Engaging Religion in the Quest for Sustainability

Worldwatch Live Online Discussion

Gary Gardner: Director of Research

February 7, 2003 - 1:00pm EDT

Spiritual traditions--from large, centralized religions to local tribal spiritual authorities--are beginning to devote energy to building just and environmentally healthy societies, writes Gary Gardner in his State of the World 2003 chapter, Engaging Religion in the Quest for Sustainability. Worldwide, the major faiths are issuing declarations, advocating new national policies, and designing educational activities in support of a sustainable world--sometimes in partnership with the secular environmental community.

Steve Conklin, Worldwatch Institute: Welcome to this week's State of the World 2003 on-line discussion. Today we are speaking with the Worldwatch Director of Research, Gary Gardner. Gary will be answering questions regarding his State of the World chapter Engaging Religion in the Quest for Sustainability. Welcome, Gary.

Gary Gardner: THanks, Steve. Glad to be here to share ideas with interested correspondents.

: Pentecostalism is the most rapidly growing form of Christianity on the planet. As such, it is a significant global social movement. To what extent have you seen evidence of Pentecostal engagement with sustainability? Pentecostals and sustainability: is it a case of conflict, or of convergence?

Gary Gardner: I have heard of cases in which Pentecostals have been involved in development work in other countries--Romania comes to mind--to raise awareness of environmental issues. Not being a specialist in Pentecostalism, however, I am not sure how widespread such activities are.

What is interesting here is the popular impression that more spiritually-focused or doctrinally conservative religions or congregations might not be interested in earthly matters (pardon the pun). But in the US, the Evangelical Environmental Network has been quite active and influential on environmental issues. They were instrumental in stopping the gutting of the Endangered Species Act in the mid-1990s, and were more recently quite involved in the "What would Jesus drive?" campaign against SUVs.

Peterborough, Ontario: Churches face inherent energy challenges by virtue of their building stock - old, airy, highly modified over time, lots of windows, poor insulation; By way of example, a number of individual churches have undertaken efficiency measures in their buildings. While actual improvements may be limited by the nature of the buildings, how can the church community best enable their members to practice sustainability at church, at home and at work?

Gary Gardner: It turns out that in the US, houses of worship account for more than 5 percent of commercial building floor space. And they are regularly visited by some 44 percent of the population of the US. This makes them ideal demonstration venues for initiatives to promote conservation. Episcopal Power and Light and Interfaith Power and Light have been active in encouraging houses of worship to do retrofits of their physical stock, and in encouraging them to purchase their electricity from companies that get their power from renewable energy. The US Environmental Protection Agency also has a program that helps religious congregations to pursue conservation initiatives.

Of course, congregations can also help to educate members about the ethical and spiritual foundations of sustainability, including the need for greater energy conservation, and many already do this.

Boston, MA: Do you know thaqt the Bishops of the Episcopal Dioceses in New England recently wrote a Pastoral Letter on the Environment? Do you want info?

Gary Gardner: I am not familiar with it, but would love to see it. Would appreciate your passing it along to me: garygardner@worldwatch.org

Thanks for the reference.

Newport News, VA: How active do you think the Churches are willing to become in the political arena given the feelings about separating church and state in this country? Certainly, if they are to make a difference, their involvement will have to go way beyond just insulating their buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Gary Gardner: This is a good and difficult question. Some of the proudest traditions for many religious people were also highly political: churches were instrumental in the abolition of slavery, in the civil rights movement in the United States, in Buddhist opposition to the war in Vietnam, and in countless other examples. It seems to me that the present global predicament is at least as great a moral question as any of these: when we have triggered a mass extinction (the undoing of billions of years of a creative process), which is a supremely moral issue. We have eliminated nearly half of the world's forests, we are changing the global climate, we are overpumping water in key agricultural regions. The list goes on and on. These things cry out for a prophetic response from religious people, and that is certainly beginning to happen.

Newport News, VA: Its one thing to set up an organization for a specific purpose then attract people who agree with the mission of that organization. It is quite another to have an established organization and then try to get the members to accept new ideas. What do you think will happen when Churches begin to present ideas that conflict strongly with the political beliefs of their congregations? For example, if Churches begin to preach that not all growth is good and that consumerism is destroying the planet to a congregation that is heavily conservative and believes just the opposite?

