Faithful stewards of Earth

Faithful stewards of Earth

Poster is evidence of more engaged ecological activism from a wide range of religious groups,
writes Ron Csillag

A generation ago, yoking religious faith to environmental activism was largely the purview of the crunchy granola, Birkenstock set. Today, the marriage between the two has become a poster child for, well, a poster.
Modelled on the hugely successful Golden Rule poster produced by Scarboro Missions in 2000, which showcased how 13 different faiths present the maxim to treat others as you want to be treated (the similarities were striking), the Green Rule poster does its own take, saying, in effect, "Do unto the Earth as you would have it do unto you."

Those behind the effort say that more than ever, concern for the environment has moved from mere tree-hugging and letter-writing to a moral and spiritual imperative. If they agree on nothing else, the world's religions are realizing that the continued degradation of the planet unites and threatens us all. Like the proverbial attack by aliens, it's probably the one thing we're all in together.

Produced by Faith and the Common Good, a five-year-old interfaith, inter-cultural initiative run out of the

Toronto School of Theology, the Green Rule poster is not a set of ecological dos and don'ts but a collection of sayings drawn from the sacred teachings of 14 religious traditions — the same ones as the Golden Rule poster had, with the addition of Shinto, the indigenous faith of Japan.

The quotes "demonstrate well that all major religions and spiritual philosophies have at their core a tradition of ecological stewardship" and acknowledge the natural world as a phenomenon "through which we may better come to know the divine," the group says.

Indeed, in varying measures, the sayings extol the sacredness of all creation. "Know thou that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God," encapsulates the offering from the Baha'i faith. Native spirituality, meantime, reveres nature, believing that rocks, mountains, trees and the sky hold the spirits of ancestors.

God's creation plays a big role in the larger faith groups: After all, Moses, Buddha and Jesus all did their best work outdoors.

The poster's central image is a tree — with one trunk representing humanity — sprouting from the seed beneath, the Earth. Each quote rests on a different species of leaf. That was deliberate.

For example, the saying from Buddhism lies on a leaf from a bodhi tree, under which Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. The Hindu quote is on a leaf that approximates the foliage of a banyan tree, a symbol of immortality in Hinduism and which is often compared to the shelter given by God to his devotees. The neem tree, native to India and which boasts an astonishing array of healing properties, was chosen to represent the ancient Indian Jain faith.

And the quotation from the Qur'an, which compares a good word to a good tree, lies on the elongated leaves of the date palm tree, which the Prophet Muhammad likened to a good Muslim.
Trees, of course, play a large part in the Bible. There was the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, where Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, causing humanity's fall. In fact, the Bible contains more references to trees and wood (more than 525) than to any other living organism except humans. It recognizes 22 distinct species of tree.

The poster's creator says she had the most difficulty finding a quote to represent Christianity.

"The Old Testament has all kinds of references to nature but the New Testament does not in the same way, which surprised us," says Katharine Vansittart, a journalist who specializes in environmental issues.

She ended up using one of Jesus' sayings about the great potential of the tiny mustard seed.

Vansittart says the poster does not advocate nature worship. "What we were trying to get at really was the overall idea that every tradition has at its core not just a sense of stewardship but an understanding that creation is sacred and that we are not outside nature, we are part of it," she says.

The poster reflects the ecological wisdom of roughly 85 per cent of the world's population. So why is it, according to the Worldwatch Institute, that half the globe's forests have been destroyed in the past 8,000 years, with most of that occurring in the 20th century? Why has 65 per cent of once-arable land been lost? Why do scientists warn that up to half of all animal and plant species will disappear in the next 50 years if current trends continue? Why have emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming agent, increased 12-fold in the 20th century (during which over 100,000 new chemicals were introduced into the environment)? Why do the world's richest countries, with 20 per cent of the world's population, account for 86 per cent of total private consumption of resources, when the poorest 20 per cent of the globe consumes just 1.3 per cent? Why, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, are scientists suggesting that human activity has made massive storms even worse?

One answer is the notion of Original Sin, "however you slice it," suggests Prof. Stephen Scharper, a University of Toronto specialist in religious ethics and the environment.

"One common interpretation of Original Sin is humans thinking they're God, thinking they know it all, can do it all, and are above natural law," says Scharper, who serves on the steering committee of the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology. "There is a pulsating will to power and domination in the human spirit. The human has a proclivity to sin. This is something that is important to remember as we look at the environmental crisis. We are a flawed and failed people."

Sounds like a downer, but Scharper and others are also noticing more engaged ecological activism from religious groups.

This month, for example, Toronto-based KAIROS, the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, launched a campaign by eight Christian denominations calling on the federal government to stop the privatization and commodification of water.

"This is an interesting development," Scharper notes, "because you have in the pews and in international forums this concern with not only water as a basic human right, but water as a symbol of life. So there's a cosmological as well as a social justice dimension to water that is now being seized upon by the churches."

In any discussion of the environmental crisis, Christianity is often indicted. After all, it is the dominant religion of the West, which is the world's dominant polluter.
While it is simplistic to say Christianity is a responsible agent, "to the extent that Christians have not critiqued a rapacious, consumerist, capitalist culture, they certainly are culpable," Scharper says.

Then there are God's instructions to Adam and Eve in Genesis: "Subdue" the Earth and have "dominion" over every living thing. Some have taken that as a licence to use and abuse the planet, but there's been a lot of interpretation of those words. And since the Christian ecological movement was kicked off nearly 40 years ago, a so-called Stewardship Model has arisen, which concludes that while God did indeed give humans dominion, it was only on the condition that we act as wise stewards, exercising that sovereignty with prudence and care.

Even so, Scharper has a warning: "Unless change happens in the West and unless that is related to an ethical underpinning that might be religious, then we're going to be in hot water. What we tend to forget is that we are in grim times. But this doesn't mean we aren't hopeful. We may not be optimistic but we are hopeful."

For Vansittart, it comes down to a key social justice issue of wellbeing.

"Without a healthy place to live, without clean air and clean water, we don't have a whole lot," she says. "Ultimately, we're all headed in the same direction and we're all trying to do the same thing in our faiths: Find peace, heal the planet, get closer to God."

The Green Rule poster and a related study guide are available to schools, houses of worship and individuals through Faith and the Common Good (416-978-5306 or info@faith-commongood.net).
A warning though. After seeing it, you may want to get those boots muddy.

Ron Csillag is a Toronto who specializes in religion. He may be reached at csillag@rogers.com.