Our problem is that we stopped seeing the world that way [as a
sensitive, living organism] and now view it and ourselves as a
haphazard collection of individual pieces, none of which has
inherent worth beyond its capacity to be used in some way. This
culture has a way of turning almost everything that exists --
such as water and air and everything that is created, even music,
art and the religious objects of other cultures -- into a
commodity. When what is sacred is defined as being 'outside' our
realm -- like a God who created our world but exists somewhere
else -- and our goal is to go to heaven or get off the wheel of
life, then we have license to exploit the Earth and all of her
creatures. But when we say that the Earth and we and the elements
that sustain our lives are sacred, then we must work to preserve
and protect the interconnectedness of life.
-- Starhawk, wicca and minister of the Covenant of the Goddess,
author of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of
the Great Goddess. LAT 5/22/93: B5.