Christianity’s Role in Environmental Racism and Global Climate Change
It’s all about “dominion”
In a 1967 article entitled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” by author Lynn White, he argues that “Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt for the ecologic crisis.” Although White’s statement has been criticized for placing too much emphasis on the Judeo-Christian tradition as the primary source of our world view, there is a great deal of truth to his claim.
In the King James Version of the Holy Bible, Genesis 1:26 states,
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
It is the oppressive and misogynistic interpretation of this scripture, particularly of the word “dominion” that has caused the dreadful and heartbreaking devastation that we are all currently facing. It has been misunderstood not only by many Christians, but by many in American culture, to mean that people — white men in particular — have the right to use, abuse, exploit, and destroy anyone and anything at will.
According to feminist theologian and author Jeannine Hill Fletcher in her book The Sin of White Supremacy…
