Rallying Believers to Pax Gaia
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Rallying Believers to Pax Gaia Ifyou 're pro-God,you must be Green, suggests Yales Farum on Religion and Ecology By Neil Maghami Summary: The Forum on Religion and Ecol ogyat Yale Universitycalls itselfthe "largest international multireligious project of its kind. " Its organizers characterize it as an academic initiative, but a careful inspection reveals that it is more of an effortto prosely tize-with a specificgoal of rallying religious believers to Big Greens banner. ealthy foundations, together with the organizations funded by those Wfoundations, make up the infra structure of the environmentalist movement. Without that infrastructure, the movement would be just another vocal special-interest group. Leveraging foundation grants to fuel its net work of tax-exempt 50l(c)(3) organizations, Big Green wields enormous power. It influ Mother Earth; Grim and Tucker; and a scene from a YouTube video featuring Thomas Berry. ences government regulation, intervenes in more on religious environmentalism, see the that thirty years of good science could political campaigns, lobbies elected officials, December 2013 Green Watch and the June address these problems. I was wrong. and alters, often directs, public policy-not 2009 issue of our sister publication Organi The top environmental problems are just in Washington, D.C., but through inter zation Trends.] selfishness, greed and apathy, and to national bodies like the United Nations. deal with these we need a cultural and Yet that isn't enough. For Big Green, it isn't Watch out for FORE spiritual transformation." sufficient to have influence over policy and The article on "Spiritual Ecology" in the Speth, by the way, was founderof the World policymakers. Big Green wants to create online, purportedly objective encyclopedia a climate in which its ideas predominate. Wikipedia, outlines the Green religionists' Resources Institute and co-founder of the Some parts of the environmentalist coalition way of thought: Natural Resources Defense Council and are trying to achieve the movement's goals an advisor to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Despite the disparate arenas of study Bill Clinton. The Wikipedia article goes on piecemeal, one lobbying success or election and practice, the principles of spiritual victory at a time, but some audacious thinkers to praise the leading lights of the Spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve Ecology movement. on the environmentalist Left believe they can such environmental issues as depletion accomplish those goals must faster by chang of species, global warming, and over ing the terms of the debate-by promoting consumption, humanity must examine Green-tinted theology: environmentalism as and reassess our underlying attitudes June 2016 religion. and beliefs about the earth, and our spiri This under-the-radar, religion-focused initia tual responsibilities toward the planet. Rallying Believers to Pax Gaia tive-this effort to co-opt religious believ U.S. Advisor [sic] on climate change, Page 1 ers into warriors for the environmentalist James Gustave Speth, said: "I used to cause-is fueled by grants fromfoundations. think that top environmental problems Green Notes The leading example: the Forum on Religion were biodiversity loss, ecosystem col Page 6 and Ecology (FORE) at Yale University. [For lapse and climate change. I thought According to Wikipedia: difference in the status of spiritual ecol Fred Lucas noted in the August 2013 issue Among scholars contributing to spiritual ogy prior to and since their work. of Green Watch's sister publication Founda tion Watch. ecology, five stand out because of their As noted, FORE was founded by Mary exceptionally high creativity, productiv Evelyn Tucker andJ ohn Grim. They started Working together, Grim and Tucker were ity and impact: Steven C[.] Rockefeller, the organization in 2006 and serve today as contributing editors for the Encyclopedia Mary Evelyn Tucker,John Grim, Bron its coordinators. of Religion (second edition), organizing Taylor and Roger S. Gottlieb. Grim is currently a senior lecturer and 12 articles on religion and ecology. They Mary Evelyn Tucker andJohn Grim are senior research scholar at Yale, teaching describe themselves as "historians of reli the dynamic forcesbehind Yale Univer courses that draw students from the School gions." Their specific academic interest lies sity's Forum on Religion and Ecology, of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale in the "interconnections" between religions an international multi-religious project Divinity School, the Department ofReligious and ethical traditions, their respective sacred exploring religious world-views, texts, Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy texts and rituals, and "the relationships hu ethics and