Your path: Sustainability Gets Biggest Supporter
Sustainability Gets Biggest Supporter – God
Excerpt from an article by Cliff Newell in the Beaverton Valley Times, July 26, 2007.
Sustainability is a good idea that everyone on Earth – man, woman and child – should practice.
Not because Al Gore says so, or your friendly local tree-hugger, or your friendly local newspaper guy, or Mayor Judie, or Governor Arnold, or all of the experts on global warming, or Oprah, or green-thinkers everywhere.
You should practice sustainability because God wants you to, according to some local authorities.
"The universe is an expression of the divine," said Jerry Roussell, chair of the Religious Studies department at Marylhurst University. "We are created to use it, not destroy it.
"We're supposed to have a right relationship with God, ourselves, others and the whole universe. We're supposed to have a right relationship with the Earth, and part of that is sustainability."
Many religion-based Web sites now bring the good news of sustainability, such as California Interfaith Power & Light and the Portland-based Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns, which has been listed as a primary source by the West Linn Task Force on Sustainability.
Roussell, who has been at Marylhurst since 1993, has definitely seen much more movement by the church toward promoting sustainability as an essential part of stewardship.
"We need to do this," he said. "If we don't, there will be dire circumstances in the next 15 to 20 years. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Native American religions – this is something we can all agree on."