Some Christians are wary of efforts to protect and preserve nature. I think that part of their concern is that some environmental efforts seem to make an idol out of nature, or even make nature more important than humans.
Here is an example of what I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HaxLpjPZTbU
I believe there Christians are called to protect and tend the plants, trees, animals, water, and other elements of nature in this world, but you will never find me asking a tree if I can hug it or share my energy with it.
But here is the thing… just because we don’t want to go off the deep end and idolize nature or damage and destroy human lives for the sake of nature, this does not mean that we can ignore the environmental needs of the world or just consume and destroy the natural resources of this plant in any way we want.
One of the first instructions of God to humanity was that we would tend to the plants and animals of creation (Genesis 2:15f). Our fall into sin has not done away with this responsibility.
In fact, since the world and everything in it is God’s good creation, should not people who follow God be the greatest champions of the environment? Yet all too often, we adopt the mentality that “it’s all going to burn away” so we might as well rape the land, kill the animals, and destroy the environment.
(And by the way, I don’t think it all going to burn anyway… God will purify creation, but we are still going to be living in creation. But that’s a subject for a future post.)
I am NOT saying that we need to worship the earth, treat animals as more important than humans, or pray to the sun and trees. No, this is idolatry. But there is a vast difference between idolatry and ignoring our God-given responsibility to tend for the earth, care for the animals, and do what we can to protect the earth and its resources for future generations.
So Christians can be tree huggers in the sense that we want to protect the environment God made. But first and foremost, we will be God lovers and people huggers who recognize that tending creation is one way to love both God and other people.
What are your thoughts on the subject?
This post is part of the September Synchroblog. Here is a list of other contributors:
- Jen Bradbury – Is God Green?
- Carol Kuniholm – For God So Loved the Earth
- David Derbyshire – Walking Through God’s Creation
- Glenn Hager – The Oblivious and the Extremist
- Oliver – Dieu il Recyclable
- Tim Nichols – Never a Last Leaf
- Leah Sophia – September Synchroblog Creation
Here are my thoughts Jeremy. This is an article I wrote on the issue in 2007.
http://www.sightmagazine.com.au/stories/Questions/environment24.1.07.php
Thanks for sharing this link. I appreciate what you have to say – especially this: “if we are not considering the effects of environmental degradation, we are working against the poor. Ross Langmead from Whitley College in Melbourne, has said that “the transforming power of the gospel is not just spiritual, and not just social and economic, but also cosmic and environmental. The gospel is bigger than many of us thought!”
Thanks! I’ll come check it out.
I think the bottom line is if someone who loves me creates something for me, my love for them is demonstrated by how I treat their creation. For example, if my daughter paints me a picture, I cherish it, adore it, praise her for it, and tape it up on my wall (or frame it!). However, just because I cherish it, I don’t demonstrate affection toward the creation itself, or consider the creation as greater than the creator. Also, If I used her painting to stoke a fire, she would feel rejected, betrayed and immensely saddened that her creation meant so little to me.
I think the way the world treats God’s creation is blasphemous. Yes, the earth provides us with resources, but it’s the heart, or attitude, toward those resources that is so far out of whack. As Christians, I don’t know if I’d call it a “responsibility” or “job”, but it’s our opportunity to have received such an amazing gift and out of our love for our creator, we cherish, admire, and protect it, and glorify Him by doing so.
Jeremy, I love the common sense in your post. I just wish common sense were more common.
Right! Common sense needs to be called “uncommon” sense.
Hi,
One statement you’d made…all is not going to burn away… earth as we know it, will be destroyed.
Rev 21:1
“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea.”