Though Christians claim to worship the “[m]aker of heaven and earth,”1 they are the earth’s worst enemies—or so claimed UCLA medieval scholar Lynn White2 in 1967. In his famous article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” he praised St. Francis of Assisi for trying to “depose man from his monarchy over creation” and to replace his rule with “a democracy of all God’s creatures.”3 (Never mind that God gave man dominion in Genesis 1:28.) But Christendom did not listen to Francis (more precisely to the St. Francis of White’s wishful imagination), so blame for the ecological crisis can be laid at the feet of the Church.

Secular textbook editors could not be happier with White’s assessment. He set the anti-Christian theme, and they are pleased to print subsequent variations. McGraw Hill’s popular Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence4 is a perfect example. Of its 64 readings, only three (by St. Francis, Wendell Berry, and Annie Dillard) reflect Christian orthodoxy. Much of the balance defames the faith and honors scientism or paganism. The assault on Christianity is unrelenting, and this from a “mainstream” publisher, an “American institution.” Here are ten examples:

1. Christopher Stone argues that rivers and other inanimate objects should be regarded legally as persons, with attendant rights.5

2. Donald Hughes says that the trouble started when, “In Israel, transcendent monotheism replaced animism’s ‘world full of gods.'”6

3. Scott Momaday promotes his Native-American worldview: “The earth is our mother. The sky is our father.”7

4. Arne Naess insists, “The flourishing of non-human life requires [his italics] a smaller human population.”8

5. Buddhist Lily de Silva reminds readers, “It is possible that our own close relatives have been reborn as animals.”9

6. Ecofeminists Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva denounce “the patriarchal, monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, all of which are arguably hostile to women and to nature vis-à-vis their basic warrior traditions.”10

7. Annie Booth and Harvey Jacobs tout “the Earth as a living, conscious being, Gaia.”11

8. Karen Warren attacks “value-hierarchical thinking,” “value-dualisms,” and “a logic of domination, i.e., a structure of argumentation which leads to a justification of subordination.”12 (When the Apostle Paul puts down heresy in the Early Church, he is guilty of all three.)

9. Dave Foreman proclaims, “An individual human life has no more intrinsic value than does an individual Grizzly Bear life.”13

10. Charlene Spretnak exults, “Goddess spirituality celebrates the power of the erotic as the sparking of cosmic potential . . .”14

Not surprisingly, this McGraw Hill text ends with a Mohawk-based prayer of gratitude to “Mother Earth” and “Grandfather Space,” whose “Wife” is “The Mind.”15 Such is the state of major college-textbook publishing these days. Environmentalists are not so much benign “tree huggers” as aggressive “Bible bashers.” If the editors merely presented the glories of Nature, they might lead the students to fall in love with Nature’s Author. Then they might lose them to a Christian worldview, with its thoughtful stewardship of God’s good gifts. They know that they must lay the ax at the root of orthodoxy if they are to advance their idolatries and political agendas. Of course, alleged Christians are at fault for a measure of environmental abuse, but neo-paganism is not the answer, however lovingly the cultural gatekeepers may present it.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Nicene Creed.
 
2  Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (1907-1987).
 
3  Lynn White, Jr. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, 2nd edition, eds. Richard G. Botzler and Susan J. Armstrong (New York: McGrawHill, 1998), 209.
 
4  Richard G. Botzler and Susan J. Armstrong, editors, Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence (Second Edition) (New York: McGrawHill, 1998).
 
5  “Should Trees Have Standing?” Ibid., 572.
 
6  “The Ancient Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Ibid., 158.
 
7  “A First American’s View,” Ibid., 253.
 
8  “The Deep Ecological Movement,” Ibid., 439.
 
9  “The Buddhist Attitude toward Nature,” Ibid., 287.
 
10  “Introduction to Ecofeminism, Ibid.,” 487.
 
11  “Ties That Bind: Native American Beliefs as a Foundation for Environmental Consciousness,” Ibid., 259.
 
12  “The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism,” Ibid., 472.
 
13  “Putting the Earth First,” Ibid., 449.
 
14  “States of Grace,” Ibid., 495.
 
15  “Prayer for the Great Family,” Ibid., 593.

from Kairos Journal

 First Baptist Church of Perryville, Cecil County Maryland