26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
… God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Ge 1:26, 28, NRSV).
The interpretation of these passages in Genesis has been influenced by ideas of Western domination and individualism. Many have interpreted dominion through English literalism rather than cultural and textual linguistics.
People belong to the land, and the land does not belong to the people. Does it make sense that we belong to something and, in essence, return to it after the cessation of mortal life, that we are supposed to dominate it or have dominion over it?
Hence, the term Mother Earth describes the planet. Everything on this planet is nurtured by the land. “Have dominion” suggests through our Western hermeneutic that we are to dominate the nurturer. We have seen this, and we feel that we have the theological privilege to do whatever we want to this planet because God willed it, right? Not!
Western and even Colonial ideas of domination widely miss the mark of this passage’s cultural and contextual nuance. Rather than “have dominion,” it is better understood as “remain in harmony with.” Many indigenous cultures, such as Africans and Native Americans, understood this, and this is reflected in their literature and folk writings.
I don’t think God intended for us to rape and pillage “our mother,” nor any human that belongs to the earth.
The Revivalist 
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