practices in order to broaden Studies, and the Yale Colleges. mans have with the natural world." Tucker's understanding of the complex nature of specialization is Confucianism, while Grim's He is editor of the "World Religions and current environmental concerns. is in North American Indian belief systems. Ecology" series from Harvard Divinity Both studied at differentpoints in their career Steven Clark Rockefeller is an author of School's Center for the Study of World Re under eco-theologian Thomas Berry. numerous books about religion and the ligions, which includes such works as Indig environment, and is professor emeritus enous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbe The Forum grew out of a series of confer of religion at Middlebury College. He ing of Cosmology and Community. Grim ences on religion and nature/ecology held played a leading role in the drafting of has been a professor of religion at Bucknell in 1996-1998 and organized by Grim and the Earth Charter. University. At Sarah Lawrence College, he Tucker through Harvard's Center for the Roger S. Gottlieb is a professor of taught courses on Native American (i.e., Study of WorldReligions. Some 800 "envi Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic In American Indian) and IndigenousR eligions, ronmentalists and international scholars of stitute and is author of over 100 articles World Religions, and Religion and Ecology. the world's religions participated," according and 16 books on environmentalism, Grim is president of the American Teilhard to the Forum's website. religious life, contemporary spirituality, Association, named for the philosopher and The series touched on every major world political philosophy, ethics, feminism, Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who faith-Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hindu and the Holocaust. promoted a quasi-mystical idea that earth ism,Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism (Taoism), evolved and is evolving: from inanimate Bron Taylor at the University ofFlorida Confucianism, Shinto, and "indigenous" matter to a world of biological lifeto a sphere religions. coined the term "Dark Green Religion" of human thought. to describe a set of beliefs and practices Various foundations funded the confer Tucker is a senior lecturer and research centered on the conviction that nature ence series, including V. Kann Rasmussen scholar at Yale University where she holds is sacred. Foundation, Nathan CummingsFoundation, appointments in the Divinity School and in Germeshausen Foundation, Albert and Vera Each of the above has cultivated his or the School of Forestry and Environmental List Endowment, John D. and Catherine T. her own niche in this emerging field of Studies. She is also a research associate at MacArthur Foundation, Sacharuna Founda academic thought and pragmatic action. the Reischauer Institute ofJapanese Studies tion, Surdna Foundation, and the Winslow Taken together they may be best consid at Harvard. ered as mutually reinforcing in synergy. Foundation. With Brian Swimme (professor at the There is a very substantial qualitative California Institute of Integral Studies in The IO conferences produced 10 academic volumes from Harvard. All l O books have the Editor: Steven J. Allen San Francisco), Tucker created The Jour ney of the Universe, which consisted of a same opening essay by Grim and Tucker, in Publisher: Scott Walter book published by Yale University Press, cluding the following statements that provide Address: 1513 16th Street, NW a PBS film, and an "educational series of insight into the views of these "historians of Washington, DC 20036-1480 interviews." She wrote Worldly Wonder: Re religion": Phone: (202) 483-6900 ligions Enter TheirEcological Phase (2003). While in the past none of the religions of E-mail: [email protected] She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership the world have had to facean environ Website: CapitalResearch.org for the Environment at the United Nations mental crisis such as we are now con Environment Programme. From 1997-2000, fronting, they remain key instruments Green Watch is published by Capital she served on the International Earth Char in shaping attitudes toward nature. The unintended consequences of the modem Research Center, a non-partisan education ter Drafting Committee, and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. industrial drive for unlimited economic and research organization classified by the The Earth Charter is an attempt to enshrine growth and resource development have IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Reprints "sustainable development" as a guiding prin led us to an impasse regarding the sur are available for $2.50 prepaid to Capital ciple forthe global community and "largely vival of many life-forms and appropriate Research Center. blames capitalism