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THE QUESTION
Is the Gulf oil spill also a moral crisis?
The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a widening environmental, economic and political crisis. Is it also a moral crisis? How does religion influence our use and abuse of the natural world? Does religion help or harm the environment?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on June 1, 2010 10:20 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Report:Pro-Earth/ Tisha B'Av rally, US Capitol, July 20
About 200 people took part in a unique fusion of political rally, multireligious prayer, and Tisha b'Av observance at noon July 20 on the grounds of the US Capitol. Videotape from the event will be available by Thursday morning on The Shalom Center's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheShalomCenter The major slogans of the rally were "Get dirty fuels out of our air and water/ Get dirty money out of our politics."
Posted by Arthur Waskow, on July 21, 2010 4:21 PM
Practical prayer to the rescue
As one who employs prayer as a means of healing disease and disaster of all descriptions, I maintain, as the basis of my prayer, that God, who is the source of all love, does not send environmental or any catastrophe. Prayer may be the most underutilized and unrecognized tool for bettering our environment.
Posted by Phil Davis, on June 4, 2010 4:36 PM
Whose world is it anyway?
The Gulf oil disaster is only the most recent and obvious consequence of our disregard for nature, while our destruction of animals and other aspects of our natural world and its inhabitants continues unabated.
Posted by Ramdas Lamb, on June 3, 2010 12:27 PM
We are the caretakers of the universe
In short, the world's is not ours. It is loaned to us by the Creator to use productively and respectfully and, we must answer to him and to our neighbors with whom we share this temporary residence.
Posted by Shmully Hecht, on June 3, 2010 9:37 AM
The BP oil spill and religious environmental ethics
The tragedy of the BP oil spill is a moral crisis that is the result of human estrangement from the Divine, from each other and from nature.
Posted by Valerie Elverton Dixon, on June 2, 2010 6:07 PM
Human creativity and immaturity
That humans were smart enough to figure out how to drill such a hole underwater but not smart enough to figure out how to plug it makes for a great and terrible case study in human sinfulness.
Posted by David Gushee, on June 2, 2010 4:36 PM
From Eden to the Gulf: Abundance, greed and disaster
All our religious and spiritual traditions warn us against this kind of insatiable hunger for material goods -- often called greed -- and urge us to integrate community, calm, and restfulness into our lives along with striving.
Posted by Arthur Waskow, on June 2, 2010 1:16 PM
Big spill, big thoughts
The more "developed" and complex the world has become, the more fragile the works of our hands and minds. It is as though earth were fighting back against "the world" for our worshiping and serving "the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on June 2, 2010 12:13 AM
Profaning creation
There is no question, from a biblical point of view, that these human actions in deep-sea drilling without adequate safety measures are profoundly sinful and wrong, and the consequences are there for all to see--more alienation between human beings and the planet.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on June 1, 2010 5:21 PM
Protecting earth a moral duty
Science and religion are tools, neither moral nor immoral. Their shared criterion for human morality is the extent to which humans use them to improve the quality of life for all, here on earth.
Posted by Herb Silverman, on June 1, 2010 4:41 PM
Our complicity and responsibility
We may not work for BP, but we are all participants in an American society fueled by oil. And as the moral compass for so many millions of Americans, Christian tradition has much to answer for concerning the hubris that led to this so-far-unstoppable poisoning of an ocean.
Posted by Janet Edwards, on June 1, 2010 4:26 PM
Faith not a reliable 'eco-friend'
Bringing religion to bear on environmental issues is above all an exercise in irrelevance. The environment's best hope may lay in most of us deciding that it's too important to leave it up to faith.
Posted by Tom Flynn, on June 1, 2010 3:13 PM
Gulf gusher is moral failure
Traditional Christianity identifies greed, sloth and pride as three deadly sins--sins that manifest themselves in BP's disaster.
Posted by Robert Parham, on June 1, 2010 2:10 PM
The world, in our hands
Religion properly understood is filled with exhortations to care for this world. It is God's gift. We are the world's stewards. Trampling our inheritance, befouling it, destroying it, contradicts everything faith promises and promotes.
Posted by David Wolpe, on June 1, 2010 12:32 PM
Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake
The only religious issue here is for those who placed too much faith in human technology. Quite often it turns out we're not nearly as smart as we think we are, and our mistakes are far more destructive than we think they'll be. This phenomenon is not confined to oil wells.
Posted by Jason Poling, on June 1, 2010 11:56 AM
Earth stewardship - a complex issue for "People of the Book"
There is a common theme through most world religions that humanity must carefully steward the earth because it was made by God, and is sacred as a result.
Posted by Leo Brunnick, on June 1, 2010 10:40 AM
Want not, waste not
We "sow the seeds of violence" by our consumptive behavior and lifestyle. It is easy to point the finger at others, but if we didn't have such a desire for "the goodies," companies such as BP wouldn't be engaging in risky behavior.
Posted by Max Carter, on June 1, 2010 10:32 AM
Stewardship of the environment
In the book of Genesis, God gave man dominion over creation. This has never meant the right to do whatever he wanted without consequence, but rather, stewardship.
Posted by Matt Maher, on June 1, 2010 2:11 AM
Save & Share:
rmkraus: I am totally flabbergasted by the various slants on the oil spill . . . . they are ridiculous . . . . . it was an accident, for heavens sake...
mwpalmer: God gives us leave to make messes as we will. But by denying God and his help, we are left to our own pathetic devises for mitigating and cl...
Sajanas: Is negligence a moral fault? I suppose it can be at times, though most of the time it seems to stem as much from ignorance and laziness.
I...
