Church Moves Environmentalist

[Dr. Shane]

Churches to be environmental advocates

The Synod called for all churches in the diocese to “raise the level of awareness and action in their local communities” on environmental matters and said all churches should “work out and implement an environmental strategy for its buildings, its land and its activities”.

Church Schools were also asked to keep environmental matters high on their agenda, while diocesan officers have been asked to reduce car travel, maximise the use of paper produced from sustainable resources and recycled materials and to be sensitive to the impact of church activities on the local environment.

The motion was presented to the Synod by the Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury, who recognised the lack of measurable objectives.

He said: “The difficulty with objectives is that it is almost impossible to take into account the vastly different situations that are faced by our nearly 600 churches, our 400 vicarages, over 200 schools and all the other plant that we have.

“We also have to allow for the fact that we have some parishes with one building and a congregation of 300-plus; which is very different from a medieval village church with a congregation of 12. Both of them are in profoundly different places.”

[Bravus]

David K, I'd actually be interested in your analysis of those texts in Genesis where man was made the steward (or overlord and exploiter, depending on translation) of the Earth. Are there good theological grounds for this move, or just the church taking on the temper of the times?

[olger]

Environmentalists compare favorably to Lot

Sane people compare well to Abraham

[Neil D]

Environmentalists compare favorably to Lot

Sane people compare well to Abraham

Ok, you blood sucking, meat eating, land wasting, land grabing, greedy monetary ruling, pseudo rational resource developmental,anti-humanistic conivore....What's your tofu [veggie beef] with Enviornmentalists?

[Bravus]

Quote:

Environmentalists compare favorably to Lot

Because they too will do anything possible to save that for which they're responsible getting gangraped?

[Neil D]

Originally Posted By: olger

Environmentalists compare favorably to Lot

Sane people compare well to Abraham

Ok, you blood sucking, meat eating, land wasting, land grabing, greedy monetary ruling, pseudo rational resource developmental,anti-humanistic conivore....What's your tofu [veggie beef] with Enviornmentalists?

Oh, I forgot to add-

Ok, you blood sucking, meat eating, land wasting, land grabing, greedy monetary ruling, pseudo rational resource developmental,anti-humanistic extreeme conservative republican conivore

[fccool]

"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."

I think that's a pro environmentalism statement, wouldn't you? But some environmental groups do go too far. For example, CO2 is being viewed as a pollutant gas, and it is not. It is naturally occurring in far greater volume than humans can not compare with. I don't argue against conservation, yet I think it has to be approached with honest mindset. It is important, but it is not the main message and purpose of the church. We should stay on track and Christ will take care of things that are outside of our control ... like evil people.

[Bravus]

Um, no, humans have increased the natural atmospheric concentration of CO2 by over 35% already: that's by no means a drop in the bucket.

[olger]

Remember, you asked.. Excerpt from a sermon of mine in 2006.

“The land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together” (v. 6). This is the earliest instance recorded in the Bible that the local population had outstripped the ability of the land to support them. Tucked away in the passage is a fascinating lesson for us. Lot chose for himself what appeared to be the most fertile land. In contrast, Abram, father of the faithful accepted whatever land that God in His providence gave him, through Lot’s choice. After the choice was made, the Lord spoke to Abraham “Lift up your eyes to the north south east and west. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth.

Now there is something ironic in this promise. Abraham & lot had separated precisely because they thought the land could not support them. From their perspective, the last thing either would consider a blessing would be a new expansion of population. Yet that is precisely what God promised Abram “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. Would not the fulfillment of that promise mean repeating the very dilemma that had caused strife between Abram & his nephew in the first place? “Abram believed the Lord and He credited it to him for righteousness.”

By the time of the Exodus (some 400-years later) Abraham’s family numbered some 600 thousand adult males, plus women & children. In other words, somewhere between 2-3 million people.

If I were to point to one thing that saddens me about many people today, including many devout and honest believers, it is how they fear population growth and it’s impact on resources and the environment. Have you heard about one of the fastest growing religions in the western world? It’s called environmentalism. It has no formal worship buildings, no dress code, and no hymnbook that I am aware of. It however has many volumes of “sacred” writings, each of them possessing an alarming kinship with new age philosophy. Its members sit in idealogical pews constructed out of fear. In this fear they think more like Lot, than like Abraham. They focus on the material world rather than on the infinite faithfulness & goodness of God. Their choices reflect their belief that the present state of the world sets the boundaries of human expectations. In this fear they do not– like Abraham focus on the promises of God and his FAITHFULLNESS & POWER to fulfill them. To them I would say with Paul, “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

olger

[Neil D]

Remember, you asked.. Excerpt from a sermon of mine in 2006.

[snip]

Have you heard about one of the fastest growing religions in the western world? It’s called environmentalism. It has no formal worship buildings, no dress code, and no hymnbook that I am aware of. It however has many volumes of “sacred” writings, each of them possessing an alarming kinship with new age philosophy. Its members sit in idealogical pews constructed out of fear.

[Woody]

Quote:

So, we are to ignore the evidence of a global warming

What "evidence" would that be?

[nuff sed]

I think that most would agree that we are in a warming cycle right now. What we do not agree on is that it is being caused by mankind.There are some things which we might do to slow down emissions of gases etc. but IMO they are miniscule compared to what nature itself is producing.

[olger]

Some 2100 years after Abraham, the early Christian Tertullian wrote “Everything has been visited, everything has been known, everything exploited. Now pleasant estates obliterate the wildernesses of the past, plowed fields have replaced forests, mountains are smoothed and swamps drained. There are as many cities as in former years there were dwellings. Everywhere there are people, everywhere there are buildings, everywhere life. We weigh upon the world, it’s resources hardly suffice to support us.” If Tertullian could say such things in the year 215, we should not be surprised to discover that many people today think likewise. People do say ludicrous things sometimes, like the couple who wrote to a local paper several years ago that human beings are crushing our planet under the weight of population growth. Who’s to blame? You & I.

