Religions mostly mum on dump

Stacy J. Willis

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

Local politicians have taken the fight to Washington. Celebrities are lending their names to the battle. Even the everyday Joe has been asked to pony up in the fight against bringing the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

But when Methodist Bishop Beverly Shamana sent a letter to President Bush opposing the repository plans earlier this month, she became one of few regional religious leaders to take a stance.

Although churches have proven to be a powerful tool for organizing protests at a grass-roots level, most Southern Nevada religious groups have opted to stay silent on one of the community's biggest issues.

Shamana, who oversees the California-Nevada region of the United Methodist Church, says it's time for the faithful to remember their moral obligation to care for the Nevada environment and community safety.

"I am asking them to write to their respective legislators and the governor," Shamana, who oversees about 50 churches in Nevada, said. "I am asking for opposition."

Her call, however, has yet to inspire many other religious leaders:

"We are not really involved in that," said the Rev. Hilda Pecoraro of Green Valley Presbyterian Church.

"Our congregation as of now is not doing anything regarding Yucca Mountain," Rabbi Sanford Akselrad of Congregation Ner Tamid said.

"My understanding is there is no church position being taken whatsoever on Yucca Mountain," said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spokesman Will Stoddard. "Certainly no financial contributions."

Rabbi Mel Hecht, leader of Temple Beth Am and a member of the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice, said he thinks religious leaders "have been remiss on this issue."

"There has been very little said in religious communities about this, and that really should change," Hecht said. "This does affect our community."

Although the spiritually based Nevada Desert Experience organization has been active in nuclear protesting for years, it has not had consistent support from a majority of Las Vegas churches, according to Sally Light, Nevada Desert Experience executive director.

"Certainly the (Indian) tribes and their religious groups oppose Yucca Mountain being used this way, but I'm not aware of many mainline Las Vegas churches that are involved," Light said.

The exception, she said, is the Catholic Worker organization, a group founded in 1933 to speak out about social issues such as war, homelessness, and labor abuses.

"They are so sensitive to the sanctity of all creation. They take nuclear issues very seriously," Light said.

The Las Vegas Catholic Diocese issued a printed statement saying that Bishop Joseph Pepe "will be addressing (Yucca Mountain) and the concern of the local parishioners with the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference in the coming months."

But other mainstream religious leaders say they are too focused on the day-to-day spiritual needs of their members to spend time on political issues.

For some church groups, Pecoraro said, community outreach is more likely to take the form of helping local poor or homeless people, or assisting the elderly and homebound.

However, religious groups have gotten involved in other Nevada political issues.

In 2000, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heavily supported a state ballot initiative aimed at preventing gay couples from legally marrying -- going so far as distributing get-out-to-vote memos at church stakes and contributing more than $1 million to the anti-gay-marriage campaign. Other churches, such as several Southern Baptist congregations, also got involved in this campaign, and the measure passed by more than 60 percent.

Other recent issues also have sparked local religious activism. Synagogues are encouraging members to keep up with international politics -- Akselrad said he recently recommended that his congregation write letters to the White House to show support for Israel in the Mideast crisis.

Shamana, along with environmentalists and Native American activists who oppose the repository because it is on a Shoshone spiritual site, say that most faiths call for the protection of the environment.

Certainly Judeo-Christian theology, Shamana said, mandates opposition to the environmental risks involved in moving nuclear waste across the nation to Nevada.

"It really has to do with the stewardship of the earth -- we have been given this awesome task," Shamana said. "It is a theological concern. It goes beyond one community and has to do with the entire cycle of living, so that we don't harm those yet to come."

Reinard Knutsen, director of Shundahai Network, an anti-nuclear activism group that has been active in opposing the Yucca project and the Nevada Test Site, said the protests would benefit from church involvement. But, he said, he doesn't anticipate much church participation any time soon.

"We are being slammed on all fronts by the U.S. government," Knutsen said.

"Unfortunately none of the environmental groups have really pushed that agenda with the churches, none of them have gotten churches organized," Knutsen said.

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