soft options

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 14, 2009

Chris Johnson brings our attention to some eco-gushing at the Anglican Communion web site:

Our faith and our ancestors have always taught us that the earth is our mother and deserves respect; we know that this respect has not been given. We know that like a mother the earth will continue to give its all to us.

Wrong. Their ancestors may have taught them the falsehood; their faith certainly didn't. Already in 1908 G.K. Chesterton had nailed it (from Orthodoxy, chapter VII):

The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate.

Why do post-Christians turn back to the earth mother cult? Because the Christian life is hard, while the pagan life is easy: lacking any obligation more stern than the feelings of the moment, nature religion never squeezes 'til it hurts. It's like a table-vise with one jaw. That makes it especially attractive to those disaffected with Church teaching on sexual integrity, or truth-telling, or keeping promises. Think of a man torn by the urge to cheat on an exam or defraud an employee or dump his wife for a newer model. Has anyone ever refused to give in to the temptation because Mother Earth forbade it?