Rockefeller speaks up for the Earth Charter. (Letters to the Editor).

THE NEW AMERICAN essay on "The New World Religion" by William F. Jasper (September 23rd issue), contains some misunderstandings about the Earth Charter Initiative which I would like to address.

1. The Earth Charter is the product of a worldwide, cross-cultural, interfaith dialogue on common goals and shared values that has been conducted as a civil society initiative. The Earth Charter is not the product of a United Nations intergovernmental negotiation. To date the United Nations has not endorsed the Earth Charter. It is the case that an effort was made during the 1992 UN Rio Earth Summit to draft an Earth Charter, but no agreement on an Earth Charter was reached.

2. The Earth Charter Initiative encourages the religions of the world and faith communities to embrace an ethic of respect and care for all people and for the greater community of life in a way consistent with their own traditions. It is not the purpose or interest of the Earth Charter Initiative to create a "new world religion," and the Earth Charter is not being presented as a "mystical revelation."

3. Different traditions and organizations celebrate and promote the ethical vision in the Earth Charter in many diverse ways. The Ark of Hope is one example of the way in which a group of individual artists and educators have responded to the Earth Charter. The Earth Charter Commission welcomes a diversity of responses and does not officially identify the Earth Charter with any one response.

4. The Earth Charter teaches respect for nature, including Earth, our planetary home, but there is nothing in the Earth Charter about the worship of Earth. It does affirm "reverence for the mystery of being," which many people interpret as a reference to the Creator or God.

5. The Earth Charter does encourage sustainable patterns of human reproduction. It does not take a position for or against abortion, and it deliberately does not use the term "population control." It is the position of the Earth Charter that the best way to ensure sustainable patterns of reproduction is to promote gender equality and to provide universal access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunity.