There was a time not too long ago when the biblical injunction to humankind found in Genesis "to subdue the earth" was interpreted as an absolute mandate to do whatever we like with the natural world. The ultimate result was a crass and brutal exploitation of nature for its precious resources, such as timber, oil, coal, water, metals, and crops. The logging industry still seems reluctant to recognize there is a larger picture than its own myopic economic interests; developers mindlessly plod along, acquiring more and more land, while masses of consumers continue to have an appetite for more products from an all-too-eager corporate world.
In tandem with these lingering tendencies, however, there is at the dawn of the third millennium a growing awareness of the utter importance of the environmental problem among people nearly everywhere. There are thousands of organizations, activists, writers, and advocates all dedicated to changing the old attitudes about and patterns of behavior toward the natural world. Both the Pope and the Dalai Lama have spoken and written eloquently of the need for substantial transformation of human habits regarding treatment of the planet. The World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and countless Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Bahá’í spiritual leaders have given similar leadership in this vital area.
There is also the significant visionary guidance of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, both in its document Towards A Global Ethic (1993), which has had an impact on the religions in their education on the ecological threats and on our responsibility here, and its more recent document, A Call to Our Guiding Institutions (1999) issued at the Parliament session in Cape Town, South Africa (December 1-8, 1999). In Global Ethic, the Parliament observes: "We are interdependent. Each of us depends on the well-being of the whole, and so we have respect for the community of living beings, for people, animals, and plants, and for the preservation of the Earth, the air, water, and soil." This insight and task is echoed in the Call document, where all individuals, groups, organizations, and communities related to religion and its institutions are invited "to provide leadership to assure that the Earth is respected, revered, and protected."
Thomas Berry
Even though most people are aware of the value of the natural world and the need to protect, preserve, and enhance the environment, do we have what it takes to simplify our lives and bring about a radical shift — individually and collectively — in how we conduct ourselves in relation to nature and other species?
One of the most effective voices, especially where the religions are concerned, is Thomas Berry, a Roman Catholic priest and thinker who calls himself appropriately a geologian, or a theologian for the Earth. He has had, for instance, a profound impact on Al Gore’s views on ecological issues. Tom Berry is a brilliant witness to the spiritual values present in the natural world, communicating these values in his public lectures, workshops, interviews, and writings, especially in his books The Dream of the Earth and The Universe Story. Father Berry speaks about the divine in nature, which he identifies as the numinous Reality surrounding and permeating all things, holding the entire cosmos within itself like a great matrix. In Dream of the Earth, he underscores how total is the nurture that nature gives us:
"The natural world is the material source of our being as earthlings and the life-giving nourishment of our physical, emotional, aesthetic, moral, and religious existence. The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence."
Tom Berry, though essentially a nature-mystic in his ecological commitment and spirituality, has a very practical goal in mind in all his advocacy attempts. He is interested in informing others to empower them to action for the environment, and he encourages such action on a regional and local level. He also knows that certain actions have to be taken or continued on a planetary scale, such as efforts to reverse the harmful effects of global warming.
The Interreligious Sustainability Project
A local initiative that certainly benefits from the inspiration of Tom Berry is that of the Interreligious Sustainability Project begun in 1996 by Chicago’s own Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). This center was founded in 1979 by a group concerned about the harmful effects of technology on the environment, and sought local solutions to ecological problems here in the region. Scott Bernstein is the only remaining member of the founders. Working with him at the center is a dedicated group led by Stephen Perkins, director of the Interreligious Sustainability Project, who joined the CNT in 1982, and Clare Butterfield, one of the chief organizers for the initiative. She has been with the project for nearly a year.
The Interreligious Sustainability Project (ISP) is an attempt to organize local religious communities around environmental issues and projects that address these issues locally. These include how to clean up our air, soil and water; how to protect species; how to contain and reverse unenlightened development; how to restore forests and other habitats; etc. It publishes a regular newsletter and works closely with the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which helps them to identify partners in creating chapters around the Chicago area. The initiative has also been included in the Parliament’s book Gifts of Service to the World.
Perkins and Butterfield are spearheading efforts to create these circles, and both are providing needed leadership in the vision of the ISP, assisting local chapters in identifying environmental issues close at hand and possible projects to respond to some of them. Already there are circles in Oak Park, La Grange, Evanston, and Hyde Park. Clare Butterfield feels the religions can make an important contribution in a moral sense. "There is a reason why we do this (work) in the faith community. The faith communities can contribute a tangible sense of hope and hopefulness. That’s what we want to encourage them to offer."
The vision of the ISP is detailed in a highly readable statement called One Creation, One People, One Place. This widely distributed publication outlines their ecological philosophy and aims. It gives attention to practical environmental problems in the various parts of the Chicago region. The vision statement informs us that the initiative is a collaborative effort among members of various faith communities in and around Chicago that is ongoing.
