Going green for God?

Lent, the holy period that leads up to Easter, began yesterday and I’m curious … is anyone out there giving up something for Lent that’s somehow related to caring for the earth?

Will you be parking your car and taking the bus? Forgoing food grown more than 500 miles away? No more paper towels? No more paper cups at the espresso drive-through window? No more drive-through windows, for that matter?

Sometimes when I’m interviewing a source for a green story, God comes up in conversation. Many people of faith feel strongly that the planet was a gift from God and it’s our responsiblity to care for it.

This, of course, goes against the stereotypes. If you listen to the generalizations, Christians are supposed to be conservative, conservatives are supposed to be Republican, and Republicans aren’t supposed to care about the environment.

I think we all know life is more complicated than that.

I know the environment is an issue that’s near and dear to Gloria Waggoner, the wife of the Episcopal bishop in Spokane. She used to run a shop in the basement of the Episcopal Diocese’s lower South Hill mansion that sold fair trade goods, secondhand items and other earth-friendly goods. The shop, called Rosa Gallica, closed in the fall of 2008 due to the lagging economy. The Fig Tree ran a story about Waggoner and her efforts to go green back in 2006.

There are blogs on the topic, of course, like The Christian Environmentalist and Down to Earth’s very own Year of Plenty , written by Craig Goodwin, pastor at Millwood Presbyterian Church, who was featured in a New York Times article about the intersection of church and earth recently.

How about you? Do you make eco-conscious decisions based on your faith? Any other thoughts on the subject?