wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Theologians warn of 'false gospel' on the environment

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Note #8648 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05088
February 14, 2005

Theologians warn of 'false gospel' on the environment 

Group Calls on Christians to repent of sin

by Carol Fouke
NCC News and Information

WASHINGTON - In an effort to refute what they call a "false gospel" and to
change destructive attitudes and actions concerning the environment, a group
of theologians, convened by the National Council of Churches USA, today
released an open letter calling on Christians to repent of "our social and
ecological sins" and to reject teachings that suggest humans are "called" to
exploit the Earth without care for how our behavior impacts the rest of God's
creation.

	The statement, "God's Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and
Society in the United States," points out that there is both an environmental
and a theological crisis that must be addressed. 

	 "We have listened to a false gospel that we continue to live out in
our daily habits -- a gospel that proclaims that God cares for the salvation
of humans only and that our human calling is to exploit Earth for our own
ends alone," says the statement. "This false gospel still finds its proud
preachers and continues to capture its adherents among emboldened political
leaders and policy makers."

	The statement calls on Christians to take two important steps to
enable socially just and ecologically sustainable communities for future
generations: first, to "repent of our sins, in the presence of God and one
another," and, second, to pursue, "with God's help, a path different from our
present course."

	In its call to repentance, the statement confesses that, "we have
abused and exploited the Earth and people on the margins of power and
privilege, altering climates, extinguishing species, and jeopardizing Earth's
capacity to sustain life as we know and love it." It goes on to identify
eight norms to guide us on a new environmental path: justice, sustainability,
bioresponsibility, humility, generosity, frugality, solidarity and
compassion.

	The NCC's Eco-Justice Working Group decided to ask leading
theologians to gather in the fall of 2004 at the National Cathedral here to
work on a theological statement to counter arguments that the environment is
not an issue that should concern Christians. In order to produce a
theologically grounded statement, the group issued invitations to theologians
who were well versed in ecumenism and the doctrine of their own church
bodies. 

	According to Father Chris Bender, an Orthodox priest who helped to
bring the gathering together, "Some people say that the environment doesn't
matter" because the second coming of Christ will usher in the end of the
world as we know it. "To make such a statement is the height of arrogance,"
said Bender. "We don't know when the Lord is coming back but we do know that
one day we will have to give an account for making the environment unlivable
for those who come after us and for those who are the poorest among us," he
said referring to the belief by Orthodox and other Christian churches that
each person will have to stand before God and give an account of their
actions. According to Bender how we treat God's creation "will be on God's
agenda."

	Said the NCC's Associate General Secretary for Faith & Order, Dr. Ann
K. Riggs, "No one can read Scripture and deny that caring for creation is
part of what God has asked us to do." The Old Testament makes that point
clear, she notes, adding, "There is nothing in the New Testament or early
church traditions that suggest we no longer have to care for or protect
creation. Care of creation is part of the Gospel," she said as she expressed
her excitement about the release of the statement and noted her hope that it
will have a profound impact on both the Church and society.

	In addition to refuting false teachings about the environment and
calling Christians to repent, the statement also appeals to Christians and
"all people of good will" to join together in understanding humans'
responsibility to care for creation, to integrate this understanding into
what it means to be the church, and to advocate boldly on behalf of those
most vulnerable to the negative effects of the global environmental crisis.

	NCC President and Christian Methodist Episcopal Bishop, Rev. Dr.
Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., who participated in the gathering and applauded the
release of  the statement, said, "As humans, we have a tendency to desecrate
earth and minimize the biodiversity of life. While theology is usually ahead
of  practice at least we must aim for a relevant theology that informs what
we ought to be and do. Theology and ethics are joined here to the end that
human communities may be more just and all of life may be respected,"
asserted Hoyt. 

	NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar said he hopes the statement will
stimulate conversations in churches, seminaries, colleges, universities and
throughout society.

	"We will begin circulating 'God's Earth is Sacred' to all of our
member churches and others to stress the importance and urgency to begin to
change how we care for God's creation," he said. "From Genesis to Revelation
it is clear that God has given us the responsibility to care and seek justice
for all of God's creation and we want to make sure that people in the pews
are equipped to be ambassadors for this message and good stewards of the
environment."

	The statement was released on the heels of a grassroots campaign that
just last week released "God's Mandate: Care for Creation," which was signed
by more than 1,000 clergy and laypeople from Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
traditions -- and it came just before a broadbased effort on Feb. 16 to lift
up the international Kyoto Protocol on climate change, an effort that
included the participation of faith based groups. 

