The religious community has a particular care for God's creatures. As stewards of Creation, we follow the example of Noah, who was commanded to save two animals of every species during the flood. Aside from the benefits that animals and plants can provide to us in medicine and companionship, every species is part of a fragile web of life that is necessary for sustaining our own survival, and the loss of a species is an irreparable blow to the balance of an entire ecosystem. As such, the religious community supports the protection and care of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act and through other forms of conservation.

Religious leaders from Michigan, Colorado, Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota joined together to urge the U.S. Congress to take action to protect endangered species and to counter attempts to undermine the Endangered Species Act. The letters followed a Blessing of the Animals event on Capitol Hill in October 2019.

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Faith in Action

Statements on Species Protection

• National denominations sent a letter to the House Committee on Natural Resources 
• Delaware religious leaders letter to Senator Carper.
• National Religious Partnership for the Environment's statement on the cottontail
• A letter from Christian leaders to the Obama administration on the sage grouse
• Creation Justice Ministries' statement on protection of the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem
• The Evangelical Environmental Network defended the Endangered Species Act as a modern-day "Noah's ark"
• The position of Reform Judaism on endangered species
• The Central Conference of American Rabbis' resolution on endangered species
• Faith statements against the illegal wildlife trade

More resources on various faith traditions' perspectives on animal care:

• Reform Judaism
• Conservative Judaism
• Orthodox Judaism
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church
• Roman Catholic Church
• Episcopal Church
• Southern Baptist
• Seventh-Day Adventist Church
• Presbyterian Church
• Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• Church of God in Christ
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Congregation in Action

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​In 2019 the Franciscan Renewal Center of Arizona accomplished the certification of their Monarch Butterfly Way station in partnership with the Great Milkweed Grow Out program at the Desert Botanical Gardens.  This way station provides a much needed pit stop for Monarch Butterflies during their yearly migration.  With Monarch butterflies being endangered, there is a great nee for them to have food along their journey.  In addition to getting certification of their way station, the Franciscan Renewal Center also sold 250 milkweed plants to members of the community effectually expanding the bounds of the monarch feeding in Arizona. ​

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