Organized Religions Looking Earthward

As we give thanks today for nature’s bounty in whatever manner we choose, we might reflect on the idea that food on the table is a product of our environment, and so are we.

A bevy of scholars and writers, from Oakland to La Jolla, are putting the environment on the agenda of the nation’s mainstream religious denominations. Heavily influenced by progressive Roman Catholic teachers, organized calmly and energetically by Methodist theologians at Claremont Graduate School, spurred on by the energies of Jewish, Episcopal and Quaker lay people, evidence of this new thinking is now appearing in the work of faith centers in North County.

Among the manifestations: a dozen Alternative Gift Fairs being held locally this holiday season. The fairs, open to all, promote the idea of giving to help the environment and aid the less fortunate in this country and abroad. Participating parishes include Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist.

At various displays at the fairs, you can buy gifts that are actually contributions to ecological and health projects. You make these gifts in the name of someone else, who then receives a card announcing that the gift has been purchased in his or her name--so he or she gets the thanks.

Gift possibilities include seedlings for the Belize rain forest, economical stoves for India, bicycles for Haiti and reforestation tools for the Dominican Republic. Domestic projects include contributions to Habitat for Humanity, which builds and rehabilitates low-cost housing.

At a camp program in Julian, Methodist high school students are learning that “their faith can make a difference. They see the church is serious about caretaking and stewardship of the Earth,” according to James Seaton of Escondido United Methodist Church, who has led the camp for four years.

Last month, Catholic bishops approved a policy statement on the environment, linking environmental degradation to our consumerist ways.

Perhaps this is not so radical a trend. After all, the Massachusetts Puritans, whose simple life we memorialize each year, had a lot in common with the back-to-the-landers of the 1970s and the city-escapers of the ‘90s.

This new trend, potentially as far-reaching as the abolitionist movement that touched the American faithful in the past century, might offend those who believe we were created to “subdue” nature rather than coexist within a sustainable environment. But the main message, and hopefully the main result, of this religious ferment is bridging, not dividing.

As Robert Edgar, president of the Claremont School of Theology put it, “There’s a melody playing inside of people--to protect the environment--calling all faiths to wake up.”

North County Quakers have been discussing ways “to attune activity as part of our tradition of witness,” said Oliver Ryder. “We have to do something about our environment.”

He points out that a Quaker youth group recently held a fund-raiser to buy an acre of rain forest. Ryder said he feels this acceptance of environmental ideas by a traditional religious denomination is one of the reasons that “right now we have the largest number of young people (coming to meetings) in my memory.”

Ryder, a zoologist, is heartened by the increased interest. “The generation now in school is the last one able to make an impact on the extinction curve” of plants and animals.

At the request of the North County Interfaith Council, the Rev. Norman Self, a Methodist pastor and college chaplain, has been conducting family seminars with an environmental bent. Among the sources Self cites in his seminars is environmental researcher Lester Brown, editor of the annual “State of the World Report.” The report concludes that the idea “that happiness is to be obtained through limitless material acquisition is denied by every religion and philosophy known to mankind.”

It is a bracing thought for Thanksgiving.

RELIGION AND ECOLOGY

* Upcoming alternative gift fairs include ones at Escondido United Methodist Church, Dec. 6-8 (745-5100), and Vista Westminster Presbyterian Church, Dec. 1-3 (745-3225).

Some fairs are part of a national program initiated by Southern California Methodist lay people. For more information, call 1-800-842-2243.

* American Jewish World Service offers a similar program. For information about North County activities, contact organizer Bill Goldstein at (213) 395-5212.

* “State of the World Report,” edited by Lester Brown, W.W. Norton Publishers, available at area bookstores.

* For information on North County Interfaith Council seminars, call the Rev. Joyce deGraff at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 745-3225.