March
2008
Greening Religion
This article from The Boston Globe inspired today’s post. I wanted to share it before Lent was said and done!
I grew up in what some might consider a strict Catholic family.
I prayed the Rosary. Went to Confession. Participated in Lent.
For Lent, I dutifully gave up things like chocolate. Pop. Nintendo. (Food cravings were the hardest!)
Oh, the guilt! Ice cream was my mental nemesis.
But never did anyone suggest that I become a better recycler. Maybe I wasn’t listening, but I didn’t hear much reference to helping the environment with my 40 days of “fasting”.
Other religions and cultures have embraced the relationship between the earth and people for gazillions of years.
I first think of Native Americans. Living off the land. Respecting the power of the earth.
What about Buddhists and reincarnation? “Love your trees, you could be one someday.”
Apparently it’s becoming more prominent for Christians to “go green” for Lent. According to The Boston Globe article, there are now eco-friendly palm leaves. (Do you market something like that to a church? “Buy my palms! They’re environmentally sound!”)
So if you are a Lent participater, what habit would you choose to change to go green? (or “lime”, as it is, in my blog.)
Go Lime for Lent. I choose to take shorter showers. And you?
What an inspiring and thought provoking post.
As my family were never religious, Lent has never meant anything to me but if I were to give up something to make life ‘greener’ it would be meat. I don’t know whether you’ve read my post on the effects of livestock farming, especially cattle farming, but they’re a huge contributor to the carbon problem and it takes a lot of land to produce a few kilos of meat that could otherwise be used to grow vegetative foods that could feed the hungry instead.
I’m not religious either (and I was definitely never Catholic), but my loose convictions about giving up red meat will be loose no more! The environmental stuff is what encourages me to try, but I fail sometimes.
I don’t even like red meat, but I eat it whenever there’s free stuff at work (usually, someone makes chili and then fills the pot up with hamburger), or if my family makes taverns (basically sloppy joes).
I hereby give up red meat forever! (But, if it’s the environmental concerns mentioned by Sharon above that have convinced me, then I really ought to give up cheese (never!), and all other dairy, too. Dairy cows are just as dangerous to the environment as the meat ones.)
Indeed they are, Katie. I really should have mentioned that but it was my own steak ‘addiction’ that was foremost in my mind.
We’re never going to live in a perfect world but we can all do our best to at least ensure that the human race and the rest of the planet’s inhabitants survive and hopefully have a better life than the one we have now.
Good luck with giving up red meat
Sharon - I would like to review your post about the carbon required to produce our red meat. I could do without it! It’s good, but so is fish. Hmm Catholics are allowed to eat fish during Lent. Maybe we were already on our way to going green. Katie - Holy crap. Good luck with that. I believe you, for sure, I’m just stunned at your sudden decision. Nice work, Sharon! She’ll be a vegan before we know it, standing outside Outback next week with a sign that reads, “We should be eating the grass instead of the cows!” … lol. (It’s Friday at 4; I think I need to go home.)
It’s no sudden decision. I’m mostly a vegetarian, but I do eat turkey (I know, I know) and fish. It shouldn’t be too hard, since, as I said already, I don’t like red meat anyway! (Except bacon. Holy crap.)
Part of the problem with red meat is that cows, ahem, release methane, which is a far more damagine greenhouse gas than carbon!! A small amount of methane does far more damage to the air than a lot of carbon dioxide. Plus there is runoff due to their waste, they ravage the land, and of course, most of them are treated inhumanely… Don’t forget pigs!
Next time you want to eat bacon, remember: pigs are very smart and they say pig flesh is very much like human flesh. GROSS!
Yes, methane is indeed a huge problem. Did you know that about 1/3 of humans give off methane when they burp, too? Apparently, nobody knows why some do and others don’t.
In terms of green religion, I’m going to give it up for the Amish. That’s one small carbon footprint.
Hilarious - nice call, Shawn. My blog wouldn’t even exist if we all went that route.
All this methane talk is kind of funny too. Thanks for the reminder, Katie - I’ve heard that pigs’ brains are similar in function to the human brain as well. Just an example: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/10.17/PigTransplantsA.html
*ahem* I’ll stick w/ toast this morning, thanks. How do the Amish make toast, Shawn?