Can Mormons Go Green?

I had a great opportunity last Thursday to be part of a panel discussing Mormonism and the Environmental movement. The show was an hour long and aired on KRCL's daily program, RadioActive, from 6-7pm here in Salt Lake City. The other panelists were George Handley, Rachel Maybe Whipple, and Peter Ashcroft. I loved hearing from the other panelists and thought that the questions presented by the host, Troy Williams, were relevant and timely. I hope you'll take the time to listen.

Here is KRCL's page on the show along with the option to listen to the entire program. Read more on "Can Mormons Go Green?"

The Modern Traditional Draper Temple

I braved the unhealthy polluted Utah air this evening to visit the Draper Temple as part of the public open house. It was very well organized and not too crowded, which was enjoyable. The Temple is quite small in its footprint - very compact, but grand in its height, which seems especially appropriate nestled against the backdrop of mountains. These vertical and narrow proportions, a nice modern touch, were reflected in all the exterior massing and even in the Celestial room of the temple. This verticality was especially well represented in the windows and doors, giving us a strong and clear statement of the overall design with crisp rectangular shapes repeated at various scales.



Unfortunately this beautiful statement was in no way reflected in the other interior detailing and ornamentation of the temple. The coffered ceilings, gold leafing, rounding chandeliers, trim moulding pieces and decorative paneling all felt forced, as though from an entirely different building than that of the strong exterior massing, vertical proportionality, and window/door treatment previously described. In other words, based on the exterior, I would have expected a completely different interior, in both the shaping of space with ceilings and stairs down to the smallest details.



This unusual mixing of modern and traditional elements throughout the building left me in a limbo of sorts. The Draper temple says to me that it remains fully entrenched in tradition and the past, outwardly wants to be accepted and current, but is unsure of how these two can or should blend together. Clearly the past is important to us, and always will be, but at the same time we feel the need to move on as a people into the future of a new world. We have a foot in the past and a foot in the future, and both are pulling in opposite directions. So how does tradition co-exist with progress and change? The answer to this question based on the Draper temple could be summed up as 'awkwardly' or 'in a forced manner', which ends up being a reflection of our culture and the message we are sharing with the world.

Interestingly enough, after the tour, I was directed to the adjacent cultural hall where refreshments and formal presentations were set up. All the exhibits around the room were designed in a traditional manner with various shades of warm browns and crown mouldings except for the first, which utilized task lighting, glass panels, sleek metal frames, and a cool bright blue color palette. It was one of the most modern exhibits I have seen in an LDS church building, and like the temple just toured, stood out as inappropriately as the ornamentation did in an otherwise modern temple.

Successfully answering the question of how tradition should co-exist with modernity - in built form - can and will give us greater clarity into who we are as a people, where we are heading in the future, and I believe will ultimately lead people closer to our Creator.


Draper Utah Temple, Window by Altus Photo Design
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Nature and the City in Synagogue Design

Exterior Elevations

Alfred Jacoby, one of the most famous Jewish architects in Germany, has designed his first synagogue in the United States and it was dedicated in Park City, Utah last week. Temple Har Shalom, meaning Mountain of Peace in Hebrew, was designed to coexist with nature in the midst of this high mountain desert. With the Jewish community in Utah being different from the congregations in Germany, "Instead of a discourse with history, in Park City Jacoby's discourse was with nature." The synagogue has clean, simple lines and sanctuaries full of natural light. The ceiling undulates, suggestive of the mountains on the other side of the stained glass windows. (source) "The floor-to-ceiling windows reveal beautiful vistas on two floors, which include a conference room and classrooms that will be available to the community." (source)

While Temple Har Shalom has a site ‘in nature’ on the periphery of Park City, the synagogues in Germany are more integrated with city life. German synagogues, in cities such as Aachen and Heidelberg, are noticeable and inviting, with large entrances "to invite you in, as a gesture," Jacoby said. (source)

It hasn't always been this way though. "In the years following the Holocaust, Jewish communities in Germany — made up of displaced Jews from other countries, since the German Jewish population had been decimated — began building synagogues to replace the ones destroyed by the Nazis. These new synagogues often were hidden away and were generally so nondescript they looked like cafeterias, says Jacoby…The idea, even three or four decades after the end of World War II, was to try not to be noticed. But in 1986, when Jacoby won an architectural competition to design a new synagogue in Darmstadt, he tried a different approach: ‘to show that Jews can be part of a city.’" (source)

In 2000, there was a wave of neofascist vandalism sweeping through Germany. "But the possibility of vandalism hasn't stopped him from designing synagogues that make their presence known. ‘I want them to be part of the urban fabric,’ he said, ‘to heal with architecture.’" (source) Being open and inviting to the community in a synagogue in Kassel included placing the sacred Torah scrolls inside of a glass box that could be seen by anyone walking or driving past the building.

