The Endangered Species Act has been an important way that we as a nation exercise our God-given responsibility to serve as guardians and protectors of God's creation. The Act has helped the recovery of such endangered species as the American bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the American alligator, the gray whale, and the whooping crane, as well as a host of lesser known but important plant and animal species. Protecting endangered species is not merely a matter of politics and economics, but one that touches the very deepest of human values. People of faith celebrate creation as the gift of a loving Creator. For the psalmist, the astonishing variety of life on earth was a cause for wonder, praise, and thanksgiving.
Biblical tradition affirms that humankind occupies a special place in creation.
The role of the human person is to see to it that the creation becomes fully the creation willed by God. God has woven creation together like a beautiful and marvelously intricate fabric. Human greed and exploitation, however, are pulling the threads out of this fabric one by one. As many as 75 to 100 species are becoming extinct each day. If that trend continues it will only be a matter of time before the entire fabric unravels and the eco-system collapses around us.