Why are there no other faith traditions (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American, et al) in the Partnership?
The Partnership was established in 1993 on the foundation of a shared biblical perspective. At our origin, we were able to take advantage of long-standing institutional relationships between Jewish and Christian organizations in the United States, which facilitated undertaking what has been a complex new mission for all of us.
We respect the concern and care for creation shown by other faiths and wisdom traditions. Programs sponsored by our partner groups at the local and regional level frequently invite and include representatives of other faith communities, as well as people with no immediate religious affiliation. But ours is an effort rooted in biblical faith.
Does the Partnership take positions on public policy?
The Partnership is an association of independent faith groups, each of which addresses public issues from its own teachings and within its own organizations. We document the richness of these perspectives in our sections on “Statements and Activities” and “Issues.”
The Partnership itself takes no positions on legislation (and certainly does not “lobby”). Our role is to address the terms and tone of public debate. We seek to identify religious and ethical issues which arise in policy debate: the moral obligations arising from humankind’s ability now to significantly alter Earth’s global commons; the challenge of linking social justice and environmental protection; the complex struggle between the rights of private property and the needs of common habitats; the distinctiveness of the human being and the interests of other creatures; the need to secure livelihood from nature and, at the same time, assure an ample legacy for future generations; the importance of preserving open and quiet space for replenishment of human spirit. For us, clarity about such challenging moral issues is a requisite for wise and prudent policy.
What kinds of relationships do you have with environmental organizations?
Many people of faith belong to environmental organizations, and many environmentalists have rich religious lives. Love of the natural world binds humans together. Religious faith and secular affiliation intersect throughout American society.
The Partnership’s primary mission, however, is to explore the religious and moral dimensions of a crisis in God’s creation at the hands of God’s children. Our goal is not to create a movement, launch a campaign, or write public policy, but rather, to discern and affirm values which can help guide all those who are working for environmental sustainability and justice, and in all arenas of public life.
We honor the contributions of scientists who have discovered and documented threats to our environment. (In May 2004 — in a quite unprecedented action motivated by deep concern about climate change — senior religious leaders across an extraordinarily broad spectrum recently joined eminent scientists in a statement, "Earth's Climate Embraces Us All.")
But care for the environment is arising distinctively within all major sectors of society: religion, science, commerce, labor, agriculture, education, technology, non-governmental organization, the arts and letters. The causes of environmental degradation lie deep within human understanding, behavior and social organization, and the contributions of every human discipline are necessary to reverse it.
We seek therefore to make a contribution by being religious, by being true to our scriptures, faith, and teachings and understanding them afresh in light of current circumstance. We seek to make a contribution by being faithful to God.
Can people become members of the Partnership?
We offer here no new religion or religious organization. Ours is an alliance to facilitate efforts to care for God’s creation within venerable and independent faith communities — whose theological perspectives and rich opportunities for engagement are documented throughout this website.
How do the partner groups collaborate or work together?
As we set our foundations and have moved forward, we have resolved “to walk together, separately” and “to be ourselves, together.” The Partnership is a spacious, inclusive work in progress.
Many ecumenical or interfaith efforts have found it practicable to establish organizational infrastructure and extensive declarations of policy. The Partnership, however, was established at a moment (we are still in it!) when religious life and faith groups were only beginning to engage an environmental crisis of largely unprecedented scale, cause, and meaning. It was and is inevitable and appropriate that different denominations begin to address this challenge from deep within their own distinctive teachings and traditions. Each would make its own unique contributions to the larger effort. Such productive diversity, some have said, is an attribute of God’s creation itself.
At many levels, however, representatives of our partner groups have consulted, studied, and prayed together. We have set common objectives of theological inquiry, scholarship, leadership training, congregational initiative, and public policy education. In many respects, considering the global environmental challenge, we are at the very outset of a new chapter in human endeavor, religious life, civilization, our species itself.
Who sets the policies and oversees the administration of the Partnership?
The member organizations of the Partnership define their own religious and public policy stances, set their own agendas, and determine their own programmatic approaches. When it comes to defining common objectives and undertaking collaborative projects, the policies of the Partnership are set by its Board of Trustees, which comprises the leaders of major Jewish and Christian religious, educational, and public policy organizations. Administration of the Partnership is carried out by the Secretariat, based in Amherst, Massachusetts, which provides communications, fund-raising, and program support for the Partnership groups.
Why has the religious community been slow to address environmental issues?
The religious community has long been active in areas involving humanity’s relationship to nature that have not always been labeled “environmental issues”: rural ministry, hunger and nutrition, public health and worker safety, livable communities, the uses and abuses of technology, the threat posed by nuclear weapons, and so on. Aspects and elements of the natural world have played conspicuous roles in their ceremonies, prayers, hymns, teachings, and religious imagery for millennia.
On the other hand, as “the environmental movement” has taken shape, religious communities have often not been fully engaged, or have maintained a critical distance. In part, this reflects the persistence of some elements in their traditions that have taken a negative view of the natural world as spiritually dangerous, distracting or irrelevant. Another factor is that many religious persons have been so enmeshed in modern technological culture that they have had a hard time questioning the assumption that the earth is merely an inexhaustible warehouse and waste sink for human projects.
In addition, religious communities tend to be deeply conservative. Before adopting new ideas or programs, they subject them to rigorous testing to make sure they do not violate or compromise essential values and beliefs -- and that takes time. These cautious, critical tendencies have only been reinforced when some environmental advocates have taken what strike religious persons as extreme positions, or have seemed insensitive to desperate human needs, or have blamed biblical religion as the source of all our environmental ills. Finally, leaders of religious communities are sharply aware of the limits of their time, energy and money in the face of the world’s overwhelming suffering and need. They have sometimes felt that they lack the institutional resources or the expertise to add environmental issues to their agendas.
Yet, in spite of all these obstacles, religious communities have forcefully and creatively addressed contemporary environmental challenges in the last few decades. The extensive documentation and linkages on this website show something of the range and depth of Christian and Jewish engagement with issues of conservation, pollution, and environmental restoration. Across the religious spectrum, care for creation is acknowledged as a non-negotiable component of what it means to be religious today. Our hope is that the materials presented here will provide enlightenment, encouragement, and inspiration to all who care deeply about our planet as a home to life and as a legacy to future generations.
