THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210984
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 215 lines
IN A VERY '90s version of the Peaceable Kingdom, the evangelical Christians are lying down with the Jews, and the Catholics with the mainstream Protestants, to speak in one voice for the environment.
They have cast aside long-standing theological differences, finding union in a basic belief that man must care for God's creation. They speak in pulpits, in voting booths and in personal action as stewards of the Earth.
Catholic bishops have opposed bills in Congress that require government compensation when environmental regulations reduce land value. Jews question the kosher purity of food grown with pesticides and picked by underpaid migrant workers. Evangelical Christians have fought against bills that would weaken the Endangered Species Act. Mainstream Protestants battle global warming.
Each faith champions environmental issues that mesh with its own beliefs. There is power in numbers, and the faith groups together represent 100 million Americans, through the New York-based National Religious Partnership for the Environment.
This alliance is nonpartisan, but its actions have most often put it at odds with Republican efforts to weaken environmental protection laws. Evangelical Christians in the environmental partnership haven't hesitated to oppose the Republican environmental agenda, even as they typically support the GOP's agenda on social issues.
``Most people don't put evangelical Christians and endangered species in the same sentence,'' said Paul Gorman. ``Why endangered species? Because of Noah. These are people of The Book, there are people who are getting their direction from Scripture. Noah's ark was really the first Endangered Species Act.''
Gorman is executive director of the religious partnership, an umbrella group that unites the U.S. Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches of Christ, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network.
The Religious Partnership began in 1993 with a three-year, $5 million budget funded by churches and foundations. Its mandate expires in 1996, but it has been funded for another three years, Gorman said.
The four partners could not be more distinct. It's like the difference between Gorman's New York office and his vacation hideaway by a cow meadow in Vermont. He values the unique aspects of both, while deftly steering the narrow road that connects them.
That path that links the partners is paved with religious writings, such as Ezekiel 34:17-18 -``As for you, my flock. . . is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet?''
And the Jewish rabbi Moses Maimonides, who wrote: ``It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else.''
``People realize that it's very difficult to be in a right relationship with a Creator if the species is destroying creation,'' Gorman said. ``I sometimes say that we are not the environmental movement at prayer, but rather people of faith acting out of their most fundamental religious beliefs.''
For Gorman, merging different faiths and denominations into one partnership was not easy.
Conservatives felt that environmentalists were not only tree huggers, but they were tree worshippers, and that environmental activism by traditional denominations could be misinterpreted as a form of New Age pantheism.
Jews, a traditionally urban people, couldn't see the environment for the concrete. (Jewish leader to Gorman: ``We don't like to leave the city.'' Gorman: ``I'm glad Moses didn't feel that way.'')
Other faiths had difficulty seeing beyond the church's traditional role of serving people.
``You're dealing with a constituency that, for hundreds of years, had been focused on the human agenda,'' Gorman explained. ``The environmental movement was about other species and habitats.''
That meant dealing with that troublesome Genesis 1:28 - ``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.' ''
As denominations pondered the environmental movement, they had to ask themselves: Does dominion mean domination or stewardship?
But in 1991, an open letter from 34 scientists appealed to the religious community to help protect the Earth - for humans, from humans. Stewardship won out. The letter was the catalyst that led to the partnership.
The link between environment and religion essentially was made through a sense of social justice. The church had traditionally supported the poor and downtrodden, and environmentalists pointed out that toxic hazards were often located in poor, minority neighborhoods. In addition, they said, children are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards.
``What we've tried to do is integrate this environmental concern into existing church programs and priorities, to add the well-being of habitat to that of humanity,'' Gorman said. ``So we care about urban ecology. Environment, for us, is not just the Arctic. There's been a strong emphasis on children's environmental health and that can range from pesticides to lead.''
Once they were convinced, the different faiths began building a theological foundation for their environmental activism, and it was not difficult to do.
The Jews looked to their past, to 40 years in the wilderness, where they received the laws of the Torah.
Evangelical Christians found ample biblical support, some of which clashes with the Republican agenda to reduce government regulation across the board, including environmental laws.
``We must obey the unavoidable teaching of Scripture in responding to desperate needs of our world,'' writes the Evangelical Environmental Network. ``In doing so, we may be confronted with biblical requirements that challenge our political preferences.''
The Christian Coalition, a GOP powerhouse, and Focus on the Family have not, so far, signed on with environmental activism. But they have not opposed it, either.
``How do you baptize people with polluted water?'' Gorman asked. ``I always believed that this work would profoundly renew and refresh religious life itself. That a deeper contact with God's creation leads to a deeper contact with God.''
The National Council of Churches announced in July it would begin a petition drive among its 33 member communions urging the United States to do more on climate change.
The petition asks the U.S. government to fulfill its pledge at Earth Summit 1992 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2000, to adopt a binding international agreement for greater reductions after 2000; and to begin public debate on the risks of climate change.
``I think that the secular environmental community is increasingly interested in the religious perspective on this issue,'' Gorman said.
``This crisis basically asks `Who are we? What is our place in all of creation and why are we here?' And that's a religious question.''
draw upon for guidance
Deuteronomy 20:19 - If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?
Genesis 2:15 - The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Psalm 24:1 - The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.
Psalm 95:4-5 - In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountain are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
Job 12:7-9 - But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
Revelation 11:18 - The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
Ezekiel 34:17-18 - As for you, my flock . . . is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet?
Moses Maimonides (rabbi and philosopher; born 1135, died 1204), Guide for the Perplexed, 456 - It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
WHO TO CONTACT
These are contact numbers for people who might want to start a
group locally.
National Religious Partnership for the Environment
1047 Amsterdam Ave.
New York, NY 10025
(212) 316-7441
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
443 Park Ave. South
11th Floor
New York, NY 10016
(212) 684-6950
Evangelical Environmental Network
10 E. Lancaster Ave.
Wynnewood, PA 19096
(610) 645-9392
National Council of Churches of Christ
475 Riverside Drive, Rm. 572
New York, NY 10115-0050
(212) 870-2386
United States Catholic Conference
3211 Fourth St., NE
Washington, DC 20017
(202) 541-3182
Union of Concerned Scientists
Two Brattle Square
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 547-5552
Verses environmentalists draw upon for guidance
Deuteronomy 20:19 - If you beseige a town for a long time, making
war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees
by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from
them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human
beings that they should come under siege from you?
Genesis 2:15 - The Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Psalm 24:1 - The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the
world, and those who live in it.
Psalm 95:4-5 - In his hand are the depths of the earth; the
heights of the mountain are his also. The sea is his, for he made
it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
Job 12:7-9 - But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the
birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the
earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare
to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord
has done this?
Revelation 11:18 - The nations raged, but your wrath has come,
and the time for judging the dead, for rewarding your servants, the
prophets and saints and all who fear your name, both small and
great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
Ezekiel 34:17-18 - As for you, my flock . . . is it not enough
for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with
your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water,
must you foul the rest with your feet?
Moses Maimonides (rabbi and philosopher; born 1135. died 1204.),
Guide for the Perplexed, 456 - It should not be believed that all
the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the
contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own
sakes, and not for the sake of something else. by CNB