Godly and Green
The church offers the only sustainable ecology
Nick Bent
October 1, 1997
"Wear a hat" This was the terse response by Don Hodel, former Secretary of Energy and the Interior under Ronald Reagan and now president of the Christian Coalition, when confronted with evidence that chemical pollutants may be eroding the ozone layer. "There go those uncaring Christians again!" many environmentalists moaned.
Yet as we move toward a new century, the real evidence indicates that many leaders and congregations across the Christian traditions are throwing their hats into the environmental ring. There are many welcome signs. In both rural and urban areas, the church is often the only institution capable of nurturing a community and of mobilizing cooperative, mutually beneficial activity on green issues. Many churches are carrying out eco-audits to help reduce their waste and energy use, and to make the most of their green spaces. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, primus inter pares of the heads of the Orthodox Churches, recently met with Al Gore and won public acclaim for condemning environmental degradation as a sin. The church is also working with the public sector to protect the environment. For instance, New York City's Episcopal cathedral, St. John the Divine, is home to the largest recycling center on Manhattan. More and more congregations are also reaching across the religious divide to establish common ground with non-Christian faith communities that have a similar concern for the environment. The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, a Buddhist peace research institute here in Cambridge, is doing excellent work on interfaith environmental cooperation.
It is true that the church has not always preached against the exploitation of either human beings or natural resources as loudly as it should. ...
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