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If you're wondering which presidential candidate is going to show more care and concern for the environment--Barack Obama or John McCain--today's election winner will certainly have the help of some very influential people to help back them up in their new green initiatives.

Religious leaders from every persuasion are voicing their opinions on the subject, not from a scientific perspective, but from a "God created the Earth, let's take care of it" viewpoint. In a new book Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation, edited by the Sierra Club's Lyndsay Moseley, religious leaders all weigh in on why caring for the environment is important and why people of faith must do something about it.

Here's an excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's thoughts on why caring for the environment should be important to Christians:

"Anselm of Canterbury, in an almost prophetic way, once described a vision of what we witness today in a polluted world whose future is at risk: 'Everything was as if dead, and had lost its dignity, having been made for the service of those who praise God. The elements of the world were oppressed, they had lost their splendor because of the abuse of those who enslaved them for their idols, for whom they had not been created' (Patrologia Latina 158, 955-56). Thus, according to Gregory’s vision, the stable in the Christmas message represents the ill-treated world.

"What Christ rebuilds is not ordinary place. … He came to restore beauty and dignity to creation, to the universe: this is what began at Christmas and makes the angels rejoice. The Earth is restored to good order by virtue of the fact that it is opened up to God, it obtains its true light anew, and in the harmony between human will and divine will, in the unification of height and depth, it regains its beauty and dignity."