Christian Ecology

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This middle-ground group seems to have tamed the beast of internal squabbling, and so NACCE is marching on. Its goal? To reach every local church in America, drawing them all toward Christian environmental consciousness and action. To that end, NACCE is running a slate of regional training workshops and staging national forums for each denominational path. The group is also working, in conjunction with the U.N., on finding common cause and creed with earth-conscious Hindu, Buddhist and Native American groups.

And that's just the beginning. In 1990, NACCE will stage its second national conference. Then, at the dedication of the new National Cathedral in Washington, it will hold an international conference on religion and the environment. According to NACCE codirector Donald Conroy, these last two events will kick off the '90s as "the decade of ecological values."

Perhaps one of the upcoming NACCE events will turn into a Christian version of Earth Day, that 1970 gathering that pushed environmental issues into national consciousness. If so, can the eco-Christian movement have a significant impact on our planet's health? Potentially, yes. In the 18th century, the American Revolution was preached from the pulpits. A hundred years later, churches helped teach people to address slavery as a moral and religious issue instead of simply an economic one. And two decades ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., used religious arguments and aid to motivate the civil rights movement of the '60s.

Such instances remind us all that the church, though slow to stir, can make a mighty impact when wakened into action.

THE DOMINION DEBATE

"And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish
the earth and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' "

(Genesis 1:28)

AMERICA'S LARGEST RELIGION IS more often blamed for creating our environmental problems than credited with helping to solve them. Indeed, ever since historian Lynn White, Jr., published "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" (Science magazine) in 1967, the anti-earth nature of Christianity has become standard doctrine in environmental circles. (Our own magazine repeated this truism just last issue—in our "Open Road" column.)

The quote above from the first chapter of Genesis forms the backbone of White's—and others'—arguments that Christianity is an anti-ecological religion. And certainly, the notion of subdiung the earth and taking dominion over its creatures does sound ex ploitative. But eco-Christians say that read ing past that one verse will reveal a very different picture of humanity's role in the creation.

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