Faith, Too, Affects the Environment

Theologians and academics say the world's major religions have failed to provide leadership in defending nature.

MILAN - Religion can play a key role in sustainable development, either encouraging or thwarting it, said experts meeting last week in Italy, re-igniting the old debate on faith as an alienating or liberating force.

It is clear that ''religions did not do enough in the past, and that they failed to urge humankind to defend nature,'' Antje Heider-Rottwilm, a pastor with the German Evangelical Church (EKD), told Tierramérica.

''Religions and Cultures: The Courage of a New Humanism'' was the theme of the meeting held Sep. 5-7 in the northern Italian city of Milan, which drew Heider-Rottwilm and other religious leaders and academics.

Says Andrea Masullo, environment director of the Italian branch of the World Wildlife Fund, there is no doubt that ''religions play a fundamental role in introducing ethical principles for lifestyles and the scientific and political decisions that can carry humanity towards sustainable development.''

Community development depends on integrated action that not only takes into account access to basic services, but also the environment and ethics, commented Daniele Bassi, professor at the University of Milan and participant in the roundtable discussion, ''Religion and social and environmental degradation''.

Degradation is reached ''when we lack educated people to conceive of reality as a relationship and not as an appropriation,'' he said.

But that relationship with the environment can also become harmful when extreme conservationist positions are held, such as rejecting technology so as not to alter nature, agreed some of the panel participants.

Such positions emerge from a logic of the elite and in exclusive circles of the ''neo-Malthusian'' ideology, which denies disadvantaged peoples access to well being, said Bassi.

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) put forth the theory that the global population should not surpass a certain number, determined by the availability of the means for survival, such as natural resources.

Bassi believes ''it is better to return to the Judeo-Christian tradition of the prophesy of Abraham,'' who was promised to be ''father of a multitude of peoples'', with offspring as numerous as the stars.

Jews and Christians see the environment as ''a home for human beings,'' while some conservationists ''reduce the question, treating it as if nature should defend itself from humans,'' he said.

But Lynn White, a professor from the U.S. University of California, wrote in her book ''The Historic Roots of Our Ecological Crisis'' that the Western world, based on the Judeo-Christian culture, sees Earth as something created only for the benefit of humans, and thus separates us from nature.

In contrast, religions like Buddhism treat humans as part of nature, while still others believe that every tree or mountain has a spirit, and should therefore be respected.

According to Islam, which has an integral view of matter and spirit, preserving natural resources is ''the duty of the community, on the national and global scale,'' but that is not enough, because above all ''we must promote development and a better life for all,'' professor Nadia Mahmoud Mostafa, of the University of Cairo, told Tierramérica.

The Hindu religion says humans must not try to dominate nature or take advantage of it, but rather maintain themselves in unity with their surroundings. But it is difficult to achieve this in India because of the social and economic troubles, said Swami Amaranandaji, president of the Ramakrishna Vedane center for social and religious studies.

For hundreds of years, the colonial powers of the West ''did not respect anything and tried to destroy our culture. Then, the question for us was survival. And since independence (1947) we have been trying to find our roots,'' said Amaranandaji.

One way to recuperate harmony with nature is the ''feast of the forest,'' a religious ceremony that entails planting trees and flowers, he added.

In the different religions, the final choice is ''to change our lifestyles and be contented with what nature gives us, or to become even bigger consumers and destroy creation,'' said the German pastor Heider-Rottwilm.

* Francesca Colombo is a Tierramérica contributor.