Many Christians say grace before a meal, thanking God for the food on their tables. But few stop to consider where their food came from, how it was grown and at what cost it arrived on their plates.
\nA conference at Duke Divinity School starting Monday attempts to bring clarity to that prayer, so often cited but seldom explored.<\/p>\n
“Our Daily Bread: A Theology and Practice of Sustainable Living” is Duke’s latest venture into the moral implications of eating, a subject that has been much discussed recently with a crop of popular books on the perils of the industrial food supply.<\/p>\n
The conference is aimed at clergy and lay leaders and draws on some of the leading thinkers in the field. One is a geneticist. Another a poet and farmer. But all share a conviction that churches ought to bring a discussion of food into their pulpits.<\/p>\n
“How we eat is the single most important decision we make about the health of our planet,” said Ellen Davis, a professor of Bible and practical theology at the divinity school, who championed the conference.<\/p>\n
The idea is not to encourage pastors to eat organic, but to examine the ways in which Christians have become alienated from their food sources and have neglected their responsibility to care for creation. Instead of encouraging sustainable agriculture and a love of the environment, many Christians are preoccupied with building even bigger sanctuaries and paving even larger parking lots.<\/p>\n