Thoughts on Eco-Spirituality

Native Americans have a tradition of dancing to bring forth rain. Whether their ceremony results in their thirst being quenched depends on which anecdotal story one chooses to believe. But the Rain Dance in its various incarnations or rather its more conventional equivalent -- the expression of prayer by the devout for a higher power to intervene and for the faithful to do their part to bring about resolution-- has been making a reappearance around the globe as the visual and visceral evidence of climate change presents itself in stark and unforgiving ways.

Examples include the Pope's speech at an eco-youth rally, where he said: "A decisive 'yes' is needed in decisions to safeguard creation as well as a strong commitment to reverse tendencies that risk leading to irreversible situations of degradation."

This prayer for desperately needed rain by Imam Fikret Latifoglu at Ankara's Hacibayram Mosque: "We stand before you, we beg you to answer our prayers; don't leave innocent children and the old, animals who cannot speak for themselves, the trees, the ants and the birds without water. We helplessly beg for Your mercy."

The Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, which has been working since the mid-1980's to raise awareness that "our home planet Earth is undergoing rapid and sustained destruction of its eco-systems."

Christian evangelist, Rev. Richard Cizik, whose Creation Care movement represents 45,000 churches, stated that "global warming and global hunger are inescapably linked," (which put him at odds with Ted Haggard's objections to environmentalism. Cizik's work continues. Haggard's, not so much...).

COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, which cites the Midrash as its motivation: "See my works, how fine and excellent they are! All that I created, I created for you. Reflect on this and do not corrupt or desecrate my world; for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you," for their work with the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (the COEJL, the National Council of Churches, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the Evangelical Environmental Network) to advocate on global climate change and energy conservation.

There's Eastern Orthodoxy, whose first day of their ecclesiastical calendar (September 1st) has been a declared annual day of prayer for the protection of the environment for 300 million parishioners worldwide since 1989.

And Zoroastrianism, which has as its precept the obligation "to protect nature in all its glory" and celebrates its new year on the spring equinox (called Newroz, it's evolved into a legend about the overthrow of an ancient tyrant, but is still observed as a spring festival in Iran, by the Parsee of India and by millions of Kurds worldwide).

None of that has stopped global warming skeptics, minimizers and deniers from insisting that environmentalism itself has become a religion and to cite Hollywood as its central church.

It was 109 F degrees in Los Angeles last weekend.

They should visit.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the one-time leader of the Soviet Union (not a religious position) who is now the leader of Global Green, USA, did visit and is working with Brad Pitt, one of those Hollywood 'environmental evangelists', to help rebuild New Orleans.

And then there's Leonardo DiCaprio, another Hollywood environmentalist, whose new film, The 11th Hour, has been receiving positive reviews across the nation.

Oh, and An Inconvenient Truth, of course.

But environmentalism is not a Hollywood intellectual property. While the environment may have become topic du jour for some and a near religious calling for others, it is a religious issue for this Grist list of 15 "green" religious leaders that includes: the Patriarch of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Dalai Lama, an Episcopal Reverend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Pope, the leader of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology, an Australian theologian, the head of the American Rabbis' Committee on the Environment, a Dominican Nun, a member of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, a Unitarian reverend, a Methodist theologian, and Father Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest who refers to himself as a 'Geologian.'

The comments on the Grist article are worthy of note, as well. They include suggestions for the list from other countries/world religions that are making a significant contribution.

And there's the robust environmental movement of South Asia (India, Nepal, Indonesia...), Harvard's FORE (Forum on Religion and Ecology) research into the environmental traditions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Indigenous American Indians, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the eco-spiritualism of so many other indigenous cultures on every continent.

Which doesn't negate considerations from the other side of the argument. This includes those who interpret the science differently, who focus on which greenhouse gas is more impactful (I'll trade you twenty carbon credits for a methane credit on Tuesday if you'll buy me a methane-emitting hamburger today...), the support services who genuinely worry about the impact of environmental regulation on the third-world, as well as those who seem more worried about their own corporate bottom line than their impact on planet earth.

But anyone who labels environmentalism as a religion in the hope that it will invalidate the movement is as out of touch with reality as those who cite religion as an obstacle to environmentalism. While there are religious groups who eschew environmentalism in much the same way as they reject evolution, the overall environmental movement, which is as diverse as humanity itself, includes the deeply religious, those for whom the environment has become a religion, professionals who keep their religion to themselves while they seek to validate the science and a growing number of ordinary citizens who sense that something has gone terribly wrong.

It is a global epiphany.

Comments

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Ritz,

That was/is an excellent, eloquent and profound essay/post Blessings on ya! Agape.

[OldKnute]

Well yes!

I think so.

Gen:28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

See the part about replenishing the earth???? That comes before subduing it.
Well, that was before the Dominionests took that part out.


Gen: 29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Oh Gosh! And I still eat a little bit of chicken and fish.

Ummm?

I better rethink that one. Wait!!!!! Jesus ate fish!

Right?

Mainly, I just think rape is an aggressive act of violence and power. It has nothing at all to do with love or communion of spirit. The RAPE of Mother earth or rape of a woman. The damage done, far out outweighs any fleeting gratification. Her heart torn, abused, humiliated and broken, never to be yours again. She, our helpmate, not our possession to squander, manupulate or exploit.

Them BOTH!

And yes, there are a LOT of SHE’S in the bible. Powerful ones, too!

Just my feelings.

All the best
Knute

[Pandu]

I'm not an expert on the Bible, but there is an argument that Jesus actually did not eat fish.

http://www.all-creatures.org/discuss/didjesuseatfish-jv.html

Of course, if in fact he did eat fish, well they say he also raised the dead. So when we can raise the dead, we can eat fish too. When you can raise the dead, "Thou shall not kill" doesn't matter so much.

Then again, there's more to religion than Jesus. Want mercy? Show mercy. The best thing the average person can do for the environment is to stop eating meat, and the same is essential to genuine relious life. Hare Krishna.

[OldKnute]

Well yes, I would agree with you. The Bible is only one source for me. I was raised close to the earth. A farming life.

I am also of the Sammi tribe. (Finland/Norway) The Caribou people of the Center North, the keepers of fire. We wanted for nothing that the earth (Old Woman) (Spider woman), did not provide. She taught of the “Silver Thread” that is woven through all living things. Connecting them, one to another. You can see her threads when you cut into the earth, fresh healthy earth. Fine delicate strands of silver. Even the tiny creatures in the earth are part of her web.

To cut one creature from her web is to weaken the whole web. The hole left behind puts a strain on other strands, and pulls them, sometimes, to the breaking point and whole section of the web can collapse.

The radian strands are families of creatures. From the beginning (Center), outward and branching. When a radian strand is lost the whole of the web can become lop-sided and pulled off center. Then, the Great Spirit (Old Man) that permeates all things, cannot be brought in, (His light captured) and all are less. There is nothing that is lost (Creature), that it is not felt in some way, throughout the whole of the web. I think of it as a highly tuned string instrument, like a circular harp. When all is in place, the song of the old woman is set right, and all the earth and creatures sing with her, in harmony. We (Humans) are only one of the creatures in her web. Our family, only one of many families of the earth.

Today, we pull too hard on the web, and the harmony of all things gone, the Sprit Flow taken from others.

So stressed, the Old woman will cut the web free and spin a new one, already 5 times on the earth. Or one family, as was at times of the Great Snow. (18,000/20,000) years ago. The days of the Wolf King.

All the best

Knute