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    103 views5 pages

    Stewards of Earth Merged

    Uploaded by

    api-286316754

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    AR TRG nn ener Omen ER rue ee Paar CCL doer OB Ae aan site TUR Ua cco con ae eet UT ee TR eS NCR eT thot snaied through mountains and desert washes, we sat by streams, we skippod rocks across lakes. & In al this outdoors experience my parents tanght just one ethic: Always leave a place better than you found it. & A simple enough rufe but it changed a few smull things in the world, I've never counted how many pieces of tralside trash my mother has quietly slipped ino her pocket, nor the pop-tops and cigarette butts ‘ve cleared from campsites, nor the lowers we've leit unpicked, + Midian ees more, we grew up feeling a sense iy toward the earth, spiritual connection with God's creation, And nov in the mountains, when I see my fourteenyear old daughter grow quiet and walk away to sit alone for awhile, I koow she feels i to. 1 thinks we all feel it, we children of the God ‘who pronounced His creation good. Environmentalist, That's @ word so emo tion charged to many people that I hesitate 10 use it. Itconjures up images of the whole unsetdled upheaval ofthe Sixties, of people Iying before bulldozers or of boats coming between whaling ships and their pres. Maybe I should use a different term, like ‘Stewards othe Earth, or Earthkeepers. But terminology doesn't matter, really. What matters is that the people we call env ronmeataliss are net alone in their ep love forthe eacih. There isa thread of “environ- mentalism” that runs deep and strong in our religion T's & value that sometimes gets lost in ‘modern lie, Buta spiritual eonnecton with the earth is at the heart, really, of Mor- rmonism. We Mormons have felt Bnoch’s bit terness of soul, we have heard him weeping forthe earth’ pans, we have heard the earth cry, "Wo, wo is me, the mother of men, Tam pained, I am weary, because of the wicked- ness of my children, When shall Tres, and be cleansed fm the fithiness whichis gone forth out of me? What an astonishing, even revolutionary, pasage of seripure tut i) There's current ly a scientific theory—the Gaia theory—that the earth is 2 complete and living organism, “Most scientists scoff at that. But the concept of the earth as alving creation has been a part of Mormon philosophy from the frst. Brigham Young called the earth our mother, and said, "There is fie in all matter, ‘throughout the vast extent of all the eter ties This in the rock, the sand, the dust, the water, the aie” Echoing the earth's own grosnings, he taught that pollution is not just a physica) problem, but a spiritual one. “You are here eummencing anew” he tld the sels inthe It Lake Valley. “The soil, the ait, the water are all pure and healthy. Do net suffer them to become polluted with wickedness, Stive to preserve the elements from being contami nated by the Bllby wicked conduct and say- ings of those who pervert the intelligence God fas bestowed upon the man family” Brother Brigham’s reverence for le and for all of ereation went far beyond the norms ot his day, He told the brethren during the trek West to kill ony the buffalo needed for food—when in later years bufialo hunters would liter the plains with the careasses ‘Das Peowte ‘elle for sport. He admonished the Saints to be particularly earful not io set the pratie or ‘woods on fire. At the 185) 24th of July cele bration at Brighton, he himself remained bebind as darkness fe, the last 0 leave, to malke sure the fires had been well extin- guished. Contvast this withthe eareless ate tudes ofthe time, Mark Twain in Roughing It fells how he purposely set the forest ablaze snd then sat in a canoe on Lake Tahoe—a front cow seat—co watch the awesame specta: ‘eat fre destroying everything in sight ‘Hugh Nibley says that Brigham Young ‘was uid in is views of nature by a con stant awareness of being in the presence of the Divine. To the Brighton pienickers he ssid “Here are the stupendous works of the God of Nature, though all do not appreciate His wisdom as manifested in his works... ‘oul sit here for a month and reflect on the mercies of God” ‘That I can understand. ‘The mountains have always been a symbol of Gol, They seem bathed in His presence. But there's ore about Brigham Young's attitudes that are harderto relate to, Crickets or insta Brigham seemed to reverence even crick ets, He told the saints, “Last season when the ‘grasshoppers cane on my erops, I said, ‘Nib ‘ble away, I may as well feed yon as to have ny neighbors do its Thave sown plenty, and you have not raised any yourselves.” And ‘when the harvest came you woul not Tave ‘known that there had been a grasshopper there” Some years later, he said, “According to present appearances, next year [1868] we Imay expect grasshoppers to eat up neaty all ‘our crops, But if we have provisions enough to last us another year, we can say to the srasshoppers—aihese creatures of God—yoru are woleome. I have never had a feeling 10 die them from one plant in my garden; but Took upon ther 2 the armies ofthe Loed.” [can't quite comprehend that degree of reverence for creation, And yet there is Principle hereof the sort tha holy men aod ‘women abide by, and that someday maybe I, to, might be haly enotgh to fallow. {find that principle echoed in the ives and statements of other holy people. We have, for instance, the