I just read and incredibly interesting article on a site called RELEVANTMagazine.com about Christianity and ecology & environmentalism… I have summarized some of it here:
WHY ENVIRONMENTALISM ISN’T JUST POLITICAL
by J.R. Briggs
The “E” word: Environmentalism. Every time I heard the word, I was convinced it was merely a political cause for a group of tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, New-Agers who live in Oregon (no offense to you Oregonians) and had nothing better to do with their time. I remember rolling my eyes the day the science department sponsored a lecture by Tony Campolo on campus … But Campolo blew me away and nailed me right to my seat: It is our calling, he said, to be great environmentalists and conservationists.
Since that lecture, I have come to understand that environmentalism isn’t as much a political issue as it is a spiritual one. The underlying principle of environmentalism is stewardship, a word we hear often in the context of a sermon, but rarely—if ever—in the context of conservation. Stewardship, by definition, is the act of managing all the resources that God has entrusted to us in order to bring Him ultimate glory.
Yet it’s a bit ironic that the secular environmentalists are the ones leading the charge to conserve God’s creative masterpieces on earth, not Christians. Our response to conservation has been minimal. Instead of cornering the market, in a sense, we have turned our heads, rolled our eyes or run for the exits. We have somehow fallen prey to the lie that it’s merely a political concern, not a spiritual concept.
God, from the beginning of the world, created the earth and “saw that it was good.” God chose to birth the beginning of humanity, not in a parking lot, but in a garden. Interestingly, there are references to creation’s current condition from the prophet Micah who wrote, “the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants as a result of their deeds.” Yet for the most part, the church’s response thus far has been apathy or ignorance, or we’ve become too lazy or busy to do anything at all.
How do we take seriously the call to be responsible stewards of creation? This answer is different for every person, but collectively, we have a responsibility. Let’s be aware and let our brains expand as we think more critically and more Christianly. Sure, “this world is not our home,” and our citizenship is in heaven, but we’re not given the right to trash and dispose of this earth because of it. If God made creation a priority, shouldn’t we? If he created beauty, shouldn’t we desire to preserve it that so others may experience what we have experienced? Let’s begin to see conservation not as a form of political ideals, but as a form of spiritual stewardship and as an act of worship.