{"id":318,"date":"2011-01-04T17:14:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon\/"},"modified":"2011-01-04T17:14:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T17:14:00","slug":"the-green-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html","title":{"rendered":"The Green Dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Via The Wild Hunt<\/a>, here\u2019s a piece from the New York Times<\/i> Green Blog<\/a> on an Evangelical backlash against environmentalism, calling it \u201cthe green dragon.\u201d\u00a0 The name is obviously an attempt to associate the whole green movement with the dragon of Revelation \u2013 Satan, and with the \u201cend times\u201d many look forward to.\u00a0 And their target isn\u2019t just Pagans \u2013 it\u2019s also an attempt to isolate liberal Evangelicals who believe we should care for what they see as God\u2019s creation<\/a>.\u00a0 Their charges range from vague to outright lies \u2013 you don\u2019t need me to rebut them.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Winning the award for unintended irony is the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s Richard Land, who says \u201cEnvironmentalists have a long history of believing and promoting exaggerations and myths.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As Bron Taylor explained in his book of the same title, Dark Green Religion<\/a> is \u201cone where nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care.\u201d\u00a0 It can be practiced theistically or non-theistically \u2013 and I suspect many of the non-theists don\u2019t consider what they do to be \u201creligion.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Facts and data are agnostic \u2013 they are what they are.\u00a0 The realities of deep time (i.e. \u2013 the Universe is roughly 14 billion years old, not 6000), evolution, climate change, species loss, and the still-large-but-ultimately-limited quantity of fossil fuels are presenting serious challenges to Christian fundamentalists\u2019 myths and doctrines.\u00a0 That they are lashing out against a small but growing competitor in the religious marketplace is hardly surprising.\u00a0 <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Paganism, Earth religion, nature religion, green religion, pantheism, panentheism \u2013 call it what you will.\u00a0 It has grown to the point that we aren\u2019t flying under the radar any more.\u00a0 <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Are we dangerous?\u00a0 Any religion that\u2019s worth a damn is dangerous<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad to see we\u2019re being recognized as such. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous. Via The Wild Hunt, here\u2019s a piece from the New York Times Green Blog on an Evangelical backlash against environmentalism, calling it \u201cthe green dragon.\u201d\u00a0 The name is obviously an attempt to associate the whole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Green Dragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous.Via The Wild Hunt,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Green Dragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous.Via The Wild Hunt,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-04T17:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html\",\"name\":\"The Green Dragon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-04T17:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-01-04T17:14:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"You know you\u2019re accomplishing something when folks on the other side of the religious spectrum start screaming that you\u2019re dangerous.Via The Wild Hunt,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/01\/the-green-dragon.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Green Dragon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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