Religion, like politics, the various economic systems and all other variants of social organization, are human institutions subject to imperfections and the corrupting influences of wealth, power and authority. When they are elements in the establishment of pecking orders in all societies, the choice has almost always been made toward a path of enrichment at the expense of others. The difference that demarks the ‘other’ is often ethnic, but has also been between religious beliefs or along national boundaries. Considering the hierarchal structure within the so-called advanced society, the consequent polarization is between rich and poor. However advanced or primitive the society, their ultimate objective has always been the procurement of those resources necessary to either meet human needs or create goods of established social value, regardless of the environmental costs.
The exploitation of fossil fuels brought about the ever-quickening development of new technologies — a larger pool of wealth and the growth in population that followed. The capacity of earth’s biosphere to absorb these changes and growing demands has ebbed, and the inevitable shifts in the previously normal climatic conditions will intensify until a better balance between carbon production and absorption are re-established. For many the science is sufficient, others apparently need to experience the consequences — however dire.
Fundamental to the survival of countless species, including our own, is a reexamination of the ancient wisdom uncovered by all faiths millennia ago. In this review, the question each of us need to consider is whether our existence should be gambled on economic theories of limitless growth that are incapable of foreseeing the consequences. The enduring relevance that religion holds in the lives of the vast majority of mankind presents us with, perhaps, the last opportunity to arrest the madness of uncontrolled growth that is destroying our natural habitats and demeaning the very humanity that has defined us.
The worldwide religious landscape of today is composed of less than a dozen major faiths, yet the various denominations, all containing notable differences, number in the tens of thousands. Though their tenets are varied, the temptation is always there to equate each’s partial human awareness with the infinite wisdom of the creator. It could never be possible to find the universal truth in any one faith, each being but a finite understanding of a relatively limited experience. When organized religions permit, do not restrain, or are complicit with their members, engaging in actions that do not reflect the virtues and values that have been declared the essence of human rights and environmental justice, then they undermine the intent of our common creator. Thereby, spirituality as a universal human experience is eroded and a hedonistic self-directed materialism, like a cancer, grows in its place. What then remains? In pursuit of a life well lived it is personal devotion to God and tolerance of others that even then allows us to keep the faith. With that, peace, as a labor of love, can then be nurtured in the fertile ground of justice. Stopping the on-going destruction of earth’s various eco-systems will require a wider awareness, one that allows us to see that in safeguarding other species we will then save our own.
The following poem is an attempt, however imperfect, to express what I could not in prose. The use of the Old Testament term ‘Gentiles’ is a reference to those of all other faiths now in existence.
On the Profession of Laws and the Practice of Flaws
It is true, oh so true, be you Gentile or Jew,
That in the breaking of God’s laws,
Lies our downfall and basis of flaws.
That metaphor’s wrong, the tale of the apple,
Is a misconstrued song, which the ancients did dabble.
Selfishness and power, entranced that first couple,
Becoming the original, source of our trouble,
That old myth portrayed, so soon does unravel.
The Garden of Eden, all of God’s unspoiled earth,
Vastly exploited for what we believe it is worth.
The defoliation observed the whole world-wide,
Leaves no refuge from shame, and no place to hide.
It is true, oh so true, be you Gentile or Jew,
That those evils done, each day of the week
Are burdens born, to temples, church or synagogue.
Forgiveness through prayer, there do we seek,
For the pain in our souls, those sins against God.
Only truth can heal and render a heart strong,
And the medicine our love and kindness to all others.
Triumph in this and be prepared to discover,
That all the people and species we have wronged,
God created as one extended family, all sisters and brothers.
Ask only for strength in undertaking the quest,
Reserve judgment to God, resist all that’s temptation,
Until life’s end where from our journey we rest.
There he greets all with love, our eternal salvation.
Keep the faith, love the earth; God’s gift, and our only hope for life!
— Hugo A. Roller, St. John