"Ultimately, what this institution is about is relationships. Whether it's your relationship with God or a spiritual relationship or relationship with another human being, it's about relationships, enhancing relationships, and making the lives of Utahns better." (source)


Exterior Rendering
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How Does the LDS Church feel about Sustainability?

The sound bites in the video are from Bill Williams, director of architecture and engineering for City Creek Reserve, Inc. These are posted on the LDS Newsroom site, and below is the transcribed text of his words:

"When you think about sustainability it’s beyond just green roofs, if you will. But those, in and of itself are probably the most visible because as you rise up in an office building instead of looking down on black tar you see something that’s growing. And what that does for us, is it captures rainwater, it absorbs it so it doesn’t run into the streams at a rapid rate and erode, it cools the building itself because green roofs have a natural cooling ability; shade, things like that."

"As a Church we have always been interested in sustainable efforts. We’ve never sought for public attention in that regard, but sustainable efforts from a Church-wide is something that is just prudent because it means we pay less over a long term for our structures and for our buildings, especially in terms of maintenance and operating costs. So it’s just a prudent thing to do."

"It illustrates that we truly uphold these values; that we try to be good stewards of whatever we do. And that we try to give back to the community. We don’t take from the community, but we give in terms of our time, our efforts, service. But we also look at the environment and say we’re going to be here for a long time. We’d like to ensure that there is a future and it’s a future that we all like and so we participate in the sustainability effort that is going around the country."


(City Creek Center)


(City Creek Center)

Source credits in the video are as follows:

Conference Center:
Flickr user bsmart - Green Rooftop of the LDS Conference Center
Flickr user - New LDS mormon Conference Center
Utah.com article - Atop a New Monument, an Ancient Forest
Greenroofs.com database - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Conference Center
Flickr user jonnojohnson - IMG_4638 and IMG_4630

City Creek:
Callison
LDS Newsroom
Wikipedia - City Creek Condominium Tower


(Conference Center by deanrich_99)
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Evangelicals and the Environment

According to a Reuters news report, there has been a "15 percentage point drop in the alliance of white evangelicals aged 18 to 29 with the Republican Party over the past two years. ‘This group is going to be definitely worth watching,’ said Dan Cox, a Pew research associate and author of the report. ‘If anything, they're becoming more independent in their outlook.’ Most favor stricter laws to protect the environment, for example, an issue not typically associated with Republican platforms, yet remain conservative on issues like opposition to abortion and support for the death penalty."


(Image from http://timmyroland.blogspot.com/)

Two weeks ago, five hundred of these evangelicals, many with "tattoos, scruffy facial hair, and flip flops" gathered for a conference entitled ‘Envision: the Gospel, Politics and the Future’ at Princeton, NJ, organized by a broad coalition of faith-based and academic institutions. A unique aspect of the conference were ‘Learning Tracks’ which allowed attendees to choose one of 20 topics for the entire conference. Through four 90-minute sessions, these Learning Tracks provided a chance to take on a focused course of study in an area of interest, under a leading expert in the field. The three tracks that caught my attention were:

-Caring for the Earth - See what we all can do to care for creation and address climate change and other environmental problems (by Alexei Lauschkin, who is a program assistant at the Evangelical Environmental Network)

-Beyond Consumerism - Discover how faith can help us live simply out of care for our neighbor and the earth (by Ron Sider)

-Arts for Transformation - Explore how faith and arts can be a way to inspire and lead social transformation and learn how to create such art (by Bruce Herman & Lara Scott)

Out of this dialogue came the ‘Envision Declaration,’ which was created from reports and conversations at the three-day conference. Highlights of this declaration include:

"Envision offers new voices in the public square to address the complexities that confront the United States and the world. We are racially and ethnically diverse activists, clergy, lay persons, students, and scholars who are deeply informed by a faith that compels us to participate in God’s work to eradicate poverty, create peace, and build just communities and right relationships with the earth."

"In recent times, some have used Christianity to divide us from one another and demonize others. They have placed Christianity on the side of the powerful against the powerless. Envision inaugurates a new relation between our faith and our politics. In a spirit of humility and hospitality, we seek to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God and each other."

