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Our complicity and responsibility
Q: The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a widening environmental, economic and political crisis. Is it also a moral crisis? How does religion influence our use and abuse of the natural world? Does religion help or harm the environment?
Since the oil leak in the Gulf began, we have prayed each Sunday in my church for the people, flora and fauna of that region. This past Sunday, our prayer was a confession of our sin.
What do I mean, "our sin"? We may not work for BP, but we are all participants in an American society fueled by oil. And as the moral compass for so many millions of Americans, Christian tradition has much to answer for concerning the hubris that led to this so-far-unstoppable poisoning of an ocean.
We have taken God's gift of dominion over creation in Genesis as license to exploit and manipulate. We have extended Paul's bifurcation of flesh and spirit in the New Testament to mean that the earth, like "flesh," is separate from God, warranting our purifying help, and thus freeing us to fertilize, channel, shave off mountains or make them with slag. Humans are to care for what God has given and we have not. Forgive us.
There are other strands in Christian understanding that lead us down a different path. There are the psalms that exclaim, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein." (Psalm 24:1). And the great hymns, "For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies," or "This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears, All nature sings, and round me rings, The music of the spheres." Would that Christian faith in the face of the present environmental debacle could finally teach us some humility, respect and harmony with nature!
Yet our prayers feel futile in the face of this human-made disaster -- a disaster of a magnitude beyond our comprehension. The people who died on the Titanic, the symbol of human overreach in the 20th century, could be numbered. This leak's impact on life in the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and beyond is unknowable.
Will this 21st-century wake-up call to human sins of pride and avarice lead to any change?
Will we see the connection between our own daily habits and this horror gushing forth poison in the Gulf? Will we accept our moral responsibility and ride bikes instead of driving cars? Will we buy local rather than processed food? Will we drink from a cup, not another plastic bottle? The church has a moral obligation to remind us to atone for our contribution to this cataclysmic disaster in the only way that counts: through our own actions. God help us do it.
By
Janet Edwards
|
June 1, 2010; 4:26 PM ET
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Posted by: d_pgh | June 9, 2010 1:22 AM
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The main message that I think the Deity (however you define that concept) is saying about this environmental disaster is, "you Humans caused it, YOU fix it. Don't look to Me/Us to clean up your mess this time. You're on your own." I think that God or The Gods are disgusted with us.
Posted by: Athena4 | June 4, 2010 11:41 AM
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ON: The Solution TO ALL OUR DEPENDENCE ON foreign Oil (off-Shores) pollution. Note: Time is best Medicine for Earth more so than for Humans. For Human's; Sunshine is best medicine instead. _ Like Dead Bodies get waxed & weaned ashore; The Oil-Blob's will eventually Wash-up & end-up on many aShores. Ironically it's best to greet Hurricanes with cautious arms this year & next 3 years which will Save many of the current U.S. Gulfs endangered Estuary's. And
IF if there's any REVELATION or Bones to come out of This runaway-Oil-Spill {which i believe The U.S. Navy should of Scuttled a Big SUB with a Plunger built attached/welded to it & placed on-top of this "Preventer" or underwater Plumbing}
THAT; it is THIS: _ The U.S. States w/Beaches in the Gulf of Mexi & places in Florida (Miami & Atlantic seaboard) will mostly be Under the Sea/Water anyway, in +/- 120 Years. So best to Move way further INland (5+ Miles) Young-Man! And Volcanoes Will Pollute This Earth air more than ever. Lots of People will die from Glass in their Lungs and Bird-Flu.
_
Solution: H--Y-D-R-O-T-H-E-R-M-O power will Save America & the Future! So; Society will gravitate closer to where the Hydro-Electric Plants will be located.
Note: Even though WE helped them exploit it; The Major Mid-East or OPEC/Cartels of Oil Pumping/selling Nations will soon soon; swim in their very own Oil & will drink it. But "NG" Natural Gas will be their major Revenue source; yet they will kill each other off thus causing Civil Wars, Revolutions, Dictatorships & Jihadi Wars. That's a PROMISE Thomas's, nay only a Prediction! They will sell it for $1.00 Per Barrel in future; Ye will see? The Temperatures in Islamic Gulf will be unbearable. They will be forced to Live in underground Housing & in Caves. YA! Note: Soon Soon very soon; A Great Earthquake will Swallow-Up the Kabba in Mecca!
In 100 Years: 1/2 this Miraculous Planet will be Off Foreign Oil addiction. And There will be a NEW-United Nations (with only 25 Nations in All (not 194). Note: All URANIUM + PETRO et al commodities will belong,like Space & Planets: To All Humanity; via This New Future U.N.. So, Yes; Atomic War & More mass Holocausts will come. But This is the Goal, Struggle against-JEALOUSY! Oh' There will only be 7 or 9 Currencies; not 100 +/-.
PS: Buy Buy "CHEVRON" Oil(Preferred Stock or [Convertible] Bonds) wait 25+ Years!
Posted by: i-me-my | June 2, 2010 6:50 PM
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Will christians and muslims wake up to the harm their ideology has caused to the world. Not yet, at least not and yet remain christian.
Will we see the connection between our own ideology and this horror of history that gushed forth and destroyed culture after culture.
The church has a moral obligation to point out the fallacies of believing someone can take the responsibility of your sins off of you and somehow you can still see yourself as a good person.
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | June 2, 2010 2:23 PM
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Christians (and all religions) can show the love of God by praying or doing. Praying is important but doing is key. For Christians, doing means being the body of Christ in the world - His hands and feet. There are two churches I know of (out West) whose congregations go out into their neighborhoods to improve conditions there (picking up trash, repainting, planting gardens, etc.). There are other Christians I know who responded to Katrina. Still others care for the homeless in a myriad of ways. Religion (denominations) can muster a call to respond - to this crisis, but also to long-term solutions.