“The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, ‘To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.’ On this Earth Day, and every day, let us honor the earth and our future generations with a commitment to fight climate change.”
She has used it before. In an interview with Tavis Smiley she attributes it to the Prophet Isaiah:
Well, I do, and I'm raised in a family in Baltimore, Maryland, my father was the mayor. He was in Congress when I was born. And we were devoutly Catholic, very patriotic. We love America. Devoutly Catholic, deeply patriotic, proud of our Italian American heritage, and in our case, staunchly Democratic.
And that faith was related to our Democratic values. That is to say the gospel of Matthew. "When I was hungry, you gave me to eat." You know, the least of our brethren. So that's an inspiration in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, Isaiah says, "To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the god who made us."
Joel of "House of Leoj" has hunted down other instances in which she has used this quotation.
In any case, the running thought in the blogosphere at present seems to be that she came across the passage in a context associated with the book of Isaiah and misunderstood, thinking that it was actually a quotation from Isaiah. If anyone knows the source, let people know; it's a running puzzle, since no one can pin it down.
