Environmentalism:
The New National Religion?

by Margaret Maxey, PhD

It merits our undivided attention that Fenton Communications (which orchestrated the Alar scare and scam) announced in June 1999 the ten-year objectives of its $15 million campaign to implement the goals dictated by the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). Officially established in 1993, the NRPE is comprised of four "partners"—

• the U.S. National Catholic Conference,
• the National Council of Churches of Christ,
• the Coalition on the Environmental and Jewish Life, and
• the Evangelical Environmental Network.

In preparation for Earth Day 1996, private foundations had already provided NRPE with a budget of $4.5 million with which to distribute thousands of "Environmental Awareness Kits." The NRPE’s Secretariat in New York provides strategic planning under the executive directorship of Paul Gorman who claims that "caring for creation is a fundamentally religious imperative that transcends denominational differences and partisan politics."

Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, accurately observes that—despite such disclaimers—the NRPE and Fenton Communications are in fact pursuing an overt political agenda signaling the emergence of a modern political theology which is attempting to link religion, statist politics, and environmental extremism. This linkage seeks to acquire legitimacy under the mantle of a "confession of environmental sins" whereby humans repent for having violated nature’s once-pristine condition present in God’s Act ofCreation of a Sacred Earth. The NRPE distributes a liturgy which expresses not only the extent to which humans are responsible for having corrupted God’s Sacred Earth, but also a dramatic form of repentance:

"God’s creation is being abused and violated. . . [The Biblical reference to] having ‘dominion over the earth’ is used to exploit and destroy the earth. . . . We use more than our share of earth’s resources. We are responsible for massive pollution of earth, water, and sky." In response to this sweeping confession, the congregation is supposed to chant: "We are killing the earth. . . . We are killing the waters. . . . We are killing the skies."

To the uninitiated, it is mere coincidence that in 1992 Vice President Al Gore became a widely-recognized spokesman for the national goals of environmentalism when he published Earth in the Balance. His readers learn that "the more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual."

According to the Gospel according to Gore, God’s creation of Earth renders it Sacred, and by intruding on its "wildness" and "naturalness" we are guilty of a violation of the divine. Mr. Gore insists that we must reassess our spiritual place in the universe primarily by renewing "a connection"—not to God nor to other people—but to the "natural world." Anthropocentrism must be replaced by Biocentrism.

Gore’s "Sacred Earth" argument is the cornerstone of his central organizing principle for civilization in the New World Order—i.e. to make "the rescue of the environment" paramount by "embarking on an all-out effort to use every policy and program, every law and institution, every treaty and alliance, every tactic and strategy, every plan and course of action—to use, in short, every means to halt the destruction of the environment and to preserve and nurture our ecological system." (p. 274)

Since we now live immersed in a secular culture, we should not be surprised to see the revival of old forms of pagan earth worship and sentimental pantheism. Druid beliefs and practices have their modern counterparts. Earth worship in the form of Gaia was revitalized by James Lovelock two decades ago. In Gaian theory, Earth itself is conceived as an autonomous superorganism—living, breathing, and divine—whose forests and oceans are vital lungs which need protection and healing, as do endangered species of plants and animals. Mineral extractions are vilified as a "rape of the Earth."

Respect and reverence for God’s creation is not only right and proper, but it is forever to be distinguished not only from a worship of false gods, but also from the replacement of God by an exaltation of Goddess Earth as the center of adoration.

The extent to which Environmentalism has become a New National Religion unto itself may appear to be a harmless exercise of religious freedom.This is far from the case. Our nation’s policy makers and opinion leaders must be held accountable for an overdue reassessment of an entire array of consequential legislation and executive orders that, either by design or by default, are in fact a violation of the separation required by theConstitution prohibiting the legalized authority of any established religion from becoming vested with the powers of the State. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 derives its legal legitimacy and political power from a virtual divinization of animals, plants and even rocks. Consequently its strict interpretation by the court system has entailed a legalized usurpation of private property.

The Wildlands Project implementing Agenda 21’s Convention on Biodiversity (a treaty awaiting Senate ratification) would require that our 50 states be replaced with 21 "bioregions" from which all human activity has been removed and sequestered into urban enclaves practicing "smart growth."

By executive order of President Clinton, the Clean Water Action Program claims that all watershed territories (aka the entire U.S. land masses) now fall under federal government jurisdiction and regulation. Official adoption of "environmental education" amounts to biased advocacy and establishment within public school systems of the new Green Religion— teaching the fundamental premise that all human ecological "footprints" are negative in their intention and effects. These legalized interpretations of laws and policies are egregiousindicators of how extensively the alleged "sacred and inviolable rights"of animals, plants and even rocks and minerals have been used to trump the inalienable and constitutionally-guaranteed rights of human beings.

Once the entire spectrum of environmental laws and regulations enacted since 1969 become reassessed through the corrective lens of a New National Religion in operation, we have reason to hope that the fruits of false worship will at last become revealed, repealed, and the genius of our Founding Fathers once again vindicated.

Suggested Reading: The Rise of Global Green Religion by Henry Lamb. Available from ECO (Environmental Conservation Organization), P. O. Box 191, Hollow Rock, TN 38342. Phone: 901-986-0099; Fax: 901-986-2299.

January 27, 2000

Dr. Margaret N. Maxey is Director of the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise, College of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. This article was prepared for Mining Voice and used here with permission.