Jesus Wished a Better World for All Mankind

Jesus Wished a Better World for All Mankind
A Letter (from the `Gisborne Herald newspaper)
Tags: Jesus, Jesus Christ, Gisborne Herald, Bob Hughes, Christianity , faith , environment

Web site: www.gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/letter/?id=22473

Thursday, April 28, 2011I write this on Earth Day, which coincides with Good Friday 2011 years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The common link here is concern for the future of all mankind.

Jesus was a rebel by the thinking of his day. He went to the wrong places, spent time with the wrong people, said the wrong things. He rejected injustice, dishonesty, greed, hypocrisy — traits that infect humanity to this very day.

Even though Jesus was strongly anti-violence, he was still seen by authority as dangerous and threatening.

His legacy is that he set down principles for others to follow: love, kindness, consideration for all, freedom, unselfishness, absence of greed and hate.

He called for peace and love for all mankind, regardless of status, race or creed. The Gospels in the Bible record how Jesus demonstrated these values.

The point I make is, Jesus wished a better world for all mankind.

Environmentally-thinking people have exactly the same vision, through a change in human behaviour.

This week the Bolivian government announced plans to pass a revolutionary law bestowing human rights upon nature. La Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra (The Law of Mother Earth) would grant nature such rights as “the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered”. This “abstract law” is expected to change ways of thinking about conservation and the impact of industry on the environment, not only in Bolivia — a country facing a myriad of environmental problems due to climate change — but South America as a whole.

I finish with this Earth Day poem by Henry Horton:

BOB HUGHES EARTH DAY, 2011

Our Mother, whose body is the Earth,

Sacred is thy being. Thy gardens grow.

Thy will be done in our cities,

as it is in nature.

Thanks be to this day

for food, and air, and water.

Forgive us our sins against Earth,

as we are learning to forgive one another

And surrender us not into extinction,

but deliver us from our folly.

For thine is the beauty , and the power,

and all life, from birth to death .

From beginning to end. Amen.

So be it. Forever. Blessed be.Sourced from

www.gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/letter/?id=22473