Eco-Justice Programs: Justice for God's Planet and God's People

A good friend of ours happens to be a professor teaching the Pacific School of Religion, and this professor forwarded a link to the Eco-Justice Programs office of the National Council of Churches. I encourage all of us to look at the work of the NCC EJP office to learn more about their attention to the concerns of environmental justice.

Given the recent decisions of the G8, I think it is even more important to read and understand and support the principles developed by the NCC. On their website, they say:

...the principles were developed by the National Council of Churches in conjunction with our interfaith community to outline the elements we feel must be addressed in any national climate change legislation. Though there may be other principles that would be appropriate, we feel that these are the essential faith principles that we must lift up as a community in our ministry to protect God’s planet and people.

That's what is important, folks. These are the essential faith principles that we must adhere to because the truth is we live in Creation -- we are a part of creation -- and it is our responsibility.

As one of the eight largest economies, as one of the 8 leading industrialized nations representing 65% of the world's economy (Wikipedia), the United States carries the responsibility of fixing the problems we created. We must do it. We are responsible for the world's preservation b/c we are living on borrowed goods and borrowed time -- borrowed from our children's future:

We must realize that we no longer inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.*

Go here to read the NCC faith principles.

To endorse these principles click here.



* R.B.J. Walker, One World, Many Worlds: Struggles for a Just World Peace (London, U.K.: Zed Books; Boudler, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), 101. Cited in Fernandez, Reimagining the Human, 160