Volume 6, Issue 10, June 1997


ECO-THEOLOGY

The time has come for a new Pentecost,
a renewed humanity to begin the task
of healing the environment.

Why are some people so disturbed about pollution of air and water? It is an indication they are realizing we have reached a critical point in human habitation of the earth. We are now facing an ecological crisis. Having fouled our nest, depleting our planet's store of non-renewable resources at an alarming rate, humankind is being confronted by an ultimatum to heal our earth or face our own destruction.

Away back around 400 BCE, the Hebrew prophet Joel spoke earnestly to the people regarding conserving their land and made it a religious issue.

The community had suffered a prolonged and savage drought, accompanied by a plague of locusts. The people went through a disastrous time of famine. Joel spoke to this trouble and called for better husbandry of their land and a deeper commitment to the creative spirit of God.

"Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined. The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple - all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people." (Joel 1:11,12).

Joel stresses the need of a change of heart to protect the land and its resources. Repentance is in order, Joel exhorts. The earth's suffering needs to be acknowledged and a day of healing enacted.

"Then afterward I will pour my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." (Joel 2:28).

We have been a great deal more effective in our time at destroying nature. Fire, the axe, the plough, weapons, and the bulldozer have enabled us to ravage the earth for our immediate gain. We ignore nature's laws that are so contrived that land, water, plants and animals should, and under natural conditions do, exist in harmony and interdependence for perpetual productiveness.

Nature has been at work for millions of years to get things as they are. Cause and effect are tied together like stones in a well-built wall.

Without careful investigation one can never tell which is a keystone, the removal of which will bring down a large section of the structure in ruin.

We are an integral part of our environment. "Nature" embraces all existing things - the land, the waters, the vegetation, the animals ...and human beings. In fact, we are not only a part of our world, but of the universe. What we do impinges upon the rest, and what happens to the rest of creation bears upon us.

We have disregarded our place in the balance of nature for too long, and we are face to face with our own conflict between the principle of freedom to use and destroy, and the principle of husbandry to use wisely and replenish. We can imagine the trees and the wild creatures and the earth itself watching and listening, alive and aware, holding their breaths in anticipation of what their human neighbours will do with their common heritage.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.