For a fledgling environmental group, Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light has hit the ground running.

The two-week-old organization called on people of faith this week to phone their Arkansas congressmen – Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor – to urge them to “protect Creation and public health by voting for the Clean Jobs and American Power Act.”

The act, which reached the Senate floor Wednesday, was introduced by U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The legislation aims to help develop clean energy jobs, reduce pollution and protect U.S. security by improving national energy production and fighting global climate change.

“This is a security bill that puts Americans back in charge of our energy future and makes it clear that we will combat global climate change with American ingenuity. It is our country’s defense against the harms of pollution and the security risks of global climate change,” Sen. Kerry said. “Our health, our security, our economy, our environment, all demand we reinvent the way America uses energy. Our addiction to foreign oil hurts our economy, helps our enemies and risks our security. By taking decisive action, we can and will stop climate change from becoming a ‘threat multiplier’ that makes an already dangerous world staggeringly more so.”

Scharmel Roussel, founding member of Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light, says the organization was established by individuals, like herself, who share a concern for the earth’s environment from a nonpartisan and theological perspective. Since starting in mid-September, the group has had 60 people sign on.

Members took part in a phone bank “party” on Wednesday, encouraging Arkansas residents to phone their senators regarding the Clean Jobs bill.

InterFaith Power and Light organizations are located in 29 states. The effort began in 1998 in San Francisco where a group of Episcopal churches joined forces to purchase renewable energy. By 2001, the group became California Interfaith Power and Light, which now helps people of faith organize and promote positive environmental change.

The national umbrella group that oversees the state-wide coalitions is the Regeneration Project, based in San Francisco. Later this month, the Regeneration Project’s founder and president, the Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham, will participate in a climate change conference in New Orleans with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the Orthodox Church.

Like the other Interfaith Power and Light groups, the Arkansas chapter, says Roussel, is not just “group therapy for folks from different houses of worship…It’s more than just awareness and education. It’s about outreach and advocacy.”

And they’re not wasting any time in getting out the message.

Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Michael Abbate embraces two worlds. As a co-founder of a landscape architectural firm and an urban planner, he’s a dedicated environmentalist. As a spiritual man, he’s a committed to creation care. In his new book, Gardening Eden: How Creation Care Will Change Your Faith, Your life and Our World, (WaterBrook Press, 2009) he combines both.

“I saw a need for this book,” which addresses the environment for those faith-based individuals he describes as the “eco-curious.”

Abbate, who is LEED and ASLA (Architectural Society of Landscape Architects) certified, was inspired to become more ecology minded when he became a father, realizing that today’s generation has an obligation to protect the planet for its grandchildren and beyond. (His daughters are now 23 and 20.)

“Before the woman, the snake, the apple or the Ten Commandments, God created a garden, placed man in it, and told him to work it and care for it,” Abbate says.

His book is intended for people of all faith backgrounds. “In Christianity and Judaism, there is a spiritual mandate to protect the planet,” he says.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east…The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. Genesis 2:8

“There’s a false dichotomy between spiritual faith and the environment,” he explains. As a landscape and urban architect, he receives two questions from his “eco-curious” friends: Who should we trust when it comes to the environment? And, what should we do about it?

“The faith-based community doesn’t know where to turn,” he says. “The first half of my book addresses the faith connection to the environment. In the second half, I look at what we can do.”

“When I speak to groups, who might be skeptical about global warming, I tell them I’m not a climatologist. But I think we can all agree on certain things, such as air pollution is not a good thing.” And, as he points out in the book, “People are dying because of poor air quality, and humans have the ability to prevent these deaths. But do we have the will?”

Abbate says the majority of Americans believe in a faith and also believe in protecting the environment. He cites a 2008 Pew Survey that says 83 percent of Americans affiliate themselves with a religious tradition or group and a 2005 Harris Poll, that states 74 percent of Americans agree that protecting the environment is so important that environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost. So many Americans appear to be on the same philosophical page.

“The issue,” he says, “is fundamentally a spiritual one: in order to change behavior, you have to think differently. People need to re-evaluate their lifestyle and motivations.”