"We acknowledge that we do not agree on all things. We acknowledge that we do not have all the answers, but we will seek them together. In the midst of our differences we are committed to remain together at the table that God sets for us and not demonize each other, but talk, reason, and work together for a brighter and better future."

I agree with all that they said and decided to add my name by signing the Declaration.
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Sierra Club praises LDS Church

As the Deseret News reported today, the LDS Church has received recognition for the City Creek Center in the first national report by the Sierra Club on communities of faith entitled “Faith in Action: Communities of Faith Bring Hope for the Planet.”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is helping revitalize downtown Salt Lake City, and it’s doing so in a green manner. City Creek Reserve, Inc. (CCRI), a real estate development arm of the church, is directing the construction of a transit-oriented, 20-acre mixed use project which will include residential, retail and office space. The results from this smart growth strategy will greatly reduce Salt Lake City's dependence on the automobile.”



Apparently more than half of the demolition debris is being recycled and only native plant species will be used for landscaping. But here is the money quote that has given me a huge permagrin today:

“The decision to pursue LEED certification was a natural outflow of the values of the LDS faith. CCRI Director of Architecture and Engineering Bill Williams says long term sustainability is central to the project. ‘As you look at the tenets of our religion, there is a notion that we must be good stewards in all that we do,’ explains Williams. ‘It is our hope that this project will be prosperous, while standing true to our values of wise stewardship and giving back to the community.’ Williams and the CCRI designers hope this project will be a catalyst for further neighborhood redevelopment, noting that it allows residents and visitors to celebrate the unique natural beauty and rich history of Salt Lake City.”


Bill Williams

It is enormously refreshing to hear the director of the Church Architecture and Engineering department speak in terms of stewardship, values, community, and sustainability. This is a great day for Mormon environmentalists everywhere.

Every state is represented, so check out the full report and see what religious groups in your state are doing to help protect and preserve the environment.
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Of Sacred Groves and Tree Huggers

From the Tree of Life to the Sacred Grove to columns in a cathedral to a walnut tree in the Conference Center, trees and groves play a significant role in our religious life and worship. Some take this significance too far and worship the very objects created by God. These people are often called ‘tree huggers’ used in a derogatory sense by religious people towards others perceived of as worshipping nature. On the other hand, others will seek to destroy that which is sacred to others where critical beliefs may differ. Latter-day Saint teachings and practices sit somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, recognizing that trees are a means to an end; a vertical axis that links heaven and earth, and that trees, as creations of God, can lead us closer to Him.


Trees and religion
"Trees have played an important role in many of the world's mythologies and religions, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages."(source) "Pliny the Elder (ad 23-79) indicated that trees were the first temples of the gods."(source) Additionally, "sacred groves were a feature of the mythological landscape and the cult practice of Old Europe, of the most ancient levels of Germanic paganism, Greek, Slavic, and Roman mythology."(source) Because of this, Christianity viewed this tree-worship as idolatry and as a result, history is full of religious people destroying sacred trees and groves to convert the pagan (atheist) away from worshipping nature. Trees, "as centres of pagan worship…became the objects of Christian zeal…The emperor Theodosius II (5th century ad) issued an edict directing that the groves be cut down unless they had already been appropriated for some purpose compatible with Christianity."(source)

The most famous sacred tree-felling episode involved the ‘Apostle of the Germans,’ St. Boniface. "In the midst of an awestruck crowd, (St. Boniface) attacked with an axe one of the chief objects of popular veneration, Donar’s sacred oak, which as the first blows fell upon it, the huge tree crashed, splitting into four parts, and the people who had expected a judgment to descend upon the perpetrators of such an outrage acknowledged that their gods were powerless to protect their own sanctuaries. From that time on the work of evangelization advanced steadily."(*Roskos, page 483)


Boniface overseeing the felling of Thor's Oak

Books like The Cross and the Rainforest by Robert Whelan still encourage this type of proselyting activity to further the work of God, by chopping right at the heart of paganism, including "deforestation in the name of this ancient, saintly practice of felling the sacred trees."(*Roskos, page 483) Additionally, in the introduction to the book Where Garden Meets the Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate, Rev. John Michael Beers likens the author to Boniface, facing "today’s New Age adherents in the environmental movement, who are not unlike the pagans of a millennium ago."(*Roskos, page 486) Additionally, the current environmental movement has as its representative the website Treehugger.com, arguably the most popular environmental site on the planet with more than 30 posts a day and an archive of over 20,000 articles.


