Let the Restoration Begin
An Environmental Article from All-Creatures.org

From

David C. W. Prather, Creations Cry
As Published in: The Awareness Journal, April 1995
July 2006

Once, long ago I had a vision of a certain part of western America. Its skies were gravely polluted and the people there were digging a huge pit. They beckoned me to help them. I refused. When I had that vision I was nauseated to ponder the possibility of blue skies becoming a cesspool of soot and airborne waste.

I have now lived in the West for many years, and as I saw tough and tougher environmental laws enacted, I suffered with others in that struggle to “preserve an environment worthy of the human spirit.” I am thankful I did not see how my terrifying vision of extreme environmental deterioration could ever come to pass. Now I wonder. With the "Contracts on America" (Freudian slip?) the Gingrich camp is chopping up environmental safeguards against vast potential destruction, as the loggers in the Northwest are chopping down the old-growth canopy. And to add insult to injury, these people are doing most of their heartless and thoughtless legislating in the name of Christianity.

I love Jesus for his tolerance. He warned the religious right of the 1st century A.D. that the prostitutes would enter Heaven's Kingdom long before they did. The only God these people, performing their cruel cuts, could be serving is Mammon - "Bible" for "money." BIG MONEY. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” While this article is not about politics, it is about loving Spirit and saving the Earth.

I see similarities between the revolution of the New Right and the revolution of the ’60s about which the Beatles sang. While there were heroic and beautiful aspects to the '60s (hey, we stopped a war and ended legitimized discrimination), I was glad our revolution didn't happen because we had no plan for a new government. While it is not often publicized, there were some real Jeffersons, Hamiltons and John Quincy Adamses there with a commitment to “throw the crooks out and lay our bodies down to see liberty return.” No one I talked to however, had a workable replacement plan. Recent articles are saying the New Right has to tear down government and destroy its benefits before it can build its New Right World. As with the ’60s radicals, I don't see their replacement plan. I don't think Americans want no government -- I think they want more efficient, more effective government. In a world where pure drinking water is becoming scarce, I don't think the people want to give corporate America a license to pollute. I don't even know any rich Americans who want to get a tax break at the expense of needy children. I don't think the New Right ever had its finger on the pulse of America. I don't think there is a New Right -- I think they are just plain wrong.

What did it take to turn environmentalist Gingrich into Environmental Enemy No. One? What did it take to get the New Right to forget a central doctrine of the New Testament? "Be careful to remember the Poor." I was touched by the publisher of Awareness Journal's story about hugging her homeless friend. I am stricken with the Right's callous plans to put children in orphanages, pregnant mothers in peril and make illegal immigrants have the same rights as wild animals trapped by urban sprawl. Christianity has its roots in the Old Testament. The Jews were not allowed to leave a stranger on their streets at night, but were required to take him or her into their homes. After the apostle Paul, in the New Testament, spent a long time being taught by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, he went to the first church, which was in Jerusalem and led by the apostles. He went for the expressed purpose of comparing notes to verify what he had received from the Holy Spirit. The notes checked. And the only thing they re-emphasized to him was to be careful to be mindful of the poor. If he's right -- the Right is wrong.

When the '60s were here I was a '60s person. Now I'm entering the New Age in consciousness. We are being changed. We are being prepared. Prayers are being answered. Dreams are being caught. Visions are coming true. For a number of decades now we've been talking about saving the planet. My wisdom informs me all we can do to save the planet, for the most part, is to stop destroying it. Now the Right through its unfunded mandates provision says municipalities, counties and states cannot use any government body to impose environmental law unless that same body pays for the costs involved in providing that protection. How many corporations dumping ore tailings in the Amazon River will now choose not to do so at home also? When the pink river dolphin is being threatened by clear cutting to produce hamburgers, what will those American corporations now attempt with habitat along our river homes to crane and otter?

Even in Old Testament times, farmers and property holders were required to leave the borders of their fields unharvested for the wild creatures. Will the desert tortoise hear the words of Isaiah the prophet: “Woe unto those who lay house to house and field to field until there is nowhere to be placed alone in the midst of the Earth”?

At the beginning of his vice presidency, Al Gore announced a history-making coalition between religious organizations around the United States and the move to save the environment. As the founder of an environmental group in Orange County, California, I contacted numerous churches in my community informing them of the dangers our planet is facing through overdevelopment, industrial contamination and the perpetuation of the biggest military economy on Earth. I offered to supply free speakers to get their congregations environmentally aware and actively slow the process of deterioration. The response? No one was really concerned that this was an important Biblical principle. I realize this readership spans many practices and paths -- but most believe in a cleansing process before we have full recovery -- before we take a "quantum leap" or get back to the Earth or merge with Spirit or have a shift in awareness. And a shift in awareness is exactly what is needed. The best New Age music for this year was "Prayer for the Wild Things." Indeed, prayer and affirmation are effective tools both for change and raising consciousness, yet prayer needs corresponding action to be its fullest force. If you are praying to get out of the way of a train -- it is very beneficial to move off the tracks while praying. Jesus told the religious leaders of his day that if they stopped his disciples from worshipping him, the rocks would cry out. If those who profess to be right are wrong -- where is the Right?

As Earth Day approaches and passes, what will the result be if we have no change in consciousness and no corresponding activity? St. James warns us that "faith without works is like a body without a spirit; it is dead." Since the Right is wrong -- and the night is long -- it is time to go beyond being a computer-balance to exploiting the remaining reserves of Mother Earth. It is time to insist the restoration begin. It is time to tell our politicians we have arranged our priorities. It is time to demand that every living stream continue to live, that every forest be given enough protection to perpetuate itself and provide for its inhabitants. It is time to go beyond conservation to reclamation. It is time to say, “HELL NO, LET IT GROW!” There is a saying that all that is necessary for evil to prevail is for a few good people to do nothing. Let your prayers be for the wild things. Let your consciousness lift up a new age where the sterile patchwork of the Pacific Northwest becomes once more a planet of green. Insist your representatives represent you. Let your actions say the Earth day will last a thousand years.

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