Gary Gardner: You go straight for the tough issues! But religious communities, perhaps more than any others, are capable of making the kind of difficult conversion that you are pointing to. This is because religions deal with people's ultimate questions--who we are, why we are here, what our relaitionship is with others and with the world around us--and helping people to wrestle with these can lead to profound (and, admittedly, profoundly difficult) changes. The New York Times yesterday ran an article about conservative Catholics in the US who are torn between support for the President in a war against Iraq, and support for the Pope, who opposes a war. What other societal actors, other than religious authorities, could get these conservatives to seriously question positions that until now they may have held without any problem? Religion has the power to appeal to the best in us, and to encourage us to redirect our lives.

Baltimore, MD: Hi, I am excited that WWI is taking the initiative to present this issue today. I have been interested in this particular topic for quite awhile and have tried to interest my church in environmental issues. What would you say is key to getting people to connect the environment and sustainability with their spirituality? For example, focusing on their care for people? their health?

Gary Gardner: Since many religious groups have long been active in social justice issues, I think one entry point is showing the social justice implications of our unsustainable development. Environmental racism, for example, is both a social and environmental issue. And the tremendous global inequality that is part of the development picture today would also be a natural entry point for many religious people.

In addition, I think we need to do more education on the magnitude of the problem, as I indicated in a previous response. The way we are recreating the planet, and mistreating so many of its inhabitants, is inherently a moral issue, and could presented as such in church educational sessions.

Finally, to the extent that nature helps us to evoke and express our spirituality (there's a reason why retreat centers are usually found far from cities, ensconced in beautiful natural scenery), the spiritual angle could be an entree for greater appreciation of nature.

Peterborough, ON: Are you familiar with any groups of church buildings in Canada, or the U.S. that have succesfully used Energy Performance Contracting?

Gary Gardner: No, I am not, but I am pretty new to this. If anyone else has info on this, I would love to learn about it.

Baltimore MD: Even in the religious sector, moral relativism seems to be taking over, so it's difficult to rally people around a moral issue. What are some other key ways to get people to connect environmental issues with their spirituality? For example focusing on health or poverty?

Gary Gardner: See previous response. But I would add that yes, health issues are always of interest to people, and can certainly be connected to environmental issues. In addition, I think a focus on children could help, as people are often quite motivated to provide a decent future for our kids. Yet so many issues of unsustainability are essentially questions of robbing coming generations of the natural capital needed for a dignified life, in order that we might live profligately today.

London, England: Your focus seems to be on religious institutions and the influence they can have on policy. Given the dubious record of policy in bringing about actual change in favour of the environment, to what extent do you see religious and spiritual experience as important influences on reducing damaging behaviour? It seems to me that focusing on non-material routes to well-being rather than consumerist ones might have important knock-on effects re reducing environmental impacts. Not to mention the fact that change generated by one's own convictions rather than regulations, incentives, etc (the preferred methods of policy makers, NGOs and even educators) is likely to be more enduring in the long-term.

Gary Gardner: Yes, I agree that changing individual behaviors is another area in which religions can have a great impact on sustainability, and perhaps the primary area. Religious communities can change hearts like perhaps no other sector of society, and this change is fundamental to change that will endure over time.

On the consumerist question, one of the surprises that I found in my research was that religions don't seem to be as active as I would have thought in encouraging adherents to reduce consumption (as opposed to shifting consumption, where there are many exciting examples). Although many statements warning about the problems of excess consumption can be found from religious leaders, I did not find many examples of religious programs designed to encourage people in industrial countries to live more simply. This, despite millennia of religious teaching about the pitfalls associated with an excessive attachment to material goods. I think this will be a challenge to religion in the coming years: to meet the problem of consumerism head on. But one possible motivating factor for many religions to do this work, I would assert, is that fact that their greatest competition comes not from other religions, but from a consumer-driven capitalism.

Newport News, Va: Good points. I was skeptical at first about the role churches could play in helping to turn things around but I'm beginning to "see the light!" One final question if I may. Many churches also have schools. Do you have any figures about how many of our youth are enrolled in these schools? I've always believed that we have to begin now to teach our kids a more environmental life style and to help them understand about the consequences of their actions. Are there enough kids enrolled in these schools that the Churches could have a significant role to play in this area as well? to do.

