Last modified: Saturday, February 20, 2010 11:56 PM CST

Cooperation among faiths focus of Earth Care conference

By LIZ SWITZER. The Daily News, lswitzer@bgdailynews.com/783-3240

A conference on environmental stewardship Saturday in Bowling Green attracted a strong cross section of educators, spiritual leaders, conservationists and concerned citizens. During the area’s first public dialogue on sustainability, attendees called for cooperation among faith communities in the creation of a platform for local green initiatives as well as stronger public policy on the issue.

The Interfaith Dialogue on Earth Care, part of Western Kentucky University’s Community Religious Literacy Project, was hosted by the university, area churches and community organizations to examine four world faiths - Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism - in the context of how they relate to care of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Through the practices and beliefs of each, it is possible to find common ground and form constructive alliances as a means to save the planet, similar to the way churches organized against social injustice during the civil rights movement to finally bring about real change, said Peter Connolly, pastor of Bowling Green’s Unitarian Universalist Church.

“Environmental degradation is a social injustice that is pervasive, and we are all involved in it,” said Tim Darst, executive director of Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light, the state arm of a national group that encourages environmental awareness and ecological practices in residences and places of worship.

“But people of faith can bring hope” and a positive message to what often seems to be an overwhelmingly negative problem by encouraging others, he said. “Martin Luther King Jr. never said, ‘I have a nightmare.’ ”

“Religion is a very powerful motivator,” said Scott Aikin, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. “Religion can be very useful, but it can also stand in the way unless we find our common ground.”

Many attendees expressed concern about the lack of education and awareness on ecological issues in the Bowling Green community. Kentucky is one of the worst contributors to global warming with its coal industry, and that has to change, Darst said.

Several members of the Mammoth Cave chapter of the Sierra Club also attended the conference in an effort to re-energize the organization here, Co-chairwoman Eleanor Bower said. “We are here today because we want to network with other groups and get active in Bowling Green with caring for our Earth.

“This is a very, very positive step in that direction.”

Bower, who is new to the area, said the club has not had a very active history and she wants to change that. In trying to re-energize the club and locate local members, Bower said she was discouraged at first and had to obtain a member roster from the state Sierra Club office only to find that the Mammoth Cave chapter actually had 242 active, dues-paying members. “There are people here who care about the Earth,” she said.

“Ecological choices are value choices,” said WKU Islamic studies professor Scott Girdner, adding that church groups offer real networks as a practical means to bring about change in ecological practices on a massive scale.

Organized religion throughout the local community as well as the nation’s 300,000 houses of worship can be an effective tool for mobilizing sustainable ideologies, said Dr. Ngay Morsi, a Bowling Green physician and representative of the Islamic Center.

“We may have some ideological differences, but we have 90 percent common ground from what I’ve heard here today,” he told the group.

Conference organizers collected names of those interested in establishing a formal interfaith organization here with plans to follow up on the calls for action, including upcoming Earth Day events in April. The group is considering a formal alliance with Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light, which has chapters in Owensboro, Lexington and Louisville, conference planners said.

Saturday’s Interfaith Dialogue on Earth Care was sponsored by the Community Religious Literacy Project, the WKU Office of Sustainability, the WKU Provost’s Initiative for Excellence Grant, WKU Departments of Biology, Philosophy, Religion, Geography, Geology and Sociology, the Potter College of Arts and Letters, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, College of Health and Human Services, Graduate Studies, BGGreen, Southern Recycling, Islamic Center, Holy Spirit Catholic Church, The Presbyterian Church, State Street United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist Church, State Street Baptist Church, First Christian Church and Christ Episcopal Church.

Alex Slitz/Daily News The Rev. Raymond Goetz (from left), of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, leads a panel discussion Saturday with Pia Antolic, a Western Kentucky University associate professor of philosophy, WKU Sustainability Coordinator Christian Ryan-Downing, Unitarian Universalist Church Pastor Peter Connolly and Dr. Ngay Morsi, a physician and representative of the Islamic Center.