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<\/a><\/div>\nSermon \u2013 The Sacred Earth<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship<\/span><\/p>\n August 21, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/p> Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n One evening in a Buddhist<\/a> monastery, a group of monks were cleaning up after dinner.\u00a0 One of the monks was less than fully present \u2013 he seemed to just want to get finished, whether the dishes were clean or not.\u00a0 Another monk noticed and said \u201cremember \u2013 these are the Buddha\u2019s bowls!\u201d\u00a0 But an elder monk heard this and said \u201cno, they are not the Buddha\u2019s bowls.\u00a0 They are the Buddha\u2019s flesh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What is our relationship with the natural world?\u00a0 Is the Earth a thing here for us to exploit as we see fit?\u00a0 Is it the property of a divine overlord who left it in our care?\u00a0 Or is it the flesh of the Buddha and the body of the Goddess, due reverence and respect because it is sacred in and of itself?<\/span><\/p>\n Religions Come and Go<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In a closed society religion is mostly fixed.\u00a0 People believe and act in the ways of their parents and their grandparents before them.\u00a0 Practices believed to be sacred will be continued long after everyone has forgotten why they were thought important, and long after they cease to be helpful.\u00a0 Deviating from the way things have always been done is risky \u2013 it may displease the gods or the ancestors, who may remove their protection from the tribe.\u00a0 If the herds disappear, if the harvests are slim, if the stock market goes down, it\u2019s a sign to purify yourself from the new and the foreign and return to the way things were done when times were good.<\/span><\/p>\n In an open society religion is very changeable.\u00a0 While some will cling to what is familiar regardless of the situation, most people take a very utilitarian approach to religion.\u00a0 If it helps them, they\u2019ll keep doing it.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t they\u2019ll look for something else.\u00a0 Most of us know this first-hand \u2013 most of us grew up in a religion other than Unitarian Universalism.\u00a0 Maybe we could no longer believe what we were told we had to believe.\u00a0 Maybe we were told we didn\u2019t belong because of who we loved.\u00a0 Or maybe we were told there is nothing besides the material world and \u201creligion poisons everything.\u201d\u00a0 Regardless of why, we left the religion of our upbringing and made our way here because we felt a need for something different\u2026 and because we were free to choose.<\/span><\/p>\n A new religious movement is rising here and now.\u00a0 It shares many roots with Unitarian Universalism, and other roots go back to the earliest humans walking the plains of Africa.\u00a0 This new religious movement is \u201cone where nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care.\u201d\u00a0 Some call this Green Religion, Environmental Religion, or Nature Religion.\u00a0 Bron Taylor, Professor of Religion and Nature at the University of Florida has written a book describing it and naming it \u201cDark Green Religion<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The Origins of Green Religion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Dark Green Religion has its origins in the beliefs and practices of indigenous people \u2013 hunters and gatherers whose lives are inseparably intertwined with Nature.\u00a0 But its more recent origins are in the excesses and shortcomings of the modern Western world.\u00a0 The industrial revolution made material goods cheap and widely available, it raised our standard of living immensely.\u00a0 But it also brought pollution, deforestation, and shift work.\u00a0 It transferred the majority of people from living on the land to living in cities, isolated from the land.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Removed from Nature, people began to long for Nature.\u00a0 And when they experienced it first hand \u2013 especially in the wild new world of North America \u2013 they were struck with those most ancient religious impulses, wonder and awe.\u00a0 It is no surprise that the spiritual ancestors of Nature religion are mostly Americans \u2013 people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and John Muir.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Writing near the end of his life in 1912, Muir said \u201cEverybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In \u201cThe Method of Nature,\u201d Emerson wrote:\u00a0 \u201cShall we not quit our companions, and betake\u2026 \u00a0some unvisited recess in Moosehead Lake, to bewail our innocency and recover it, and with it the power to communicate again with these sharers of a more sacred idea.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the words of Bron Taylor, Nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care.<\/span><\/p>\n Sacred Stories<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Contrary to what some would tell you, choosing a religion isn\u2019t about affirming or denying a set of supernatural propositions.\u00a0 Nor is it about accepting a certain moral code.\u00a0 Choosing a religion is about identifying with a sacred story.\u00a0 There is still power in the sacred stories of the orthodox religions, but that power has frequently been expressed in ways that are proving unhelpful to the future of humanity.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n There are several sacred stories in Dark Green Religion.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n 14 billion years ago, All was truly One.\u00a0 Everything in our Universe was compressed into a single point of seemingly infinite density.\u00a0 The atoms that make up your body and the particles that make up those atoms were mixed with the particles and atoms that make up my body and the bodies of every animal, vegetable and mineral on this planet and throughout the universe.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n And then, in an instant, it exploded, sending matter and energy out in all directions.\u00a0 Eventually, some of that matter and energy began to coalesce into galaxies and stars and planets.\u00a0 One of those planets was just the right distance from its parent star \u2013 it had water in liquid form.