Earth Day Focuses Attention on Deterioration of Environment

It was interesting to read such an optimistic view of institutionalized religion’s effectiveness in supporting environmental issues (“Religions Join the Crusade to Save Earth,” Part A, April 19).

The inescapable problem remains, however, that as long as a significant number of human beings believe they are the only privileged species created in God’s image and therefore capable of “salvation,” passages like Genesis 1:28 will remain the tacit basis for modern Western civilization’s destruction of the interdependent web of life on Earth. Also, the difference between “dominion” in this verse and implied “stewardship” in Genesis 2:15 is only one of degree . . . both are rooted in the shortsighted notion of human superiority ordained by a human-centered God.

For example, the human population is expanding at the unprecedented rate of nearly 1 billion every 10 years, shoving into extinction one-third of all species within the next 20 to 30 years. Yet the impact of organized religion has been one of the strongest barriers to massive global family planning efforts, the only solution to our successful cohabitation of the planet with God’s other creations. Be assured that the result of the Earth Day L.A. Population Task Force mailing to 5,400 area churches was far different from the other responses reported.

CAROL BENSON HOLST

Director, Small Family Pledge Project

West Coast Office, Glendale