The second half of his book includes 50 ways to live healthier with the environment. The tips include eating local, growing your own food, adjusting the water heater, unplugging chargers, walking, biking, public transit, recycle, compost — much of the advice that is a given in a green-savvy society.

As much as Americans love their lawns, Abbate says, maintaining the perfect lawn is not easy or natural because most people tend to use too much water and pesticides. Having a lawn in areas where you need a walkable outdoor surface to play on is all most people need.

He suggests using automatic sprinkler systems since you can control the application. He especially likes drip systems instead of spray irrigation and having a rain sensor is key.

Abbate recommends more environmentally friendly alternatives when it comes to vegetation, such as native plants, drought-tolerant plants and plants that attract butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife – these are attractive and have ecological benefits.

And, instead of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, use nontoxic options such as ladybugs for aphid control, soaps for insect control and organic fertilizers.

“Bird feeders, birdbaths and hummingbird feeders are other strategies that can work with landscaping to turn your yard into Eden,” Abbate says.

By putting the planet first – recycling, composting, re-using – people are being good stewards of the earth.  Environmentalism, he suggests, “is an act of worship.”

“The earth isn’t a trust fund, it’s a limited checking account,” the author says. “And we’ve got to make investments in the natural world to keep it healthy and thriving.”

Abbate, an evangelical Christian, currently works as the Urban Design and Planning Director for Gresham, Ore., and lives with his wife outside of Portland. For more information about Abbate and his works, visit michaelabbate.com.

Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By Harriet Blake

Two evangelical groups are in the spotlight for their efforts to improve the environment. The most recent to join the eco-movement is a small group of Southern Baptists whose climate initiative is receiving a lot of press these days.

The Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative (SBECI) got its start with a divinity student, Jonathan Merritt. As the story goes, one day in divinity class, Merritt had an epiphany.

“I was sitting in theology class at Southeastern Seminary [in Wake Forest, N.C.],” he says. “We were discussing how God reveals himself both through scripture and through nature. My professor made the statement that when we destroy God’s creation, which is a form of divine revelation, it is similar to tearing a page out of the Bible.

“That broke me,” says Merritt, “and began a shift in perspective for me.” The 26-year-old son of noted evangelist Dr. James Merritt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, decided that his faith needed to get on board with global warming.

“I began praying through a mobilization project which has blossomed into the coalition of over 450 Southern Baptist leaders and laypeople known as the SBECI,” says Merritt, who plans to graduate with a masters in divinity later this year. Among the prominent Baptist leaders who have signed the initiative are his father, now host of Touching Lives broadcast ministries, and current SBC president, Dr. Johnny Hunt.

Merritt, who is also the initiative’s national spokesperson, describes the SBECI as “an independent coalition of Southern Baptists who are passionate about caring for God’s creation.”

The SBECI is not the first group of evangelicals to test the global warming waters.

In 2006, a group of 86 evangelical leaders began an initiative to fight global warming, stating “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.” Among those who signed that statement were presidents of 39 evangelical colleges and megachurch leaders such as Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life.

At the same time another group of evangelical leaders disputed this claim with a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals, saying, “Global warming is not a consensus issue.” Among those who signed the letter were James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries. They argued that the science was not clear on whether global warming was a real problem and that human beings caused it.

The 2006 initiative eventually became the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), which has continued collecting signatures from the movers and shakers in the evangelical community. “The ECI is focused exclusively on climate change,” says spokesman Rusty Pritchard, “and what the church can do.” Currently, he says, the ECI’s “Call to Action” is closing in on 300 signatories, all senior evangelical leaders with a national reputation or senior pastors of evangelical churches.

(For the record, Southern Baptists are evangelists, but not all evangelists are Southern Baptists, notes Pritchard. “Evangelical,” says Merritt, “is a broad term that includes all conservative Christians.” The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination of 16 million Americans that makes up about half of the evangelical population.)

For the SBECI, the focus is on “creation care”, which Merritt says is a synonym for environmentalism. However, the group does not issue a verdict on global warming, a topic on which Southern Baptists still disagree, with a segment deeming global warming to be a hoax.

Rather the SBECI statement suggests, somewhat delicately, that Southern Baptists can agree to disagree, but still act: