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Christianity and the Survival of Creation I want to begin with a problem: namely, that the culpability of Christianity in the destruction of the natural world and uselessness of Christianity in any effort to correct that destruction are now established cliches of the conservation movement. This a problem for two reasons. First, the indictment of Christianity by the anti-Christian conservationists is, in many respects, just. For instance, the complicity of Christian priests, preachers, and missionaries in the cultural destruction and the economic exploitation of the primary peoples ... around the world is notorious... Christian organizations, to this day, remain largely indifferent to the rape and plunder of the world and of its traditional cultures... The certified Christian seems just as likely as anyone else to join the military-industrial conspiracy to murder Creation. The conservationist indictment of Christianity is a problem, second, because, however just it may be, it does not come from an adequate understanding of the Bible and the cultural traditions that descend from the Bible. The anti-Christian conservationists characteristically deal with the Bible by waving it off. And this dismissal conceals, as such dismissals are apt to do, an ignorance that invalidates it. The Bible is an inspired book written by human hands; as such, it is certainly subject to criticism. But the anti-Christian environmentalists have not mastered the first rule of the criticism of books: you have to read them before you criticize them. Our predicament now, I believe, requires us to learn to read and understand the Bible in the light of the present fact of Creation. This would seem to be a requirement both for Christians and for everyone concerned, but it entails a long work of true criticism--that is, of careful and judicious study, not dismissal... ... I have attempted to read the Bible with these issues in mind, and I see some virtually catastrophic discrepancies between biblical instruction and Christian behavior. I don't mean disreputable Christian behavior, either. The discrepancies I see are between biblical instruction and allegedly respectable Christian behavior. If because of these discrepancies Christianity were dismissible, there would of course be no problem. We could simply dismiss it, along with twenty centuries of unsatisfactory history attached to it, and start setting things to rights. The problem emerges only when we ask, Where then would we turn for instruction? We might, let us suppose, turn to another religion--a recourse that is sometimes suggested by the anti-Christian conservationists... But there are an enormous number of people--and I am one of them--whose native religion, for better or worse, is Christianity. We were born to it; we began to learn about it before we became conscious; it is, whatever we think of it, an intimate belonging of our being; it informs our consciousness, our language, and our dreams... A better possibility is that this, our native religion, should survive and renew itself so that it may become as largely and truly instructive as we need it to be. On such a survival and renewal of the Christian religion may depend the survival of the Creation that is its subject. from Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, p. 93. Mother Earth Crucified In the ordinary course of events one species disappears about every two thousand years. Currently, however, species are disappearing at the rate of one every 25 minutes. At this rate humankind will eliminate ten percent of the remaining species (one million of the remaining earth creatures) in the next ten years. . . Norman Myers, a consultant on environment and development, said [at a National Academy of Sciences conference in 1986 that] an impending "extinction spasm" was likely to produce "the greatest single setback to life's abundance and diversity since the first flickerings of life almost four billion years ago." Mother Earth is in great pain--a pain inflicted by her own children as they commit matricide. Is Mother Earth herself not the ultimate [victim], the most neglected of the suffering, voiceless ones today? And along with her, the soil, forests, species, birds, and waters are not being heard where legislators gather, where judges preside, and where believers gather to worship. Is the human race involved in a matricide that is also ecocide, geocide, suicide and even deicide? [Are we our] mother's keeper? This is the moral and spiritual question of our time. Evidence is slim that Westerners have taken that responsibility at all seriously. . . Patriarchal agendas and cultural presuppositions, patriarchal educational and religious institutions have left us all with maternal blood on our hands. The blood of Mother Earth crucified. from The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 15, 17 & 33 |
Christian Ecology Home Page
Fund for Christian Ecology
Bernard Daley Zaleha, President P.O. Box 1891 Yucca Valley, CA 92286 Phone: (240) 266-5673 berniezaleha@pobox.com |