	The full text of the statement, signed by drafters: Neddy Astudillo
of the Presbzterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Rev. Deiter Hessel, a PC(USA)
minister who is director of the Ecumenical Program on Ecology, Justice, and
Faith in Princeton, NJ;; Father John Chryssavgis of the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America; Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. of the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church and president of the National Council of Churches; Carol
Johnston, a professor at Christian Theological Seminary; Tanya
Marcova-Barnett, program director of Earth Ministry; Bill McKibben, author
and scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College;Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, a
professor at Seattle University; James A. Nash, a retired social and
ecological ethicist; Larry Rasmussen, a professor at Union Theological
Seminary, New York City; the Rev. Paul Santmire, author and teaching
theologian for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and co-signers
Karen Baker-Fletcher, a professor at Perkins School of Th!
 eology, Southern Methodist University; John B. Cobb, Jr., emeritus professor
at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School; Jay McDaniel,
director of the Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy at
Hendrix College; Sallie McFague, emeritus professor at Vanderbilt University
Divinity; and Barbara R. Rossing, a professor at Lutheran School of  Theology
in Chicago

God's Earth is Sacred:
An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States

      God's creation delivers unsettling news. Earth's climate is warming to
dangerous levels; 90 percent of the world's fisheries have been depleted;
coastal development and pollution are causing a sharp decline in ocean
health; shrinking habitat threatens to extinguish thousands of species; over
95 percent of the contiguous United States forests have been lost; and almost
half of the population in the United States lives in areas that do not meet
national air quality standards. In recent years, the profound danger has
grown, requiring us as theologians, pastors, and religious leaders to speak
out and act with new urgency. 

      We are obliged to relate to Earth as God's creation "in ways that
sustain life on the planet, provide for the [basic] needs of all humankind,
and increase justice."	Over the past several decades, slowly but faithfully,
the religious community in the United States has attempted to address issues
of ecology and justice. Our faith groups have offered rich theological
perspectives, considered moral issues through the lens of long-standing
social teaching, and passed numerous policies within our own church bodies.
While we honor the efforts in our churches, we have clearly failed to
communicate the full measure and magnitude of Earth's environmental
crisis-religiously, morally, or politically.  It is painfully clear from the
verifiable testimony of the world's scientists that our response has been
inadequate to the scale and pace of Earth's degradation. 

      To continue to walk the current path of ecological destruction is not
only folly; it is sin. As voiced by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has
taken the lead among senior religious leaders in his concern for creation:
"To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause
species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's
creation...for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in
its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its
wetlands...for humans to injure other humans with disease...for humans to
contaminate the Earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life, with
poisonous substances...these are sins."  We have become un-Creators. Earth is
in jeopardy at our hands.  

      This means that ours is a theological crisis as well. We have listened
to a false gospel that we continue to live out in our daily habits-a gospel
that proclaims that God cares for the salvation of humans only and that our
human calling is to exploit Earth for our own ends alone. This false  gospel
still finds its proud preachers and continues to capture its adherents among
emboldened political leaders and policy makers.  

      The secular counterpart of this gospel rests in the conviction that
humans can master the Earth. Our modern way of life assumes this mastery.
However, the sobering truth is that we hardly have knowledge of, much less
control over, the deep and long-term consequences of our human impacts upon
the Earth. We have already sown the seeds for many of those consequences. The
fruit of those seeds will be reaped by future generations of human beings,
together with others in the community of life.	

      The imperative first step is to repent of our sins, in the presence of
God and one another. This repentance of our social and ecological sins will
acknowledge the special responsibility that falls to those of us who are
citizens of the United States. Though only five percent of the planet's human
population, we produce one-quarter of the world's carbon emissions, consume a
quarter of its natural riches, and perpetuate scandalous inequities at home
and abroad. We are a precious part of Earth's web of life, but we do not own
the planet and we cannot transcend its requirements for regeneration on its
own terms. We have not listened well to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.	

      The second step is to pursue a new journey together, with courage and
joy. By God's grace, all things are made new.  We can share in that renewal
by clinging to God's trustworthy promise to restore and fulfill all that God
creates and by walking, with God's help, a path different from our present
course.  To that end, we affirm our faith, propose a set of guiding norms,
and call on our churches to rededicate themselves to this mission. We firmly
believe that addressing the degradation of God's sacred Earth is the moral
assignment of our time comparable to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s,
the worldwide movement to achieve equality for women, or ongoing efforts to
control weapons of mass destruction in a post-Hiroshima world.

