This is kinda neat: "the Evangelical Environmental Network "

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A pro-environmental group set up by american evangelical christians. It offers a nice change of pace:

Frequently Asked Questions
Why should Christians care about the environment?
Biblically understood, "the environment" is actually part of God's creation, of which human beings are also a part. So why should we care for all of God's creation?
-Christ died to reconcile all of creation to God (Col. 1:20).
-All of creation belongs to Jesus (Col. 1:16; Ps. 24:1).
-It fulfills the Great Commandments to love God and love what God loves. (It's hard to love a child with asthma when you're filling her lungs with pollution.)
-Pollution hurts the poor the most, and Christians are called to care for the poor and the less powerful (Mt. 25:37-40).
-Thus, caring for all of creation provides a Christian with the deepest sense of joy and contentment since it is part of loving God. We call this "creation-care."
What is "creation-care"?
Creation-care means caring for all of God's creation by stopping and preventing activities that are harmful (e.g. air and water pollution, species extinction), and participating in activities that further Christ's reconciliation of all of creation to God. Doing creation-care fills us with the joy that only comes from doing the will of God...

good luck to 'em.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 1 July 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

They have my benediction.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 1 July 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I can get into stuff like this, and a lot of evangelical groups do good mission work in Africa and elsewhere (albeit always with a big dollop of proselytizing). I just wish they didn't need God to tell them not to put shit in the air and water.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 1 July 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

I found this link thru today's entry at Slacktivist, where he talks about the process they went thru in getting set up, and the weird marketing that goes on with these movements since the infrastructure of other sects isn't present here:

Instead of church polity, we have a marketplace. Influence and authority are not determined by tradition, by hierarchy, by spiritual discernment or democratic election embodying collective wisdom. Instead, they are determined by book sales, TV ratings, fund-raising acumen, and how many radio stations one owns.

I just wish they didn't need God to tell them not to put shit in the air and water.

yeah, but at the same time, a lot of folks have the tradition of having their customs handed down from what they believe God to have ordered. and my stance is, hey, if that's your reasoning for helping out, fine by me then.

Remember, everything that's pretty obvious to us isn't necessarily so for a lot of people, and we should take what we can get nowadays.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 1 July 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

They should consult my dad. He's been a rabid liberal-hater forever and has made a show of getting religion in the last few years, but does wacky green things like living in a dome house and driving a Prius.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 1 July 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Instead of church polity, we have a marketplace. Influence and authority are not determined by tradition, by hierarchy, by spiritual discernment or democratic election embodying collective wisdom. Instead, they are determined by book sales, TV ratings, fund-raising acumen, and how many radio stations one owns.

This is actually a really fascinating, even enlightening insight into religion for me.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 1 July 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

It goes hand in hand, really... it's the sorta good-with-the-bad (assuming you're a swaggering atheist) hand-in-hand that's been sorely missing from a lot of the bad-with-the-even-worse I've seen in some religious institutions/programs. In this case, go EEN!

Seeing "Veterans For Kerry" stickers everywhere, and also talking to rabidly neo-con gay guys, anything is possible these days.

I remember seeing a car that had a "Go VEGAN!" bumper sticker along with a Jesus fish when I first moved here, thinking, "hmmm... well, that's not too surprising after all, isn't it. How come I never saw this before in southern California?"

― donut e- (donut), Friday, 1 July 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

...not sure why this is so surprising. Jesus Freaks have been living on communes in VT for ages. Remember all those kids with puff-paint elk/eagle/loon sweatshirts in High School? Yeah, those kids.

We need a lot more groups like this, frankly. I'm pro gay neo-con, pro EEN, pro gun-toting vegan. Anything to break down this stupid bipolarity that is destroying this country.

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 1 July 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

...not sure why this is so surprising.

well, it's not really surprising per se, but as has been mentioned on all the other threads, too many vocal groups affliated with religion have been nothing but radically conservative policy fronts...

this is slightly different.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 1 July 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

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