News Click here for the latest articles (2002/11/12 - updated daily) Send your article comments to newsroom@dominionpost.com

Please visit our sponsor:

Churches, environmentalists join to promote saving Earth

BY KATIE LONG

The Dominion Post

Sunday's sermon at First Presbyterian Church on Spruce Street gave a whole new meaning to the term "holy rollin'."

As part of "Go the Extra Mile Day," First Presbyterian, along with St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Evansdale, displayed hybrid cars in front of their doors Sunday morning. The event was sponsored by the West Virginia Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign, or WVIGCCC, as part of an effort to combine the environmental movement with the American religious community.

The cars -- which operate on gasoline and electricity -- boast an average 43-47 miles per gallon, nearly twice the gas mileage of today's standard gasoline-operated vehicle. Environmentalists point to car emissions as one of the leading causes of global wa rming.

Sister Mary Rehmann of WVIGCCC said choosing a more environmentally friendly car is consistent with the teachings of God and the values of stewardship shared by people of all religious faiths.

First Presbyterian Pastor Richard W. Fiete gave a sermon in support of WVIGCCC's message, and parishioners found themselves singing hymns very different from the usual "Old Rugged Cross" fare.

Belting out a hymn titled "Thank You, God, for the Water, Soil and Air," worshippers thanked the Creator for "making planet Earth, A home for us and ages unborn," and begged Him to "Help us share, consider, save and store. Come and renew the face of the Earth."

To lead him into his sermon on America's reliance on foreign oil, Fiete used a biblical parable about another type of oil -- the type used to fuel lamps during Jesus' time.

The parable, found in Matthew 25:1-13, tells of 10 young bridesmaids. Five were foolish, while five were wise. The day prior to the wedding, all 10 girls set out to gather the bridegroom and lead him to the church. The five wise bridesmaids brought extra oil for their lamps. The five foolish girls did not.

When they arrived at the bridegroom's home, they found that he had been delayed. All 10 girls grew sleepy and dozed near the entrance until they were roused from their naps and told of the bridegroom's return. The five foolish girls asked their wiser counterparts to borrow some oil for their lamps, which were growing dim. The five wise bridesmaids refused, telling the foolish girls that they would have to go buy their own. As a result of having to go into town, the five foolish girls were late and were not allowed into the wedding.

"In the parable we just heard, we've got to understand the genius in Jesus' teaching," Fiete boomed. "He asks us to look back at the consequences of the things we are doing now."

Fiete said that while some of us are prepared for life's surprises, most of us are more like the foolish bridesmaids. We simply expect someone or something to get us out of trouble, to bail us out when we are irresponsible.

"We might need to be wise about oil, too," Fiete said. "Not lamp oil, but the oil that fuels our standards of living all around the world."

Fiete said he doubts that any discovery has changed the course of history as much as the discovery of oil and all of its uses.

But what we often ignore, he said, is the fact that oil is a limited resource. That the Earth itself is of limited dimensions.

"If we keep using our limited resources without responsibility, they will eventually be depleted," he said. "Even a non-math major can figure out that equation."

Fiete said Christians have more of a responsibility, because they ought to honor God's creation.

In the second chapter of Genesis, he said, it states that Adam was first put on the Earth to till the garden -- to tend God's land.

"We must first recognize that it is our job to protect the Earth, to till the garden," he said. "Second, we must recognize that we are to be wise. Unfortunately, we are too much like those foolish maidens who think someone else will have what we need whe* the bridegroom finally comes."

Fiete urged his parish to go outside, learn about the effects of global warming, and educate themselves about alternatives like hybrid cars.

"We, the religious community, who know Christ put us here for a purpose, to love one another and to till the Earth, we know it's up to us to spread the word," he said. "That is why we have this unusual show-and-tell outside. We can till the Earth and keep it better than we have been doing.

"Big issues like this require a big vision. If that vision does not come from the followers of Jesus Christ, the creator of all, the redeemer of all, the ruler of all, where else will it come from?"

Members of WVIGCCC urge people to "tell the car companies to do their part to protect God's creation," by logging onto www.ProtectingCreation.org. On the site, visitors can tell Ford, GM and Chrysler to make cleaner cars.

SEE EARTH, 2-A

Please visit our sponsor:

Send your article comments to newsroom@dominionpost.com Place Your Religion Notes or Briefs in the Dominion Post Saturday Newspaper! See a Dominion Post Photo You Like? Order It Here! Click here for the latest articles (2002/11/12 - updated daily)