Frugality, the planet, and our souls

While I take issue with a great deal of The National Council of Church's open letter on the environment, their words on frugality are right on target:

Living lives filled with God’s Spirit liberates us from the illusion of finding wholeness in the accumulation of material things and brings us to the reality of God’s just purposes. Frugality connotes moderation, sufficiency, and temperance. Many call it simplicity. It demands the careful conservation of Earth’s riches, comprehensive recycling, minimal harm to other species, material efficiency and the elimination of waste, and product durability. Frugality is the corrective to a cardinal vice of the age: prodigality - excessively taking from and wasting God’s creation. On a finite planet, frugality is an expression of love and an instrument for justice and sustainability: it enables all life to thrive together by sparing and sharing global goods.

Christians may disagree on what's really happening to our planet's ecosystem, but we should all agree that greedy consumption threatens not so much our planet as our own souls.