Religious groups join the green movement

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/01/16/religious-groups-look-care-creation/

Religious groups join the green movement

By Madoline Markham
January 16, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA — People of faith in Columbia are uniting to join in a national movement to discuss how their religions speak to environmental concerns. This discussion centers on sharing ideas on how they and their religious institutions can better steward the earth and educate others to do so.

A national movement

Religious groups are growing increasingly active in environmental efforts to "care for creation." In contrast to other cultural issues, there is a strong consensus across faith groups regarding environmental policy, according to a http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=121">2004 Pew Forum survey.

“They are beginning to take action to protect the environment not because they are members of a secular group but because it’s an act of faith,” said former Los Angeles Times reporter Larry Stammer at a Care for Creation event in Columbia in September. “Basically, they say if God created everything, then how can we hate something God created? And so what you have here is not the Sierra Club with prayer but people acting out of a totally different motivation, that is, their belief in God, or their faith.”

While mainline Protestants have historically been more supportive of environmental efforts, in recent years evangelical groups have begun to take on the cause as well, starting efforts such as the http://creationcare.org/">Evangelical Environmental Network's http://www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org/">What Would Jesus Drive? educational campaign.

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[Barrett808]

1. The surest sign of the Apocalypse! n/t

[Fledermaus]

2. The Gospel According to Thomas

(113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
<Jesus said,> "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."

I welcome the idea. Religion is a very powerful tool to orginize and motivate people.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. The Gospel According to Luke

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=99508001

²⁰Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; ²¹nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is’ or ‘There it is’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among^* you”

^*or within

i.e. No need to resort to "Gnostic" texts. (Many of Jesus’ teachings about the “kingdom of God”/“kingdom of Heaven” in the "canonical Gospels" suggest that it is a secret thing.)

[Fledermaus]

3. Cycles of Great Awakenings appears unique to the USA...I hope thi is the beginning of an other cycle

American Great Awakenings

The Great Awakenings were several periods of rapid and dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American religious history, generally recognized as beginning in the 1730s. They have also been described as periodic revolutions in U.S. religious thought. The term is also used in some respects to refer to American religious revivalism that the Protestant Reformation inspired during and after the 1500s, as well as to identify general religious trends within distinctly U.S. religious culture.

There are four such periods in U.S. history, although the most recent is too recent for proper historical perspective

Although the Great Awakenings influence and are influenced by religious thought from throughout the world, the cycle of Great Awakenings appears unique to the USA. This could be because the USA is home to many different denominations and sects, while remaining largely Protestant. The lack of a single dominant faith or state-sanctioned religion means new ideas can be spread without having to slowly reform existing institutions from within, or allowing pressures to build up until the existing institutions are violently overthrown. The established sects have enough prestige and inertia that the pressure for new ideas builds into a regular cycle of bloodless revolution.


Influence on political life
Since religion has often been used to support political platforms, the Great Awakenings have exerted significant influence on the politics of America. Joseph Tracy, the minister and historian who gave this religious phenomenon its name in his influential (and still, to many, definitive) 1842 book The Great Awakening, saw the First Great Awakening as a precursor to the War of Independence. For another example, the abolition movement, part of the wider Second Great Awakening, eventually contributed to the crisis over slavery, which led to the American Civil War. The Third Great Awakening would go on to be a major influence in guiding the USA through the Great Depression and World War II. In fact the New Deal was originated from that same era. The idea of an "awakening" implies a slumber or passivity during secular or less religious times. Thus, awakening is a term which originates and is embraced often and primarily by evangelical Christians.<1> In recent times, the idea of "awakenings" in US history has been put forth by conservative US evangelicals.<2>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening

[stuntcat]

4. SWEET, but

This is nice but I'll still always blame religions for letting this happen. We've been raping the Earth for decades and religions have stood back, with really no regard for nature.
I think the end-times BS is tied to it- people have to admit to themselves that we're killing the world, so believing it's about to end anyway will help their conscience.

Where have religious people been when we started wiping out species? Nothing they do now can clear them, they are as Evil as anything, and they think they're the image of God :eyes:
Thank you for these sites, I'll give them a look.. this is something that's been eating up my mind, I'm madder about this that anything.. waiting for God to defend the planet.