America, the Environment, and the Global Economy
Spring 1997-- Global Human
Ecology:
America, the Environment, and the Global Economy
Question for Discussion: What
is the relationship between Christianity and the basic cultural
assumptions that are causing the global environmental crisis?
Reading: Berry, pp. 93-116
Video:
Internet Sites and Documents:
WHAT IS CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP?
NATIONAL RELIGIOUS PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
A Jewish Response to the Environmental Crisis:
Sinking Noah's Ark: Christians and the Endangered Species Act.
Religion & Environment: Working Together
Patrick J. Buchanan: "Environmentalism: The Newest Religion"
Environmentalism is becoming the new religion of the world!
Since the 1980s, critics and supporters of environmentalism have looked to religion to understand people's support or lack of support for the environment. Conservatives such as Patrick Buchanan and Alston Chase argue that environmentalism is, in fact, a religion. ( See Patrick J. Buchanan: "Environmentalism: The Newest Religion"). He argues:
"Environmentalism is now well
on its way to becoming the third great wave
of the redemptive struggle in Western history, the first being
Christianity,
the second modern socialism ... the dream of a perfect physical
environment has all the revolutionary potential that lay both in
the Christian
vision of mankind redeemed by Christ and in the Socialist,
chiefly
Marxian, prophecy of mankind free from social injustice."
If one would seek evidence for this insight of Prof. Robert
Nisbet
(Prejudices, 1982) - that environmentalism has become an
ideological and
religious movement - look around."
Conservatives like Buchanan and
Chase feel that environmentalism as a "New Age"
religion is irrational, superstitious, and a threat to the
Christian religion and Christian values. The Jeremiah Project in
their review of Al Gore's The Earth in the Balance take
this argument even further. (See the
Environmentalism is becoming the new religion of
the world! site):
"Satan's religion of
communism has died so he is now raising up a new religion of
environmentalism in which he is going to have people worshipping
the earth. Over the past 26 years since 1970, the establishment
globalists have pushed down our throats more Socialism, more
people control, more restrictions on free enterprise and private
property in America, all in the name of environmentalism, than
the Communists were able to achieve in 75 years.
How we need to pay attention to what is going on today. The
teaching of Humanism in the schools for several decades has
created a spiritual vacuum in the hearts of our people and it has
opened those hearts to receive the New Age Spiritual answers such
as Vice President Gore's solutions. We have a pantheistic, pagan
type philosophy dominating the thinking of the Vice President of
the United States who is a zealous New Ager advocating "a
new faith in the future" which will be a return to
paganism's worship of the earth as sacred.
For Gore and other environmentalists, the Judeo-Christian faith
is the source of ecological evil, from oil spills to global
warming. He said, "Ignorant Christians who are afraid to
open their minds to teachings first offered outside their own
system of belief by refusing to accept that the earth is our
sacred mother, Christians have become a dangerous threat to the
survival of humanity...blights on the environment." He says,
"The last vestige of organized goddess worship was
eliminated by Christianity," and to him, "It seems
obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage
preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us
new insights."
So on the one hand environmentalism is a religion that threatens Christianity and our society, and on the other Christianity is, in part, the cause of the global environmental crisis.
In his essay, "Christianity and the Survival of Creation," Wendell Berry examines these very different points of view on the relationship between the environment and religion. He challenges those who would simply argue that the environmental crisis is caused by Christianity and Christian values. Berry also challenges the notion that environmentalism is a new religion separate and distinct and a threat to Christianity. For Berry, this growing use of religion to understand and challenge environmentalism is a great example of the importance of religion in our lives. Religion provides human beings with a larger story that explains their place in the world, gives them a set of values and principles to live by, and provides meaning and direction in our lives.
