‘BELLY BUTTON CHRISTIANITY’
ILLYN ADVOCATES INDIGENOUS VIEW OF RELATING TO THE EARTH
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Peter Illyn, founder of Restoring Eden: Christians for Environmental Stewardship, speaks at the Mount Sequoyah Conference and Retreat Center in Fayetteville on Wednesday.
Photo by Sarah Bentham
Peter Illyn learned the term “belly button Christianity” in Papua New Guinea, where indigenous people celebrate their connection to the earth.
They view the earth as their mother, with themselves bound to it by an umbilical cord, he said. The Christianity they embrace - 93 percent of people on the island nation are Christian - validates that relationship. The tribal people see no discrepancy between their love for Jesus and their love for the earth.
Not all Christians agree. Later in his trip, Illyn met a Western missionary. Illyn introduced himself as a fellow evangelical and an environmental activist.
“You better not call the earth your mother!” the other burst out.
Illyn’s response may well have been “Why not?” The grassroots ...
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Religion, Pages 10 on 02/06/2010
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