Earth Day Has Pentecostal Roots

The man who coined the name Earth Day was a Pentecostal
minister who thought the observance would help promote peace and unity.

According to the Assemblies of God (AG) Heritage
magazine, 95-year-old John McConnell Jr., a longtime Pentecostal and peace
activist, first proposed the idea for Earth Day in 1969. His plan was to mark
the day in late March at the start of spring to promote peace and justice as a
prerequisite for ecological preservation.

But McConnell also was motivated by his faith. “We love God
… [and therefore should] have an appreciation for His creation,” McConnell told
AG Heritage, which is published by the Flower Pentecostal Heritage
Center.

McConnell submitted his proposal for Earth Day to San Francisco
city officials on Oct. 3, 1969, and the first governmental recognition of Earth
Day was held March 21, 1970. The event gained support from Congress and the
United Nations, which McConnell hoped Earth Day supporters would partner with
in protecting the environment.

Yet the original Earth Day was quickly overshadowed.
McConnell said Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., wanted to move Earth Day to April
22, when he had scheduled a political protest called Environmental Teach-In
Day. Nelson wanted to change the name of the teach-in to Earth Day, but
McConnell would not agree to the idea.

“I said, ‘Absolutely not,” McConnell told AG Heritage. “Earth Day on nature’s event
is too important for this global occasion. So the next thing I knew they stole
my name Earth Day and they used it for April 22. I was urged to sue, but I
didn’t. I didn’t believe in suing.

“San Francisco kicked it off and later on we had the United
Nations. The Secretary General … thought Earth Day was a great idea, and the
United Nations [still] celebrates Earth Day on
the March equinox.”

McConnell’s biographer, Robert Weir, said Nelson admitted
that he got the idea for Earth Day from others, but he did not specify from
whom. In time, Nelson began to publicly claim full credit for founding Earth
Day, which he wanted to use to protest pollution.

McConnell says the current Earth Day observance is too
political, though he appreciates its goals of improving environmental
stewardship. He notes that April 22 is also the birthday of communist leader
Vladimir Lenin, one of several reasons he continues to mark Earth Day in March,
during the spring equinox.

McConnell comes from a strong Pentecostal lineage. His
grandfather was at the Azusa Street revival in 1906 and his parents were
founding members of the AG in 1914. Although McConnell’s father was an ordained
minister in the AG for a time, and McConnell himself became a preacher, both
men were strongly independent thinkers.

The elder McConnell’s ministry credentials were not renewed
in 1929 because AG leaders struggled to pin down his positions on doctrinal
issues. And he took a strong pacifist position, which the AG endorsed until
1967, believing Christians were not supposed to kill even in war.

The younger McConnell adopted his father’s view. After being
drafted into World War II, he asked for an exemption as a conscientious
objector but was refused. While participating in target practice during basic
training, he kept seeing an image of Jesus flash through his mind whenever he
prepared to shoot a target. He refused to shoot and ended up in solitary
confinement, eventually escaping the military base and fleeing the country with
his wife.

McConnell began ministering off the coast of British
Honduras and was eventually discovered by the FBI, which decided to leave him
and his wife alone because they were not engaged in subversive activities,
according to AG Heritage.

McConnell later became a peace activist and organized the
Star of Hope and Minute for Peace movements. The first encouraged the U.S. to
launch a satellite as a symbol of peace, and the latter urged people to spend a
minute in prayer each day. The first Minute for Peace was held Dec. 22, 1963, a
month after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and short Minute for
Peace radio messages have been read by heads of state and United Nations
officials.

McConnell says all of his work, including his push for an
Earth Day observance, sprang from his Christian faith. “If there had been no
Christian experience in my life there would be no Earth Day – or at least I
would not have initiated it,” he told AG Heritage. “I’m a peacemaker,
and part of the reason was my father, who was, without question, the greatest
influence in my life.”

 Though he says April 22 is not Earth Day, he sees the observance
as an opportunity for Christians to be a witness. “While Earth Day is
non-sectarian and non-political,” he said, “it provides a great opportunity for
Christians to show the power of prayer, the validity of their charity and their
practical concern for Earth’s life and people.”

To read AG Heritage‘s full report on John McConnell
Jr., visit their Web site.

To watch an interview with McConnell, click here.