Believers of many faiths state that environmental issues are faith issues, moral concerns. The Bhagavad Gita, quoted in the photo to the left, is a sacred Hindu text, their Scripture. The Gita proclaims a Hindu spirituality and faith that recognizes the interconnection and sacredness of all living things.
The Buddha taught that it is essential to respect life and the natural world, which exists through the interrelationship of all things. To live simply is to live in harmony with other creatures without a need to possess.
The Qu'ran teaches Muslims that God created all and that they should respect nature as an earthly Heaven, a mirror of the beauty of Paradise above.
Jews and Christians speak, in faith, of a Creator of the Universe: "(God,) Your almighty hand...fashioned the universe from formless matter...You love all things that are and loathe nothing that You have made...for Your imperishable spirit is in all things." (Wisdom 11)
Christians together believe in the Creed, and profess that "I (or we) believe in God...Creator of heaven and earth." What we are professing is that God's spirit lives in all of creation. Creation is sacred, holy. And this responsibility to respect, preserve and protect the interconnectedness of all nature is a universal truth, God's truth, which is written in all humans' hearts.
Faith has to be intimately connected with the truth. In our culture today, it is essential for all believers who know the universal truth that creation is sacred to stand firm together because so many others say there isn't any universal truth: "The truth is that there is no truth. The only "truth" that matters is my individual life and my concerns - I am the god of my life."
Or else people trust only the truth of technology: " if you can't see it, taste it, touch it, smell it - it doesn't exist." If Technology is your god, there is no need for any universal truth beyond what technology needs, desires, decrees.
For those who worship the false gods of excessive individualism and technology, there is no need to protect people, animals, nature, because there is no God the Creator to hold you accountable for your actions. There is no belief that all of creation is holy because an all-powerful God's spirit is in all things, that this God loves all that He has made and asks us to respect and protect all that He has made. Nature exists to be plundered and used for the individual's or corporation's benefit.
Once again, we are called to lay aside our false gods and worship the one, true God. Environmental issues are hugely complex and multi-layered and impact the economic issues of jobs and livelihoods. We need to listen to one another and work together for the common good. God is calling all of us to take special care of His creation, to profess our faith by professing the truth that nature is holy. God is calling some of us to make ecological concerns our life's work, and get politically involved in ecological issues. If we don't step forward according to God's mandate, creation might grow so polluted and overburdened that we will bring the end of the world upon ourselves.