63 posts tagged with "religion"

Amongst its many admirable principles, where does one find environmental concerns in the Bahá'í Faith? So I wondered, early on my journey on this religious path. Recently, in honor of Faith Climate Action Week, several friends and I reflected on this question.

Our conversation opened with a brief meditation on this passage of praise for God, who is recognized through all the natural wonders:

“… whatever I behold I readily discover that it maketh Thee known unto me, and it remindeth me of Thy signs, and of Thy tokens, and of Thy testimonies. By Thy glory! Every time I lift up mine eyes unto Thy heaven, I call to mind Thy highness and Thy loftiness, and Thine incomparable glory and greatness; and every time I turn my gaze to Thine earth, I am made to recognize the evidences of Thy power and the tokens of Thy bounty. And when I behold the sea, I find that it speaketh to me of Thy majesty, and of the potency of Thy might, and of Thy sovereignty and Thy grandeur. And at whatever time I contemplate the mountains, I am led to discover the ensigns of Thy victory and the standards of Thine omnipotence.”

Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, CLXXVI

On July 13, a new statue was placed in the U.S. Capitol: Mary McLeod Bethune. Reading the news, I knew that I had heard this name - yet knew nothing about her. Who was this woman, the first African American to be so honored in the Hall of Statues?

Born into a large family on her parents' farm in 1875 (she was the fifteenth child), she was taught early to look to the Bible for guidance and comfort, despite the family's illiteracy. With help from a benefactress, she enrolled in school at the age of ten and eventually went on to collegiate study. Oft quoted as saying, “[t]he whole world opened up to me when I learned to read,” she went on to live an exceptional life of courage and action on behalf all people, most particularly her fellow African Americans and especially women of color.

"Reacting to religious fanaticism and the challenges of advancing and sustaining a more equitable civilization, a global interfaith movement has sprung from the grassroots of religion and spirituality. InterfaithNews.Net (INN) seeks to chronicle this movement by focusing primarily on positive interfaith and religious news, events, and resources."

That was the mission of a little newsletter and website that Joel Beversluis and I started, with support from the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) and the United Religions Initiative (URI), in 2002. Would that I could remember where he and I first met; perhaps at the URI North America summit of 2001 in Salt Lake City. Regardless, our time of collaboration was all too short.

This past Friday I finally completed the "public expression" portion of the eco-theology project for the GreenFaith Fellowship. The presentation is accessible at GreenBahai.com. It addresses the following topics from an multi-faith perspective:

• Highlight key themes in religious responses to climate change:
  • Love of Creation
  • Urgency
  • Love and Compassion
  • Justice
  • Oneness and Interdependence
• Call to Action — statements and declarations
  • Prevention
  • International Action
  • Awareness and Advocacy
  • Taking Action

I've spent the weekend preparing a presentation on the Call to Action on Climate Change, which I'll be giving at the Bahá'í Center of Irving on this coming Friday evening.

Joining so many others in the worldwide faith communities, I am overjoyed at the Pope's encyclical Laudato Si, which came out officially just a few days ago. Although I will not be saying much about it, it is a large part of the inspiration for the up-coming presentation. And I would like to share the heart-achingly beautiful second paragraph:

This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she "groans in travail" (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

"Fragmentation" often describes our personal lives. Through accident or design, we carve out separate spheres of being: family, work, school, sport, public policy, and so on. When we are healthy, we work toward unifying these through consistent expression of our values. The other extreme becomes hypocrisy.

The long-term tension between science and religion often reinforces that tendency toward fragmentation. Practicing and acting on a traditional Western mechanistic worldview while espousing divinely-grounded spiritual values is not intrinsically hypocritical. But, for me, it is a very limiting experience. In the integration of these two worldviews we find them strengthening each other. Spiritual principles can shape our research methods (viz animal experimentation), and scientific research can shape our application of justice and equality (seeking climate justice, for example).

A small group gathered at the Bahá'í­ Center of Irving last night in our second meeting on the discourses of society, reflecting on climate change. The first meeting in the series was too much of a slide-based lecture, so for this second one we chose two videos and facilitated an open discussion. The conversation was robust, heartfelt, and meaningful — yet in reflection, it raises some key questions about how to have a productive, spiritually-oriented conversation.

The Bahá'ís of Irving are trying out a concept: on the last Friday of each month, we'll talk about a theme related to the "discourses of society," motivated by passages such as this one, from the Universal House of Justice's 2010 Ridván Letter to the Bahá'í­s of the world (p10):

"... involvement in public discourse can range from an act as simple as introducing Bahá'í ideas into everyday conversation to more formal activities such as the preparation of articles and attendance at gatherings, dedicated to themes of social concern - climate change and the environment, governance and human rights, to mention a few. It entails, as well, meaningful interactions with civic groups and local organizations in villages and neighbourhoods."

The August event was the first in the series, and the concept itself was the subject of the evening's presentation...

An essay submitted as part of my application to the GreenFaith Fellowship Program. Hopefully I put my best foot forward ;-).

There are no clergy in the Bahá'í­ Faith. There is no seminary, and none can seek a position of leadership based on education, attainment, or station. Its governance is egalitarian and progressively inclusive. And yet it is inaccurate to say there are no leaders.

Stirring up a grassroots movement is hard work.

Dallas Interfaith Power & Light's steering committee has been working together for about two years now. We've held a number of workshops and dialogues on diverse topics, including: forming a green team, energy efficiency, solar, health impacts of climate change, the value of our park systems, the science of climate change, and more. Perhaps 100-150 people have attended, although our actual signed-in attendance count is 84 across all events.