United Nations Environmental Program Archive of E-Articles 2009 January 5, 2009 Green Bible Stirs Evangelical Concerns By Ginger D. Richardson Gannett News Service In this day and age, you can buy a Bible aimed at almost any demographic imaginable: toddlers, teenage girls, and recovering addicts. But it's the recently published Green Bible that is causing a stir in the religious community. Supporters of the book, which highlights verses related to what believers call "God's creation" and God's desire for humans to protect it, say they hope it will encourage more Christians to embrace environmentalism. "In every book of the Bible, there are references to the world and how we should take care of it," said Rusty Pritchard, editor of Creation Care Magazine, an eco-friendly publication for evangelicals. "When you look at it through that lens, it really jumps out at you ... that God is calling us to care for the world around us." But others fear the new Bible, which has been endorsed by secular groups such as the Sierra Club and the Humane Society, will mislead Christians. "I am concerned that many who call themselves Christians, or intend to speak for Christianity, don't interpret the Bible literally," said James Taylor, a founding elder and Sunday school teacher at Living Water Christian Fellowship in Palmetto, Fla. "These groups don't have a religious focus; they have a desire to spread their environmental message." Taylor, who is also a senior fellow of environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, a conservative Chicago-based think tank, said there is a healthy amount of skepticism among mainstream evangelicals toward the new Bible. The debate over the Green Bible's virtues and weaknesses underscores the growing tension within the evangelical community: those who think Christians should be embracing environmental causes as part of their stewardship, and those who worry that such activism distracts believers from their mission to literally follow and spread the word of God. Although some Christians and many progressive churches have long embraced conservationism, others - particularly evangelicals - have historically shied away, viewing it as a "liberal" cause rooted in politics and questionable science. The Green Bible, out since October, is simplistic and streamlined in its design. Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink, the book features more than 1,000 verses printed in green ink. With a forward by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, publisher HarperOne has printed more than 37,000 copies. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090105/LIFE/901050316/-1/TODAY January 6, 2009 Pope: Pollution Could Destroy World's Future By Associated Press VATICAN CITY --Pope Benedict XVI is warning that pollution in the world could destroy our present and our future. But his message in an Epiphany Day homily Tuesday in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is that people should not lose heart in tackling the challenge. Benedict is encouraging what he calls people's efforts to liberate human life and the world from "poisons and pollution." He says even though such efforts against "hostile forces" might not seem successful, Christian hope gives courage and guidance. In his homily the pope also urged people to be hopeful during the global economic crisis. Benedict denounced the bloodshed in conflicts in many regions of the world, but named no countries. http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/01/06/pope_pollution_could_destroy_ worlds_future/ January 12, 2009 Cruelty Is Not Kosher Lewis Regenstein Guest Columnist The Atlanta Jewish Times Online The widely reported stories throughout the media about abuses at the Postville, Iowa, "kosher" slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, may give people a false impression about Jewish law regarding treatment of workers and animals. Workers at the plant, formerly the source for most of the country's kosher meat, have been taped subjecting conscious cows to great suffering, cutting off ears, tearing out windpipes and shoving hooks down cows' throats. Cows with cut throats were seen "stumbling around . trying in vain to bellow." Products from these and other abused cows have been labeled "kosher" and bought by observant Jews who obey the Jewish dietary laws. Ironically, the original intent of these laws was to slaughter food animals in the least painful way possible. But today, kosher meat often is the result of cruel production and slaughtering methods, a serious violation of Jewish law and tradition. The code of laws forbidding cruelty to animals (the requirement "to prevent the suffering of living creatures") is one of the most important aspects of Jewish law, which also requires fair treatment of workers. Indeed, the Jews pioneered the concept of kindness to animals some 3,500 years ago, and it is mandated throughout the Bible and Jewish law. Even the holiest of our laws, the Ten Commandments, requires that farmed animals be allowed to enjoy a day of rest on the Sabbath. So the almighty must have felt that kindness to animals was not a trivial matter. Significantly, the first commandments given by the Lord (Genesis 1:22-28) concern the welfare and survival of animals, and human responsibilities toward them. God's very first commandment (Genesis 1:22) was to the birds, whales, fish and other creatures to "be fruitful and multiply" and fill the seas and the skies. His first commandment to humans (Genesis 1:28) was to "replenish the earth . and have dominion" [stewardship] over other creatures. Clearly, the Lord was well pleased with the works of his creation. After he made each of the creatures, he blessed them, "saw" that each "was good," and commanded them to "be fruitful and multiply." And he pronounced the entire creation, when it was completed, "very good." Later, when God made his promise to Noah and generations to come, never again to destroy the earth with a flood, He included in the covenant "every living creature...the fowl, the cattle, and every beast of the earth..." (Genesis 9: 12-17).). The Lord restates the covenant a total of five times, an emphasis that shows the importance to the almighty of including "every living creature." As the Jewish Encyclopedia observes, "In rabbinic literature ... great prominence is given to demonstrating God's mercy to animals, and to the importance of not causing them pain ... Moral and legal rules concerning the treatment of animals are based on the principle that animals are part of God's creation toward which man bears responsibility...The Bible...makes it clear not only that cruelty to animals is forbidden but also that compassion and mercy to them are demanded of man by God." The Jewish people are charged with the mission of being "a light unto the nations" (Isaiah 42:6, 60:3), which has inspired the Jews through the ages to provide the world with moral and spiritual leadership. Many Jews consider it to be a "shanda," a shameful thing, that a kosher label can appear on some products resulting from the massive abuse and suffering of billions of factory farmed creatures, many of which spend their entire lives in misery, fear, and anguish, in addition to the often painful way they are killed. Some rabbis and Jewish leaders have even characterized this as a "chillul Hashem," a desecration of the name of the Lord. As an editorial in the venerable Jewish newspaper The Forward observed on Nov. 13, "The behavior attributed to Agriprocessors ... ought to disqualify its products from receiving religious certification by any standard worthy of the name." It is hard to imagine that abuse of animals would be pleasing to a merciful God. Can this truly be the will of the Lord, whose first commandments concerned animals, who called each animal He created "good" and the creation itself "very good," who instructed us in The Bible to allow our animals an entire day of rest on the Sabbath, to leave some crops in the fields for the wildlife, to allow oxen to eat while working and who repeatedly prohibited cruelty to animals ? As Proverbs 12:10 tells us, "A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast." Truly, in the words of Psalm 145:9, "His compassion is over all his creatures." The writer is the author of Replenish the Earth: The Teachings of the world's Religions on Protecting Animals and Nature, and president of The Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature, icpanonline.org. http://jtonline.us/main.asp?SectionID=34&subsectionID=84&articleID=6118 January 25, 2009 The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands A Pastoral Letter by Luc Bouchard, Bishop of St. Paul in Alberta, Canada “Faced with the widespread destruction of the environment people everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to use the goods of the earth as we have in the past. a new ecological awareness is beginning to emerge - the ecological crisis is a moral issue.” Pope John Paul II, Jan. 1, 1990, Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation (par. #’s 1 & 15) “Alongside the ecology of nature there exists what can be called a “human” ecology, which in turn demands a “social” ecology. All this means that humanity, if it truly desires peace, must be increasingly conscious of the links between natural ecology, or respect for nature, and human ecology. Experience shows that disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence and vice versa.” Pope Benedict XVI, Jan. 1, 2007, The Human Person, the Heart of Peace (par. #8) Introduction Dear faithful of the Diocese of St. Paul, the ecological crisis, described above by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, is evident in many parts of Canada. Our wasteful consumerist lifestyle, combined with political and industrial short-sightedness and neglect, are damaging our air, land, and water.