Ecology, Shamanism, Science, and Christianity – Part 3

By: Dave Hunt; ©2002

Yes, pollution and wanton exploitation and destruction of the environment are wrong, but the folly of worshiping Mother Earth is even more wrong. Dave Hunt explains why Christians should examine the goals of ecological groups carefully.

The Greening of Christianity

Mikhail Gorbachev, still President of the Soviet Union at the time, was of course one of the plenary speakers at the 1990 Global Forum in Moscow. In his speech, as an atheist, Gorbachev called mankind to reconciliation with nature rather than with the God who created nature, He said:

Humanity is a part of the single and integral biosphere… ecologization of politics requires… molding a new contemporary attitude to Nature…. returning to Man a senseof being a part of Nature. No moral improvement of society is possible without that. ^[1]

No longer President of Russia, Gorbachev is now more influential internationally than ever. His richly endowed Gorbachev Foundation USA has its offices in the Presidio (former U.S. military base) overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. A consultant on closing other U.S. military bases, Gorbachev is also president of the ecological watchdog, Green Cross Inter­national, a Global Forum offspring headquartered in the Hague.

Green cross? What right does Gorbachev or his organization have to turn the bloodstained cross, red with Christ’s blood shed for our sins, into something green! Yet this is exactly what is happening to the message of the cross through the environmental movement. The green movement is a humanistic attempt to restore the lost paradise of Eden without acknowledging that the problem is man’s rebellion against his Creator.

Yes, the pollution and wanton exploitation and destruction of the environment are foolish and wrong. But the folly and evil of worshiping Mother Earth and treating each species as sacred and having the same rights as humans is even more wrong—yet that is the philosophy being espoused by present world leaders. Nor is there any turning back of this tide.

At conferences on environmentalism one finds papers and speeches being delivered with such topics as “The Greening of a Great City” and “The Greening of the Church.” The former referred to “the role of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.” The latter was described as “developing an environmentally informed theology, spirituality and ecological practice within the Christian Church.” Yes, the church has joined a Green movement and Christian leaders echo its philosophy.

Richard Foster became a new guru to evangelicals with his 1978 bestseller Celebration of Discipline. It opened many Christians to the occult by instructing readers in occult techniques (including visualization of Christ). Foster advocated “centering down” through Eastern mystical techniques and meditating upon nature:

After you have gained some proficiency in centering down, add a five- to ten-minute meditation on some aspect of the creation. Choose something in the created order: tree, plant, bird, leaf, cloud, and each day ponder it carefully and prayerfully…. We should not bypass this means of God’s grace…. ^[2]

Science, Evolution, and Religion

The pagan worship of nature was extolled at the “Re-Imagining God” conference attended by many professing evangelicals. Along with summoning “the spirit of Earth, Air, and Water,” Chung Kyun Kyung declared:

For many Asians, we see god in the wind, in the fire, in the tree, in the ocean. We are living with god, it is just energy….

We believe that this life-giving energy came from god and it is everywhere, it is in the sun, in the ocean, it is from the ground and it is from the trees. We ask god’s permission to use this life-giving energy for our sisters and brothers in need.

If you feel very tired… you go to a big tree and ask tree, “Give me some of your life energy!” ^[3]

The coalition between religion and science for the ecological rescue of Earth is gaining momentum. We hear blasphemous statements regarding Earth from conservative “Christian” leaders, especially within the Roman Catholic Church. Before his death, Carl Sagan, an atheist and leading anti-Christian, began making favorable comments about religion. He had clearly joined the new coalition. He enthusiastically quoted the following from Pope John Paul II:

Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish….

Such bridging ministries must be nurtured and encouraged. Nowhere is this more clear than in the current environmental crisis…. It has the potential to unify and renew religious life (emphasis in original). ^[4]

Science will be a major ecumenical influence in creating a world religion. We have al­ready explained why the Roman Catholic Church is especially intimidated by science and thus eager to find itself in agreement with whatever science seems to propose.

Arriving to attend the June 3-14, 1992, Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Dalai Lama, a close friend of the Pope, was welcomed warmly by Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales. ^[5] The Roman Catholic Church was the only church which had the right to attend the conference because Vatican City is recognized as a sovereign state on the same level as the United States, Great Britain, etc. ^[6] Addressing the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the United Nations Secretary-General called the world back to the pagan worship of nature:

Over and above the moral contract with God, over and above the social contract concluded with men, we must now conclude an ethical and political contract with nature, with this Earth to which we owe our very existence and which gives us life.

To the ancients, the Nile was a god to be venerated, as was the Rhine, an infinite source of European myths, or the Amazonian forest, the mother of forests. Throughout the world, nature was the abode of the divinities that gave the forest, the desert or the mountains a personality which commanded worship and respect. The Earth had a soul. To find that soul again, to give it new life, that is the essence of Rio. ^[7]

Gorbachev says that the main purpose of Green Cross is “to bring nations together… to stimulate the new environmental consciousness… returning Man to a sense of being a part of Nature.” To require man to act like he is “part of Nature” is an admission that he is not. Nature’s creatures need no such urging. Yet Gorbachev admitted that “conflict with nature is fundamental to our technologies.” ^[8]

Radios, TV, cars, planes, computers, operas, and art are not natural. Nor are ambulances, doctors, hospitals, and compassion—and right there we confront a major contradiction within the ecological movement and the evolutionary theory upon which it is based. Sir John Eccles writes, “The facts of human morality and ethics are clearly at variance with a theory that explains all behavior in terms of self-preservation and the preservation of the species.” ^[9]

 

Notes

1. ↑ From a copy of Gorbachev’s speech to the 1990 Global Forum, pp. 1-3.
2. ↑ Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (Harper & Row, 1978), p. 25.
3. ↑ Christian News, March 21, 1994, p. 8
4. ↑ Parade, March 1, 1992.
5. ↑ National Catholic Reporter, June 19, 1992.
6. ↑ Ibid.
7. ↑ Cited in Ground Zero, October/November, 1996, p. 8, C. T. Communications, Box 612, Gladstone, MB R0J 0T0, Canada
8. ↑ Parade, January 23, 1994, p. 5.
9. ↑ Sir John Eccles and Daniel N. Robinson, The Wonder of Being Human: Our Brain and Our Mind (New Science Library, 1981), p. 71

Read Part 4