I Got "Jungle Fever!"

Spike Lee’s 1991 film, Jungle Fever, is a cinematic classic. Starring Wesley Snipes (Flipper) and Annabella Sciorra (Angie), Jungle Fever depicts the inevitable casualties of cultural wars. Flipper, a successful African-American businessman, encounters a new world as a result of a romantic affair with an Italian-American secretary, Angie. Through their relationship, Spike cleverly conveys both the trouble and tension of 'cultural intercourse.’ Far from a typical romance flick, ending “happily ever after,” Jungle Fever challenges all those who dare to step onto the battlefield of socio-cultural difference in the name of a love that transcends racial, social, and cultural barriers. Spike’s project, based in the urban milieu of New York City, featuring world-renowned actors such as Wesley Snipes, Samuel Jackson (Morehouse Man, say word!), Halle Berry, and Queen Latifah (Newark Native, say word!), ostensibly, has little to do with my far from Hollywood experience in India. However, with a little imagination and slight obsession with Spike Lee joints (another Morehouse Man, say word!), I was able to impute new meaning into the hip-hop mantra, “My life is like a movie.”

Before this summer, the environment was something I either ignored or destroyed, both knowingly and inadvertently. Aside from sporadic instances—a random episode of National Geographic or pausing to appreciate the allure of Manhattan’s skyline—I never paid attention to the environment nor its effects on my life and world. Growing up in and around Newark, NJ, the third oldest city in the U.S., conditioned me to care less about environmental concerns and more about the benefits of urbanization and rooftop parties. Newark, also known as “Brick City,” rests in the shadows of NYC’s concrete jungle. It is an archetypal urban hub, replete with historic buildings, solid nightlife, and bustling public transportation. As I prepared to leave my concrete jungle made of dried mortar and overcrowded buses for the tropical jungle of Southern India, I had no idea what to expect. However, traveling to India as a summer intern, I never once expected to be unfaithful to my native love for everything urban. Not too long after arriving, I realized that I had caught a fever, not from the climatic change but from a cultural exchange.

"Brick City" (Newark, NJ)

As a theological student and aspiring public servant, I am inclined to explore the relationship between my spiritual beliefs and their societal implications. Investigatin the ways in which what I believe impacts how I experience the world is not merely academic recreation but, for me, a social responsibility. For example, my understanding of Jesus as a Palestinian political prisoner and death-row inmate, executed by the Roman Empire, has far reaching implications on my work against mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex. Or, my understanding of God as a non-gendered, inclusive, self-giving Spirit whose love transcends all religious and cultural boundaries, marks the starting point for my commitments to both interreligious dialogue and nonreligious discourse. Although I have made many connections between my personal convictions and my social commitments, I have never considered how my theology impacts my attitude towards the environment and how that subsequently informs my daily behavior.

Most people, regardless of their religious persuasion, know, or at least have heard, the story of the ‘fall’ of humanity, recorded in the Torah, Quran (with some differences), and Christian Bible. Although I have read this story several times throughout my life, I never challenged the traditional notion that confines its significance to human sin and divine punishment. Many Christians misread the fall narrative as a scientific document rather than a mythological narrative. Let’s briefly explore. First, we must understand the medium, or genre, by which this narrative is given to us: myth. Although myth and fiction are not synonymous, they are similar in that they are less concerned with facts and more with communicating a message or truth. This does not mean that the story is entirely fictitious; it simply suggests that it should not be read for scientific proof or historical evidence. (Think about it; it would be foolish to read a cookbook for fashion tips). The important lesson here is that the message follows the medium. So, what does this story have to do with my experience? Well, it is from this story that I was religiously conditioned to think: 1. the earth is “cursed," 2. humans are superior to all other animals, and 3. all materiality is inherently evil. Through this flawed theological understanding, my environmental attitude was born.

New Dehli, 10th most polluted city in the world

Despite the widely accepted traditional understanding, a careful rereading of the 'fall' narrative leads us to a new and more humane appreciation of text. Contrary to traditional interpretation, this narrative has less to do with righteousness and divine punishment than it does responsibility and environmental protection. God gave Adam and Eve a responsibility to look after and care for the environment. Thus, eating of the fruit is not an indication of immorality but irresponsibility. Humanity, represented in Adam and Eve, sacrificed care for consumption and ecology for exploitation. Thus, if the earth is at all “cursed,” it is not because God punished her but because we have and continue to abuse her in the names of urbanization and global imperialism. In light of the terroristic assault we have waged on the earth and her byproducts, the implications of this ancient story could not be more relevant. Considering how greedy economic agendas negatively influence environmental policies, culminating in a multinational environmental genocide, we can re-imagine the ‘fall,’ not as a fall from grace (as many suggest) but a failure to guard and protect our most precious gift.


Despite living 8 miles from the scene of Spike's film, it wasn't until I travelled over 8,000 miles that I appreciated its universal significance. For the last five weeks I have been romancing a cultural enemy. Our flirtatious friendship quickly turned into a romantic affair and ultimately, cultural intercourse (God, forgive me!). Enthralled by her majestic beauty and enraptured by her generous spirit, I’ve committed urbanization’s great sin: appreciation of and affection for…Mama Nature. My ‘fall’ from urban glamour mixed with an expulsion from the city into the outskirts of Western ‘civilization,' did not come without casualties. Through deep and creative dialogue, Mama Nature has challenged my urban superiority complex that equates urban planning with social progress. In doing so, I am forced to bury my socially bias assumptions that confuse urbanization for progress and city living for civilization. This cinematic collision between my urban background and her uber beauty is a developing drama, nevertheless, a classic love story in the making. Just like Flipper, I got caught up with a cultural adversary, literally an enemy of the streets. Like Flipper, I had a taste of my culture's forbidden fruit; like Flipper, I got “jungle fever!”

One of our favorite meeting spots

My life is like a movie?

Although I hesitate to subscribe to seemingly superficial mantras that pervade mainstream hip-hop, I must admit, if my life were like a movie, then I hope it would be a Spike Lee joint: low-budget yet exponentially profitable, socio-politically conscious, and culturally complex—a classic combination. Now where are my 40 acres and a mule?