\u00a0 From that water, through some event or process we still don\u2019t understand, life began.\u00a0 First in single-cell organisms, then in a series of ever more complex forms, biological life evolved into the beautiful diversity we know today.\u00a0 Everything alive on this planet can trace its ancestry back to that first single-celled organism.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The Big Bang and evolution are more than scientific theories.\u00a0 They are sacred stories.\u00a0 They tell us who we are, where we came from, and who our family is.\u00a0 We may be the most intelligent creatures in this world, but the difference between humans and other animals is one of degree, not one of kind. They are \u2013 quite literally \u2013 our relatives, and we are all dependent on the Earth to sustain our lives. If we have inherent value and rights then so do they.<\/span><\/p>\n The story of life on Earth is so unlikely it can properly be called miraculous, but there is nothing supernatural about it.\u00a0 As this sacred story shows, Dark Green Religion can be practiced non-theistically.<\/span><\/p>\n St. Francis couldn\u2019t have known about the Big Bang and evolution, but he still called the wolf his brother.\u00a0 The recognition of this kind of kinship was remarkable for medieval Europe, but it was hardly original.\u00a0 Our earliest ancestors saw it \u2013 they guessed that whatever spirit or spirits animate us also animate the wolf, the bear, and the boar.\u00a0 Some spirit must animate the winds and the tides, the trees and the herbs, even the mountains and the plains.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n We have moved beyond uninformed superstition.\u00a0 We know the Sun is not driven across the sky in a chariot each day and we know it does not pass through the Underworld in a boat each night.\u00a0 But for all our brilliant knowledge and magical technology, we still don\u2019t know how life began.\u00a0 We still don\u2019t know what happens to our beautiful consciousness when we die.\u00a0 Is it really such a stretch to believe that everything has a spirit?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n And if everything has a spirit, then everything is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care.<\/span><\/p>\n British scientist James Lovelock first articulated the Gaia Hypothesis, which proposes that the Earth is a living organism of which we are but a part, just as our hearts and livers and skin are living but a part of us.\u00a0 Lovelock says we must acknowledge our integration with and dependence on Gaia.\u00a0 If we do not, \u201cwe will, by thinking selfishly only of the welfare of humans and ignoring Gaia, have caused our own near extinction.\u201d\u00a0 But we have another choice.\u00a0 Lovelock says \u201cif you put trust in Gaia, it can be a commitment as strong and as joyful as that of a good marriage, one where the partners put their trust in one another and since they are, as Gaia is, mortal, their trust is made even more precious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Our Place in the Grand Scheme of Things<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n One thing Dark Green Religion is NOT about is \u201csaving the planet.\u201d\u00a0 The Earth was here a couple billion years before we got here and the odds are good it will be here long after we\u2019re gone.\u00a0 The Earth is bigger, stronger, and more resilient than humans \u2013 we couldn\u2019t destroy the Earth if we wanted to.\u00a0 The Earth doesn\u2019t need humans to save it any more than we need our skin or our spleen to save us.<\/span><\/p>\n But if you studied elementary school science or if you watch National Geographic, you know what happens when a species loses its natural predators.\u00a0 It begins to reproduce faster and faster, it consumes more and more resources, till finally it exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecosystem.\u00a0 Famine, starvation, and death follow.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The spiritual outcome of providing reverent care to Nature is a confirmation that Nature is indeed sacred.\u00a0 The material outcome is not saving the Earth, it\u2019s saving ourselves, our fellow humans and fellow creatures.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Practicing Dark Green Religion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve looked at the concept of Dark Green Religion and we\u2019ve heard its sacred stories.\u00a0 Now, what does it look like in practice?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n If Dark Green Religion is a response to being disconnected from Nature, then one of the first goals is to re-establish our connections with the natural world.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t complicated \u2013 it simply requires us to go outside for a few minutes every day.\u00a0 Follow the Sun and see for yourself how it rises and sets at different points on the horizon during the year.\u00a0 Follow the Moon and see for yourself how it rises and sets a little later every day, and how its shape changes during the month.\u00a0 Look up at the stars and contemplate how long ago the light reaching your eyes has been traveling through space.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re so used to living in antiseptic, climate controlled enclosures with electronic entertainment blaring at us all day long, we\u2019ve forgotten how to use our senses.\u00a0 Sit outside and listen.\u00a0 What do you hear?\u00a0 Take a breath \u2013 what do you smell?\u00a0 Open your eyes \u2013 what do you see?\u00a0 Walk barefoot through the grass, touch a flower, hug a tree.\u00a0 Get down on your hands and knees and see how many living things you can find in your yard.\u00a0 Make a real connection to Nature using your whole being, not just your mind.<\/span><\/p>\n Go for a walk.\u00a0 Exercise isn\u2019t just good for your body, it\u2019s good for your soul.\u00a0 Feel your breath going in and out, feel your muscles stretching and contracting, feel your heart beating faster and the sweat rising to cool your body.\u00a0 Look around and see other animals doing the same thing.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n When we establish our connections to the natural world, it begins to affect us.\u00a0 We start to feel the intrinsic value of Nature, and we start thinking about what reverent care might look like.