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April 23, 2005

Eco-evangelism?

The Bush administration has gone a long way towards cementing the public's association of evangelicals with a greedy desire to rape, pillage and plunder natural resources as a means of acquiring material wealth. But, not all evangelicals are so keen to blatently ignore their own religious texts.

Jeff over at sustainablog has a very interesting post up today on The Future of Eco-evangelism which stems from an alternet essay by Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a leading Eco-evangelical.

The notion of Eco-evangelism may seems a bit oxymoronic to many, but not to me. I was raised in an evangelical family by two avid naturalists who taught my brothers and I that one of the greatest ways of communing with God was to observe His handiwork in nature. And by "nature" I don't mean in a park, although those are lovely too. No, I mean nature in it's natural, wild state. They were particularly fond of taking us into wilderness areas. Backpacking into wilderness areas in the Cascade Mountain Range of Oregon and California was a regular part of our summer activities as I was growing up.

Obviously, clear-cutting and strip-mining, while operations which typically create great wealth for the owners of such operations and (in theory) a living wage for their employees, also destroy the natural beauty of any wilderness area. So, to me it has never seemed strange or at odds with my spiritual beliefs to seek to protect at least some of nature's beauty for humanity to marvel at and enjoy.

Posted by Kevin at April 23, 2005 08:41 AM