Groups stress respect for creation

Web Posted: 06/29/2007 07:12 PM CDT

J. Michael Parker
Express-News Religion Writer

In ancient times, it was second nature for human beings to respect the environment as part of their respect for God and neighbor.

But with more education and mobility, humanity has become more predatory, destroying an estimated 25,000 species a year through habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and other activities, said California cosmologist Brian Swimme.

In fact, Swimme said last week, half the species on earth today may be gone in 50 years unless human beings — especially Americans — learn to respect other life forms as gifts from God instead of merely as "resources" for man's pleasure.

"For the rest of the planet to live as Americans do would require four more planets," he said.

He spoke last week at San Antonio's Oblate School of Theology during a three-day summer institute on ecospirituality — integrating respect for all created species with respect for God and neighbor.

"The idea of ecospirituality is that all members of God's creation are important, and we must find ways of living that enhance their lives as well as ours rather than simply taking from them," he said.

Taking from the environment without concern for its replenishment is taking nature for granted, said Father Ron Rolheiser, president of Oblate School of Theology.

"It's a powerful metaphor for rape because it involves taking by force something that, if given in mutual love, would be life-giving," he said.

Scientists say this mass extinction of species — the sixth in the past 500 million years — results from wasting natural resources that keep the life chain going. Logging, mining, agriculture, building, hunting and other human activities have all been cited as part of the problem.

"It's happening because modern economics is based on thinking that assumes that resources are infinite, Swimme said.”Even the sun's energy, on which all life depends, isn't inexhaustible. It's used up half of its estimated lifespan of 10 billion years."

Bee Moorhead, executive director of the Austin-based interfaith lobby group Texas Impact, said virtually all major religions teach respect for creation. In the past several years religious communities have begun to re-emphasize the duty of respecting the created environment as part of their duty to God.

"The first words of Judeo-Christian scripture, for example, tell us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and that it's good because God created it," Moorhead said. "Creation is not all about us. Humanity has dominion over the earth, but that doesn't mean we own other species. It means we have a special relationship that requires us to be accountable for how we treat them.

"And now we're becoming increasingly aware that if we don't get things under control, our planet may become unlivable."

Cassandra Carmichael, head of the National Council of Churches' New York-based working group on economic justice, agreed, saying religious denominations as well as individual congregations are becoming more "green."

Some congregations sponsor Bible studies centered around  environmental issues or sponsor walk-to-church or ride-to-church Sundays.

Teva (Hebrew for nature) summer camps teach Jewish children about their religion's teachings about nature.

San Antonio's Episcopal Church of Reconciliation has planned special liturgies for Earth Day celebrating the environment as a divine gift that must be protected and calling attention to ways individuals as well as the parish can save energy, such as using energy-efficient light bulbs and air conditioning, xeriscaping (low maintenance) lawns and gardens and using low-flush toilets.

"We hope that if we can get people to take baby steps down that path, they'll start to think 'green' and see this as part of their responsibility as followers of Christ and citizens of the planet to take care of the environment," said the Rev. Robert Woody, rector of the parish.

Rabbi Chaim Block, director of San Antonio's Chabad Lubavitch outreach center, said environmental awareness was part of the discussion during a recent national Jewish Learning Institute meeting he attended in New York.

"It reflected what the local affiliates were hearing from their constituents. They want to see a course on the environment," he said.

"Some sponsor a 'green Shabbat' in which everything emphasizes sensitivity to the environment. The food is organic and everything is recycled."

Catholic Dominican Sister Carol Coston, founded and directs the nonprofit, seven-acre Santuario Sisterfarm in Kendall County. It's a living model of a sustainable ecosystem with a vast diversity of low-maintenance, edible plants that contribute to each other's growth — such as parsley, chives, sweet potatoes and artichokes in one, fruit trees and peanuts in another.

She recycles shower and rainwater and uses underground irrigation to keep it fresh without wasting water through evaporation.

"Part of our responsibility as a community is to live in a right relationship with all of creation, which includes all species of life," Coston said.

But she said it won't be easy for society as a whole to move from a consumer mentality to a life-sustaining mentality. It will take a mass transformation of conscience.

Coston points to vast acreage of farmland along Interstate 10 West outside Loop 1604 that's been paved over for strip shopping centers, gas stations and storage cubicles.

"How much of that do we need? We should be growing more food locally," she said. "We can't continue spending so much money on fuel to transport food across the country. It doesn't make sense."

Swimme said society's economic and education systems — not merely personal lifestyles — will have to be virtually reinvented if the environment is to be rescued.

"Our waste products must become food for other beings. Some businesses are already developing life-sustaining ways of manufacturing," he said. "A manufacturing company in Germany eliminated toxic elements in its production process, step by step. Later, they discovered their water was now actually cleaner when it went out than when it came in."