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| Apr. 24, 2004 |
Secular and religious groups agree our slide toward environmental ruin must be halted now When God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and "replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth," it's doubtful he had in mind global warming, massive deforestation, overcrowding, and rapidly depleting, increasingly toxic resources. A gentle, forward-thinking, respectful stewardship would have sufficed. Instead, humanity faces an ecological crisis of cosmic proportions, one that has the potential to wipe out the whole divine plan, intelligent design, fluke of evolution — whatever one's theology prefers. Annual Earth Day programs, marked this past Thursday, underscored something on which the secular and religious agree: For the first time in history, humans have the power to destroy much of life on Earth and something must be done to prevent and reverse our slide toward environmental ruin. Like a proverbial attack by aliens, it's at least one thing we're all in together. In a world where the message seems more and more to consume no matter the consequences, religions, especially in the past 20 years or so, have awakened to the realization that destroying the natural world is tantamount to spurning the divine presence on Earth. And time is running out. Thus, the founding of the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology (CFORE) by five scholars last month brings a sense of urgency. Part of a global interfaith initiative to change the hearts and minds of billions by appealing to religious sensitivities, CFORE and similar groups are aiming at nothing short of a new faith-based ethic for respecting the Earth. "This is a new thing for religions," says Prof. James Miller of Queen's University's department of religious studies, one of the five Canadian academics who comprise CFORE's steering committee. "Twenty years ago, we didn't have to think about global warming, but now it's a moral and spiritual issue. Religious people all over the world have to re-examine their positions to see what wisdom they have to think about the environment." All the world's major faiths brim with wisdom when it comes to our relationship with nature. Indigenous spiritualities revere nature, holding that rocks, trees, the sky and other natural phenomena are imbued with the spirits of our ancestors. Hinduism is governed by the principle of non-violence toward all living things and in the belief that humans and the environment are one entity. Many Hindus also uphold notions, put forward by Mahatma Gandhi, of self-reliance, simplicity and minimal consumption. The Jewish tradition teaches that people are simply stewards of God's planet and that we have deep links to the Earth: The first human, Adam, was formed from adamah (earth or soil). Islamic ecological ethics, like Jewish ones, derive from the belief that all creation belongs to God. "Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is Allah's; and to Allah all things return," states the Qur'an. Jesus asked his followers to "consider the lilies of the field" as more splendid than man-made monuments. St. Thomas Aquinas warned that "any error about creation leads to an error about God." In a pastoral letter issued last autumn, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops called on Canadian Catholics to care for the environment and to have "deep respect for the wonders of the Earth." Most recently, Pope John Paul referred to water as a "gift of God" and a "right of all." Buddhism stresses the inter-connectedness of all living things. As Prof. Ken Kraft told CFORE's inaugural meeting, the major events in Buddha's life took place in forests, and he was touching the Earth at the moment of enlightenment. Quoting a Vietnamese Zen master, Kraft said, "If you're really sensitive, you can feel the Earth suffering." The major faiths have endorsed the Earth Charter, signed by dozens of nations in 2000 to create a sustainable future. That's a lot of wisdom. So why, according to the Worldwatch Institute, have half the world's forests been destroyed in the past 8,000 years, with most of that occurring in the 20th century? Why has 65 per cent of once-arable land been lost? Why do scientists warn that up to half of all animal and plant species will disappear in the next 50 years if current trends continue? Why have emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming gas, increased twelve-fold in the 20th century (during which more than 100,000 new chemicals were introduced into the environment)? Why do the world's richest countries, with 20 per cent of the global population, account for 86 per cent of private consumption of resources, when the poorest 20 per cent accounts for just 1.3 per cent? Much has to do with the clash between religion and Western values, Miller explains. "When we buy something, we don't always see the environmental effects of our actions. So what we need is a more comprehensive ecological understanding. Religions are geared to thinking about actions on a larger scale than just the next five minutes." Dennis O'Hara, director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology (http://www.utoronto.ca/stmikes/eaite) at the University of Toronto's St. Michael's College, agrees that while 20 years ago, the mix of religion and ecology would have been regarded as a "crunchy granola" issue, today, faith has become an effective vehicle for transmitting the message. "In religious traditions, we've always seen the universe as a sacred space. Religion tends to remind us that we are all part of God's community." Rationality and science alone aren't going to get us out of this crisis, O'Hara says. "People change because their hearts, minds and imagination change. They have to be motivated on a deeper psychological level." In the U.S. especially, he notes, religion and public policy are often powerfully intertwined. Not that O'Hara is letting religion off the hook completely. He says religion, especially Christianity, has contributed to some of the toxic mindsets on the planet. "Christianity is the dominant religion in the West, and the West is the dominant polluter in the world. That's not the sole cause but it's part of it." And he points to Adam and Eve being granted dominion over all animals and plants in the Garden of Eden, and thus the world, as a kind of green light to exploit the planet. "That is very poor interpretation of Scripture," he concedes. "But even if I admit it's poor biblical scholarship, people did interpret it that way. To the extent that Christians didn't correct it, they share in culpability." Only the most simplistic reading of Genesis would extrapolate a message of dominance, argues Ted Reeve, coordinator of Faith & the Common Good (http://www.faith-commongood.net), a four-year-old effort at the Toronto School of Theology whose latest initiative, "Renewing the Sacred Balance," calls on people of faith to rekindle a sacred relationship with Earth. Christianity "has always been critical of greed and exploitation of workers," Reeve says. "It has been a counterbalance to capitalism." Today's complicity in environmental degradation, he says, has arisen alongside the growth of industrialization and is mostly the result of "silence and ignorance." CFORE (http://rels.queensu.ca/cfore) is supported by the Harvard Forum on Religion and Ecology, the largest international multi-religious project of its kind. The Canadian group's mandate, Miller points out, is to promote research and teaching about religion and ecology in Canada; engage Canadians in dialogue about the role of religious values in shaping attitudes and behaviours towards the natural world; and press for a sustainable ecological future by influencing public policy. Meanwhile, the Toronto-based Centre for Ecology and Spirituality (http://www.web.net/~eaite) is co-sponsoring "Spirit Matters: Wisdom Traditions and the Great Work" May 13-16 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. The conference will bring together leading spiritual voices from a variety of traditions to discuss "the well-being of the Earth community." Despite the mushrooming interest, yoking faith to environmental activism remains "a slow, hard sell because we're asking folks to look at life itself," sighs Reeve. "They say, `I worked hard for all this, dammit.' And we're saying you have to slow down and look at your priorities." Ron Csillag is a Toronto-based freelance writer specializing in religion. He may be reached at csillag@rogers.com |