This is like suggesting that the Crusades was a Christian themed event, when, in actuality, it was nothing more than a political maneuver seeking more power for the masters of war of the time.
Organized religion and power structures that incorporate these institutions are the real target of White's criticism, but it seems he can't bring himself to blame the very system that gave him his power and voice. To me, this article reveals White's guilt and self-hatred of his understanding of the world and he needs to blame an easy target to alleviate himself from this painful confusion.
White's opinion, that St. Francis failed, accounted for his deepest fears. He wrote " Saint Francis, proposed what he thought was an alternative Christian view of nature and man's relation to it; he tried to substitute the idea of the equality of all creatures, including man, for the idea of man's...
He failed." St. Francis did not fail, White did.
A man's religion is personal and is subjective. Sweeping generalizations such as this argument suggests that the author has a deep rooted fear of what he does not know about life and death. His living in constant fear clearly emits through this shallow attack at spirituality, religion and Jesus Christ. Man and all of his inventions, troubles, technology and crime is part of nature.
White's argument approached the ridiculous when he proclaimed "No new set of basic values has been accepted in our society to displace those of Christianity. Hence we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man." This viewpoint, limited and bigoted in natures suggests a deeper problem for White than appears for society.
