When Charles Krauthammer dubbed global warming the successor religion to Christianity, he wasn’t kidding. Check out this excerpt from a rambling essay on the CNN.com Website by Craig Goodwin, pastor at Millwood Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington, who asks, “Are Earth Day and Good Friday an unholy alliance?”
Two guesses as to where this is headed:
My work at the intersections of faith and environment took a very personal turn in 2008 when our young suburban family launched an experiment in consumption. In an effort to find a more sane and faithful way to live, we committed to a year of consuming only items that were local, used, homegrown or homemade.
Going green is not necessarily how we understood our journey at the beginning of the year, but we quickly realized that our rules landed us in the middle of a vibrant environmental movement. We joined with others in celebrating the year of the locavore, food not lawns, walking school buses, backyard chickens and the virtues of reusing and recycling. As we followed these green practices, we discovered that they have a holy rhythm to them. They connected us in important ways to Jesus – his life, his mission and, yes, his death on the cross. Based on our experience, it’s not so strange to imagine Earth Day and Good Friday as appropriate companions on the calendar.
They apparently are at CNN — but I wonder what the network’s founder would think? Back in 2001, Ted Turner dubbed spotted CNN employees wearing ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, and remarked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.”
But Ted had no idea just pious the network he created would become within a decade, as the faithful take to the CNN airwaves to confess their sins:
Related: “Good Friday: Google Celebrates Earth, Ignores Jesus.”
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