Eco-Religion: Recruiting in Pews to Save the Planet
12/23/99
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Title: ECO-RELIGION: Recruiting in pews to save planet
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 23, 1999
Byline: Todd Wilkinson
CODY, WYO. - Last night, three evenings before his congregation
celebrates the birth of Jesus, the Rev. Warren Murphy led parish-
ioners outside for a walk beneath the glowing solstice moon.
Together, they admired the cosmos with a telescope, sipped hot
chocolate, and when the time came for a festive holiday carol, they
sang "O Tannenbaum" with the enthusiasm of tree huggers.
The wintry stroll is just the latest example of how Mr. Murphy, a
popular Episcopalian priest here, is persuading his flock to think
"green" by paying regular tribute to the beauty of God's creation.
It is also part of a growing global movement involving spiritual
leaders from all faiths asserting a strong connection between a
healthy environment, spiritual fulfillment, and fundamental religious
teachings.
From the Bible to the Talmud to the Koran, from weekend sermons to
Christian rock concerts, Earth stewardship is emerging as a powerful
religious force in the modern age. It is a trend, say theologians,
that not only holds profound implications for religious and public
policy from Capitol Hill to the Vatican, but also offers insight into
how Americans view their biblical charge to care for God's creation.
The evolving synergy of the environmental and religious movements was
documented in a survey by researchers at Harvard University in
Cambridge, Mass. It showed a threefold increase in the number of
people worshiping at environmentally focused churches during the mid-
1990s.
This growth can be attributed to the increased interest of two
particular demographic groups, says the Rev. Peter Illyan, Northwest
regional director of Target Earth, one of several prominent eco-
religious organizations. First is young people who are active in the
outdoors but raised without any firm religious teachings. The second
group is aging baby boomers who left their churches as young adults,
feeling they were no longer relevant. Many are now coming back
because of their connection to contemporary environmental issues and
the outreach of evangelical services.
Pontiff promotes ecology
Like Murphy, men and women of the cloth are drawing worship-ers from
all segments of society.
Most prominently, Pope John Paul II has quietly cultivated a legacy
as the first environmental pope. In 1979 he proclaimed St. Francis
the patron saint of ecology, and has implored Roman Catholics to
reduce their level of resource consumption. "The seriousness of
ecological degradation lays bare the depth of man's moral crisis,"
the pontiff declared on New Year's Day 10 years ago.
Religion has frequently entered into environmental debates in
Washington as well. James Watt, the Interior secretary under
President Ronald Reagan and a born-again Christian, characterized
environmentalists as practicing pagan idolatry for worshiping nature
at the expense of the financial welfare of humans.
Mr. Watt claimed that natural-resource development had a firm rooting
in Scripture - that man should have "dominion" over the land. From
that assertion sprang a private-property rights movement in the West
and South allied with fundamentalist Christians.
Leaders of the "green" religion movement admit they were slow to
counter such assertions as they grew during the 1980s and '90s. But a
turning point came in 1996, when Republicans in Congress wanted to
amend the Endangered Species Act.
Clergy representing a spectrum of mainstream denominations protested,
likening the struggle to preserve biological diversity to Noah
readying his ark. Speaker Newt Gingrich eventually shelved efforts to
weaken the wildlife-conservation law.
Still, the eco-religious movement has its detractors. In the battle
for support from evangelical Christians, both sides are armed with
Bible passages to reinforce their point of view and both accuse the
other of misinterpreting Scripture.
E. Calvin Beisner, who teaches interdisciplinary studies at Covenant
College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., is one of the nation's foremost
critics.
He claims many ecological threats are overblown and that left-leaning
environmentalists are trying to co-opt mainstream religion to add
legitimacy to their cause. "They infer that nature is best when it is
pristine and they say that man has fallen into sin by wishing to
develop the landscape," he says. "They seem to suggest that
everything man does has been negative."
A devout promoter of the free market, Mr. Beisner and others say that
natural-resource development - including logging, mining, livestock
grazing, and commercial fishing - help accomplish a universal
religious imperative, which is aiding the poor by elevating their
quality of life.
"The Bible does specify that we have to be good stewards," adds
Michael Barkey, a policy analyst with the Acton Institute, a pro-
business religious think tank. "While it seems like a very simple
principle, it has broad economic ramifications."
Mr. Barkey says efforts by religious groups to bring an end to
logging, for example, violate the separation of church and state. And
he accuses certain religious groups of blasphemy by promoting Deep
Ecology, which places humans not above nature to exercise dominion,
but as merely a part of the ecosystem.
A lawsuit over logging in Minnesota, for instance, is exploring
whether the US Forest Service views trees as "sacred."
But supporters of the new church activism in conservation say they're
just responding to the wishes of congregations, which are both
liberal and conservative. "Our adversaries try to diminish our
standing by labeling us part of the fringe," says Ann Alexander,
chairwoman of the Christian Environmental Council. "Even if that were
true - and it's not - it still wouldn't matter because millions of
people are responding to our message because it is relevant."
Thousands of scientists, religious academics, ministers, and
worshipers see no contradiction between evolution and creationism,
but rather a conduit between the two that closely parallels the
objectives of environmentalism.
Movement's broad base
This movement manifests itself on a number of fronts:
* A five-year-old program called Rescue God's Creation annually
brings 50 Christian college students to Washington to learn about
environmental issues. When they return home, they use their new
political insight to educate communities and fellow students about
pending legislation.
* The Pennsylvania Council of Churches launched an unprecedented
interfaith campaign to counter global climate change, saying it did
"violence to God's creation" and violated moral and religious
principles of justice.
* The Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation is rallying hundreds
of churches to support President Clinton's proposal to protect more
than 40-million acres of public forests.
* An effort led by the Redwood Rabbis, an extension of the Coalition
on the Environment and Jewish Life in the Northwest, staged a mock
trial of a powerful timber executive, accusing him of violating
Jewish law by felling ancient redwoods.
"We don't see it as a greening of religion as much as a drawing out
of the inherent care of creation that has always been a part of
Christianity," says Fred Krueger from the Religious Campaign for
Forest Conservation. "Every Christian, ipso facto, is an ecologist
who, like Jesus, was concerned with the common good. The fact is you
can't have a healthy economy and a severely degraded life-support
system."
As the new millennium begins, when environmental concerns have never
been greater, Mr. Illyan asks: If Jesus were to appear today, would
he be more inclined to be a land developer or a conservationist?
"Scripture doesn't warn about worshiping nature, but it does warn
continually about worshiping material wealth," he says.
Murphy has ministered for 23 years in Wyoming, where anti-
environmental rhetoric remains fierce. His sermons attract worshipers
from miles away. Recently, he organized a church hike up the slopes
of Heart Mountain. One of the parishioners was so inspired, she
persuaded the Nature Conservancy to buy the land to permanently
protect it.
"It's not our intent to criticize others so much as it is to declare
what's right by the Bible," adds Mr. Krueger. "What's right is
preserving our forests and fisheries and keeping our streams
clean.... We think Jesus would agree."