Last Monday morning, as I was walking home through Crane Park
after the school run, I noticed an imponent, beautiful Willow tree by the riverbank
– and a lady hugging it! And not just a quick hug but a proper one – long
and including patting and stroking. The kind of hug you'd give to your husband or
your kids! I had often heard people talking about “tree huggers” in a somewhat derogatory
way to describe new-ageists or radical environmentalists, but this was the
first time I saw it happen literally.
When we first moved to Twickenham, one of the first things I asked the Lord was to help me see the social and spiritual needs of the area. The whole world is lost, broken and in need of Jesus but, while our spiritual needs may be universal, our social needs often manifest in different ways. When I was in Blackburn, the town’s social needs were evident – poverty, homelessness, segregation, substance abuse, child-neglect and many more. One only needed to open their front door to see it! In Twickenham, however, things are not so visible. As I am quickly coming to realise, while there are hidden and often missed pockets of deprivation, the area’s noticeable affluence often acts as a thick veneer on what is turning out to be a spiritual wasteland. Not only that, it may well be that this affluence itself is the reason for such widespread spiritual drought – as it creates a false sense of self-sufficiency and self-reliance that typically leads to a disregard for God.
Yet, irrespective of our perception of self-reliance and
self-determination, we are all spiritual beings with spiritual needs and a deep
longing for meaning, purpose and transcendence that, when it is not met, manifests
itself in most terrible ways – including the mental health crisis that’s currently
ravaging western societies. Hence why the spiritual vacuum left behind by a widespread
rejection of Christianity has witnessed the adoption of alternative
spiritualities that, while radically different from the Christian faith,
incidentally carry the same narrative structure. Take for example more radical
expressions of environmentalism. Often embracing new-ageist spirituality, they
have:
- A
deity – like “Gaia”, a personification of the natural order
- A
doctrine of sin – for example, capitalism, pollution, carbon emissions etc.
- A “gospel” of redemption – like net-zero goals and renewable energy
- Practices
of repentance – including veganism, synthetic meats, electric vehicles
etc.
- A
doomsday narrative – like desertification, the melting of the arctic poles,
flooding and fires, extinction etc.
Unsurprisingly, a growing number of intellectuals, academics, politicians and even fellow environmentalists have been labelling this type of environmentalism “a religious ideology”, the “religion of choice for urban atheists” and a “worldwide secular religion.”
[As part of my post-graduate
studies, I wrote an essey on the religious dimension of
environmentalism and how Christianity should engage with it. You can download it at this link if you’re interested.]
As I watched that woman hug that beautiful Willow tree, my heart was struck by a broad range of emotions: surprise and amusement at the unexpected sight; gratitude for the fact that my daughter wasn’t there to ask me why that lady was hugging a tree; but also sadness to see someone attempting to satisfy such a deep spiritual longing by loving (worshipping?) creation rather than her creator, hugging a tree rather than the one who gave his life for us on one.
Irrespective, that brief encounter reminded me that, despite
its looks, we live among very spiritual people desperate for meaning,
purpose, value and transcendence yet looking for it in all the wrong
places. Next time you hesitate to share your faith, remind yourself that the
person before you has most likely been let down by secularism and is desperately
“thirsty” for more than the material. The stats certainly don't lie! So, do not hold back! You might end up
speaking with that very lady…
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