Organized religions have already made strong statements about our obligation to
be stewards of the earth. However, much more can be done. Religious leaders need
to enter the public arena and declare that despoiling wilderness and polluting
the planet are not simply mistaken policies but profound moral failings and,
ultimately, desecrations of something holy. They need to scrutinize the
environmental actions of the corporations in which church funds are invested and
the ecological track records of the typically rich and powerful lay leaders of
religious organizations.
Every church, synagogue, mosque, and temple should be a
model of energy efficiency and recycling, use environmentally safe products, and
raise awareness of environmental-justice issues. Finally, religious teachers of
all kinds can help us realize that an authentic spiritual life must include
resistance to ignorant, shortsighted, and unjust poisoning of our world.
Roger Gottlieb, professor of philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and
author of the forthcoming A Spirituality of Resistance
Nature, be it the trees or the stars, is a gift from Allah to humanity. Those who
follow Islam believe that the destruction of nature, whether quick and immediate
like slash-and-burn agricultural practices or gradual, such as the destruction of
the ozone layer, is a rejection of God and faith. That simple philosophy should
make it clear that consideration for God's gift must underlie all that we do. Not
protecting the planet is irreligious.
Atif Harden, executive director, American Muslim Council
We are called to care for creation by the first and great commandment: "You shall
love the Lord your God . . . and love your neighbor as yourself." God's purpose
for us is to love and to live in harmony with all that He made. All of Creation
and all generations to come are our neighbors. As we take His word to heart, we
are assuming a leadership role in the healing of our planet by putting our church
on an energy diet. We invite all people of faith to join with us in cutting
greenhouse-gas emissions by investing in energy efficiency and by buying
renewable resources generated from God's gifts, the wind and the sun.
The Reverend Sally G. Bingham, chair, Diocesan Commission for
the Environment, Episcopal Church of the United States
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America urges its members to combine
stewardship with social justice. For example, the garden we planted on the
seventh floor of our Chicago garage provides fruits and vegetables to food
pantries. We also encourage the practice of an "environmental tithe" by which our
members can reduce their consumption by 10 percent. Martin Luther once wrote, "In
a mouse we admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about
flies." We call upon our members to read the Scriptures to discover and act on
earth-keeping principles.
Job S. Ebenezer, director, Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
To recognize the unity of all being, and to look at the world and each other from
the standpoint of awe and wonder and radical amazement (and not just from the
standpoint of what we can get out of it) is the essence of Jewish spirituality,
and the central goal of the weekly spiritual meditative practice we call Shabbat.
Yet this observance will continue to be relegated to the weekends until we
develop a politics of meaning that demands a "new bottom line" defining
productivity and efficiency not by how much money an institution accumulates but
by how much it increases our capacity to be ethically, spiritually, and
ecologically sensitive.
To that end we need a social responsibility amendment to
the U.S. Constitution. Only corporations that could prove a history of social and
environmental responsibility (as measured by an ethical impact report) could
receive a charter. Every 20 years, community organizations monitoring the
environmental and other consequences of corporate products and marketing would
determine the charter's eligibility for renewal.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and author of The Politics of Meaning
