

Categories: Column The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog

Sign Up For Our Newsletter








Privacy Policy






Related News

Into the Mystic

Snow

Listen to the...

Read More
Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Democracy Still Needs Us

Many advocates for a strong, robust democratic process were breathing a cautious sigh of...

Read More
Into the Mystic

The Lights of the City

Listen to the...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative