Earth Day 2012 Column

Earth Day falls on a Sunday this year. I can think of few things where the culture has delivered the gospel to the church more than this day. Before this the academic environment of the church drew a sharp line between the “nature religion” of the land of Canaan and the more abstract, spiritual nature of the God of Israel. Theologians spoke against nature gods and even the more technical phrase, “natural religion.” Two movements changed this. First the environmental movement opened the eyes fo the church to the countless passages of Scripture that use natural imagery and indeed emphasize our connection wit the natural world. Second, Lynn White wrote a famous article where he laid much of the blame on the doorstep of the church for natural destruction due to the reading by the church of early chapters of Genesis as to give free rein over despoiling the environment. In response to this assault, the church rediscovered its environmental heritage in its relationship to the natural world. Creation is not limited to human capacities alone. God labors long and hard for the entire sustaining of a universe, and perhaps even multiple universes. Earth Day restored to the church the world as creation. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Of course, we have resistance to its implications. In part, the church continues to walk in lockstep with the right wing insistence that the earth is purely for human disposal, as in the assertions of Senator Santorum. Some fear that we are slipping in worshipping nature instead of the Creator of all. In its concern to read the bible as a scientific statement of creation, as least in Genesis 1, the right wing of the church continues to war against science, so its continued work on studying the environment is viewed with a skeptical eye. On the other hand, many churches will be careful to include liturgy on the environment as part of worship this Sunday. Catholics may choose to life up figures such as St. Francis. Presbyterians can point to the eminent scientist, decoder of the genome, Francis Collins. For me, one of the most moving and valuable books on the nexus of environmental science and Scripture is by the esteemed biblical scholar William Brown, Seven Pillars of Creation. Just as the Bible had constant interaction with nature and the understanding of it in its day, he lets our astonishing new scientific understandings to interact with Scripture. In the end, with those reading glasses, he arrives at a sophisticated religious appreciation of the grandeur of creation. Untethered from the attempt to superimpose a pre-scientific understanding on creation in this new century, he only appreciates more the depth, complexity, and power interrelationships that mark the world of God’s creation. Reverence for God’s creation does not threaten to displace worship of God. Instead, it is a realization that all of us are called as caretakers of this fragile planet. I am of the age when I got to see the earth rise form the lunar perspective from Apollo 8. I was captivated by how it looked like a marble in the inky background of space. It also looked disapprovingly small, and how thin its blanket of atmosphere looked. Earth Day reminds us that our environment exists in a delicate balance. We have no right to judge the Environment only by measuring its current monetary potential at this moment. Jefferson said that life belongs in usufruct to the living. in other words, we are entitled to the fruits of life, but not to attack the basis for that fruitful natural abundance. Reclaiming nature as a sacred gift and treating it with reverence and respect is a human and religious obligation for ourselves and our posterity.