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Would you walk to church with me this week?
Asking that question was among the ways people of faith were encouraged to spread environmental activism at Saturday's "Faith-based Wild Lands Dialogue," held at UVSC. The event was sponsored by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
About three dozen participants spent two and a half hours examining the connections and tensions between environmentalism and religion, especially Mormonism.
In a break-out group discussion focused on faith and environmentalism, participants said being concerned about the environment and being Mormon do not always go hand in hand.
Particularly in Utah Valley, many people may feel strongly about preserving open space and protecting wildlife and the wild areas they grew up with, but are loath to even think themselves associated with environmental groups, as they may be perceived as Democrats or liberals.
Those gathered were encouraged to think of ways to bridge the cultural gap. Beyond setting an example by walking to church, participants were encouraged to write LDS Church leaders to invite or challenge them to appreciate environmental values, start environmental discussions during LDS Church meetings such as Relief Society, priesthood or even Boy Scout meetings, invite neighbors over for dinner to discuss why wild lands are important, start a book group to read environmental texts, plant or share a garden, or use mass transit at least once a week.
Marsha McLean of the Utah Valley Sierra Forum joked that the effort was not far removed from missionary work.
"Walking to church might inspire something greater," said Tenneson Woolf, of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "There is something contagious about sustainability."
Change in local cultural attitudes must come from the bottom up, participants said.
"I do believe in God, and I love the creation the Lord has given us," said participant David Staub. "I'm trying to figure out for myself how to utilize this creation without destroying it."
BYU professor George Handley said he would like to learn to engage students who feel animosity toward environmentalism or who are proud of their apathy.
Several people said they had grown up in the local "predominant religion" and loved nature, but were perplexed to find, as adults, that those who grew up with them did not come to the same conclusions about the need for stewardship and preservation of wild lands.
McLean questioned why Mormons are taught in temple worship to value creation and the physical earth, yet many do not connect those values to recycling, for example.
Other participants said Mormons see no problem driving gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles on Saturday to ride off-road vehicles that damage wild landscapes, sometimes illegally, but then show up for church services on Sunday thinking nothing of what they've done.
Environmentalism "is at the bottom of the religious to-do list," said BYU student Sarah Walker. "I'm not sure how that divide came about."
Too often, teachers or leaders of local LDS wards make clear their feelings during church meetings by mocking environmentalists or even just Democrats such as Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, several people said.
Sometimes those attitudes have to be challenged, no matter how awkward or painful it is to confront them, said Staub, who noted that he recently tried to argue with people who, during a church meeting, were speaking against Al Gore's environmental activism.
"I think it hurt Utah environmentalists when Al Gore attached his name to environmentalism," Staub said.
"How do we go from public attention (to environmental issues) to individual action when we are fighting a culture that does not embrace that all the time," Walker asked.
Richard Jensen, a participant who said he was slated to become a member of a BYU ward bishopric today, said he would like to find ways to introduce the students in his ward to environmental concepts without becoming entangled in divisive political discussions that would not be appropriate in church meetings.
"The structure of LDS Church meetings discourages people from getting into those things," he said.
Ted Wilson, the new director of the Utah Rivers Council, encouraged participants to stand up for what they feel is right by becoming "eye-rollers," meaning people who make comments during church meetings knowing other people will just roll their eyes at them. |
