Building a New Ark: Our Covenant with Nature

This week the children at our Quaker meeting were told the story of Noah's ark, and their response was telling (and very Quakerly):

"Why did God have to kill all the children?"

"Good question," was the response of Quaker adults who love good questions more than pat answers.

Why did God have to kill the innocent in order to punish the guilty?

I don't have an answer to that question--maybe I will someday, or maybe not--but the story of Noah is one that I grappled with many years ago when I was asked to give a sermon on Earth Day. What I came up with was an interpretation of this story that focuses on non-violence and on our need to care for the earth and all creation. I also discovered something that links care for animals with care for children:

Much closer to home, we are discovering that those who abuse animals are also likely to abuse or neglect their children. According to a recent report, the first case of child abuse to be prosecuted in the United States was brought to trial at the end of the nineteenth century through the efforts of the ASPCA. Today the animal abuse and child abuse agencies have started working together once again. They have discovered that neighbors are more likely to report animal abuse than child abuse. So when animal abuse officers go into home, they also look for signs of child abuse or neglect. As one ASPCA worker put it, "When I go into a home with animal faeces all over the floor, and the dog's food dish is covered with mold, and a child is crawling on the floor through all this unhealthy filth, I now must report the neglect of the child as well as of the animal."

We'd be wise to follow Noah's example and care for all critters, children as well as animals.

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The Bible (1966), John Huston's epic film version of the Book of Genesis, contains a fascinating glimpse of life inside Noah's ark. After Noah has followed God's directive and corralled thousands of species of animals into the ark, his skeptical family turns to him and says, "How are we going to feed all these animals?" Noah smiles, points to the cows and chickens, and replies, "No problem. We have plenty of eggs and milk." His wife laughs, "Tigers and lions drinking milk!" "Why not?" replies Noah, "They are really just big pussycats, aren't they?"

The scene is amusing and absurd on a literal level. But the more I observed the way that the Noah and his family dutifully tended to the needs of the animals, the more I was struck by the unique spiritual message of the Biblical story. In Graeco-Roman and Babylonian versions of the universal flood myth, the surviving human beings save only themselves. They have no moral or ethical responsibility to save other species; that is left up to the gods. However, in the Hebrew version, human beings are given the responsibility to preserve and protect all life. The Bible makes quite clear that the human race was threatened with destruction because of its violent tendencies. God tells Noah, "The loathsomeness of all mankind has become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of violence" (Genesis 6: 11). To atone for this sin of violence, human beings must build an ark and become caretakers and caregivers for endangered species.
Noah and his family survived because they faithfully executed God's plan to give human beings and animals a new chance to live together harmoniously. Noah's commitment and compassion restored God's faith in humanity. God therefore promised, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, however evil his inclination may be from youth upward" (Genesis 8: 21). God told Noah that man will still have dominion over the natural world--"the fear and dread of you shall fall upon all wild animals on earth" (Genesis 9:2)--but man will also be held accountable for any unnecessary bloodshed, whether of animals or of human beings. The myth ends with God's creating the rainbow as a sign of the "everlasting covenant between myself and all that lives on earth" (Genesis 9:17).
The Jewish holy of holies is called "the ark of the covenant," which is sometimes interpreted to mean God's agreement with His chosen people. However, the covenant actually is much broader: it concerns the relationship between God and "all that lives on the earth." A key provision of this covenant is the responsibility of human beings to be stewards of nature.
Long before Buckminster Fuller talked of our planet as a spaceship, the Hebrews imagined all earthly creatures housed in a great boat, which is what the word "ark" actually means. What the story of Noah suggests is that all of us--human beings and animals--are "in the same boat." We sink or swim together. We are all answerable to the same Higher Power--the Creator of Life.

As sailors on this earth ship, we need to do what is in the best interest of all who are on board. According to the Bible, we also need to obey the commands of our captain, the Lord of the Universe.This is what the Hebrews meant when they spoke of a "covenant." To appreciate the Bible's environmental message, we need to look carefully at the three important provisions in this covenant.

1) God's covenant is based upon the belief that all life is sacred. God did not say, "Noah, I want you to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine which animals you feel are profitable, and which animals deserve to die." Instead, God said: "Save all the animals, and I will save you." In the Bible's view, all life deserves to be protected because it is God's creation. Jesus is therefore echoing a well-established Scriptural tradition when he says that God cares for the fall of a sparrow. By the same token, God may be said to care about the fate of the spotted owl, the snail darter, the Bay smelt, and other endangered species.

2) The business of human beings is not business, but serving God and respecting life. It was evident from Huston's film and from the Biblical story that everyone on the ark had a great deal of work to do. There can no problem of unemployment when you have to feed and care for all the species on earth! One may therefore infer from the story of Noah that the issue for God is not "jobs or the environment." The issue rather is, "How do we create attitudes and occupations that will help us to live harmoniously with our environment?"

The Buddhists call this kind of work "right livelihood," a way of life that helps us and others to be happy and to achieve enlightenment. Christians call spiritually enlightened work a vocation or calling. In any case, we need to make the Spirit, not employment, the guiding principle in our lives. Only then can we live in harmony and balance with all living creatures.

