Hmm. I'm not sure this situation is so terrible...in Judaism, at least, a renewed emphasis on environmental stewardship (yes, humans are supposed to be taking care of the earth, e.g. leaving fields fallow every so often so that they can continue to produce food) and eco-kashrut has probably brought many lapsed/unaffiliated Jews back into the fold.
I for an I | Homepage | 10.04.07 - 10:35 pm | #

God works in all kinds of ways... anyone back into the fold is a wonderful thing. The trick is dropping the agenda that brought you there and submitting to something much larger. (I speak from having struggled with this one myself.)

Unfortunately, I've listened to my share of sermons on 'stewardship' that carefully avoided the Genesis stuff about dominion and quickly degraded into political monologues straight out of Al Gore's political playbook. The article resonates because in too many religious settings, the eternal, omnipotent Yahweh has been replaced by a New Age Gaia Mother Earth. Salvation has been shifted into an entirely temporal context and our own actions (and only a very tiny slice of them at that--i.e., the ones that impact CO2 emissions) have become the lever for gaining grace.

That's a much much smaller God than the one I worship--who doesn't look kindly on our worshiping creation at the expense of Creator.

Kobayashi Maru | Homepage | 10.04.07 - 11:21 pm | #