{"id":3557,"date":"2008-09-20T19:43:34","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T01:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3557"},"modified":"2008-09-20T19:43:34","modified_gmt":"2008-09-21T01:43:34","slug":"religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion and Darwin&#8230;and Politics, Business &#038; Environmental Stewardship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/09\/427px-creation_of_the_sun_and_moon_face_detail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3558\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/09\/427px-creation_of_the_sun_and_moon_face_detail-213x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"213\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Fellow Green Options blogger, <a class=\"local\" href=\"http:\/\/greenoptions.com\/author\/imaola\">Sam Aola Ooko<\/a>, recently related that there has been a reconciliation of religion and evolution.<\/p>\n<p>As written in that <a href=\"http:\/\/ecoworldly.com\" target=\"_blank\">EcoWorldly <\/a>blog post &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/ecoworldly.com\/2008\/09\/19\/st-charles-darwin-unveiled-catholics-anglicans-finally-agreed-on-evolution\/\" target=\"_blank\">St. Charles Darwin Unveiled: Catholics, Anglicans Finally Agreed on Evolution<\/a> &#8212; it seems that the Vatican and the Church of England have decided that there is a place in the world for both beliefs, that Charles Darwin&#8217;s Theory of Evolution and religious faith can coexist peacefully.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m fascinated.<\/p>\n<p>I can understand, for example, the Christian view that the premise of evolution is faulty and can&#8217;t align with the belief that God created the Earth. Science says Earth dates billions of years back. The stories of the <a href=\"http:\/\/shirleysilukgregory.greenoptions.com\/2007\/10\/09\/religion-publisher-releases-first-green-bible\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bible <\/a>say, &#8220;Oh, no it dih-n&#8217;t!&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Despite being reared in a Christian home, myself, I don&#8217;t agree with that view, given that it&#8217;s disproven by science. But I can understand a Christian&#8217;s uneasiness with accepting it.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with the news that highly influential religions are accepting Darwin&#8217;s theories &#8212; the Church of England is even reportedly issuing a formal apology to Darwin &#8212; I am wondering if we can find pleasant compromise on some other heretofore headbanging differences of opinions.<\/p>\n<p>How about&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Religion and Politics?<\/li>\n<li>Religion and <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/06\/02\/the-economics-of-global-warming-fred-krupp-and-miriam-horns-earth-the-sequel\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>Religion and Environmental Stewardship?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Weighty ideas for sure. So I won&#8217;t plunge too deeply with my own thoughts, but rather want to know others&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Religion and Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re seeing particularly heinous behavior in the United States right now, as the race for the White House revs up to wind down. Why is that? How do they balance that behavior with their God each night? And why do voters buy that crap, especially since the majority of voters are right-wingers bent on a religious president (even though he doesn&#8217;t behave in a Christian way)?<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t think of any presidential candidate in my lifetime who hasn&#8217;t waved his religious beliefs in America&#8217;s collective face, reassuring us s\/he has the solid Christian values we need in a leader. Yet they lie, cheat, swindle, scare and just, generally, menace a half-knowing public into line to grant the candidate the power and wealth they desire above and beyond all that&#8217;s holy.<\/p>\n<p>And let&#8217;s not get started on the idea of separation of church and state in the U.S. when, for just a recent example, the current administration runs the country using the Bible as its playbook and justification to commit every indecency known to modern man in favor of dollars over humans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Religion and Business<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Same issues. Why does a Bible-thumping, religion-trumping crowd favor personal wealth and prestige and luxury and security over the well-being of its general citizenry? Why can&#8217;t leaders balance their private wills to gain power and money with doing what&#8217;s right by their constituencies? Where in their Bibles does it justify sweeping neglect of the public in favor of material advantages for the few?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Religion and Environmental Stewardship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shouldn&#8217;t this be one of the easiest balances to strike? If God created the Earth, then why don&#8217;t worshippers of God wish to be more respectful of god&#8217;s creation? Why can&#8217;t those so focused on following the &#8220;good book&#8221; recognize that Earth is a resource to be cherished, not senselessly laid to waste in the name of material &#8220;progress?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These things are baffling. But maybe there is hope.<\/p>\n<p>If religion can finally put a little faith in what has been determined as absolute fact, then maybe the religious can finally look back to their faith in God and remember that he never intended lying for the sake of politics to be acceptable; he never meant for un-Christian behavior to be justifiable for the sake of accumulating money and material goods; he never meant for his Earth, moon and stars to be blatantly trashed for the self-absorbed whimsies of his children.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, really: Is that what Jesus would do?<\/p>\n<p>And in closing, brothers and sisters, Galatians 6:7 says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow your own flesh, you will reap corruption&#8230; So let us not grow weary in doing what is right&#8230; Let us work for the good of all.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Religious leaders who confuse God&#8217;s power with their own, selectively blurring its uses for their own gains for corrupt government\/politics, corrupt business\/economics and corrupt environmental policies&#8230; We all are reaping what has been, and continues to be, sown.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s too bad. It seems to me that religion should be &#8212; is capable of being &#8212; fully in sync with environmental stewardship. But what do I know? I&#8217;m just a liberal who thinks behaving for the good of mankind is merely logical, not Biblical.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/03\/28\/jesus-unplugged-religious-groups-participate-in-earth-hour-2008\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jesus Unplugged: Religious Groups Participate in Earth Hour 2008<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/04\/24\/street-seders-sacred-protest\/\" target=\"_blank\">Street Seders: Sacred Protest<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/08\/13\/the-positive-side-of-the-green-life-what-have-environmental-activists-done-well\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Positive Side of the Green Life<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/06\/28\/the-sensibility-of-sabbaths-for-sustainable-living\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Sensibility of Sabbaths for Sustainable Living<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Image: face detail of God, by Michelangelo (Public Domain)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fellow Green Options blogger, Sam Aola Ooko, recently related that there has been a reconciliation of religion and evolution. As written in that EcoWorldly blog post &#8212; St. Charles Darwin&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,24,21],"tags":[553,8515,1550,1551,544,1552,8516,402,490],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religion and Darwin...and Politics, Business &amp; Environmental Stewardship &#8226; Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religion and Darwin...and Politics, Business &amp; Environmental Stewardship &#8226; Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fellow Green Options blogger, Sam Aola Ooko, recently related that there has been a reconciliation of religion and evolution. 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