THE RELIGIOUS LEFT AND ENVIRONMENTALISM

The religious left views capitalism as the root of a rapacious greed that causes men to exploit and even destroy the natural environment in exchange for financial profit. To combat these forces, religious leftists commonly anoint themselves as stewards of God's earth, committed to defending its air, water, animals, plants, and natural resources from the ravages of free-market economies – especially America's. (They have had less to say about the fact that China, the old Soviet Union, and the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe were responsible for pollution on a scale that dwarfed anything ever observed in the Western world.)

One of the harshest critics of American industry is the Evangelical Environmental Network, which seeks “to educate, inspire, and mobilize Christians in their effort to care for God’s creation, to be faithful stewards of God’s provision, and to advocate for actions and policies that honor God and protect the environment.” Toward this end, the organization publishes environment-centered sermons for preachers to use, and offers interpretations of scripture to support leftist environmental agendas.

A San Francisco-based group called the Regeneration Project – claiming to represent more than 5,000 church congregations in 29 states – has launched an “Interfaith Power and Light” campaign aimed at countering man-made global warming. In February 2009 another Regeneration Project initiative – “Religious Plea for a Green Stimulus” – delivered to President Barack Obama a petition opposing the construction of any new coal-fired plants in the U.S., urging drastic and rapid reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, and calling for increased fuel-economy standards for American-made automobiles. “When billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake, it is a moral issue,” said the Project's founder, Rev. Canon Sally Bingham. “When the planet is in peril, it is a moral issue.”

The National Council of Churches (NCC) has established an Eco-Justice Program to lobby Members of Congress to support legislation that will preserve public lands and reduce carbon emissions. In 2002 NCC was a party to “What Would Jesus Drive?” — a campaign that exhorted car manufactures to embrace stricter emissions standards.

An organization called Presbyterians for Earth Care (formerly known as Presbyterians for Restoring Creation) opposes oil drilling in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge as part of an effort to heed “God’s call to be green.”

The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), representing a host of religious organizations with a combined investment portfolio of more than $100 billion, pressures corporations to adopt leftist environmental agendas vis a vis pollution in low-income communities. ICCR also demands an end to “environmental racism,” a term founded on the notion that corporate polluters typically dispose of their waste in a manner that disproportionately affects poor, nonwhite populations.

The National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) – a massive coalition supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network – warns that “the ways we produce and use energy are wounding God’s creation.” To address this issue, NRPE urges Americans to organize “environmental awareness days,” write letters-to-the-editor about environmental matters, and lobby their political representatives “to play a strong international role in researching and preserving biodiversity worldwide.”

This section of Discover The Networks examines the environmentalist worldviews, objectives, and activities of these and many other key organizations that comprise the religious left.