Consider this for a moment. The roughly 6-billion people in the world have a combined weight of 450 million tons. Or about 1/56 billionth of the weight of the earth’s crust alone which weighs about 25-quintillion tons. (??????) And that constitutes only a fraction of the whole earth. To put this in perspective it’s like saying that something weighing 1/82 billionth of an ounce would crush a human being !! Not too accurate. Such irrational fears usually arise from more rational concerns. (That by the way, is an example of how often if you’ll just do the math you’ll discover how outrageous many of those claims are). Four weeks ago, it was reported on a national talk radio program that a scientist had developed a “fix” for global warming (another earthly-minded fear). The folks at World Jump Day plan to shift the orbit of planet Earth in order to "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogenous climate." They'll achieve this by having 600 million people jump up in the air at the same time. And they're looking for jumpers, so if you’re not busy…

The religion of Environmentalism also fears that we are rapidly running out resources on Earth. They are right. Take copper for instance. As we examine the earth’s crust and our ability to extract copper ore from it, we are running out of it. In fact in 800,000 years it will be all gone. So choose your plumbing wisely.

What causes such paranoia among earth’s people? As people drifted away from the Bible, other philosophies moved into the vacuum. During the 19th century, people saw technology as the answer to all human problems. Darwin rested his theory of evolution on the doctrine of inevitable progress. It was believed that in time, science would provide the answer to every human need, and even death itself would be challenged. Universities became laboratories for philosophical experimentation, and each new idea was praised simply because it was new. Or was it? New age thinking simply rests upon old pagan religions, and was predicted in Paul’s letter to the Romans that people of the earth would eventually worship creation instead of the Creator who is forever praised. (Romans 1:20–25). Environmentalists have a fundamental anti-Biblical view of human beings who were created in His image and are re-created and restored in Jesus Christ. There is a remarkable low view of people in environmentalist language, along with a simultaneously strange high view of animals. For environmentalists, people are often considered to be intruders on the earth, even a plague. Their fundamental worldview is based on two viewpoints of humanity: that they are consumers and polluters. Thus they are brought into close conflict with anyone who defiles the object of their worship—the Earth.

olger

[Bravus]

Where then does a theology of mankind's role as stewards of the earth fit? God ordained humans to care for the earth, and has many harsh words for despoilers of the earth. You seem to be arguing that a concern for the earth and Christianity are mutually exclusive, whereas a sound reading of the Bible suggests that God cares very much about the earth He created and holds us accountable for our stewardship of it.

[John317]

The Bible's picture of the purpose of the earth is similar to its picture of the Sabbath: both were made for mankind; mankind was not made for the earth or the Sabbath. So any world-view that demeans or lessens mankind is opposed to the Biblical picture at a most fundamental level.

But at the same time I believe you are right that mankind was put in charge of caring for the earth. I see no contradiction between those two views.

God cares about the earth because it is the home of mankind. The earth wouldn't fulfill its purpose if humanity ceased to exist.

[olger]

Hi Bravus. Thanks for your question. As you can probably tell, I believe Ehrlich's formula is fundamentally (and Biblically)flawed.

The Bible presents a quite different picture. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

BTW, total human settlements now, from aborigine dwellings to great cities presently occupy about 1.5% of the earth’s land mass.

How did Christians get involved in the Envionmentalist religion? It began when believing scientists & teachers approached the popular & WEALTHY academic Community and said “we want a place at the table.” And to gain that place at the table they were willing to compromise many of their beliefs.

For instance, there are two completely different ways to approach the Bible. One group (this is the right way) goes to the Word of God and studies it for him or herself and accepts the truth in it. Whatever else they discover in science & nature is then called to yield to the fundamental truth of the word of God. Fortunately many of our Adventist scholars anchor their faith in this manner. But there is a second way, and it is growing increasingly more common. That is where a believer says “I am willing to set my faith aside and study science and nature as if God didn’t exist and then I will come back to the Bible see how it compares.” This, I believe is what James calls double-mindedness. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

The end result is that Mother nature is today being invested with some sort of deity and worshipped accordingly. “Professing themselves to be wise they became fools” (to quote Paul). At the heart of the religion of environmentalism is the belief that man is a consumer only and not a producer. This is a false assumption, for man himself was created to “tend” the garden (Gen 2:15). There was a work to be done, a good work. In summary, the populating of the earth was ordained by God. Instead of viewing people as consumers and polluters, Biblical Christians should view people as restorers, here to help set others free from the slavery of sin.

It includes the restoration of the image of God in those who ARE redeemed, and through them, a blessing to those who are looking for God. There is work to be done—a good work among all peoples. Psalm 115:16: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.”

Warm (not global) regards,

oG

[Bravus]

Dude, good to see you're caring for the environment by recycling text! (seen those words from you before) It's a pretty speculative chain of events.

There is definitely a role for humans as restorers of relationships with God, but also for restorers of the land rather than despoilers. If you believe God made the earth, why would you trash it? I don't mean it has to be revered and worshipped, but respected. If I built a motorcycle just for you in my shed, lovingly crafted in every detail, would you go out and thrash it around with no air in the tyres and no oil in the sump, screaming it up past the redline? or would you enjoy it and treat it as the amazing gift it is?

[olger]

It's a nice offer, but just give it to Chad Reed. Shipping will break your wallet.

Picture of olger enjoying the environment immensely: