Gregory Rodriguez’s Op-Ed Greenness is next to Godliness raises some interesting issues about the way an awareness of global warming has permeating our culture with a “religious-like” fervor.

Most external national threats remind us of our essential goodness. The agents behind them are our enemies, the bad guys. Environmentalist rhetoric, on the other hand, constantly reminds us of our own culpability. For that reason, environmentalism is more akin to a religious awakening than to a political ideology. Like evangelicals, environmentalists speak, in their way, of fire and brimstone. Like the preacher, the environmental activist demands that we give ourselves to something beyond ourselves and that we do penance for our wasteful, carbon-profligate sins. Like the Catholic Church of old, they even sell indulgences — carbon offsets.

And like any religion that emphasizes sin, devotees will find all sorts of ways to prove their personal righteousness. Particularly during the Christmas shopping season, it’s fun to watch this new secular religion collide with one of our more established ones: shopping. Just last week, I received a renewal notice from my favorite newsmagazine that promised if I renewed my subscription now (and thereby kept the publishers from sending me 10 more paper reminders), I could “renew the Earth” at the same time. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I do think that environmentalism can be akin to a religious awakening, although for many of us it (environmentalism) is more of a gradual one (Oooh, interesting dissertation topic). I think there is some value in thinking of our resource use as something we need to be aware of, and, if we’re wasteful, find some way to do penance for (though I’m not personally into carbon offsets. I’d rather people just reduce use.). And I do think that corporate greenwashing is giving environmentalism a bad name. Still I fear Rodriguez conflates genuine scientific concerns with global warming with the inevitable marketing of it.  However, his piece reminds me of the multiple times I’ve tried to get a job in an environmental nonprofit and haven’t been sin-free..um…green enough.