With community gardens, covenants to reduce emissions and new programs to promote local foods, local churches are hopping on the bandwagon and going green.
David McDuffie, a teaching assistant in the religious studies department, talked to a group of students and professors Tuesday in Hanes Hall about some of the ways Christians are “greening religion.”
“There is a lot of desire to do things that are going to be healthy for the environment,” he said.
McDuffie contrasted this movement with a passage from Genesis 1:28 instructing mankind to “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
He said previous generations have used this passage to justify abuse or neglect of the environment during industrial pursuits, but that many modern Christians are turning away from that view.
He specifically mentioned how The Chapel of the Cross on Franklin Street recently celebrated its second-annual “creation cycle,” when the church holds events and sermons geared toward sustainability.
This year the congregation blessed a chicken and a full-grown horse named John in front of the altar before leading them out of the sanctuary.
The blessings were intended to show the congregation that animals deserve treatment equal to humans, McDuffie said.
Religious studies professor Zlatko Plese said he visited a church in Rome that was having pet sermons as far back as 1999.
