EARTH FOCUS: Can Religion Save the Environment?

EARTH FOCUS is a “news” magazine series on public television dealing with issues concerning the environment. The episode “Can Religion Save the Environment?” discusses Tibetan Buddhism’s sanctity for all life, and how that can perhaps turn the tide of Communist China’s treatment of the environment.

The episode begins with a case study of a small Cambodian village, and its struggle with the Chinese government wanting to possibly deforest their area. The second half explains how the Communist government is beginning to approve of Buddhist worship because it discourages pursuing material and capitalist gain.

The concept of religion protecting the environment both literally and figuratively is very interesting. In Tibet, the episode explains that certain areas of the environment are considered “sacred” by the monks. Therefore, deforestation and other building efforts are culturally frowned upon in those areas. As a result, the environment is “protected” without having to jump through government hoops or red tape.

This is where this episode begins to show its abhorrent pagan, communist worldview. Because the solution to deforestation in this movie is Buddhism, Buddhist rituals and worship are constantly being shown. The worldview is then tied in with Communism as the Chinese government approves of Buddhism’s encouragement to oppose financial success or material gain.

The Buddhists and Cambodians in the episode constantly talk about how plant and animal life are equal to the value of human life. This is their reasoning for protecting the environment, to respect plant and animal life in a spiritual way.

Sadly, of course, Christianity and the Bible are completely absent from this documentary. A better title for this short movie should be “Can BUDDHISM save the environment?”

The production values of EARTH FOCUS:  Can Religion Save the Environment? are above normal and are a bonus. It is well edited and visually appealing.

That said, this episode of EARTH FOCUS is a totally abhorrent piece of communist propaganda. In reality, capitalism and its technological progress has done a tremendous job protecting the environment. Communist and socialist countries usually have some of the worst forms pollution because the government is uncontrolled. Materialism and consumerism are not inherently evil. It’s what you do with your material wealth and consumer activity that shows whether you are doing right or doing wrong. Also, often, most of the solutions from the environmental movement to fight pollution don’t really work, such as recycling. Finally, Buddhism is itself a humanist, atheist philosophy, so it makes a natural fit with the evil, far-left ideology of anti-capitalist communism.