Sacred Grove
Mormons clearly do not worship nature, but interestingly, do have their own grove of sacred trees. In fact, the Sacred Grove is arguably the most sacred site in all of Mormonism. This forested area of western New York in 1820 was the site of a visitation of the Father and the Son to the boy Joseph Smith. It is the most recent site we have record of where all three members of the Godhead have been. Additionally, the golden plates were handled by each of the Eight Witnesses in this grove. President Monson has said, "The boy prophet Joseph Smith sought heavenly help by entering a grove which then became sacred." The term ‘sacred’ means the giving of "religious respect by association with divinity or divine things"(source) The trees, dirt, rocks, and plants all combine to form a sacred ecosystem which is all that now remains of Joseph’s encounter with divinity there.


Sacred Grove by CaptureThem

In discussing the trees of the Sacred Grove, we often personify the trees by giving them the human abilities of eyesight or hearing. "Trees of the Sacred Grove stand as witnesses and sentinels of what took place here."(source) "Mature trees at the time of Joseph still grace the forest."(source) Statements hypothesizing that these trees were here when certain events happened help add to the sacred nature of being in the presence of such trees, i.e. because of what they saw and heard, we will treat them with respect and reverence. In the future, it is probable that even being a seed from a tree that witnessed those events will have significance.

While a visitation of the gods shares a commonality with other sacred groves throughout the world, "The precise location where Joseph prayed and experienced the marvelous vision is not known. This omission on Joseph’s part seems intentional."(source) It appears wise that Joseph didn’t reveal the exact spot where the vision occurred, or we might ourselves have been dangerously close to worshipping nature, with sacred trees and shrines. Think about what we might do if we knew the actual spot where he fell to the ground, or how we would treat those select few trees, especially if they were still alive today. It would be hard not to revere such objects. So it’s good that we only know the general location where the event took place, allowing us to appreciate and take in the beauty of the Creation and revelation while among nature. Not knowing the actual spot of ground or trees involved, frees us to worship God while among the trees rather than worshipping the trees as God.

Fortunately the Church is serious about keeping this a sacred grove for the many pilgrims who visit seeking spiritual uplift and renewal. "The Sacred Grove is currently healthier, better cared for, and more beautiful than it has been for many years. The Church has for some years been directing a program to safeguard and extend the life of this beautiful woodland that is sacred to Latter-day Saints. New growth and plantings are extending the grove’s boundaries to its historic dimensions and strengthening its interior. The Sacred Grove is making a marvelous comeback from the disease and pollution that, until recently, seriously threatened its existence."(source)


Pillar of Light
According to Joseph Smith’s description, his vision in the grove began as a pillar (tree or column) of light descending towards him. Joseph stated, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me."(JSH 1:16) A popular hymn describes the experience as "a shining, glorious pillar"(Hymn 26)


Pillar of light by lordicarus


Sun pillar by Shaun Lowe

These images of pillars of light represent a tree in form; a vertical axis bridging the span between the heavens and the earth. One is created by shining a series of lights vertically, the other is "caused by flat fluttering ice crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere"(source) In the case of Joseph Smith, a spiritual tree of light is what connected God and man.


Temple at the Sacred Grove
Today there stands another temple at the Sacred Grove. This appears to be the only place on earth where two temples, sacred to Mormons, occupy virtually the same site. One created by God, the other created by man. Both are holy and sacred. Both are the dwelling place, or house of God.


Palmyra New York Temple

The temple plays proper homage to the grove in the details of construction. Trees and nature play a prominent role. Within the temple we have the re-creation of the sacred grove highlighting the events that took place nearby. The builder of the temple stated, "One of the main pieces is of the First Vision, and the overall tree motif (that required the hand cutting and hand notching of the more than 6,800 leaves) gives patrons a feeling like they are in the Sacred Grove."


Front doors of temple


Baptismal skylight of temple

This is not unlike the cathedrals that attempt to achieve a sacred forest-like experience through the structure of the worship space. The very groves destroyed by the early Christians were later used as a model for their cathedrals and sacred spaces. "The sacred grove was at the origin of the temple, whose columns were initially trees, and later of the Christian church which still evokes it by the alignment of its pillars, the semidarkness within it, and the soft coloured light that filters through its stained glass windows."(source)


Fountains Abbey as a sacred grove by Taylor Dundee


Conference Center Pulpit
While the vast interior of the Conference Center was designed without a single column (treeless), there is a single tree that sits as the centerpiece of all our General Conferences: the walnut tree from President Hinckley’s backyard that was formed into the pulpit. A book has even been written about it. "Inspired by President Gordon B. Hinckley’s account, The Story of the Walnut Tree tells a tale of how the wisdom, nurturing, and vision of the prophet of God, the ‘man who loves trees,’ transformed a struggling walnut tree into a focal point of the majestic Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."(source)


