“The misinterpretation, which has been blamed on Christians, has helped legitimize the wanton profit-oriented exploitation of the planet and its resources,” said Hrangthan Chhungi of the Presbyterian Church of India.
She said that the more appropriate translation from Hebrew, the language in which Genesis is written, is “to oversee and take care, rather than to subdue and have dominion.”
Chhungi, who is also the executive secretary of the Commission on Tribals and Adivasi, a program of the National Council of Churches in India, is a theologian who was presenting a biblical and theological perspective at a consultation on “communities’ rights to water and sanitation in Asia” held in Manila, sponsored by the World Council of Churches-backed Ecumenical Water Network, a faith-based water rights advocacy group.