The focus is sustainability. The word sustainability is an accepted term in environmental studies, economics, and political science. It has come to be used in our culture to mean restoring and maintaining a healthy relationship with the natural world through economic policies that enhance nature and pursue justice in society. This focus highlights the depth of commitment of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Their vision statement for the initiative is really a call to action for us all.
One Creation, One People, One Place is intended as a basis for discussion, reflection, and debate among members of Chicagoland’s diverse religious congregations. The document states:
"We pray in different languages and express our deepest commitments in different religious terms. But we share a special place on this planet — the area at the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan, around the great human settlement called Chicago.... Chicago is our common home, the place where we encounter each other and the natural world every day, as we work, play, raise our families, and worship together.... As people who have come to this place from all over the world, we are called to a special relationship with our shared home. We need to understand Chicago better and then transform it in the direction of our shared vision — one which embodies wise choices, one we are proud to leave to our children, grandchildren, and generations to follow."
What this opening passage so beautifully communicates is something of our sacred responsibility for and stewardship of the Earth in our area, and that is precisely what the initiative intends.
There are currently about a hundred people who are active in the four existing circles. They include Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists and Bahá’ís. These groups will expand as more join the chapters, and new ones are formed. Circle meetings are monthly, but comprehensive. Each circle has a different agenda defined by the issues faced in their territory and decided by its members. It’s not possible for all issues to be addressed by any one circle, and so projects are chosen carefully and resources allocated appropriately.
The Evanston Circle, composed of a membership coming from fifteen religious traditions, has chosen a project with four elements: restoring natural habitats threatened by development, preserving affordable housing while building a sense of community, encouraging less use of cars, and promoting earth-friendly or sustainable economics. The effort to restore habitats focuses on creating and preserving a community-supported butterfly garden, which is called Butterfly Safe Haven. The haven was established in the summer of 1999, and is near the Evanston Ecology Center. The circle hopes that through this project Evanston residents and others will become educated about the nature and value of butterflies, stimulating the growth of other butterfly gardens, and making people aware of the dangers to butterflies from the use of herbicides and pesticides on their lawns and in their gardens. Butterflies have a spiritual quality to them, and Tom Berry would say they are a mode of divine presence in nature. Aside from their obvious aesthetic value, butterflies are an important bell-ringer, an early warning system that can alert us to potential trouble ahead.
The Butterfly Safe Haven is receiving wide support. There is also interest in the project beyond Evanston itself. Jean Pascual of the Evanston Sustainability Circle organized this effort and currently supervises it. He believes the participation of the religious communities is crucial. "I think there is every chance that we can make a difference. . . . What will make [ISP] ultimately world-changing is the fact that it is being done from a faith basis." This point is critical because religions have long been categorized by ecological thinkers as part of the problem. Of course this situation has been changing over the years as theologians become more and more eco-friendly in their understanding of nature and their teachings about our moral responsibility to preserve it.
The Evanston group also encourages preserving and creating more affordable housing. There is a continual decline of housing in Evanston that moderate and low-income families can afford. The circle is planning the creation of a large land trust owned and managed by the community. A significant percentage of the low-income housing could then be part of this land trust by being permanently available to members of the community.
In addition to this effort, the Evanston Circle is also trying to reduce reliance on cars by encouraging biking and walking, as well as mass transit. There are just too many cars, and they are creating climate changes in the area. Finally, the Evanston Circle is promoting sustainable economics by educating people to the negative consequences of growth. They are teaching that growth isn’t just a matter of building and selling more and more living and working units, but is fundamentally a matter of improving the quality of life. One way to do this is to teach businesses to be earth-friendly and to provide opportunities for everyone.
The other circles are doing similar things, and the Hyde Park Circle would like to commit to a project involving the parks with the group Friends of the Parks, which would restore and enhance them for other species and for us. New circles are forming in Naperville and Austin, and interest in ISP is spreading to Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
As a step in its ongoing educational efforts vis-à-vis the public, the Interreligious Sustainability Project is promoting the idea of pilgrimage among the thousands of Chicago-based religious congregations. They are calling this part of the project Religious Journeys, and it is an aspect of the celebrations during Earth Month, April 2000. Each religious community will reflect on the nature and value of pilgrimage to sacred sites in their tradition, and will determine the responsibility of their tradition to care for the Earth. Actual pilgrimages may take place locally, and there will be opportunities to share with others about them. On April 9 at the Nature Museum, there will be a collective experience of all the participating faith communities. The Religious Journey activity is also supported by the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and the Nature Museum.
Resources
Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647-5415; 773-278-4800; e-mail clare@cnt.org
Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, P.O. Box 1630, Chicago, IL 60690-1630; 312-629-2990