Life is more than mere existence. It’s survival and growth – as individuals, as a species, and as inhabitants of a planet teeming with life. But living has historically trod two paths: faith and reason, or religion and science.
But with the mounting threat of changing climate worldwide, faiths are increasingly connecting the two – the heart and the head – for the future of faith. And life.
May is about halfway between Earth Day and Pope Francis’ anticipated encyclical on the environment, so we may be at a turning point.
“Science and religion are two of the most potent forces on Earth,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist E.O. Wilson, “and they should come together to save the creation.”
Tom Mueller, an ordained Deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, says the connection is natural.
“Based on what we know about global warming through scientific research and study, it is irresponsible for any government or any corporation to ignore this growing crisis for profits,” Mueller says. “It is simply abuse of our environment. For a politician to call this concern trivial or non-existent is totally wrong.”
The Rev. Michael Brown, minister at Peoria’s Universalist Unitarian Church, sees a role for clergy.
“All religious leaders can lift up this issue by emphasizing how each tradition teaches our responsibility to care for the Earth,” Brown says.
“The Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest interfaith movement on the planet, has chosen climate change as one of the three crucial issues of concern for its Oct. 15-19 global gathering in Salt Lake City,” Brown continues. “Our Unitarian Universalist tradition emphasizes the importance of learning from science and taking its findings seriously as we try to build a viable future. We also lift up the goal of respecting the whole interdependent web of existence and honoring all of nature as having value, not just human desires. This path offers our best chance for survival and long-term viability on Earth.”
Faiths’ understanding of creation and humanity’s place in the environment isn’t exactly new.
Pope John Paul II decades ago stressed that the ecological crisis is a moral crisis, obvious in “the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution. Often, the interests of production prevail over concern for the dignity of workers, while economic interests take priority over the good of individuals and even entire peoples.”
Catholic University religious studies professor William Dinges has said we’re seeing “a historic moment in which there is a lot of interesting thinking going on at a theological level, trying to come up with a new human anthropology,” and he cites compelling themes pushing the process: human involvement in massive ecological destruction, human interdependence, and recognizing that creation isn’t just for humans.
The Evangelical Climate Initiative’s call of reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions was signed by 86 evangelical leaders, too, but the attention isn’t just Christians. Stewardship is as common throughout faiths as the Golden Rule.
“Religious leaders represent an under-tapped sector of society to promote change,” said Rabbi Yonatan Neril, director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, which pushes for sustainability based on religious teachings.
Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh says that society suffers from an addiction to consumerism that stresses the planet, adding that people should refrain from considering ourselves and Earth as two separate entities.
“When we know how to protect all beings,” he said. “We are protecting ourselves.”
Imam Kamil Mufti, resident scholar at the Islamic Foundation of Peoria, adds, “The most important role for religious leaders to play is to communicate the importance of safeguarding our natural environment. It is only natural that those who care for God’s creation take environmental issues seriously.”
Deacon Mueller addresses one challenge.
“We live in a Country where we talk a lot about individual freedom,” Mueller says. But “with individual freedom comes individual responsibility, and we have to come to terms with our responsibilities to each other. In my Church we talk about right ‘stewardship.’
“We are all here together and we have to take care of one another,” he continues. “There are many of us who believe that is what we are here for, to love one another. In a land that worships individualism, we can become pretty selfish. It is selfish not to think about protecting our environment.”
Former Harvard Business School professor David Korten, author of “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” says,“Earth is a living organism – we all are essentially a part of this one big life form. Destroying the natural living systems on which our existence depends, in order to get a quick energy fix or a quick profit, is literally insane.
“It comes back to this,” Korten continues. “Are we a part of nature? Or apart from nature?
Scriptures and more
The Catholic Catechism teaches, “The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present and future humanity… Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.”
Pope Francis wrote, “We have an obligation to care for the creation which we have abused. We have been given to one another as gifts. In addition, creation is a gift, entrusted to us together as a human community. That brings with it responsibilities which we must find a way to share.”
Islam’s Quran says, “Waste not by excess, for God does not love those who waste” (6:141), and “there is not an animal [that lives] on the Earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but [forms part of] communities like you.” (6:38)