Since I’ve discovered paganism, I’ve realized that my religious views strongly inform my political views and vice versa. I’m sure I’m not the only one. So, I believe that the earth is a holy object deserving of our protection and respect. I don’t see this as being much different from YHWH’s command to “have dominion over [the earth]”.
So I fully support this church’s decision to go with solar! May all of us be as respectful of our earth, whether as a creation of the Divine or an aspect of the Divine.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jonathan // Feb 7, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Yeah, I’m with you - according to Genesis, we are supposed to be good stewards of the earth. I supposed God could intervene if we really screw up, but it really is up to us to take care of it.
2 John White // Feb 7, 2007 at 5:12 pm
God intervening sounds like a really, really bad backup plan. And what if giving us the commandment was the intervention and we ignore it?
3 John // Feb 7, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I’ll chime in with an atheist-humanist’s view: we need to take care of this earth because it’s all we’ve got, and there are no second chances.
Miko, we chatted a bit about this, but ecofeminists would take issue with the “dominion” clause–that it is better to live in partnership or symbiosis with the earth than to establish a human-nonhuman hierarchy.
I’ll try to think of alternative scriptures. In the meantime, this the topic of the Washington Post’s On Faith Forum, and so far Desmond Tutu, Starhawk, and a host of other famous religious leaders and commentators have responded.
4 Miko // Feb 8, 2007 at 8:40 am
John: to a large extent, I no longer believe anything the Bible says, dominion or otherwise. However, I find it useful to have a background in knowing what the Bible says for just such arguments as these. I would not use the “dominion” argument with ecofeminists, but I would with Christian/ex-Christians who would understand the reference.
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