You Are A Sacred Place by Madeleine Jubilee Saito

subtitled Visual Poems For Living In Climate Crisis.

It’s always a refreshing surprise to me whenever someone professes belief in both Christianity and climate change. Of all the major faiths, mainstream (and especially Evangelical) Christianity has always struck me as the one least interested in responsible custodianship of the planet, as it focuses more on the end times and afterlife — hilariously, often to the detriment of its own doctrine. Which isn’t to say that no one Christian cares about the environment or humanity’s physical welfare: just that the loudest voices in global Christian culture (recent popes excepted) tend to diminish the importance of taking care of the planet instead of looking after one’s personal abundance, spiritual or otherwise. The ongoing promulgation of, imo, the deeply heretical prosperity gospel has a lot to answer for indeed.

So reading Madeleine Jubilee Saito’s impassioned plea for readers to care about climate change because it’s the moral, if not Christian, thing to do was a lovely change from the dominant perspective that’s allowed abhorrent ideas like tribalism and “empathy is a sin” to take firm root in the mainstream. Not all of her words hit quite as hard as she’d likely want them to, particularly towards the end, but her art is unfailingly perfect in its message, conveying with subtlety and power the importance of caring for the planet as we care for the people we love.

It is, in fact, a hard situation with a loved one that opens this book of tender poetry. After becoming recently unemployed, Ms Saito’s partner is in a spiral of despair that makes it hard for either of them to function. With the Seattle environment outdoors a seeming foreshadowing of the apocalypse, the couple spend their time in bed fighting an existential crisis.

Throughout this pain, Ms Saito works: to create art, to give support and love to her partner, and to elucidate what’s wrong with the world in hopes of being able to channel that knowledge into how to make things better. Unsurprisingly, it comes out as the kind of radical socialism in which Christianity was first formed — a far cry from the disgusting Christian nationalism espoused by too many today. The art and writing throughout this book are both firmly entrenched in a proud Christian symbolism that seeks to take back the meaning of what it means to live a life of faith, even as they engage both beautifully and practically with the reality of our planet.

I’m hoping that this book is able to reach Christians where they are and guide them away from the perversions of selfishness, to understanding that actively caring for their loved ones and community and planet are not separate things but are all good works. If it convinces some non-Christians who haven’t yet understood this, too, then all the better.

You Are A Sacred Place by Madeleine Jubilee Saito was published March 25 2025 by Andrews McMeel and is available from all good booksellers, including