It has been 10 weeks since I started writing this series of blog posts, and what a ride it has been! For the ones who have been with me from the beginning, thank you for sticking around! And for those curious souls who just happened to chance on this blog, here’s a quick summary of my 10-week foray into exploring the crossroads between religion and environmentalism:
I started this journey with a trip across time, examining historical and contemporary examples of religions influencing people’s environmental stance. This inspired me to conduct my own research to find out if it was the same for Singaporeans and blog about the results I found. Although my methodology was flawed (oops), the experience taught me invaluable lessons that I will be sure to keep in mind for future research! Scoping out, I proceeded to explore what the four main religions in Singapore – Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism – had to say regarding the environment and whether or not local religious groups walk their talk. Unfortunately, this was largely not the case, pushing me to write these last two posts about what we can do to fill the gap between religious teachings and environmental action.
And here we are at my final post.
In many faiths – and in Singapore, especially, where religion is consigned to the private domain – the practice of religion is mainly dependent on every individual’s decision. Similarly, most of what the layperson can do in their capacity for the environment is also down to individual action.
For now, maybe this is what we can work on as people who subscribe to a religion and who also care for the environment: to act as role models for others to follow.
For a start, we can try bringing our religious practices and our care for the environment together in new and radical ways. Just this year, Singaporean couple Mangalarubini and her now-husband Kabillan held one of the first vegan Hindu weddings in Singapore. Their decision did meet with some opposition from strict adherents – after all, traditional Hindu weddings use a variety of animal products in their religious rites. However, the couple was pleasantly surprised by the support they received from their family, friends and even the temple priest, who suggested the plant-based products they used in their wedding rites! Eventually, the couple managed to make the whole wedding vegan, down to even the cloth and makeup they used, and their wedding became a springboard for them to motivate others to also practise Hinduism in a sustainable and cruelty-free manner.
Moving beyond lifestyle changes, we can also enact change in our the religious institutions that we come from by speaking to others about the ties between our religion and environmental care. Currently, I am in the progress of spreading the message of creation care (if you don’t know what this is, you can read my post on it here) in my church and getting it recognised as a priority. It has been an uphill journey and there is still much to be done, but I have started to see incremental changes in my church’s resource use and the congregants’ awareness of how the Christian faith encourages believers to care for the Earth.
I started this journey with the aim of exploring the relationship between religion and the environment. After 10 weeks of research, deep thinking and frenetic writing, I am now convinced of the power that religion has in influencing environmental action, and of the need for us to wield it well. There is still a vast gap between environmental belief and action – let us strive to fill this by being motivational beacons of hope and agents of change within the doom and gloom of our environmental crisis.
-Dennis