Acknowledgement of a social reality.
Jerusalem, December 4 – A movement that features doctrine, apostles, saints, a vision to transform society to conform to its tenets, and apocalyptic predictions if that vision does not become reality, has attained official status with Israel’s government office that grants funding to institutions and personnel serving various faiths in the country.
Minister of the Interior Arye Deri signed the order today recognizing the religion of Environmentalism, a move that will facilitate government funding for projects in the Environmentalist community and for the salaries of Environmentalist religious leaders serving that community, as well as official oversight of government funding allocations within Environmentalist institutions.
“Environmentalists deserve the same rights as believers in other faiths,” proclaimed Deri. “We welcome Environmentalists into our society with the same degree of warmth and recognition granted to numerous others. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, but we take pride in offering full civil and religious rights to all who reside here.”
Scholars of religion note that the movement has long existed in Israel, but only in recent decades has it become a prominent part of the social and political landscape, necessitating its official recognition. “There’s always been at least a few Environmentalists in Israel, sure,” explained Opia Tavdamassus, Professor of Comparative Religion at Tel Aviv University. “But it was marginal most of the time. That changed as the society grew wealthier and people had more spare time and money to devote to causes they hold dear. Now Environmentalism bears all the hallmarks of a more-or-less organized religion: dire warnings of mass destruction for failing to follow the faith’s strictures; belief in the infallibility of the movement’s prophecies despite repeated wrong predictions; wealthy adherents showcasing high-profile adherence and demanding everyone emulate them, when others cannot afford to do so; even allowances for hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to the leaders and public faces of the movement. Official recognition of Environmentalism as a religion is just an acknowledgement of a social reality.”
Some observers see a political effort to divide the movement. “It’s actually quite clever, and cynical, for the government,” remarked columnist Louis Kattorz. “A good number of Environmentalists, some of the more fundamentalist preachers, express quite anti-Israel views, seeing Israel as an important piece in a larger matrix of oppression that subjects people of color – in this case Palestinians – to environmental injustice. Here the minister, I think, seeks to wrest some of the faithful away from those hostile elements in the Church of the Environment. We’ll see only in the long term whether the ploy works.”
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