Deep Conversion Communications

Why the Church and Environmental Movement Will Live or Die Together
03-03-09

Given the levels of historical estrangement – and often outright mutual contempt – between the Christian Church and environmentalists, it has been difficult to see how the two might not only thaw relations, but truly reconcile and work together. However, this is exactly what is beginning to happen, with shifts on both sides, and it must happen to a far greater degree if either cultural group wants to fulfill its own mission for the greater good. Indeed, without a strong Church/green partnership the entire sustainability endeavor is in jeopardy, but with it, our chances of success are great. The following provides an overview as to why and how this is so.

Beginning with the environmental movement,[1] there has been significant greening in America since 1970 without the help of, and sometimes despite the opposition of, the Church. So, it may be hard for many secularists to imagine or have any “faith” in Church collaboration, adopting an attitude of “they can come along if they want, but why invest in engagement the other way?” However, the overarching reason for such investment is that the process of sustainability is going to have to get more intense, broader, quicker, and more difficult to swallow, and we will need much “bigger guns” in the cultural arena to keep things moving in the right direction. For example,

It is worth keeping in mind that no social movement has ever succeeded at deep and wide levels in America without significant involvement of and leadership by the Church. As Social Gospel advocate and scholar Walter Rauchenbusch so eloquently put it long ago,

“In all the greatest forward movements of humanity, religion has been one of the  driving forces. The deadweight of hoary institutions and the resistance of the caked  and encrusted customs and ideas of the past are so great that unless the dormant  energies of the people are awakened by moral enthusiasm and religious faith, the old  triumphs over the new…”[2]

Similarly, contemporary Social Gospel prophet Jim Wallis champions broad secular and faith coalition building to tackle our biggest, most stubborn problems. He is clear that the way to common ground is through values-centric communication,
 
“The moral appeal can truly help us find common ground by moving to higher ground…  The key is not simply to address the issues, but rather to identify the values that  are necessary for social change. Our values lead to commitments. With each  commitment, the application of the energy and constituencies of faith communities  could provide what is needed for real change.”[3]

And so, the environmental movement would do well to get over any squeamish disdain for the people of Jesus and put considerable resources and effort into awareness raising, “brand relations” and collaborative campaign building with the Church. If this work is not done, the Church will no doubt continue in its nascent efforts to become more green and to dabble in political action. But those who have steeped themselves for decades in environmentalism, progressive politics and ecological science, economics, etc. could do wonders to rapidly increase the consciousness and organized response of Christians.
  
Further, and most important, without such a rapid, mass response as the Church could provide to counter the oppressive force of extractive industry and other resisters, environmentalism will ultimately die on the vine along with everything else. Technology, rational appeals, persuasion of businesses to do more CSR, light green lifestyles, and clever legal arguments will simply not be enough.

On the other side of the divide sits the Church,[4] which has an enormous “brand authenticity” problem, along with some very promising buried treasure. It has been scathingly and somewhat justifiably criticized for its historical and current compromises to the culture of Empire, which is ultimately responsible for eco and social crises.  Some time ago Walter Rauschenbusch asserted,
  
“The failure of the Church to undertake the work of a Christian reconstruction of  social life has not been caused by its close adherence to the spirit of Christ and to  the essence of its religious task, but to the deflecting influence of alien forces  penetrating Christianity from without and clogging the revolutionary moral power  inherent in it.”[5]

Indeed, from the corrupting pressures of the Roman Empire to the allures of consumerism, the Church has often been unable to stand clearly against dominant cultural forces that run counter to the loving ethics if Jesus. Today, Emergent Church leader and social activist Brian McLaren cuts to the quick in his recognition that the “domesticated Jesus… has become little more than a chrome-plated hood ornament on the guzzling Hummer of Western civilization.”[6] The specific dynamics associated with these lapses of integrity are elaborated by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams, 

“We are still desperately ill-equipped to do what, with daily increasing urgency,  presses to be done: to offer our world an effective, a converting, judgment upon a  whole culture of exploitative control… And we are ill-equipped partly because we have  so imperfectly heard this judgment as it is passed upon us as a Church.”[7]

Jesus did not go to the cross to keep gay people from visiting each other in the hospital or to sanction cheap consumer goods at Wal-Mart or to encourage us to obsess over the sexual morays of our neighbors while half of creation gets decimated in the Amazon rainforests. Rather, the Jesus that Christians are bound by baptismal covenant and Eucharistic communion to follow – no matter the discomfort or hardship – advocated a radically alternative society, the “kingdom of God,” that opposed the very forms of systemic exploitation that still harm the poor and ecosystems today.  

Following in the footsteps of Moses and the Hebrew prophets before him, Jesus understood that God is essentially justice and that God’s “kingdom” is a reign of justice. Under just conditions there would be joy, peace and abundance for all, including the earth and all creatures. Religious scholar Daniel Maguire reminds Christians that it is this sort of “kingdom” that represents the “central ethic” of the Bible,[8] as opposed to all the other petty, supposed moralities we get hung up on and, by design, distracted by. Very significantly, it is the ethic of justice – or fairness and balance and mutual, interdependent care – that also characterizes the heart of the ecological ethics fueling much of environmentalism.      

Hence, the Church has an inherently prophetic, social activist faith at its core, which frequently gets marginalized or buried. Yet, positively meeting the greater challenge of sustainability could revitalize the edge and integrity of the Christian mission for the greater good because the ancient mission of Jesus is so resonant with the cause of eco/social justice today.

This is beginning to take hold among “Care for Creation” Christians, but there is the potential to galvanize the power of the Church, alongside secular organizations, toward whole new levels of economic, political, lifestyle, and religious transformation that would simultaneously be true manifestations of both secular sustainability ideals and the Christian longing for a reign of God. Indeed, “the greatest forward movements in religion have always taken place under the call of a great historical situation.”[9]  

And so, these times call for the Church’s rediscovery of its own essence, story, and vocation, which are authentically suited to partnership with secular environmentalism. Such a partnership, not incidentally, would also benefit other Church concerns:

• A Church on fire with Christ's righteousness would also be attractive to young people, for whom green is an urgent given, and to many who have been alienated from Christianity due to past hypocrisy

• The rally around the common good could augment reconciliation processes among branches of the Church that are so often divided by smaller issues and theologies

• Sustainability is foundational to any serious improvements in global poverty, always a central Church issue

 
To best serve the green cause, though, the Church must not only foreground its genuine "good news" in the Gospel story, but also learn a great deal from those who have been studying and living the concrete details of sustainability for decades.  New laws, political processes, economic models, strategic communication campaigns, and business practices – as well as the complex sciences they should be informed by – are not the primary products of the Church. They come from generally secular activist, academic, and business institutions, which the Church must invite in for education and collaborate with for substantive action. Constructive synergy of secular knowledge and moral energy holds much promise and hope for all.

In the end, the most fundamental thing for the Church to remember is that “if current [unsustainable] trends continue, we will not… If religion does not speak to [this], it is an obsolete distraction.”[10] Hence, if there has ever been a time for the living Christ to bring the light out from under the bushel, it is now.