story of the snakes Joseph Smith found during tne Zion's Camp ‘march, When the brethren wanted to Kill them, Joseoh forbade it, saving thatthe Tion would never lie down with the Iamb xi “pen lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destray the animal race." Joseph F Smith longed for that day. “When I visited, afew years ago, the Yellow stone National Park, and saw in the streams ‘nd the best lakes, birds swing que God never gave us the right to exploit the earth. The LDS Church teaches that stewardship, not domination, ts mankind’ charge. fearless of man..and when T saw droves of Dental deer feeding] along the sie of the roa, as earless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, eed my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost 2 foretaste of that period hoped for ‘wien there shal be none to hurt and none to ‘molest i ll the land... never could see why ‘aman should be imbued with a bloodthirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life.” ‘That’ all very well forthe saints to hear 80 years azo, but when Spencer W. Kimball spoke tp this issue in modern times, 2 shock ran theough the Church, President Rimbsll prefeced the hunting season of 1978 with same direct words “Nov, [also would like to aid some of my feclings concerning tt unnecessary shedding of blood and destruc. tion of life-It isnot only wicked to destroy [innocent birds), itis ashame, in my opinion. | think that this prneiple should extend not only o the bird life but to the ie of all ani mals” President Kimballs concern forthe envi ronment was even broader and deeper, "Those of us who listened to the general con. erences ofthe 70s knew we would escape ‘without hearing President Kimball plead for 1 to fix up, clean up, beautify our properties. “We recommend to all people thet there be ‘no uncle pollution,” he said, “thatthe land be taken care of and kept clean, productive, and Deautifal” Clean up, fi up, Beautify: these are prop: er aims in a religion that teaches that all things are ade “forthe benefit and the use ‘of man, both to plese the eye and tn gladien the heart; yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, ta steengthen the body and to enliven the soul” Note that eye and heart come first, Beauty and joy are not ‘mere byproducts of nature, of value only to “tnadstool worshippes.”_ Nor is the world’s ‘bounty only for our bodily comfort itis for ‘ur sos as well Religion sometimes get a bad rap when it comes to the environment. Many waiters have blamed certain Judeo Christian teal ings for the vast environmental destruction that currently faces us. They say, for instance, that Adam's God-given dominion ‘over ereation has been used as justification for exploitation But God never gave us the right to exploit the earth, The LDS Church terches that stewardship, not damination, is mankind's charge. Beigham Young taught that steward ship means responsibilty for improvernent. *Progeess, and improve upon, and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth and cultivate your minds. Build ‘tes, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon Your labours you may do so with pleasure, ‘and that angels may delight to come and visi your beautiful ations” ‘The Western concept of property rights has also een blamed for environmental destruction, But the principles of steward ship and consecration teach that nothing ‘belongs to us; it belongs to God, and we are to share equally. ugh Nibley points out that Joseph Smith hanged the name of Commerce, ions, to Nauvoo, “the Beaute” and rebuked speew Jators at Far West: “Brethren, we are gah ered to this beautiful land to build up on... since Thave ees. here [have pee cvived the spirit of selishuess...}ere are those beginning to spread out, buying up all, the land they are able to, fo the exclusion of the poorer ones who are not so much blessed vith the world’s goes thinking to ay fou ations for themselves, only looking to thelr snvidual families and those who ate to fle Jow thes.” This tatement indicts me, How often are any choices based on the bereft to my own ‘smal family, without weighing the effects on the larger world? And yet my calling a3 & ‘Christian demands more thooght, more con sciousness of the effets of my ations, ‘Again, the ezrih s threatzned by another “ modern precept: the gioriGation of profit Beck in the ‘5s, economists predicted that the emercing techology would free people la work two: and three-day weeks. The remaining time could be spent, presurbly, ‘on education, recreation, self-betterment, helo, ‘What no one foresaw then was the ability ‘of industry and marketing to create in con ‘sumers an almost endless appesite for acquis ‘ions, an appetite that would dive ws to work Drarder than ever. New inventions, new cn veniences, new fashions, new toys: Ithas Become necessary to acquire the latest. That ‘which no longer ices our fancy, we discard, to jin the heaps of trash in our overtlowing dumps. All this ignores yet another LDS serpture: “But its not given that one man should pos- se35 that which is shove another, wherefore the word eth in sin” The world lieth in sin. ‘That's true ‘enough, and easy enough to see, But what ‘we don't always pay attention to is whet i the cotrelary of sin: the destruction ofthe env ronment ‘We know that #19 billion tons of carbon dioxide were spewed into the atmosphere in 1989, exacer- bating a predicted warming trend with ive versie and