As people of faith, we have a moral duty to protect human health and to be responsible stewards of the environment, not only for our own but for future generations. That means doing what we can as individuals and also working together as a self-governing community to address large problems we can’t possibly solve on our own.

Responsible stewardship of the environment and responsible government must be grounded in a concern for the health of the most vulnerable among us. Thousands of unregulated chemicals currently circulate in the stream of commerce and, therefore, in our bodies and in the environment.

Here in Maine, wise steps have been taken to get dangerous chemicals out of the products used every day by the public. The Kid-Safe Products Act is an important law that is based on prudent science and the inherent need for people, particularly children, to be legally protected from the effects of toxic chemicals such as bisphenol-A (BPA).

Now it is time for Congress to take action. The federal Toxic Substances Control Act is in dire need of updating. It is an outdated law that has proven itself to be ineffective at protecting health. In its 35 years of existence, it has resulted in the testing of only 200 chemicals, despite the tens of thousands currently being produced and used in the United States. That is a dismal record of protecting public health and one we have a moral and ethical obligation to improve.

In fact, new legislation has been introduced that would do just that. The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 would repair each of the core failings of TSCA. It would put the burden of proof on the chemical companies to provide basic information about the chemicals they produce and sell.

Like Maine’s law, it would use the best science to prioritize chemicals based on the risk they pose and allow us to focus on those most likely to cause harm. It would provide broad access to information for all families, workers and governments — information that has been sorely absent and that parents and future parents are particularly desperate to receive.

Updating TSCA would put at least two safeguards between potentially toxic chemicals and human bodies — sound science and the judgment of the people through their elected government.

While not claiming scientific expertise, we do lay claim to the ethical insights of our faith that life is a gift from God, that human bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that those with power and authority owe a duty of particular care toward the most vulnerable, especially toward children and generations to come.

As Jesus once asked a crowd of people, “Who among you, when your children ask for bread, gives them a stone instead?”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that exercising leadership means asking, not what is the popular thing. Or, what is the safe thing. Or, what is the expedient thing. True leadership, he said, means asking, “What is the right thing?”

We at the Maine Council of Churches, along with many people of faith everywhere, believe that the way to do the right thing, as a person or as a society, is by treating our neighbors as we would like to be treated ourselves.

When you consider the high stakes here — human health and development, the high costs of treating preventable disease, the unknown toll on the larger environment — the standards of the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 do not seem too much to ask of those who will profit most from being allowed to sell chemical-laden products in Maine.

We urge Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to co-sponsor this important legislation.

Updating TSCA is a reasonable, responsible way of balancing modern life and its conveniences with that ancient, universal imperative to protect human life, especially the next generation.

The Rev. Jill Job Saxby is the executive director of the Maine Council of Churches.