Environment

In Sweden, the Interfaith Climate Summit has issued forth with the The Uppsala Interfaith Climate Manifesto, a perfectly ordinary amalgam of religious sentiment and environmental alarmism typical of ecumenical groups. Which is to say that there’s precious little political, economic or scientific insight in the broadside from Uppsala. Of course, there’s no indication from the summit’s participants that the causes and cures proposed for global warming may be controversial, especially in the scientific community. Yet, what sets the Hope for the Future! manifesto apart from total banality, and makes it interesting, is its unmistakably coercive tone about what both developed and developing countries “must” do about climate change. Apparently, the “global village” ethic of environmental activists does not apply when demands are made of the powers that be.

The manifesto was signed by Fr. John Chryssavgis, representing the Ecumenical Patriarch, and Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, director of external affairs for the Orthodox Church in America and Moderator of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. Now, involvement in ecumenical bodies necessarily bring Orthodox Christians into “strange bedfellows” situations. But in Uppsala, it got very strange.

There were presentations on “Gaia and God: an ecofeminist theology of earth healing,” “Daoist Humanistic Naturalness and Our World,” and “Ecological Values” in Islam. One presenter asked the question: Why are Earth and God Angry? To really understand the caliber of thinking, you should watch videos of the presentations here. Continue reading →