Earth Day is a Pagan Conspiracy!
What? It is? I have identified myself as a "Pagan of some persuasion since about 2006, though I have not actively practiced since about 2009-2010, yet this is the first I am hearing that "Earth Day" which at the time of this writing falls on Tuesday April 22nd 2014, today in fact, was some kind of pagan conspiracy, I knew it was a "liberal conspiracy" but not a Pagan one. Then again I guess Paganism and Liberalism go hand in hand, I know I am probably in the minority being a libertarian/conservative leaning person in the greater Pagan community, that is neither here nor there and I digress as that is not the point of this writing.
Anyway, I found this out by accident, while trying to restart intrest in the website I tried to start in 2009, but could not facilitate great intrest in. It is a website dedicated to neo-pagan networking, with a blog, a discussion forum, and resource links and recommended books. (http://thepaganheretic.webs.com) cheap plug, ha!
Anyway, I decided I would try again and use word of mouth, er uh, typing to see if such a site would be needed and well received and so I reactivated a twitter account I made for it that I had long deleted and searched #Pagan, and #Paganism to see if there were other pagans on twitter. What I found amazed me.
One person was quoted as saying:
"True Christians don't participate in Earth Day, High Holy Day of Paganism...."
and another:
" Worshiping the earth is paganism, respecting the environment is the same as being a good steward, encouraged by Christ."
Well that one is probably true but still....
"#earth day is a #pagan holiday" and similar tweets along those lines.
Last I checked most modern neo-pagans follow the wheel of the year and Earth day wasn't one of them.
Let us review some history on earth day:
According to Wikipedia - " Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[1] and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.[2]
In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be celebrated on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature's equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work.[3] While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.[4][5] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues."
I Don't see anything about a high holy Pagan holiday, do you? While it is true most pagans revere the earth and take great concern for ecological matters, being interested in ecology is not exclusive to just Paganism. Anyone that cares about the environment should have a vested intrest in "earth day", rather you are a Pagan, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Atheist, a Christian, follow Native American Spirituality, Seeking, Don't care, or just plain unsure. In fact we should make every day 'Earth Day'.
Lets look at two brief examples, according to the website "why Islam" they quote the Quran as saying " Corruption doth appear on land and sea because of (the evil) which men’s hands have done, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return. (Quran 30:41)"
They go onto say: "According to the verse cited, God is giving us a taste of our own medicine so that we may return from the wrong directions we have taken in life. If we are to reverse the deterioration of our environment then we have to make some hard choices and change our practices. In other words, ecological change calls for personal change."
The site goes onto talk about Conservation quoting the Quran again: "But waste not by excess: for Allah loveth not the wasters” (Quran 6:141, Yusuf Ali translation)." They go onto talk about other ecological topics and quote applicable excerpts from the Quran.
A Google search of "Environmentalism and Christianity" will lead you to the Evangelical Environmental Network. A Christian based environmental group, which according to the statement on their page is; " a ministry dedicated to the care of God's creation. EEN seeks to equip, inspire, disciple, and mobilize God's people in their effort to care for God's creation. We believe that creation care is truly a matter of life and that pollution harms the vulnerable, especially children and the unborn. We believe the body of Christ should be an example of what God's people can do in the world to solve some of the great challenges of our time.
Founded in 1993, our ministry is grounded in the Bible's teaching on the responsibility of God's people to "tend the garden" through a faithful walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Based in the scriptures, EEN publishes and develops material for churches, ministries, families, and individuals to use as they seek to know the Lord more fully, especially his care for all that he has made.
We hope that you will use our ministry as a resource as you seek to faithfully follow God's call to care for His creation in your home, family, church life, and vocation. On the site you will find ways to get started, ways to connect with others, daily devotionals, bible study resources, our interactive blog, and programs/initiatives which cover a wide range of creation care topics."
As I have just demonstrated to the skeptics, Earth Day is not a Pagan Conspiracy, conservation and ecology are not the tools of the devil, and Earth Day should be a "High Holy Holiday" of every human that lives on earth and wishes the earth to stick around so we can live on it some more, and not just a concern for Pagans, Wiccans, Witches, Heathens, Native American Spiritualists, and others of an earth based spirituality or religion.
Footnotes: tweets found by searching #Paganism, #Pagan, and #Pagan Earth Day
Earth day info found via Wikipedia entry - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
Islam views on Ecology and Conservation found via "Why Islam" - http://www.whyislam.org/social-values-in-islam/social-ties/environment-and-islam/
Views from Evangelical Environmental Network found on their website - http://www.creationcare.org
