The Promise and Peril of ‘Dark Green Religion’

“Sacred forests” … “desecration of the earth” … “green spirituality” … Professor Bron Taylor (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh), speaking to the Anthropology Forum on the 25th anniversary of his graduation from CSU, Chico with degrees in religious studies and psychology, told how he was struck by the religious connotation of such environmental phrases and began to wonder if “something religious was going on.”

With the advent of “ecotage”—illegal environmental actions such as arson, blockades, and bombings—Taylor became intrigued with the religion, politics, and ethics of the radical green movement. Long interested in religion and politics, and having worked 15 years with the California State Parks, he set off for the woods in 1990 to study “dark green religion.”

He found that activists cherish a “ritual spiritual aspect” to their activities. Redwood activists have claimed “mystical experiences,” such as hearing a long, rolling moan from the trees, signifying “old energies, old pain.” Tree sitter Julia “Butterfly” Hill professed a spiritual connection that enabled her to draw strength from the ancient redwood tree she called Luna.

Taylor distinguished between two main groups of dark green religionists: radical environmentalists and bioregionalists. Both feel a spiritual connection to the earth and reject “human-centeredness.” They adhere to animistic, pantheistic, or Eastern religion and reject monotheism and Western religion. They feel strongly that there is an extinction crisis on the planet, caused by corrupt government and corporations. “Grief and anger fuel the movement,” said Taylor.

However, the radical environmentalists, Taylor said, believe there is no hope for the planet without extreme action and respond with “spiritual warfare,” while the bioregionalists are more optimistic, believing that we can “learn our way to sustainability.”

Ecologists believe, Taylor said, that people who cannot be reached rationally can be reached by the arts. Music, guerilla theatre, road shows, poetry and prose, art, and photography, he stated, can “evoke and deepen people’s felt connections to a sacred natural world.” Throughout his talk, he played songs that typified facets of the green movement.

Taylor showed ecowarfare posters, including one urging green “monkeywrenchers” to “Learn to Burn” in order to sabotage factories. In “Ghost of a Chance,” Danny Collinger sang bleakly, “We are preparing for the end.”

This was contrasted with the bioregionalists’ promotion of sustainable living through local political action and composting toilets. In “Time Bomb,” despite lamenting that “those craters used to be Nevada” and “that brown haze used to be the sky,” the singer still could “dream of a day when all things can again be wild and free.”

Green religion is escaping the counterculture, Taylor believes: “There is a growing convergence with the spiritual. The very fact that government agencies are moving in a bioregional direction is amazing.” Even the Sierra Club is proclaiming its earthen spirituality, he said, reading from a poster: “This is not about getting back to nature. It’s also understanding that we never left. … There is something out there. Something wonderful. And it is much, much bigger than you.”

Taylor is leading an international team of scholars on production of The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, to be published in London and New York, envisioned as a definitive work on “nature religion” and “religion and ecology.” He is also writing a book called Dark Green Religion. He is the Oshkosh Foundation Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies in the Department of Religious Studies and Anthropology. His Web site is www.religionandnature.com.

Taylor’s April 25 visit was sponsored by the Bidwell Environmental Institute, the Rawlins Endowed Professor of Environmental Literacy, the Department of Religious Studies, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Provost’s Office.

Francine Gair