Faith Leaders Support Shutdown of Red Hill

An Interfaith Statement of Support for the Permanent Shutdown of Kapūkakī (Red Hill) was published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on February 27, 2022. It features signatures of over 150 spiritual leaders from faith communities across Hawai‘i. Members of these communities chipped in to cover costs of the full-page advertisement in O‘ahu's newspaper. The statement was drafted by member Aya Kimura and Kahu David Baumgart Turner of Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu. Faith Action Hawai‘i and its members helped to organize the effort, garnering support from across the islands. View the full published statement below.

Interfaith Statement of Support for the Permanent Shutdown of Kapūkakī (Red Hill)

As individuals and groups who represent a diversity of religious and spiritual traditions, we are united in our shared values of aloha and respect for all living things; in our appreciation of the natural world as the foundation for the wellbeing of all; and in our understanding that water is an indispensable element and source for life. It is through our shared values that we call for the immediate and permanent shutdown of the fuel tanks at Kapūkakī (Red Hill).

Across the spiritual traditions, water is foundational to life, a symbol of purity and rebirth and a metaphor for actively engaged and transformative lives. Protecting water is a sacred act.

Any and all efforts to repair and improve the tanks will not address the fundamental problem that may ultimately lead to more leaks and a catastrophic contamination of the Southern O‘ahu Basal Aquifer, the primary source for drinking water for the island. We have the responsibility to our children and future generations not to put off the problem. We demand the immediate shut-down of Red Hill fuel tanks and that the U.S. Navy and the federal government take responsibility for the harms already caused.