It hasn’t been a good week for the environment. The White House is moving to gut an essential part of the Endangered Species Act, according to an internal memo acquired by that liberal rag, the NY Times. What does it mean to “take” an animal? Cutting down all the trees so the birds have no place to go and nest isn’t “taking” the animal. Really?
In the midst of this Annie Dillard, a writer who wrestled with the question of evil by what is supposed to be an all-loving God, died this week. Observing the natural world, she noted that we always have the power to step in on the side of preservation, an idea that seems to be foreign to the current inhabitant of the White House.
Their idea is that you can destroy the habitat and create all kinds of dangers for endangered species but still be within the law. So if oil rigs and deep sea mining kills the habitat for the inhabitants of the sea, that’s still okay. So if you fire a gun at an eagle and kill it by mistake, it’s okay.
Prayer for the Day
Hearing the Lord’s voice through the eagle and the lynx,
We shudder at the thought of their destruction;
Listening for the sound of the whale and sea birds,
We wonder in awe at their survival in this world.
Feeling your breath of life upon us, Holy Creator,
Let us not turn that into the foul air of death.
In the name of the One who shares your life with us,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
This is really an assault on the [Endangered Species] act like we’ve never seen before. What the administration is proposing to do is take all of the force out of what we have all understood the act to mean: Don’t kill endangered species. What they seem to be saying in this document is, it doesn’t matter if you killed an endangered species if you didn’t mean to.
Andrew Mergen, law professor, Harvard, previously with EPA
A vessel that inadvertently strikes a whale has not taken it, because the vessel’s course was not set against the whale. Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them.
From the Interior Department Memo, 9/14/2026
Blessed are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
Or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers;
But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on God’s law they meditate day and night.
Psalm 1: 1-2