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SEPT.
23, 2005
ENVIRONMENT
Hurricanes spawn
talk of ties between religion, environment
Katrina and Rita
are inspiring talk of the link between spiritual and environmental concerns.
Experts say the increase in fierce hurricanes is linked to environmental factors.
Would better stewardship of the Earth help?
In the last five
years, more people of faith have begun boldly taking environmental stands. National
coalitions have been bolstering and diversifying their membership and now include
Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. Meanwhile, more local groups are organizing
educational campaigns and lobbying legislators. Most activity focuses on fuel
economy and global climate change, but in all faith traditions and all regions,
groups are pressing issues they see as critical to being good stewards of the
Earth.
How are religious
voices engaging in environmental issues? Why is the movement growing? Are there
critics? Watch for regional faith-based groups working on such issues as alternate
electricity sources and old-growth forest preservation. Talk to area colleges
and universities with research programs based on religion and the ecology. Talk
to individuals who, motivated by faith, make the environment a personal cause.
Why it matters
All major religions view stewardship of the Earth as a moral obligation, and
many have issued official positions on the environment. But relatively few people
make it a ministry to work for public change and to educate the folks in the
pews. That number has been steadily increasing, along with awareness of the
ties between ecology and religion.
Skip to background
This tip updates
Religion and environment
movement has growth spurt (Jan. 20, 2003)
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Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
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National
sources
• Paul Gorman
is founder and executive director of the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment, based in Amherst, Mass. The partnership,
which claims to represent 100 million Americans, is an alliance of major faith
groups and denominations across the spectrum of Jewish and Christian communities
and organizations in the United States. Contact Gorman through 413-253-1515 or
nrpe@nrpe.org.
NRPE's four founding
partners are:
• The Forum
on Religion and Ecology wants to establish religion and ecology as an area
of study and research in universities, colleges, seminaries, and other religiously
affiliated institutions. The forum arose out of a series of conferences on the
world's religions and ecology that were hosted by the Harvard University Center
for the Study of World Religions; the site lists biographies
of contributors from around the United States and from other countries, and
a speakers'
list with their phone numbers.
CHRISTIAN
• National Council
of Churches: The Eco-Justice Working Group is based in New York City. Religious
coalitions in 21 states belong to the council's Faith-based Climate and Energy
Campaign. The Working Group posts contacts
for member denominations. Contact 212-870-2385, ecojustice@ncccusa.org.
JEWISH
• Adam Stern is executive director of the Coalition
on the Environment and Jewish Life, based in New York. The coalition has
been concentrating on fuel economy and climate change, and also will be focusing
on power plants and on children's environmental health. Contact 212-684-6950,
info@coejl.org. Regional affiliates are
listed here.
MUSLIM
• Fazlun Khalid directs the Islamic
Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences in Birmingham, England.
He co-edited Islam and Ecology (Cassell Academic; 1992). Our Planet
posts an article he wrote on the Islamic approach to environmental protection
here.
Contact 44 121 440 3500/8218, ahlan@ifees.org.
• Seyyed
Hossein Nasr, a world-renowned scholar on Islam, teaches Islamic Studies
at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His writings include Man
and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man (Kazi Publications; 1997).
Contact 202-994-5704, zsirat@gwu.edu.
BUDDHIST
• Stephanie Kaza is associate professor of environmental studies at the
University of Vermont in Burlington, where she teaches courses on religion and
ecology, including Buddhism and ecology, and on environmental philosophy. She
is a practicing Soto Zen Buddhist and is co-editor of Dharma Rain: Sources
of Buddhist Environmentalism (Shambhala, 2000). Contact 802-656-0172, skaza@zoo.uvm.edu.
• Kenneth Kraft
is professor of religious studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where
he teaches about Buddhism and ecology. His books include The Wheel of Engaged
Buddhism: A New Map of the Path (Weatherhill, 1999), on spiritual responses
to social and environmental issues, and, as co-editor, Dharma Rain: Sources
of Buddhist Environmentalism (Shambhala, 2000). Contact 610-758-3370, klk2@lehigh.edu.
HINDU
• Vasudha
Narayanan is a professor of religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville,
and she specializes in Hinduism and the environment. 352-392-1625, vasu@ufl.edu.
Background
• Read a fact
sheet on religion and the environment from the Pew Forum on Religion &
Public Life.
• The Wabash Center lists syllabuses
for university courses on religion and the environment around the country,
as well as links to organizations devoted to the topic.
• A helpful roundup
of many religions' views on the environment is posted by Palomar College
in California.
• Read a 2002
story by Elizabeth Kadetsky on beliefnet.com about Western and Eastern religious
leaders' increasing activism on environmental issues.
• Read a Jan. 9, 2003 Associated
Press story posted on beliefnet.com on how faith groups are addressing environmental
issues in the United States and abroad.
• The American Academy of Religion has a Religion
and Ecology Group web site.
• Religious Studies in
Secondary Schools, a coalition of public and private secondary school teachers,
in partnership with The Forum on Religion and Ecology will hold a workshop
on connections between religion and ecology June 20-26 at Bucknell University
in Lewisburg, Pa. Read more about the RsiSS/FORE partnership here.
Contact seminars@rsiss.net.
• The journal Daedalus' issue
on world religions and ecology.
• The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops posts the "Joint Declaration
on Articulating a Code of Environmental Ethics" issued by Pope John Paul II
and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople here.
The statement was echoed by Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the Catholic
bishops' conference, and by Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox
Church in America.
• Read a Nov. 22 Christian Science Monitor article, "Should
Churches Convert Drivers of SUVS?"
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