SENTINEL WATCH April 21, 2008 Issue

EARTH DAY: A CALL TO PRAYER

RON BALLARD

FOR MANY PEOPLE, human impact on the environment is a foregone conclusion, and for some, the degree of that impact is debatable. But it would be absurd to argue that we don't have a relationship to our environment, and events like Earth Day (observed on April 22) provide opportunities to evaluate the nature of that relationship.

I received an invitation to attend the International Conference on Global Warming and Climate Change to be held in London this summer. What is intriguing to me about this invitation is that it stems from talks I give on the impact of prayer on the environment. To me, the decision to include speakers with different perspectives symbolizes a growing awareness that spirituality, in the best sense of the word, can have a major impact on changes of attitude and action relating to the planet.

In fact, many churches around the globe have taken up the issue of environmental responsibility as a moral imperative. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this publication, commented on this in her landmark work, Science and Health with Key the Scriptures. Giving her sense of the spiritual interpretation of Gen 1:29 and 30 (a passage that directly relates to our interaction with the environment) she wrote: "God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower. ... All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality—infinite Life, Truth, and Love" (p. 518).

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