Liberal Environmentalism (Nature Lovers) Vs. Organized Religion

It need not be this way, but Christian religious groups want to (literally) spread their gospel into the protected nature zones. The New York Times website currently has this as its top headline: Secular Laws Cede to Religious Exemptions. According to the article, which features a fight in Boulder, headquarters of Mark Amerika Nature Photography, the battle has begun:

“When you fly in to Denver at night, you can always pick out Boulder,” said Ben Pearlman, an athletic young lawyer who grew up there. “It’s the only one with big patches of darkness around it.”

As one of Boulder County’s three governing commissioners, the soft-spoken Mr. Pearlman talks about protecting the county’s spectacular beauty as if it were a sacred trust. In 1978, the county limited intensive development to already urbanized areas, buffered by large swaths of prairie and farmland. The landscape therefore now stands in stark contrast to the spreading carpet of subdivisions, office parks and malls in neighboring counties around Denver.

To Alan Ahlgrim, the mellow and mesmerizing preacher who founded Rocky Mountain Christian Church in eastern Boulder County in 1984, those encroaching subdivisions look like spiritual vineyards, full of families ready to be transformed by his church’s call for them to become “blessed to be a blessing” to others.

“The church has never grown fast enough to suit me,” Pastor Ahlgrim said with a grin that showed he was almost, but not quite, serious.

The multimedia video that accompanies the article, is all about A Battle in Boulder.

---

Metadata: nature, religion, photography, politics