DATE: Saturday, August 2, 1997              TAG: 9707310069

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Issues of Faith 

SOURCE: Betsy Wright 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

WORLD'S GREAT RELIGIONS SPEAK OF NATURE'S SANCTITY

HOW MANY TIMES does the alarm have to sound before anyone really hears it?

Just this week, the alarm went off again. Twenty of the world's top environmental scientists have released an astounding barrage of evidence showing that humans have so profoundly altered the Earth's ecological balance that, unless we act quickly and decisively, the consequences will be dire.

In other words, we've screwed up our life-support system so badly that if we don't stop and reverse the trend, we're doomed. Forget Armageddon. It looks like we're going to run out of clean water before the rivers have a chance to run with blood.

Why is it that some people of faith have been so hard-headed about the ecology thing? Why have some of us insisted on interpreting the idea of humans having dominion over the Earth to mean we've got permission to rape Mother Nature?

That mentality certainly doesn't come from Scripture. All the world's great religions speak of the sanctity of nature.

From the Adi Granth, the sacred writings of Sikhism: ``This earth is a garden, the Lord its gardener, cherishing all, none neglected.''

From The Bible of Judaism and Christianity: ``The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.''

From the Oracle of Atsuta of Shintoism: ``All you under the heaven! Regard heaven as your father, earth as your mother, and all things as your brothers and sisters.''

From The Koran of Islam: ``No creature is there crawling on the earth, no bird flying with its wings, but they are nations like yourselves. We have neglected nothing in the Book; then to their Lord they shall be mustered.''

From Chuang Tzu of Taoism: ``A horse or a cow has four feet. That is Nature. Put a halter around the horse's head and put a string through the cow's nose, that is man. Therefore it is said, `Do not let man destroy Nature. Do not let cleverness destroy (the natural order).' ''

In reading that last excerpt, it strikes me that it's not really man's cleverness that is destroying the natural order. It's man's greediness.

We humans are greedy about nature. We covet what we see. We want to control our environment just because we can. Here in the United States that greed is compounded because most of us have enough that we can afford to waste. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.

Personal example. The other day my teen-agers tracked sand onto the front entry of our house. I'd just finished filling up my toddler's wading pool, so instead of cutting off the water and reaching for a broom, I did the expedient thing. I washed away the sand with water from the hose.

Small thing, but it was ecologically very wasteful. I could do it, however, because I live in a country where clean water flows freely from my water hose any time I choose to turn it on. All I have to do is pay for it.

If for one second, I'd stopped to ask myself, `Would God approve of my wasting this water?', I might have stopped dead in my tracks and reached for the broom. Trouble is, like many humans, I don't often enough ask myself what God would want me to do. I just do what I want to do.

In religious terms, that's called rebellion or sin. And that, in a nutshell, is why we've screwed up our life support system almost beyond repair.

When will we humans hear the alarms going off and decide to respond? When will we realize that God expects each of us to do something about our hurting environment, no matter how big or small that something is?

When will we stop rebelling and sinning against the Creator by doing such harm to this marvelous old planet? When will we begin to treat the Earth like the gift from God she truly is? MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her

opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,

921 N. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake, VA 23320; call 446-2273; FAX (804)

436-2798; or send computer message via bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline is

Tuesday prior to publication. Must include name, city and phone number.

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