Photo by Ravell Call

The walnut-tree pulpit is the best link to nature in this other-wordly spatial experience. The scale of everything is so large in the Conference Center, having a human-sized object as the center point of our attention makes all the difference. Because of its placement and focus, this tree still retains the vertical axis all trees do by linking the heavens and the earth. This axis is the focal point and where all our attention is drawn. How appropriate that the material used in this vast arena is from a single tree grown in the yard of a prophet – planted and nurtured for many years by him. This personal detail is one we can relate to and connect with. It is of the earth, and it is sacred. The words of the prophets spoken from the walnut tree link us to heaven, similar to a pillar of light or a sacred grove.


Conclusion
The Sacred Grove and Conference Center pulpit help define the proper relationship we should have towards trees and nature. While we do not worship the earth or creation, we need His creations in order to properly worship and commune with God. The place or object of sacred experience stands out as one of reverence and remembrance.

The mere existence of a ‘sacred grove’ in the Church would typically be frowned upon by the Christian world. Such sacred groves typically referred to the pagan worship of the earth and were systematically destroyed, while some today still advocate such tactics as the price of conversion.

However, trees and groves in their many forms provide the link between the heavens and the earth. This connection with the divine is vital, and is why we keep returning to the trees. While there are those who deify trees, the religious person will recognize the trees as a means to an end by being brought closer to deity because of the trees.


*Felling Sacred Groves: Appropriation of a Christian Tradition for Antienvironmentalism by Nicole A. Roskos from the book, "EcoSpirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth" Edited by Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller
Fordham University Press, New York, 2007.

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The Transparent Creation

Six Days of Creation by aidan mcraethomson

"Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?" (The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau)

The opening line of Rachel Carson’s ‘The Sea Around Us’ states "Beginnings are apt to be shadowy, and so it is with the beginnings of that great mother of life, the sea." When it comes to a discussion of the Creation, it is true that much is not understood. Adding to the confusion are no fewer than four accounts of the Creation narrative (Genesis, Moses, Abraham, Temple). But the Creation may be one of the clearest, tangible and real things we have been given from God. The beginnings may be in shadow, but the results are here for us to see, touch, experience, and learn from. For the religious woman or man, the ability to see God in all His Creations, transforms those Creations into a window by which to comprehend God. This transparency is His gift to us. Those who cannot see are the blind who "…have eyes to see, and see not…for they are a rebellious house." (Ezekiel 12:2) They "see through a glass, darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12) where the creations, and God Himself, are translucent or completely opaque, rather than transparent.

Mircea Eliade in his amazing book ‘The Sacred and the Profane’ discusses many religious symbols in nature that help provide this transparency. "For religious man the supernatural is indissolubly connected with the natural, that nature always expresses something that transcends it." (page 118) The religious person will be able to see the sacred in all things through symbols of the actual objects themselves. Only by attaching meaning to these symbols are we able to see God’s transcendence in the Creation and in all things. This human experience is reinforced in the Book of Mormon teaching that "all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it" which allows us to look at how God is revealed to us in every day life and ritual. (Alma 30:44) Joseph Smith further taught, "any man who hath seen any or the least of these [sun, moon, or stars] hath seen God moving in his majesty and power." (D&C 88:47)

Physical symbols that reveal the Transparent Creation:

Sky
The heavens reveal the Most High who "is manifested in meteorological phenomena – thunder, lightning, storm, meteors, and so on." (Eliade, page 121) Storms and other natural disasters, rather than indicating pleasure or displeasure, simply reveal God and remind us of He who is in charge. The vertical expanse of sky is also linked with ascent, climbing, trees, and mountains. Nephi, the brother of Jared, Peter, James, John and Jesus all sought inspiration and knowledge by ascending to the tops of mountains.

Stones
Stones "reveal power, hardness, permanence…perceived by virtue of a religious experience, the specific mode of existence of the stone reveals to man the nature of an absolute existence, beyond time, invulnerable to becoming." (page 155) Joseph Smith and the brother of Jared each used stones to help reveal God. These stones, which "were white and clear, even as transparent glass" enabled the Seers to reveal actual light as well as spiritual light and revelation about God. (Ether 3:1) Seer stones are independent of time and reveal the past, present and future of God and man.

