When I was reading from “Making Nature Sacred” I came across a line saying talking about an essay titled “God’s First Temples: How Shall We Preserve Our Forests.” This line really struck me because I recently had written about a priest who was writing a thesis about how 60% of Christians have admitted to being bored in church. The man is named Reverend Neil Elliot and his argument is that a wilderness (his example was mountains with snow) can be very therapeutically and spiritual. He spoke about how when he was out snowboarding (he called “soul riding”), he found that more snowboarders would be more eager to talk about God while they were in a place that they related to, than at a place that bored them.
Reverend Elliot is not arguing that churches are not sacred, but that churches are not the only place where you can be sacred. When God created the Earth he never created any temples or churches, he left that up to man to create. So if you think about it, God’s first temple really was the wilderness.
I have to agree with Reverend Elliot and his belief on worship at a sacred landscape. I will agree that there are plenty of times where I have been bored in church and would much rather go skiing with my priest and spend time on the chair lift learning about God than at a church.
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