Many link environmental degradation to the Christian (Western) worldview.1 They argue that those who believe humanity has God-given dominion over nature will fail to conserve and protect it. By their account, Westerners, whether consciously or unconsciously, exploit natural resources for selfish gain, regardless of the environmental impact. These critics then turn to Eastern religions and philosophies for the panacea.2 They say that the attitudes toward nature found in Hinduism, animism,3 and Buddhism cultivate a devotion to the earth worthy of emulation.4 However, the cultures embracing these worldviews are far from blameless:5

Hinduism and the Ganges River. While modern Hindus claim that “non-injury” is the cardinal virtue,6 they freely pollute the Ganges River. Each month they dump in tons of cremated human remains, hoping that the deceased will consequently be freed from the trial of reincarnation, but if the costs are prohibitive, whole corpses are dropped in the Ganges. Furthermore, millions of Hindus regularly bathe in the river so that the gods can cleanse them of their sins. The cumulative result is that the Ganges is a “bacteriological nightmare.”7

Animism and Indonesian Forests. Reverence for the nature-inhabiting spirit world is supposed to lead animists to protect the earth. Indonesians on the island of Java, for example, believe some trees are too holy to be cut down and certain forests are angker, which means they can neither be inhabited nor approached lest a person “disappear, become insane, or die.”8 Nonetheless, deforestation plagued Java in the nineteenth century. Whereas forests covered 60% of the island in 1775, within a hundred years that percentage dwindled to 25%.9 The animists simply found it easier to hire a holy man to appease woodland spirits with offerings than to deny peasants land to farm and the government timber to sell.10

Buddhism and Ch’ang-an City. The Chinese generally view themselves as part of nature.11 Thus, it is no surprise that Buddhist temple compounds are covered with preserved trees and winding garden paths. But there is more to the story: Buddhism flourished under the T’ang dynasty during the seventh and eighth centuries.12 However, commitment to nature did not, at least in the construction of Ch’ang-an, the capital city.13 Pursuing “order and prosperity,” astronomers modeled the 31-square-mile city after the pattern of the stars. To clear the land for over a million residents, the builders razed villages and uprooted trees, for the wooden city was greedy for timber.14 Ironically, in the midst of deforestation, the architects lined streets with young trees—allowing Buddhist city-dwellers the perception of oneness with the earth. So even at the zenith of Buddhist influence, environmental protection rose only to the level of a cosmetic afterthought.

Of course, the West has a blemished record when it comes to environmental stewardship, but it does no good to romanticize the performance of the East. The list of its shortfalls could go on and on, including, notably, the mercury poisoning of Japan’s Minamata Bay.15

King David marveled at the fact that God entrusted mankind with the works of His hands (Psalm 8:6). The earth is not the possession of humanity; it is the Lord’s. Men and women are temporary caretakers, called to utilize and enjoy natural resources without neglecting and exploiting them. In this, the Church should lead the way. The choice is biblical, not geographical or racial; God’s call to respect His creation goes out to people of every hue and clime, as does His promise of abundant life for those who cherish what He cherishes.
Footnotes:
1

For a classic articulation of this view, see Lynn White’s article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science 155 (March 10, 1967).
2

For example, see Lawrence Osborn, Guardians of Creation: Nature in Theology and Christian Life (Leicester: Apollos, 1993), 24-25 and Wehui Hou, “Reflections on Chinese Traditional Ideas of Nature,” Environmental History 2 (1997): 482-493.
3

Animism is the belief that numerous spirits occupy the natural world and exert tremendous influence over human affairs. Animism is often associated with tribal religions. At the practical level, there is much overlap between Hinduism, Buddhism, and animism.
4

This view is nicely summarized by Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland: “In popular literature on ecology, allusions to Asian philosophies as a remedy for environmental ills are widespread. While natural scientists have repeatedly pointed to parallels between the new physics and biology, on the one hand, and eastern philosophies on the other, others—from rebellious youths with only a rudimentary understanding of Oriental cultures to more sophisticated proponents of ‘deep ecology’—have incorporated Asian ideas more or less critically in their world-views. An underlying assumption in much of this work is that Asian cosmologies have made Asian peoples more successful than others in taking care of nature . . .” Bruun and Kalland, “Images of Nature: An Introduction to the Study of Man-Environment Relations in Asia,” in Asian Perceptions of Nature: A Critical Approach, ed. Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland (Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1995), 2.
5

J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000), 327.
6

“Ten Questions People Ask about Hinduism . . . and Ten Terrific Answers,” Hinduism Today (2004), http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2004/4-6/37-52_ten_questions.shtml (May 18, 2005).
7

McNeill, 129-130.
8

Peter Boomgaard, “Sacred Trees and Haunted Forests in Indonesia: Particularly Java, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in Asian Perceptions of Nature, 53, 55.
9

While some try to attribute this deforestation to Western capitalism, Boomgaard points out that it began long before Dutch traders found Java a source of timber: “This loss of forest cover can be partly ascribed to activities generated by western sectors of the economy. Probably more important, however, was the influence of land clearing by a rapidly growing indigenous population.” Ibid., 50.
10

Ibid., 57-58.
11

This is as opposed to Westerners who generally see nature as subordinate to humanity. Yi-fu Tuan, “Discrepancies between Environmental Attitude and Behavior; Examples from Europe and China,” in Ecology and Religion in History, ed. David and Eileen Spring (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1974). First published in The Canadian Geographer 12 (1968). According to one Taoist text, “even insects and crawling things, herbs and trees, may not be injured.” Ibid., 100.
12

Quoting Omine Akira, Kalland and Asquith write, “‘The path to salvation for human beings—the path of genuine human existence—is to live entrusting to and in accord with nature’, a nature which is identical to the sacred Buddha.” Arne Kalland and Pamela J. Asquith, “Japanese Perceptions of Nature: Ideals and Illusions,” in Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives, ed. Asquith and Kalland (Surrey, England: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1997), 3.
13

“Unlike the Western man of letters the geographer is usually aware of China’s frequent mistreatment of nature. He perceives that country, not through the refined sentiments of Taoist philosophy, Neo-Confucianism, and Oswald Siren, but through the bleak reports of Mallory, Lowdermilk, and Thorp. Deforestation and soil erosion on the one hand, the building of cities and rice terraces on the other are the common foci of his attention . . . civilization is the exercise of human power over nature, which in turn may lead to the aesthetic appreciation of nature.” Tuan, 105.
14

Ibid., 110. “An enormous amount of timber was needed in the construction of the old Chinese cities, probably more than that required in building Western cities of comparable size. One reason for this lies in the dependence of traditional Chinese architecture on timber as the basic structural material. Mountains may be stripped of their cover in the construction of a large palace. And if a large palace required much timber, a whole city would require much more, especially if it were of the size of Ch’ang-an, capital of T’ang dynasty. . .”
15

Unlisted but worthy of mention is the twentieth century, Minamata Bay disaster in Japan. The owners of a chemical company—aware that its processing plant had a deleterious effect on the fish (and fishing industry) in the Bay—nonetheless continued to manufacture acetaldehyde, a chemical used in the production of plastics. When the industry boomed in 1950s, mercury in the Bay poisoned the whole town, killing hundreds and severely crippling thousands. This disaster raises the question as to whether nations with eastern religions are more vigilant to protect their environment from the dangers of industrialism.

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article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Perryville, MD  one and a half miles of Rt. 222.