Ecological Affirmations of Faith

      We stand with awe and gratitude as members of God's bountiful and good
creation. We rejoice in the splendor and mystery of countless species, our
common creaturehood, and the interdependence of all that God makes. We
believe that the Earth is home for all and that it has been created
intrinsically good (Genesis 1). 

      We lament that the human species is shattering the splendid gifts of
this web of life, ignoring our responsibility for the well being of all life,
while destroying species and their habitats at a rate never before known in
human history.

      We believe that the Holy Spirit, who animates all of creation, breathes
in us and can empower us to participate in working toward the flourishing of
Earth's community of life. We believe that the people of God are called to
forge ways of being human that enable socially just and ecologically
sustainable communities to flourish for generations to come. And we believe
in God's promise to fulfill all of creation, anticipating the reconciliation
of all (Colossians 1:15), in accordance with God's promise (II Peter 3:13).

      We lament that we have rejected this vocation, and have distorted our
God-given abilities and knowledge in order to ransack and often destroy
ecosystems and human communities rather than to protect, strengthen, and
nourish them.

      We believe that, in boundless love that hungers for justice, God in
Jesus Christ acts to restore and redeem all creation (including human
beings). God incarnate affirms all creation (John 1:14), which becomes a
sacred window to eternity. In the cross and resurrection we know that God is
drawn into life's most brutal and broken places and there brings forth
healing and liberating power. That saving action restores right relationships
among all members of "the whole creation" (Mark 16:15).

      We confess that instead of living and proclaiming this salvation
through our very lives and worship, we have abused and exploited the Earth
and people on the margins of power and privilege, altering climates,
extinguishing species, and jeopardizing Earth's capacity to sustain life as
we know and love it.

      We believe that the created world is sacred-a revelation of God's power
and gracious presence filling all things. This sacred quality of creation
demands moderation and sharing, urgent antidotes for our excess in
consumption and waste, reminding us that economic justice is an essential
condition of ecological integrity. We cling to God's trustworthy promise to
restore, renew, and fulfill all that God creates. We long for and work toward
the day when churches, as embodiments of Christ on Earth, will respond to the
"groaning of creation" (Romans 8:22) and to God's passionate desire to "renew
the face of the Earth" {Psalm 104:30). We look forward to the day when the
lamentations and groans of creation will be over, justice with peace will
reign, humankind will nurture not betray the Earth, and all of creation will
sing for joy.

Guiding Norms for Church and Society

      These affirmations imply a challenge that is also a calling: to fulfill
our vocation as moral images of God, reflections of divine love and justice
charged to "serve and preserve" the Garden (Genesis 2:15).  Given this charge
and the urgent problems of our age-from species extinctions and mass poverty
to climate change and health-crippling pollution-how shall we respond?	What
shall we be and do?  What are the standards and practices of moral excellence
that we ought to cultivate in our personal lives, our communities of faith,
our social organizations, our businesses, and our political institutions?  We
affirm the following norms of social and environmental responsibility:

* Justice-creating right relationships, both social and ecological, to ensure
for all members of the Earth community the conditions required for their
flourishing. Among human members, justice demands meeting the essential
material needs and conditions for human dignity and social participation.  In
our global context, economic deprivation and ecological degradation are
linked in a vicious cycle.  We are compelled, therefore, to seek eco-justice,
the integration of social justice and ecological integrity.  The quest for
eco-justice also implies the development of a set of human environmental
rights, since one of the essential conditions of human well being is
ecological integrity. These moral entitlements include protection of soils,
air, and water from diverse pollutants; the preservation of biodiversity; and
governmental actions ensuring the fair and frugal use of creation's riches.

* Sustainability-living within the bounds of planetary capacities
indefinitely, in fairness to both present and future generations of life.
God's covenant is with humanity and all other living creatures "for all
future generations" (Genesis 9:8-17).  The concern for sustainability forces
us to be responsible for the truly long-term impacts of our lifestyles and
policies. 

* Bioresponsibility-extending the covenant of justice to include all other
life forms as beloved creatures of God and as expressions of God's presence,
wisdom, power, and glory. We do not determine nor declare creation's value,
and other creatures should not be treated merely as instruments for our needs
and wants.  Other species have their own integrity.  They deserve a "fair
share" of Earth's bounty a share that allows a biodiversity of life to thrive
along with human communities. 

