A very interesting post at Andrew Sullivan, courtesy of one of his readers, on "Green Christianity." Benedict has finally jumped on the wagon, but it seems that the Patriarch Bartholomew was way ahead of him. I particularly like his take on consumerism:
In an address given in Venice in 2002 before signing a dual declaration for environmental awareness with then Pope John Paul II, the Patriarch argued, “we are to practice a voluntary self-limitation in our consumption of food and natural resources. Each of us is called to make the crucial distinction between what we want and what we need. Only through such self-denial, through our willingness sometimes to forgo and to say, ‘no’ or ‘enough’ will we rediscover our true human place in the universe …Greed and avarice render the world opaque, turning all things to dust and ashes. Generosity and unselfishness render the world transparent, turning all things into a sacrament of loving communion -- communion between human beings with one another, communion between human beings and God. This need for an ascetic spirit can be summed up in a single key word: sacrifice. This exactly is the missing dimension in our environmental ethos and ecological action.”
That sentiment has a lot in common with Witchcraft as I practice it. I am, in case I hadn't mentioned it before, a notorious non-consumer, and I can find a lot of empathy with Bartholomew's words. One word we seem to have forgotten in the West is "enough," at least insofar as what it actually means: enough is getting what we need, and what we need is not the same as what we want. In fact, it seems to work out that when we focus on getting what we want, we stand a good chance of not getting what we need.
Bartholomew sounds like someone with his head screwed on straight, at least in broad terms.
2 comments:
The Catholic Church could do far more to benefit the environment by dropping its soul-greedy ban on contraception than it will ever accomplish by urging its followers to consume less. Until the Church acknowledges that sexual relations can fulfill more than one function (procreation) and need not be undertaken solely for that purpose, words like these are mere hypocritical window dressing.
I couldn't agree with you more on the RC Church's position on birth control and family planning, particularly since, like most of the Church's dogma, it's based on fantasy. I don't know whether the Orthodox Church is as loony, although it seems to be in most areas, but it's nice to see official recognition of some real problems -- actually more than recognition, which is even better.
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