Article May 25, 1992 Issue

Cleansing the earth

The Christian Science Monitor

Once, during a visit to a major industrial area in the United States that was also heavily polluted, I was struck by the challenge nations face in supporting a clean environment while also providing jobs for their people. Clearly, there were no easy answers.

One of the people I talked to spoke earnestly about the city where I lived at the time, mentioning how clean the air was and how pleasant it must be to live there. He didn't know that only a few miles away from my city was another major hazardous waste site! I could see that what he longed for wasn't really a specific material place so much as a higher quality of life.

To me, this means a life that includes beauty, peace, health, security, to give a few examples. These are qualities of life that God has created and has freely given to us, His offspring. Often, however, our vision of this spiritual reality is overshadowed by the material picture of pollution, overcrowding, carelessness, and greed. It is possible, however, to reverse these material conditions, to bring to light the spiritual creation of God referred to poetically in Job as "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." We uncover spiritual reality through prayer that helps us overcome the tendencies—such as selfishness—that are the foundation of environmental devastation.

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