New Sustainability Sunday contributor Joel Makower wrote a pretty interesting essay last Sunday, too, on his weblog: Are Evangelicals the New Environmentalists? Joel looks at the shifts in the attitudes of the American Evangelical Christian movement regarding the environment. This doesn't mean a wholesale adoption of progressive values, but a careful embrace of the notion of stewardship of the planet:

"The environment is a values issue," the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, told the Post’s Harden. "There are significant and compelling theological reasons why it should be a banner issue for the Christian right."

It will be interesting to see if the broader realization that the environment is in serious long-term trouble can function as a bridge across the poisonous American political faultline.

This is already happening on the level of local food. The Weston Price Foundation's basic cookbook Nourishing Traditions is pulling people across and underneath ideologies. Many here are going straight to farmers for raw milk and eggs, to the markets for fresh and pasture fed animals. People are connecting to their soil Foodwebs from any political persuasion. This is Scout World at its best.

Posted by: Kim McDodge on February 14, 2005 8:02 PM