God is GREEN, God is Good, Let Us Thank Him for Our Food.

Are humans an equal part of a greater organism which they should therefore respect, serve and nourish? Or is the very purpose of that organism to serve and nourish the human race? This is a fundamental question that seems at the heart of the Religious debate on the environment.

In an ongoing effort to present Environmentalism to you from all angles, today, we approach it from the Religious perspective. God is Green, God is Good, Let us thank him for our Food.

If you grew up saying prayers before meals at the dinning room table, you may remember these:”God is great, God is Good, Let us thank him for our food.” Or how about this one,”Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this food, to us, be blessed. Amen”

If not, you may have run across these and others like them, throughout you’re travels. My point is, that from an early age, we were taught that God is the ultimate provider, and it’s to him that we should be giving thanks.

A couple of thoughts. If God made the Heavens and the Earth, and filled it with all manner of creature, and provided food enough for man, wasn’t he then the first Farmer, Gardner, Ecologist and Environmentalist? He put Adam and Eve in a Garden right? Why did he choose a Garden? Well, Gardens provide for us all that we need to survive. In doing so, he may have given us “Dominion” over the earth, but didn’t he take ownership of it also, when he said “The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof?

So if we consider ourselves of the tribe of Abraham (Christian, Jew or Muslim) how can we, with a clear conscience, advocate fossil fuel usage, strip mining, pollution and over-consumption, knowing that God said, “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” And what about this one? “Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” Lev 25: 23-24.

Is this partly to blame for our Consumer and Environmental Guilt? Why is it that Christian’s and Conservatives and Republicans, seem to be the worst destroyers of our planets resources? Shouldn’t these be the people who should be the most adamant about protecting God’s gift to us? Are not the Republicans (Our Christian Conservative Base) holding the Bible in one hand, pledging allegiance with the other and screaming “Drill Baby Drill” all at the same time? Or am I wrong? Has this idea that Republicans and Christians pervaded our social conscience, or is it just the press who is handing us a plate of bad eggs?

So I went out to do a little research, and this is what I found. First, lets take a look at Religious folks who either claim that there either is no environmental problem, or seem to have an agenda which would hasten the problems that majority of people on this planet believe are occurring.

The Family Research Council, a Neo Con, Christian group believes that Global Warming is a hoax. In fact, on their website, they ask Christian’s to say the following prayer;

May God help Americans, including Bible-believing Christians, to learn truth and balance in environmental matters, especially the recent theory of man-made global warming! May we be an influence for faith in Scripture and Godly reason where faith in God is lacking and men are easily moved by so-called science!

At the same time, our current Republican Administration has refused to take a stand on Global Warming, and has only recently said that “Man made influences “May” have some impact on Global Warming.” Vice Presidential Republican Nominee Sarah Palin recently said that “I’m not going to solely blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate. Because the world’s weather patterns are cyclical. And over history we have seen changes there. But it kinda doesn’t matter at this point, as we debate what caused it.” It doesn’t matter at this point? Huh, What? Global Warming Deniers like to use the “Cyclical” argument. I just have one question. According to histories cycles, we should be getting cooler right now, not warming. How do you explain that?

Alexander Cockburn, of the muckraking newsletter Counter Punch, wrote an article called “Is Global Warming a Sin?” In it he says “There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is making any measurable contribution to the world’s present warming trend. The greenhouse fearmongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind’s sinful contribution — and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism and greed.”

Alex Thurston, a student in the Master’s Program of Arab Studies at Georgetown University, wrote in his article “The Psychology of Global Warming Deniers” “At the level of personal conviction, it has been suggested that some deniers of global warming, whether they be politicians, scientists, or members of the general public, are motivated by religious concerns, as with certain evangelicals who believe that the Day of Judgment is near, and therefore how we treat the earth matters very little. Similarly, some religious or secular people may simply be doing some “time discounting” or “hyperbolic discounting” – that is, choosing a big payoff in the present (sticking with the status quo and/or fossil fuels) because they attach little value to future payoffs (the well-being of unborn generations).

And now, I present to you, the ultimate Christian Right GlobalClimateScam.Com Just a few choice bits, if you will;

• Procreation is killing the planet, and traditional religion is to blame, Global-Warming cultists insist.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a tool of the global village idiots at the United Nations. T
• In an article entitled “Jim Crow Energy Policies“, Roy Innis writes, “Today we face unprecedented new challenges to indispensable but often neglected rights enunciated in our Declaration of Independence: “That all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These fundamental rights are under assault in subtle, often insidious ways. Sometimes it is with the best of intentions, by good people who don’t realize they are impairing other people’s rights, hopes and dreams. At other times, it is by people who are willing, even determined, to sacrifice individual rights in the name of a proclaimed threat or greater common good. One critical challenge involves restrictions on access to energy and economic opportunity – and thus on liberties and rights – in the name of protecting the environment.”

But wait, there is good news;

Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama recently said “When God created the Earth he entrusted us to take responsibility to take care of that Earth, and we are not living up to our responsibility to ensure our children’s future. Fierce storms, raging forest fires and periods of drought are increasing and shrinking “polar ice caps are melting faster than anyone could have predicted.”

The Fund for Christian Ecology says “We are at a crossroads, able to choose to save or destroy. It is our choice. The Bible is clear that creation expresses Gods wisdom and power. Christians are called to be stewards, to nurture, to protect, to preserve his creation.

Bill Moyer, with PBS, did an excellent article entitled “Religion and Environment.” In it, he states “But changes are afoot. In February 2006, a group of 86 respected evangelical Christian leaders from across the nation unveiled a campaign for environmental reform and put out a statement calling on all Christians to push for federal legislation that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to stem global warming.”

And if Bill Moyer isn’t enough for you, how about:

Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople

In a Declaration on the Environment entitled “We are still betraying the Mandate God has given us” , the Pope points out, in part, “We are also concerned about the negative consequences for humanity and for all cration resulting from the degradation of some of the basic natural resources such as water, air and land, brought about by an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits.”

As Daniel B. Fink’s 1998 essay, “Judaism and Ecology: A Theology of Creation”, published in “Earth Ethics”, explains: “We are both a part of nature and apart from it.” Jews understand, Fink says, that the fact that Man was created at the end of the sixth day could have two possible meanings: either humans are the “guest[s] of honor” at a great feast, or, it’s a reminder in case humans become too arrogant “that even the gnats preceded them in the order of creation”.

In “Environmental Protection in Islam” published by the Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the author says, “Prophet Muhammad’s stance on the environment is quite clear: “Created beings are the dependents of God, and the creature dearest unto God is he who does most good to God’s dependents,” it says. Humans’ good deeds therefore, “are not limited to the benefit of the human species but rather extend to the benefit of all created beings.”

So perhaps I’m overreacting? There seems to be about equal consensus and denial on part of Religious people all over the world in reference to whether or not Global Warming and Environmental destruction are real. I for one, just wish that the scales would tip in favor of to the acknowledgment that our planet is slipping towards a path of a bio-spheric meltdown.

You’re thoughts?

Photo courtesy of G-Man via Creative Commons License

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