Claiming the Right to Say No-30 Nov 09-EQUATIONS - Equitable ...

Claiming the Right to Say No
2. Theological Response to the Challenges of Tourism
2.1 Theological Reflection on Natural Resources
Creation with its natural beauty is the undisputable factor which attracts
hundreds of people to a particular holiday destination. But, cruel man
having failed to recognize the key ingredients in the flourishing of tourism
industry, in the name of tourism development, has undertaken hill cutting,
uprooting of century old historic trees, converting of agricultural land into
residential plots. And after having finished his notorious task of devastation
of land, he has now moved even across the shores in the waters, with
motor sports and allied activities, thereby disturbing and destroying the
aquatic life.
The first pages of the Bible speak of the first act of God’s love, ‘Creation’.
Creation is the first gift given by God to man, so that he may cultivate and
take care of it (Gen. 2:15). Creation was given to man as the source of his
sustenance and the means for developing a dignified life. God’s command
to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1: 28), seems to be misunderstood by
man, for God’s command to subdue the earth cannot mean something
negative i.e. disturb and destroy the ecosystem. Rather, through creation
man is called to recognize God’s goodness and His presence till the end
of times (Rom.1:20).
2.2 Theological Reflection on Women and Children
In tourism industry the women are titled as, what Pope John Paul II termed
as “depersonalization by sexualisation”. A woman is not viewed for who
she is as a person, but, is reduced to a potential object for sexual
gratification: God did not will this when he created human beings, nor he
wills it today, for He created them into His image as man and woman with
equal human dignity (Gn.1:27). So, tourism industry should be a place
where women are not only respected as mere human beings, but, a
sector in which their dignity is also restored.
In tourism industry women are to be viewed and be related as our own
mothers or sisters, as attested by St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy (5:1-
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