Water
The waters have always brought forth life. The land came out of the waters, and as such, was created from the waters. "Everything that is form manifests itself above the waters, by detaching itself from the waters." (page 131) The waters "precede every form and support every creation." (page 130) Symbolism of water represents both death and rebirth. Contact always brings regeneration and purification in rituals such as baptism, and the sacrament. The Garden of Eden contained a fountain of living waters from which sprang four rivers. The dream of Lehi likewise contained a fountain of living waters, which represented the love of God.

Vegetation
"On the level of profane experience vegetable life displays merely a series of births and deaths. Only the religious vision of life makes it possible to decipher other meanings in the rhythm of vegetation, first of all the ideas of regeneration, of eternal youth, of health, of immortality." (page 148-149) It was a piece of fruit that conferred immortality while in the Garden that Eve and Adam were allowed to eat from. Likewise, it was a miraculous and forbidden piece of fruit that changed them into gods, with the accompanying knowledge of both evil and good.

Moon
The moon represents the cycles of life "in becoming, growth and waning, death and resurrection. For we must not forget that what the moon reveals to religious man is not only that death is indissolubly linked with life but also, and above all, that death is not final, that it is always followed by a new birth." (page 157)

Sun
"The sun remains unchangeable; its form is always the same. Solar hierophanies give expression to the religious values of autonomy and power, of sovereignty, of intelligence." (page 157) For Latter-day Saints, the sun represents Celestial glory, even that of the unchangeable God. "These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical." (D&C 76:70)

People
Women and men are also a symbol of God, reinforced by Jesus, the Creator, coming embodied to the earth as a man and Joseph Smith’s testimony that man is in the image of God. While here, God could be seen, touched, and felt. He taught in symbol, and was a symbol Himself. But only those who had eyes to see were able to see Him for who He really is, and not as a man. Only those who believed saw Him as God – the rest saw only a man. In the King Follett Discourse Joseph Smith taught that to see other people is no less than to see God, because God is an exalted Man.

From these few examples God’s Creations each represent higher realms and meanings which teach us about Him. In a very real way, removing ourselves from the waters, sky, vegetation, or people is to remove ourselves from God. We are removing ourselves from the very things He has created that are continually bearing testimony of Him. Living close to the elements reminds us of our dependence on God for all things. As mostly urban dwellers, how can we avoid losing our transparent connection towards God? How can this dependence be retained where consumerism, capitalism, and specialization rule the day?

?Eniyud Sleeps by Tim Ennis

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…" (Walden by Henry David Thoreau)
Read more on "The Transparent Creation"

Top 10 reasons to be a Green Mormon

#10 Mormons are cheap and being sustainable saves money

# 9 The prophet said to plant a garden

# 8 Being translated is the smallest carbon footprint of all – just ask the Three Nephites

# 7 You can now be even more peculiar than all the other peculiar people in your ward

# 6 The stuff in Revelations doesn’t sound so bad if you believe in global warming

# 5 Feeding 5000 people with a few loaves and fish is really the way to go

# 4 We don’t have enough commandments yet

# 3 The earth already represents the lowest kingdom – making it worse leaves only outer darkness

# 2 We’re already used to saying, ‘It’s against my religion…’

# 1 Free your guilty conscience
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Religious Environmentalism

Thanks to bex over at Bexhuff.com who cites the following religions that are officially coming to the environmental discussion table. Several of these groups are even beginning to refer to environmental issues now as a ‘moral’ issue. As Mormons, are we generally uninvolved in environmental issues because the current leaders of the Church are largely silent on these issues? If this is the case, are we favoring the “commanded in all things” approach over the “anxiously engaged” approach?

Catholics
“Thou shall not pollute the Earth…so the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of ‘new’ sins such as causing environmental blight.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively ‘green.’
It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.”

Southern Baptists
“Several prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention said Monday that Baptists have a moral responsibility to combat climate change -- a major shift within a denomination that just last year cast doubt on human responsibility for global warming.

Forty-six influential members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including three of its past four presidents, criticized their denomination in a statement Monday for being "too timid" in confronting global warming.

‘Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed,’ the statement says. ‘We can do better.’”

Evangelicals
Several prominent evangelical leaders and pastors are emerging through written bestsellers, “calling for ‘creation care’ on global warming and galvanizing church members to address Third World poverty and disease…‘Today there is a strong evangelical center emerging that agrees that a biblically balanced agenda has to include pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor, pro-racial justice, pro-creation care and pro-peacemaking,’ said Ronald Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action.” Read more on "Religious Environmentalism"