Green Options

Environmental care is a practical, worldly thing. But it is also a step in one’s personal evolution. On the one hand, it is a practical response to the environmental problems we are facing. It is also a foresighted response to the issues (economic and environmental) that we might be facing if we don’t think more about the environment we live in and rely on. But, on the other hand, it is much more than that.

If you are thinking about going vegetarian, here is a list of things that should help you to actually do it,… and to stick to it once you’ve started.

In a previous post, I discussed the clear relationship between Christianity and the environment that is expressed throughout the Bible. Here are some more thoughts, including slightly more controversial ones.

A comment on one of my posts last week gave me the idea of writing on the relationship between Christianity and the environment. Generally, when we think of this connection, many of us think about the “Religious Right” and their strong conservative beliefs and anti-environmental policies.

What is at the root of Christianity, though? Can anti-environmental language and beliefs be found in the Bible?

The Bible seems to proclaim that nature was made as it should be and is something that should be respected and protected. In Psalms 104:25,30, it is written: “In wisdom you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number - living things both large and small…. When you send your Spirit, they are created and you renew the earth.” The general spirit is one of positivity and love here.

Hey, you know that old conflict between religion and science? Remember the Scopes monkey trial in 1925 or the 1960 film about the case? How about the legislative battles of the last few years in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Kansas over the mandatory inclusion of intelligent design alongside evolution in public schools?

Waiting for worldviews to change to accommodate new science is like watching the emergence of multicellularity. Keep in mind that Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is only 150 years old. Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres was published in 1543. That book wasn’t completely dropped from the Vatican’s list of banned books for another 300 years. (I wonder if foundation-shattering books would fly under heresy radars if the titles didn’t start with “On the…”)

Chuck, on the other hand, just got fast-tracked! On Darwin’s 200th birthday, the Vatican is officially on board with evolution! Also, more than 800 pastors and rabbis are celebrating “Evolution Weekend” following Darwin’s 200th birthday February 12.

“From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans I: 20)

“Have you not seen how God sets forth a parable? A good word is like a good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches reach heaven. It gives its fruit during every season, by leaves of its Lord. And God sets forth parables to people that they may remember.” (Al-Qur’an I4: 24-25)

As you likely know, people of faith and environmentalists don’t always see eye-to-eye. The narratives of faith and the green movement can seem to diverge pretty widely at points, and members of both sides have often viewed the other with suspicion and distrust. In recent years, though, we’ve seen efforts by both groups to “reach across the aisle,” and the development of concepts like “creation care,” which attempt to bridge religious beliefs with environmental concerns.

In November, the Sierra Club joined the conversation with its publication of Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation. Bringing together clergy, lay people, and thinkers on the topics of religion/spirituality and the environment, Holy Ground is an anthology of meditations (essays just doesn’t seem to work) on the role of caring for the Earth while remaining faithful to the tenants of one’s faith.

On Friday October 10, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (Greek Orthodox Patriarch) addressed a Synaxis of the heads of the various orthodox churches in Istanbul Turkey.

Part of his address focused on urging orthodox churches to focus on efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue, as well as to protect the environment.

Patriarchs and other senior clergymen from Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Syria and Turkey were in attendance.

The statement read in part:

…the modern world is unfortunately plagued by a crisis that cannot be reduced to inter-personal relations but extends to the relationship between humanity and the natural environment…

Therefore, it is abundantly clear that the Church cannot remain idle before the crisis that affects humanity in relation to the natural environment. It is our obligation to assume every possible initiative… so that our own flock may become aware of the demand for respect toward creation by avoiding any abuse or irrational use of natural resources…

This call to arms by the leaders of the world’s second largest Christian denomination will hopefully have significant impacts on the treatment of environmental issues within Christian Orthodox faith communities.

Let me be clear. You don’t need a new eco-friendly Bible to be a green Christian. Keeping that old tattered Bible you got when you were baptized or confirmed is still greener than purchasing one made with recycled paper. If your childhood Bible has completely fallen apart, there are millions of barely opened Bibles that end up lining the shelves of your local used bookstore. Another option, in an era when literature is available on iPods and mobile devices, is to download the Bible. I’m much more likely these days to use free online search engines to find a passage of scripture than to thumb through pages.

As a minister who is concerned that Christianity has become much too comfortable with consumerism, which is incompatible with the way of Jesus, I don’t advocate purchasing all the religious stuff that’s out there for gifts. Sadly, Bibles too are given makeovers everyday and marketed like everything else. The message from the industry is the same as the message about your toaster. “It’s outdated. You need a new one.” I have been given all kinds of Bibles over the years, dozens of them, and I’ve given them all away except a few. The only time I’ve ever bought one was for a college course. So, I found it a little ironic when I was asked to review a company’s latest attempt to push the most published book in history.

That said, I will definitely be purchasing The Green Bible, published by HarperOne, coming this October ($29.95).

The idea of a sabbath, a period of rest from work or whatever, is something no longer exclusive to Jews and Christians. However, in its original biblical context, the ancient Hebrews also extended this idea of a period of rest to their farming practices by letting their fields “go wild” every seventh year. The precedent for this, a direct command from their God to Moses on Mount Sinai, is recorded in Leviticus 25:2-7:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.1

Like the people and even their God, then, the farmlands were given time to rest from their productive toil, to rebuild their strength in order to be fruitful again after the period of rest so that they might yield bountiful harvests for years to come. As the ancient Hebrews restrained from working their fields, they honored their God and the land itself.

I mention this practice of a “sabbath of the land,” almost entirely forgotten in modern farming (and especially in agribusiness), because it provides a potentially useful paradigm for more than just agriculture. It also provides a good model for us today, for how we might live sensibly and sustainably in a time when natural resources are threatened and the Earth is endangered, at least to some degree, by human actions.

One recent example of honoring/acknowledging the (imperiled) state of nature is in California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call to Californians not to use, heck not even to buy, fireworks this Fourth of July. Gov. Schwarzenegger made this plea for sensibility with wildfires numbering in the hundreds throughout the state and with state resources to fight those fires as threatened as the homes, lives, and habitats themselves.

Fish burgers are back on the restaurant menus. It must be Lent again.

Marking the beginning of the Easter season, worshipers go to church on Ash Wednesday (often still recovering from Fat Tuesday) and get ash spread on their foreheads. The ash is a symbol of contrition and repentance. Then everyone is expected to give up meat and beer and act gloomy for the next 6 weeks. Sound like fun? No wonder Mardi Gras is so popular!

But when you think about it, a collective confession can be incredibly meaningful in light of our complicity in greenhouse gas emissions. The tradition of Lent has potential for inspiring action. In addition to repentance, the ritual of smearing carbon on faces can visually represent the carbon we are contributing in our daily lives. The following are some reformulations of the elements of Lent with a green focus. (These principles are intended to be helpful to people of any faith background or none at all.)