Since the 1980s, scientists
concerned about growing environmental crisis and religious
leaders concerned about the environment have increasingly come to
join forces. The best example of this partnership is THE NATIONAL RELIGIOUS PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. Scientists and environmentalists have begun to work
closely with the churches in their efforts to save the
environment. For an interesting explanation of this alliance
between religion and science, see the
Religion & Environment: Working Together site:
"Why are more and more
environmentalists working with religious organizations? For
starters, large numbers of people are affiliated with religious
organizations (according to one recent poll, 42 percent of
Americans attend church once a week.) And the religious community
as a whole is racially, ethnically, and economically diverse.
Also, religious institutions provide moral leadership for both
their members and the community at large, and provide arenas in
which large numbers of people discuss their fundamental values.
Lastly, religious groups are often
well-heeled and well-organized, and as a result can offer all
sorts of financial and in-kind resources, including volunteers.
And why are increasing numbers of religious organizations
collaborating with environmental groups? Religious leaders want
to convey certain values and a sense of mission to their
constituencies; environmental causes often meet these needs.
Also, religious organizations can gain substantial visibility by
working on environmental campaigns. Finally, working with local
environmental groups grounds congregation members in their
surrounding community. Given all these reasons, it's no wonder
that many environmental and religious leaders are realizing how
effective working together in partnerships can be in mobilizing
widespread support for their causes and contributing to community
well-being."
For examples of what churches and national religious organizations are doing to solve the environmental crisis see these internet sites:
1. WHAT IS CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP?
3. NATIONAL RELIGIOUS PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
4. A Jewish Response to the Environmental Crisis:
5. Sinking Noah's Ark: Christians and the Endangered Species Act.
Clearly, the churches and religious organizations are beginning to take the environmental crisis seriously, which in itself is a sign of hope.
In his essay, Berry argues that we can't simply reject Christianity because some Christians have used its values and teachings to justify destroying the Earth. He now argues that because Christianity is our dominant religion in America, and we simply can't go out and reinvent a more environmentally friendly religion, that we must see if we can find in Christianity and Christian values some principles and values that support protecting and preserving the environment. Just because some have used Christianity to support destroying the environment does not mean that Christian values support our war against nature.
Berry argues at the heart of Christian values is the belief that God created the Earth and is still a part of His creation; in other words, God exists in the manifold diversity and beauty of the natural world. If God is a part of nature and we destroy nature, aren't we destroying God and our connection to God. For Berry, Christianity therefore mandates that we be stewards and protectors of nature, not its destroyers.
The striking thing about Berry's argument is that he doesn't now separate religion off from a person's larger life and relation to the Earth. He notes that many Americans believe that God exists in their churches, and when they leave their churches they are entering a fallen world that they can then destroy and exploit. It is precisely because many Christians have tended to separate their religious life and values off from their larger life that has allowed Christianity to be, in part, responsible for the global environmental crisis. If Christians leave their values and faith behind, inside their churches, Berry argues, then they can participate in the destruction of nature and the desecration of God's work.
Berry argues that religion, and in this case the Christian religion, can play an important role in ending the environmental crisis. For Berry, religion should be at the center of our lives. If we practice our religion in every aspect of our lives, then the values and understanding it gives us should help us come to understand our proper relationship to the larger natural world. He argues:
"How we take our lives from this world, how we work, what work we do, how well we use the materials we use, and what we do with them after we have used them--all these are questions of the highest and gravest religious significance. In answering them, we practice, or do not practice, our religion."
Berry concludes that because religion plays such a central roles in our lives that it can and should play a major role in helping us to end the environmental crisis.
However, some students charged that people may have religious beliefs but they don't often honor these beliefs and principles in their daily lives. Given this, can we really hope that religion can help our communities and societies to better understand our proper relationship to the Earth and thus help end the environmental crisis? If Berry is right, our only hope is that we begin to rethink our basic cultural assumptions and values and begin to honor and practice our religions, principles, and basic values in every aspect of our lives. Without the guidance of our noblest values and beliefs, he worries, we will continue to wage our global war against the Earth.