For God So Loved the World

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The bishops’ letter is remarkably sweeping and specific. The authors advocate selective, sustainable timber harvests; support of family farms and industrial co-ops through reform of banking policies and government regulations; energy conservation and the use of wind and solar power to supplement the maxed-out grid; restriction of all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles to established roads; decent wages, health care, and education for workers; and honoring treaties with local tribes. Saving the watershed’s salmon is at the top of their list of priorities, but even they can’t decide whether to breach the four lower Snake River dams.

'People’s concern for salmon as creatures of God should be linked to their concern for fishers, who are also children of God,' the letter reads. Lest they give the impression of decreeing from on high, the bishops vow to get their own houses in order, too. Parish gardeners, for example, have been encouraged to limit their use of fertilizers, pesticides, and lawn sprinklers.

The letter sounds downright utopian at times; would that we all lived in a world with ecofriendly mining, plentiful salmon, bountiful harvests, high wages, and responsible lawn care. But because of the church’s long record of serving human needs, the letter may prove to be one of the more influential documents in the history of the American West. 'We aren’t the parts-per-million people, but we can point people in a new direction,' says Walt Grazer, director of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Environmental Justice Program and co-editor of And God Saw That It Was Good: Catholic Theology and the Environment. 'The bishops are saying there’s a link between social and natural ecology. People are a part of their environment; it’s not something separate from them.'

Grazer’s statement reflects the unique ability of the Catholic Church to speak to both parties: making one side aware of the precarious ecological state they’re living in; telling the other that the environment is not a hallowed realm off-limits to humans. Indeed, the bishops’ statement seems to say that Jesus is coming, but until then, humankind and the earth are inextricably linked; if one fails, so will the other.

Bruce Barcott is the author of The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier (Sasquatch Books, 1997). From Outside (March 2001). Subscriptions: $18/yr. (12 issues) from Box 7785, Red Oak, IA 51591.

Discuss ecoreligion at the Spirit conference in Cafe Utne: cafe.utne.com

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