3) We need to be willing to risk doing seemingly silly or futile things to save the planet. Noah was not a practical man. He did not build a boat with an eye to making a profit. He is described as someone who "walked with God" and was willing to do what God commanded, even at the risk of seeming ridiculous to his neighbors and to his family. What could be more absurd than building a boat on dry land in the midst of a drought? If Noah were alive today, some people would call him an "eco-radical" or "environmental socialist" or even an "ozone man." Fear of seeming ridiculous sometimes prevents us from doing all we can to help preserve the environment. It sometimes seems futile or absurd to re-cycle newspapers, compost our garbage, or plant a tree when the whole planet is on the verge of ecological disaster. We should take heart from Noah's example, however, and do what God commands us to do to help preserve the natural world. We must be willing to say, with Noah, "Okay, God, if you want me to save all the species on this planet, I'll do it."

Today more than ever before in the history of the human race, it is crucial for us to reaffirm the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures. We need to identify with the non-human members of God's family. Furthermore, we need to take God's covenant with Noah one step further by applying the Golden Rule to our relationship with animals and plants.

In order to "do unto nature as you would like nature to do unto you," try to imagine how you would you feel if you were an endangered species. How would you feel if your food supply were cut off or drastically reduced? How would you feel if you had to abandon your home, the place where you and your family had lived for countless generations? How would you feel if your offspring were born deformed or dead?

These feelings are not too difficult to imagine since the problems which face animals are shared by far too many human beings on this planet. Hunger, homelessness, genetic damage, and a breakdown of family life have become all too common features in today's world. It is becoming increasingly clear that the fate of animals and the fate of human beings are inextricably linked.

In fact, the fate of animals may be compared to that of native peoples who were threatened with extinction after Columbus' "encounter" with the New World. The European invaders regarded animals and Native people in much the same way. Indians were either enslaved, slaughtered or compelled to live on reservations, just as many endangered species have been either exterminated or forced to live in parks and zoos. In these alien environments, animals often feel isolated, confused, and lonely. They fall prey to disease. They even lose their ability to function in the wild.

Many zoo keepers are becoming aware of this problem and are changing their attitudes and policies. Instead of preserving animals merely to satisfy human curiosity, many zoo keepers are now trying to breed endangered animal populations and restore them to the wild. Take, for instance, the wild tamarin monkeys of the Brazilian rainforest. When they became nearly extinct in the 1960's, zoo keepers decided to breed them in captivity and to release in the wild. But first, these civilized monkeys had to be taught basic survival skills.

National zoo primatologist Benjamin Beck assumed the role of master teacher in a tamarin "outward bound" program. The first class, in 1983, enrolled fifteen pupils--a group of tamarins from the National Zoo and four others....The pupils were, in effect, pampered city kids who needed to learn survival skills for a wholly different world. They had never searched for food, but had it presented--literally on a platter--on a regular daily schedule.... Here, then, were fifteen monkeys who did not comprehend the business of peeling a banana. (Jake Page, Smithsonian's New Zoo (1990), p. 33)

Captive breeding is obviously just a stop-gap measure. As Jan de Blie wrote in Meant to Be Wild (1991), a book about the struggle to save endangered species through captive breeding, this policy "provides no lasting solution to the problem of vanishing species, no means of stemming the environmental destruction that threatens to bleed the world of most of its natural diversity. It offers hope that someday human attitudes will change, political turmoils will cease, and wild landscapes will be restored; but it does not address the deep cultural and religious beliefs that encourage people to kill wildlife and destroy natural areas" (p. 7). In other words, there is only so much that science can do. We must also change our religious and cultural attitudes.

The story of Noah offers a model to help us re-think our attitudes towards wild life. Noah did not set out to dominate nature; he did not capture animals for sport; he did not study them to accumulate scientific knowledge or to discover how they can benefit human beings. He followed a simple directive: "Save all the animals, and I will save you." This spiritual principle deserves prayerful reflection. It suggests that if we save animals for their sake, and not just for our own selfish purposes, we will benefit all life on this planet, including our own, in ways that we cannot fully imagine.

The Bible shows us that human beings and the natural world are spiritually and physically linked. The Hebrew prophets frequently remind us that the moral behavior of human beings has a significant impact on the natural world. According to the prophets, if we mistreat widows and orphans, if we become greedy and selfish, if we worship material things, if we forget about social justice, the natural world becomes desolate. On the other hand, if we treat the poor and oppressed with justice, if we live simply and "walk with God," the natural world flourishes and we experience what Quakers call "the Peaceable Kingdom."

Recent events confirm this profound spiritual insight. As we look back at the legacy of Viet Nam and the Gulf War, we can see that not only people, but also entire eco-systems are damaged or destroyed by modern-day weapons of mass destruction.

Much closer to home, we are discovering that those who abuse animals are also likely to abuse or neglect their children. According to a recent report, the first case of child abuse to be prosecuted in the United States was brought to trial at the end of the nineteenth century through the efforts of the ASPCA. Today the animal abuse and child abuse agencies have started working together once again. They have discovered that neighbors are more likely to report animal abuse than child abuse. So when animal abuse officers go into home, they also look for signs of child abuse or neglect. As one ASPCA worker put it, "When I go into a home with animal faeces all over the floor, and the dog's food dish is covered with mold, and a child is crawling on the floor through all this unhealthy filth, I now must report the neglect of the child as well as of the animal."

Domestic violence, animal abuse, war and pollution: they are all related problems. To solve our ecological crisis, we must also work to eliminate the violence pervading our lives. To end violence, we must be concerned about the rights of animals and plants as well as of humans. Social justice, environmental well-being and spiritual redemption are inextricably interconnected. This is what the Hebrews meant by shalom, or peace. We therefore must work together to build a new global ark whose main business will be to preserve and protect all life. As we build this new ark, let us remember the rainbow---that beautiful and precious symbol of God's "everlasting covenant with all that lives on earth"