Gary Gardner: No, but I should find out. Many kids today get a lot of environmental education in schools, public and private, but it may be inadequate, for two reasons. First, there is a parallel education system that competes with the formal one: the media, and especially the advertising that drives it. This seems to be sufficient to undo all the good environmental education that kids get today. Second, too much of the current environmental education is confined to book learning, so that kids don't experience nature and develop an emotional/spiritual connection to it. I think that more hands-on environmental education, from public and religious schools alike, is needed if we are to successfully compete with an increasing virtual and media drenched social milieu.

Newport News, VA: The Lutheran Church has been doing some serious work on making their buildings more energy efficient. There is one church in Chicago, I believe, that states it now saves an amount of energy equivalent to taking 10 cars off the road. Unfortunately, I don't have the information with me, but if the but if I can get email addresses, I can either send info or a contact this weekend.

Gary Gardner: Yes, thanks. I would mention, too, that the Lutheran Church helped to start the Interfaith Coffee Program of Equal Exchange coffee, which sells only fair-traded coffee. Now more than 3000 Lutheran and other congregations across the US are involved. Another way that religions can help to change buying habits to more sustainable and socially just products, and make a concrete difference in the lives of small farmers overseas.

Atlanta, GA: Islam, being the fastest growing religion in the US and the second largest, has enormous potential to spread environmental awareness, and there are currently efforts within the American Muslim community to show the importance of living sustainably and how it relates to prophetic tradition. You mention that there is often difficulty in interfaith dialogues on envirnonment as well as between religious and non-religious environmentalists. With Islam being largely misperceived in the West, this can lead to even more difficulty in communication. Do you think that this kind of dialogue should really be the priority right now, or do you think that the establishment of a clearly outlined and organized environmental movement within individual religions should happen before a coming together should take place? And, do you think members of the same religion can have a better chance of impacting and facilitating the success of sustainable development programs in developing countries?

Gary Gardner: Environmentalism could be an area of common interest between Muslims and adherents of other religions, and could conceivably be a bridge to help increase interreligious understanding. There is plenty of work to do on the environmental/sustainability front that it could be pursued by religions individually and in concert with other groups.

Newport News, VA: I think one thing we've forgotten, and we don't teach our kids is where our food and water come from. Ask a kid where food comes from and s/he is likely to say the supermarket. Ask an indigenous kid the same question and see what answer you get. We need to reconnect to what gives us physical life. This, maybe, is an area where Church schools might be able to take the lead?

Gary Gardner: I think you're absolutely right. It's not just kids, either. How many of us can say which power plant our electricity comes from, and what the fuel source there is. What landfill does our garbage go to? Does our drinking water come from an aquifer, river, or other source? Answering such questions, for ourselve and for our kids, helps us to be better aware of, and rooted in, the natural environment around us.

London, England: People are involved in religion for many reasons, by no means all of them motivated by the most important purposes of religion. I agree about the competition. But it seems to me that, as more and more people become aware in their own lives that the 'religion' of consumerism and material growth fails to come up with the 'goods' of enhanced well-being beyond a certain point, they are starting to look in other directions for this. Of course, there's plenty of what can be seen as consumeristic orientation to religion too. But it seems to me that religious teaching rather points towards well-being through experiencing oneself as part of a wider context, with a role to play in it. After all, this does corrrespond more with the origins of the word religion. The difficulty always seems to be that even religion falls into the same old consumeristic traps these days. Any comments? to

Gary Gardner: I agree. The "religion" of consumer driven capitalism ultimately proves unsatisfying for all of us, because it does address our deepest needs. Religion does this, in some places and at some times better than in other places or times. But this is what makes me an optimist about the role religion can play--it ultimately helps people to address their deepest longings better than any other institution.

I think that the most effective way to avoid falling into the consumeristic trap (or any other distraction) is to focus on the ideals that made particular religions so attractive int he first place. Therein lies their power, it seems to me.

Steve Conklin, Worldwatch Institute: Thanks for joining us in today's discussion Gary, and thank you to all of our participants. Join us next week as we talk with Howard Youth about his new Worldwatch Paper, The Decline of Birds.

Gary Gardner: THanks, Steve, and thanks to everyone who participated. Enjoyed it very much. Please feel free to send me your experiences or information about he nexus between religion and sustainability: garygardner@worldwatch.org