The Church: WWJD
This week the Ecotheology group met to discuss the church. Yes, the very establishment that has proven itself, over and over, to be against the poor lost souls of nonbelievers that wander the Earth in search of guidance on how to be better people. Suffice to say, the conversation got heavy real quick. The conversation this week began with an attempt to answer the question, ‘what is Church?’. Each member of our group was able to share their own personal experience with the church of their childhood. For most of us, the outcome had been predominately negative, leaving a lingering sour aftertaste that could be felt seeping into our opinions of the role of the Church today.
Historically, the care of the Earth has never been high on the priority list of the Church, regardless of the denomination. Recycling and wild life protection have actually been issues of the political left, which are typically anti-religion. The political right, and predominately Christian base, have even made several steps to harm the Earth, including the continued use of coal and oil and an outright denial of global warming. It appears to come down to a misunderstanding of who Is responsible for protecting God’s creation. All of it, and not bits and parts that decide for ourselves and label it as God’s word.
The irony is not lost to members of the Ecotheology group. In general, we don’t appreciate the Church because it has not acted by the principles of what God or Jesus could possibly have intended. A message of love could not possibly involve so much abuse and disregard to the well being and care of so much of the Earth. In my opinion, ecotheology should be a foundational building block for all Christianity. The fight for all lives, particularly the marginalized that Jesus himself had targeted, should be the top priority for the Church. A patriarchal focus on the welfare of deserving believers versus bigoted savages has developed into a dynamic that alienates the masses, especially when the actions of the Church don’t match the message of the Word.