longterm damaging effects ‘An immense and unfixable ozone “hole” “It is as if someone had scrimped and saved his entire life anal then spent every- thing on one femtastic week's debauch.” ‘peas up over the South Pole esch fll, per mitting harmful radiation to reach the earth “Acid rain sling northern hemisphere forest, streams and lales ‘40 million acres of forests are lost yearly due to logging, fuel gathering, catle ranch ing, snd eroplnds, ‘Due to wopieal deforestation at the cur rent rate of 76,000 acres per day we can ‘expect, over the next 30 years an average of 100 species/ay to go extinet—along with the loss of mach of the earths capacity to eon vert carbon dioxide to lifegiving oxygen. ‘While the world’s population has mare than tripled inthis century, industrial produc tion and consumption has grown fiyfld in that same length of time, ‘As William McKibben writes, “tis as if someone had serimped and saved his entire lie and then spent everything on one fantas- tie week's debauch.” Some have accuse! Mormons, along with ‘other Christin groups, with being uncon- ‘corned with this frantic debauch. “In the [modern] Mormon mine,” writes Don Snow, “the earth as we know it isa temporary sate ‘of alfairs, soon to be cleansed ina ‘twining fof an eye" by the Redeemer. If indusiry smukces a mess of air and watersheds, thats of Title consequence” ‘And yet it is of consequenee—to Mor- mons perhaps more than anyone. For aithough our tenth Article of Faith teaches thal when Christ return, “the earth il be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.” wwe are not absolved of our responsibility to be part of the process that brings that hapoy event to pass. In MeKibben's frightening words, mankind has become *God’s equal, or at Teast, His rival—able to destroy creatiun.” Bat Brigham Young would haw us tur from being God's rival, and instead work with Him: “Salar never owned the earth; he never made a particle of i: is labor is aot to cre- ate, but to destroy, while, on the other hand, the labor ofthe Son of God is to create, pre- serve, purify, build up and cxalt all things—be earth and is falness—to his stan ard of grestness and perfection. “Lot the people be holy, and the earth under thee feet wil be holy. Let the people be boly, ad fled with the Spet of Gd, and every animal and creeping thing will be filled with peace; the snil of the earth will bring forth in its strength, and the fruits thereof vel be meal for man* ‘A woman T met only receatly mused oa the state of affairs where technology has rade us Go's rival, “In our religion,” she said, “we know that God created us to ‘become gods. Is just happenicg a lite eal Seve 1980 certhan we thought itwould. And we need to >be alle more urgent about it" In other ‘words, that future paradisiacal word is not something we can sit around tviddling our ‘thumbs and waiting for, itis for us, in com cert with the powers of heaven, to work toward. Some say thet technology, which created the problem, wi solve it, Thats fly com focting view, When T think in those terms, 1 sigh in rebel; [im absolve of any respons Dilty forthe indignities we have inflicted on the earth, But it aso seems a rather cavalier View, one that doesn't recognize God's erc- ation, ss He created it, 8 hebing any intrinsic ‘value. And it seems to inply that we ean con- tinue, headlong in our consuming ways. IF Tread the Book of Mormon right, those exces of pride and wickeviness and destruc- tion are not historical curiosities, They are Here, and now, and an a macro seale. AST write that, it sounds apocalyptic, hysterical almost. And yet where can endless material aulvancement lead us? ‘The profit motive, the drive for advance. meat over other humnan beings, is neither (Christan nor environmentally sound. “Ihave {old you a great many times" Heber C. Kime ‘all said, "that our falthfulness and goodness sand oneness would hive an effect upon the crops, [twill have aa effect upon our stock, and upon the earth, the ar, che mountain, Beauty and joy are not mere byproducts of nature, of value only to “toadstool worship- pers.” Nor is the world’s bounty only for our bodily comfort; tt is for our souls as well. the valeys; and that is aot all. it will extend to the uermost parts ofthe earth. There is nota branch that belongs to this kingdom but will feel the power. I know that by exper ence, hy knowledge, and by inteligener” have bombarded you with quotes. Tim sory, Ws just that etter poopie than have ‘thought co much more deeply about the earth, Tircasure my encounters with mature, whether casual or intense, but I haven't yet comme to terms with my Bfetyle and ts effects cn that nature, We inthe West can fel ther isolated from such issues as acid rain and tropical deforestation, We may not recognize that the greenhouse effect is already chang. ing the word. Bat our indifference must not take avay the spiritual hunger within us toe ‘ne with God and His creations; nor does absolve us of the duty—and privilege—to leave tis work better than we found it Tleave you with 0 more quotes, diverse in origi, yet remarkably similar in pit ‘The fis. rom Gordon B. Hinckley: “Here is declared the Creator ofall that is od and bezuifl, Thave locked al majestic mountains rising against a blue sky and ‘thought of Jesus, the creator of heaven and ‘earth, Ihave stood on spit of sand in the cic and watched the dawn rise like thu:

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