Fletcher Harper on GreenFaith

tonygill — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:00:40 +0000

With Earth Day coming up soon, Research on Religion steps outside to examine how religion can have an impact on the natural environment. We invite Rev. Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest and executive director of GreenFaith, to discuss what spiritual faith has to do with environmental stewardship. GreenFaith is one of the oldest religiously-based environmental organizations in the country, starting out as an all-volunteer group known as Partners for Environmental Quality in the early 1990s. Rev. Harper begins by revealing how his interest in both religion and the environment developed over his life’s history, and then how he became connected with GreenFaith, first as a volunteer and then as its director. We cover the history of this organization and how it has interacted with other religious communities, as well as the secular environmental movement. Fletcher notes that it was not all smooth sailing and details some of the skepticism this religious environmental movement faced from different sectors of society. He also shares with us the ecumenical nature of the organization and reveals which denominations and faith traditions tend to be more receptive to connecting with his organization’s mission. It is not surprising that the Islamic and Hindu communities have been slower at connecting with GreenFaith given that theses minority faiths have more immediate ethnic and cultural issues that they are addressing in American society. He also mentions that Catholic clergy have been somewhat reluctant to get involved in the environmental movement given the association that some green groups have with population control. Tony then asks what type of projects GreenFaith is involved in, what a typical day in the life of Rev. Harper is like, and where his organization gets its funding. As for the latter, most of the financing comes from private contributions along with a few fee-based ventures such as training programs or helping other organizations locate opportunities to improve energy efficiency. GreenFaith does work in partnership with local and regional governments on occassion, and gets some funding from grants, but their efforts are mainly privately-based. This brings up the issue of whether Christians abdicate their responsibility for social action by often panning off work onto the government, which leads to an interesting philosophical discussion. We finish off by examining GreenFaith’s view of “market-based environmentalism,” which seeks to alter economic incentives in ways that individuals find it beneficial to conserve the environment on their own, with less government regulation. Fletcher talks about what he learned from the Property & Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman (MT), where he participated in a week long seminar on this approach to environmental issues. Recorded: March 22, 2012.

Richard Flory on Why We Go to Church (and other stuff)

tonygill — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:00:36 +0000

A recent Barna Group survey found that roughly 60% of regular churchgoers could not remember any new religious insight from the last time they attended churc, and 50% could not remember any insight from the previous week’s service. So why bother gettin’ out of bed, gettin’ on your Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and trudging down to the local congregation? We take up this issue with Dr. Richard Flory, associate research professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and director of research at the USC Center for Religion & Civic Culture. Based upon a blog post he wrote on this topic, Richard speculates that it might not be the spiritual message that lures us to church service, but rather the communal aspect of worshiping together that draws us together every Sunday. We discuss some of the demographic possibilities for these research findings as well, contemplating whether age, gender or the clergy’s lack of dynamism may have something to do with why people report tuning out during the sermon. The second half of our discussion then looks at the role that churches play in the community and we talk about Richard’s research on church activism in Los Angeles following the 1992 riots, a topic near to the heart of your host since he was living in L.A. at the time. Prof. Flory details the various means that churches have tried to heal the city vis-a-vis charity, advocacy for social justice, community development, and interfaith dialogue. He provides several examples including work done by Rev. Mark Whitlock, Cecil Murray of the First AME, La Voice PICO, and other groups. He concludes by noting how churches must first be interested in developing the spiritual life of its congregants but then develop those interests in such a way that they entail community outreach. Recorded: February 17, 2012.

Research On Religion » activism

Fletcher Harper on GreenFaith

Richard Flory on Why We Go to Church (and other stuff)