Building Coalitions from Shared Pieties

Abstract

The Asian Rural Institute (ARI) is a Christian organization based in Tochigi, Japan that emphasizes foodlife work (working to grow food to sustain life), servant leadership, and community development. In analyzing the experiences of ARI community members, we located three themes that encapsulate ARI’s negotiation of religious environmentalism: 1) hierarchy, 2) ritual, and 3) tensions. These themes create polyvocality, or multiple voices, which we argue builds coalitions among community members at ARI through shared values. In conversation with work on religious environmentalism, this essay positions Christianity as a coalition building resource for some environmental and social justice advocates. Furthermore, we demonstrate the capacity for coalition building among groups that share pieties rather than identity and illustrate how an organization can rhetorically mobilize and emphasize some parts of its identity to its advantage while remaining committed to all of its core values.