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For millennia, the world's great religions have waged war for the soul of humankind, only to watch with dismay as time after time evangelistic zeal has grown cold as the stone of sepulchers.
Something important was missing, says the Rev. Howard Clinebell, who suggests a solution as simple and yet profound as stepping outside the doors of cathedral, synagogue, mosque or temple -- and into a soft spring rain.
A driving snowstorm or a mild sunny day with flowers in the wind might serve as well. The point is to remember, be humbled by and hopefully be won over to the salvation of soul and planet, Clinebell said.
Pollution, the steady loss of rain forests and overpopulation threaten ecological disaster and starvation, and make saving the environment as critical a concern for the church as a whole as salvation is for the individual believer.
"The environmental crisis is the most serious global health crisis of...