Ecology in the Church
Library
Ecology in the Church
by Fred Krueger
College textbooks define ecology as the science of how organisms interact with each other and their physical environment. While this sounds simple and non-threatening, when ecology comes into the Church, it becomes a means for examining and testing the integrity of the systems and institutions that we humans create. As an example of how this happens, in the 1960s, biologist Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, a landmark book which documented how pesticides were killing songbirds. This narration about the deadly effects of pesticides shocked millions of people into awareness of the dangerous side effects of DDT and other toxic chemicals. Because of the unexpected consequences of pesticides on birds and humans – causing birth defects and sterility – a critique developed of modern chemical agriculture and eventually DDT was banned. Over time this critique stretched out to include the causes of chronic environmentally-related diseases, the effects of food additives, and the negative implications of nuclear power. Academic ecologists saw that ecology had broad, previously unappreciated social implications because it critiqued the applications of science and technology. This has led to monitoring of air quality, water purity, food cleanliness, and more recently the fields of bio-economics (the effect of economic systems on populations) and bio-ethics (the examination of genetic engineering and stem cell research among other concerns). Once ecology comes into the Church, it becomes an examination and critique of how our human creations hold together and in particular the attitudes and values that cause either the upbuilding of society or its degradation and downfall. Ecology in this way documents the effects that our actions have on the earth and on one another, and it calls us into behavior that looks at the long term consequences of the choices that we make. With the rapid expansion of science and technology in society, ecology in the Church is an inevitable consequence of the extension of human power and the need for the Church to establish criteria to discern what is right and what is wrong in the explosion of technological options for civilization. Therefore HAH the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew now tells us, “pollution is a sin.” For us in the Orthodox Church ecology offers an unparalleled opportunity to showcase the great depth of our doctrines of creation and to take the lead in promoting the historic understanding of the transfiguration of creation as a key to solving our world’s growing and serious ecological problems.