Environmentalism as Spirituality

Gottlieb writes: “The director of one of the groups attacked in the suit was disturbed to learn that he was thought to be involved in Gaia worship: ‘I realized that they were trying to make us look like witches or something—I’m a practicing Methodist, for goodness sake’ (Gottlieb, 147, A Greener Faith).” There is a fundamental dichotomy manifest in this quote.

The idea that Gaia worship and/or pagan/wiccan religion(s) are somehow at odds with Western monotheism seems fairly damaging to me. The woman quoted, in her own way, is also adopting the view that tries to present theism and polytheism as opposing each other. I think that for true progress to be made in the environmental movement, we need to look for the good qualities in all religious systems and try to emphasize the elements that can be used for environmentalism. Part of the values of environmentalism are the ideas of unity with the earth and with other life forms. We should extend that unity to people of other traditions and seek to find value in other systems as much as we seek to find value in trees and soil. Part of how we got to the point we are at in regard to the destruction of the earth is by othering the earth the way this Methodist woman is othering Gaia worship/witches.