The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Part I: The Judgment of Nations (Joel 3:1-3)

November 21, 2180

Environmental justice, once a pipe-dream, was now reality. The scars of the history of environmental racism had, on the surface, healed. This work, beginning during the Humphrey Administration back in 2037, extended into a century-long rebuild, changing the ways in which society functioned. Once a society heavily reliant on fossil fuels slowly became reliant on renewable energy. The people that made this movement possible. Communities across the country, and across the globe, worked tirelessly to end the use of extractive and polluting industries. In America, leaders enacted legislation that established environmental justice as a core tenant of American Democracy. Yet, the century-long work was on the brink of becoming fully undone. A far-right regime took power for the first time since Donald Trump’s second term.

Emmanuel, a young civil rights lawyer, was a descendant of Caleb Franklin, the prominent environmental justice attorney who led the environmental justice crusade of the 2030s, ensuring that our nation’s laws remained in service of equality and ecological balance. Emmanuel grew up holding firm to the lessons of his ancestor, but never thought he would ever have to rely on them heavily in the world he lived in. The new regime was promising an eradication of environmental policy that no one in this era had ever seen.

September 30, 2181

An elderly Mr. Jon Trinket entered the law office where Emmanuel worked in the low country of South Carolina. Mr. Trinket claimed that the government was illegally seizing his land to tap newfound oil reserves discovered on his property. Over the last hundred years, the law of eminent domain became nearly defunct as there was no reason for the government to seize private lands for government use. The process for seizing those lands became more and more difficult to view as rational as the courts began to signal that eminent domain laws were becoming anti-canonical.

Mr. Trinket owned land off the coast of the Gullah Geechee Islands and the land had been in his family dating all the way back to the Reconstruction period of the late 1800s. The allegation surely caught Emmanuel for surprise. Due to the reputation of eminent domain type laws, the government had not attempted to seize private land for many decades. Thus, surely that same reputation would extend here. For Emmanuel, if the claim were true, it was an open and shut case. However, Emmanuel, as a smart lawyer, knew that if the government were trying to attempt such a maneuver, they must’ve found some good justification for it.

Determined to find out more, Emmanuel visited Mr. Trinket’s home. In Mr. Trinket’s library was a treasure trove of where dissent still and lived and whispers of a buried history thrived. Emmanuel had stumbled upon something remarkable, something that could save the future of the country, yet again. Mr. Trinket was a former computer expert and kept hold of hidden files of his working years encrypted on a secret server. These files contained stories of the last great environmental battles over a hundred years ago. They were more than just old relics of history. They held a golden key to understanding the facism of the present moment. And how to combat the new regime. The last century made many complacent. Society, arguably much better, cleaner, and healthier, also became more naive. Many people never thought a Donald Trump-like regime would ever rise again. After all, it had been over a century since anything remotely close to Trump regained power. Yet, now it was here, and Emmanuel needed to figure out how to utilize the keepsakes to Mr. Trinket’s, but also the betterment of society’s advantage.

Part II: True Fasting (Isaiah 58:6-10)

August 21, 2182

The new regime claimed to be restoring order to what was a chaotic nation. Their rise was built on fear. Seeking justice, as if the regime did not provide for it, was seen as a tool of division – an extreme deviation from what the regime, and therefore the country, stood for.

What made the regime truly dangerous was not just their ability to control information, but their ability to control hope. The regime’s propaganda machine worked overtime to convince people that resistance was futile. They promoted a narrative that their rule was the natural order of things, and those who fought against it were fighting against the very future itself. Environmental justice, once a signal for progress, had been twisted into a tool for authoritarian control.

As a lawyer, Emmanuel knew he was never far from evil. Going against the regime was dangerous, risky, but necessary. The business of civil rights law was the business of civil resistance, rebellion, and disobedience. The road that Emmanuel was heading down, in fighting for Mr. Trinket, uncovering government secrets, would be daunting. Yet, Emmanuel paid this no mind. He loved justice more than hating injustice, and allowed that love to take him to the deepest and darkest depths to see justice prosper.

This was the reality Emmanuel faced as he considered what to do about his discoveries. The archives contained the forgotten strategies that protected communities and provided environmental safeguards used to mount a legal resistance. More than that, the archives held stories. Stories of hope in the face of oppression. Emmanuel knew that if these stories were brought to light, they would reignite a new wave of resistance. His only goal was to find justice, no matter how hard it hid itself from view.