Christians against coal mining

Rev. Allen Johnson calls on churches to condemn mountaintop-removal mining

Posted by Grist at 10:37 AM on 08 Sep 2007

This is a guest post from Rev. Allen Johnson, whom we interviewed last year as part of our God & the Environment series. Johnson heads Christians for the Mountains, a group fighting to protect the Appalachians from mountaintop-removal mining. This post is reprinted with permission from the Moyers Blog.

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allen_johnson On August 22, The New York Times published an article that began, "The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday [August 24] that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal."

Enshrine? An oddly appropriate word, I thought -- a biblical word, even. A place where dwell the gods; in this case, the gods of money, comfort, and power.

For over two years I have been involved with a network organization, Christians for the Mountains, to engage Christians and their churches to take on the moral question of mountaintop removal. The massive scale of beheading coal-bearing mountains, obliterating headwater streams, and building multi-billion-gallon toxic slurry impoundments begs biblical and theological activity.

It is now clear that the coal industry, and its regulatory and political sidekicks, cares only about the dollar. An honest debate on the ethics and morality of mountaintop removal has not occurred. Like wolves salivating their chops over a herd of lambs, the coal industry and its lapdogs in government now look upon coal-to-liquid technology as a new source of meat to feast their jaws upon. "Coal will bring prosperity to the state," they trumpet. Yet after more than a century of economic and political domination by the coal industry, West Virginia has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, especially in the southern coalfields. So much for prosperity.

OK, churches, let's have it. Is it "right by God" to permanently destroy the mountains, valleys, forests, streams, rich diversity of animals and plants, and local culture to provide a few jobs, a tidy corporate profit, and a cheap electricity bill? For a couple of generations, at most? Through exploiting an economically desperate, vulnerable, defenseless population?

We think not. "The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains" is from the 24th Psalm that launched Christians for the Mountains two years ago at a gathering in Charleston, West Virginia. Simply put, this answered a decisive question for us: "Is nature our property to do with as we like, or do we as humans have responsibility that corresponds to our privilege of living and gaining our sustenance within God's creation?"

The majority of U.S. citizens identify with Christian faith. Christians have influence. Are you listening? Do you care? We implore your biblical, theological, and ethical thoughts -- and consequent faithful action.

And we'd like to hear from non-Christians, too. Do you think we Christians are measuring up to our standards?

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"enshrine"

Oh, sure, it is probably in the Bible somewhere. But if so, it is something that one does to an idol -- i.e., it is not a religious act to be encouraged.

The magazine Best Friends, published by the animal shelter/rescue/welfare organization of the same name, has been running a series called "Animals and Religion," in which one or another writer presents a unique perspective on how the love of animals is a religious value. One of the writers, raised as an evangelical Christian, told of his frustration that in none of the churches that he is acquainted with is animal welfare ever mentioned. It is as if the only creatures that count are human beings.

I have often felt a similar frustration, regarding the general silence in the Catholic Church about environmental issues. Sure, there are some fine statements in documents, and there are some very good individual Catholics, priests, religious and layfolk, doing excellent work. But for the most part, environmental issues still have not been introduced seriously into mainstream Catholic discourse.

When I was reading that article in Best Friends, it struck me as very ironic that while many religious conservatives have been complaining that their "moral values" are not taken seriously by people in politics, there are other values which are even more profoundly moral, such as animal welfare and care for the environment, which are not taken seriously by people in church.

I am grateful to Pastor Johnson for all he is doing to exhort our fellow Christian believers to join in working for this most worthy cause. And I am grateful to Bill Moyers, for bringing attention to religious leaders, especially evangelical Christians, who are engaged in environmental issues.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 2:08 AM on 09 Sep 2007

"Enshrine"

Mountain Top removal is wrong and dangerous. Of course it will probably create more jobs and possibly boost the economy but it will just be a relatively short boost on the economy. Mountain top removal will carry long term effects on the environment destroying mountains, valleys, forest and streams. Leaving plenty of poor animals to either leave their homes or die. Also all this mining is dangerous to the workers health. Chronic lung diseases, such as pneumoconiosis, mesothelioma, black lung and lung cancer are most common in miners, leading to reduced life expectancy.

by JBro123 at 11:17 AM on 24 Mar 2008

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