There's a quote from Chesterton that's apt, as there so often is, from The Ballad of the White Horse. Alfred is reproaching the Danish King for neglecting to look after the White Horse, cut in the chalk hillside long long before their time:

Therefore your end is on you,
Is on you and your kings,
Not for a fire in Ely fen,
Not that your gods are nine or ten,
But because it is only Christian men
Guard even heathen things.

"For our God hath blessed creation,
Calling it good. I know
What spirit with whom you blindly band
Hath blessed destruction with his hand;
Yet by God's death the stars shall stand
And the small apples grow."

Unfortunately it has not been consistently true that "Christian men Guard even heathen things". And fortunately "only" is less than just to many other people. But the principle is right. True religion involves respect to other people and to their works.