www.religionandecology.org,
January 17, 2007
Scientists and Evangelicals
Unite
to Protect Creation
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
Summary
Scientific and evangelical leaders recently met to search for
common ground in the protection of the creation. We happily discovered
far more concordance than any of us had expected, quickly moving
beyond dialogue to a shared sense of moral purpose. Important
initiatives were already underway on both sides, and when compared
they were found to be broadly overlapping. We clearly share a
moral passion and sense of vocation to save the imperiled living
world before our damages to it remake it as another kind of planet.
We agree not only that reckless human activity has imperiled the
Earth-especially the unsustainable and short-sighted lifestyles
and public policies of our own nation-but also that we share a
profound moral obligation to work
together to call our nation, and other nations, to the kind of
dramatic change urgently required in our day. We pledge our joint
commitment to this effort in the unique moment now upon us.
Background
This meeting was convened by the Center for Health and the Global
Environment at Harvard Medical School and the National Association
of Evangelicals. It was envisioned as a first exploratory conference,
based on a shared concern for the creation, to be held among people
who were in some ways quite different in their worldviews. It
now seems to us to be the beginning point of a major shared effort
among scientists and evangelicals to protect life on Earth and
the fragile life support systems that sustain it, drawing on the
uniquei ntellectual, spiritual, and moral contributions that each
community can bring.
Our Shared Concern
We agree that our home, the Earth, which comes to us as that inexpressibly
beautiful and mysterious gift that sustains our very lives, is
seriously imperiled by human behavior. The harm is seen throughout
the natural world, including a cascading set of problems such
as climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and species
extinctions, as well as the spread of human infectious diseases,
and other accelerating threats to the health of people and the
well-being of societies. Each particular problem could be enumerated,
but here it is enough to say that we are gradually destroying
the sustaining community of life on which all living things on
Earth depend. The costs of this destruction are already manifesting
themselves around the world in profound and painful ways. The
cost to humanity is already significant and may soon become incalculable.
Being irreversible, many of these changes would affect all generations
to come. We believe that the protection of life on Earth is a
profound moral imperative. It addresses without discrimination
the interests of all humanity as well as the value of the non-human
world. It requires a new moral awakening to a compelling demand,
clearly articulated in Scripture and supported by science, that
we must steward the natural world in order to preserve for ourselves
and future generations a beautiful, rich, and healthful environment.
For many of us, this is a religious obligation, rooted in our
sense of gratitude for Creation and reverence for its Creator.
One fundamental motivation that we share is concern for the poorest
of the poor, well over a billion people, who have little chance
to improve their lives in devastated and often war-ravaged environments.
At the same time, the natural environments in which they live,
and where so much of Earth's biodiversity barely hangs on, cannot
survive the press of destitute people without other resources
and with nowhere else to go. We declare that every sector of our
nation's leadership-religious, scientific, business, political,
and educational-must act now to work toward the fundamental change
in values, lifestyles, and public policies required to address
these worsening problems before it is too late. There is no excuse
for further delays. Business as usual cannot continue yet one
more day. We pledge to work together at every level to lead our
nation toward a responsible care for creation, and we call with
one voice to our scientific and evangelical colleagues, and to
all others, to join us in these efforts.