<\/span><\/p>\n A few people are called to a life of subsistence farming and extreme simplicity.\u00a0\u00a0 I admire them \u2013 they show us what can be done, and how little we truly need. \u00a0But technology isn\u2019t a bad thing in and of itself.\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful we have clean water, modern medicine, and the internet.\u00a0 And I have NO desire to live in Texas without air conditioning!\u00a0 But while it is neither necessary nor desirable for all of us to return to a preindustrial technology, our call to reverent care requires us to examine how we live and what impact we make on our world.<\/span><\/p>\n We UUs are pretty good about asking where things come from.\u00a0 We need to also ask where they will go when we are finished with them.\u00a0 Recycling is good.\u00a0 Reusing is better.\u00a0 Using less in the first place is better still.\u00a0 It\u2019s better for Nature and it\u2019s better for our finances.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why so many businesses are \u201cgoing green\u201d \u2013 and it\u2019s not just for the publicity.\u00a0 There are real financial savings in using less energy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Change to high efficiency light bulbs.\u00a0 Install high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.\u00a0 Make your next vehicle smaller and more fuel efficient.\u00a0 Walk, bicycle, or take public transportation where you can.\u00a0 Turn off lights and unplug appliances you aren\u2019t using.\u00a0 Some of these require an up front investment but many simply require changing your habits.<\/span><\/p>\n These are not commandments that must be obeyed.\u00a0 They\u2019re ideas for putting your faith into action.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Social and Political Action<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If we truly believe Nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care, we will change the way we live.\u00a0 We will also work to change society.<\/span><\/p>\n In April of this year, Bolivia passed a law titled \u201cThe Rights of Mother Earth<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 This law declares that Nature has inherent rights, including \u201cthe right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If such a law seems unimaginable in the United States, you are literally correct. It cannot be imagined because it does not fit into the majority worldviews in this country. <\/span><\/p>\n The majority religious worldview teaches that the Earth was created by a supreme being who then gave humans \u201cdominion\u201d over it. This worldview is based on a hierarchy of ownership: all rights belong to the owner, who can do with the owned as he pleases. One of the few things I remember from a business law class was the principle that \u201cthe value of a thing is what it will bring in an open market\u201d \u2013 no thing, not even the Earth itself, has value of its own, only what value is derived from its usefulness or desirability to humans.<\/span><\/p>\n The majority secular worldview in this country claims the autonomy of the individual human is the greatest good. Bolivia\u2019s new law demands that the rights of humans be balanced against the rights of the Earth. Some will see this as an infringement on their autonomy, and they will frame their arguments as a human battle \u2013 those who want to protect the Earth vs. those who want to exploit the Earth. Or worse, they will paint protecting the Earth as \u201coppression\u201d and exploiting it as \u201cfreedom.\u201d They will never consider that the Earth has rights which should also be valued and respected.<\/span><\/p>\n What we believe about the universe determines what we can imagine, and what we can imagine determines what we can create. I am thankful that the people of Bolivia have created something the people of the United States could not.\u00a0 Through our work and through our lives, some day that will change.<\/span><\/p>\n A New Civil Religion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Though we like to put religion in a box, the truth is that religion is impossible to separate from culture.\u00a0 Religion isn\u2019t just about what you believe \u2013 it\u2019s about what you do.\u00a0 The things we hold sacred in common and the things we do in common form our civil religion \u2013 the non-theistic or deistic beliefs and practices which help bind our diverse country together.\u00a0 Our American civil religion has its pantheon \u2013 Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln.\u00a0 It has its holy days \u2013 the fourth of July, Labor Day. It has its sacred rituals \u2013 Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n To these we are adding elements of Environmental Religion.\u00a0 Earth Day is a new holy day.\u00a0 Green practices such as recycling and energy conservation are becoming sacred obligations.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Green themes are turning up in our art and entertainment:\u00a0 the movie Avatar<\/a><\/em> is only the most obvious example.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n There are pilgrimages \u2013 ecotourism is a booming business, taking people to see Nature in its wildest and most diverse states.\u00a0 There is concern that the traffic to these places is harming the very things we wish to honor and preserve, but there is no question that the desire to visit these beautiful places is a religious impulse.<\/span><\/p>\n Nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care in our civil society as well as in our personal lives.<\/span><\/p>\n The Backlash <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n A group of Christian fundamentalists is campaigning against environmentalism, calling it \u201cthe green dragon<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The name is an obvious attempt to associate the whole green movement with the dragon of Revelation \u2013 Satan \u2013 and with the \u201cend times\u201d many fundamentalists eagerly anticipate.\u00a0 Their target isn\u2019t just Pagans and secular environmentalists \u2013 it\u2019s also an attempt to isolate liberal Evangelicals who believe we should care for what they see as God\u2019s creation.\u00a0 Their accusations range from the willfully ignorant to outright lies \u2013 which they\u2019ll be happy to explain in their 6-hour DVD set for only $49.95.<\/span><\/p>\n