* Humility-recognizing, as an antidote to arrogance, the limits of human
knowledge, technological ingenuity, and moral character. We are not the
masters of creation. Knowing human capacities for error and evil, humility
keeps our own species in check for the good of the whole of Earth as God's
creation.

* Generosity-sharing Earth's riches to promote and defend the common good in
recognition of God's purposes for the whole creation and Christ's gift of
abundant life.	Humans are not collections of isolated individuals, but
rather communities of socially and ecologically interdependent beings. A
measure of a good society is not whether it privileges those who already have
much, but rather whether it privileges the most vulnerable members of
creation.  Essentially, these tasks require good government at all levels,
from local to regional to national to international.

* Frugality-restraining economic production and consumption for the sake of
eco-justice.  Living lives filled with God's Spirit liberates us from the
illusion of finding wholeness in the accumulation of material things and
brings us to the reality of God's just purposes. Frugality connotes
moderation, sufficiency, and temperance.  Many call it simplicity. It demands
the careful conservation of Earth's riches, comprehensive  recycling, minimal
harm to other species, material efficiency and the elimination of waste, and
product durability. Frugality is the corrective to a cardinal vice of the
age: prodigality - excessively taking from and wasting God's creation. On a
finite planet, frugality is an expression of love and an instrument for
justice and sustainability: it enables all life to thrive together by sparing
and sharing global goods.

* Solidarity-acknowledging that we are increasingly bound together as a
global community in which we bear responsibility for one another's well
being.	The social and environmental problems of the age must be addressed
with cooperative action at all levels-local, regional, national and
international. Solidarity is a commitment to the global common good through
international cooperation.

* Compassion-sharing the joys and sufferings of all Earth's members and
making them our own.  Members of the body of Christ see the face of Christ in
the vulnerable and excluded.  From compassion flows inclusive caring and
careful service to meet the needs of others.  

A Call to Action: Healing the Earth
and Providing a Just and Sustainable Society

      For too long, we, our Christian brothers and sisters, and many people
of good will have relegated care and justice for the Earth to the periphery
of our concerns.  This is not a competing "program alternative," one "issue"
among many.  In this most critical moment in Earth's history, we are
convinced that the central moral imperative of our time is the care for Earth
as God's creation.

      Churches, as communities of God's people in the world, are called to
exist as representatives of the loving Creator, Sustainer, and Restorer of
all creation. We are called to worship God with all our being and actions,
and to treat creation as sacred. We must engage our political leaders in
supporting the very future of this planet.  We are called to cling to the
true Gospel - for "God so loved the cosmos" (John 3:16) - rejecting the false
gospels of our day.

      We believe that caring for creation must undergird, and be entwined
with, all other dimensions of our churches' ministries. We are convinced that
it is no longer acceptable to claim to be "church" while continuing to
perpetuate, or even permit, the abuse of Earth as God's creation.  Nor is it
acceptable for our corporate and political leaders to engage in "business as
usual" as if the very future of life-support systems were not at stake.  

      Therefore, we urgently call on our brothers and sisters in Christ, and
all people of good will, to join us in:

* Understanding our responsibilities as those who live within the United
States of America - the part of the human family that represents five percent
of the world population and consumes 25 percent of Earth's riches. We believe
that one of the surest ways to gain this understanding is by listening
intently to the most vulnerable: those who most immediately suffer the
consequences of our overconsumption, toxication, and hubris. The whole Earth
is groaning, crying out for healing-let us awaken the "ears of our souls" to
hear it, before it's too late.

* Integrating this understanding into our core beliefs and practices
surrounding what it means to be "church," to be "human," to be "children of
God."  Such integration will be readily apparent in: congregational mission
statements, lay and ordained ministries, the preaching of the Word, our hymns
of praise, the confession of our sins, our financial stewardship and
offerings to God, theological education, our evangelism, our daily work,
sanctuary use, and compassionate service to all communities of life. With
this integrated witness we look forward to a revitalization of our human
vocation and our churches' lives that parallels the revitalization of God's
thriving Earth. 

* Advocating boldly with all our leaders on behalf of creation's most
vulnerable members (including human members).  We must shed our complacency,
denial, and fears and speak God's truth to power, on behalf of all who have
been denied dignity and for the sake of all voiceless members of the
community of life.

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