Green Christians
The media often gives the impression that devout Christians and Big Business are one big happy family, and this family hates environmentalists. However, it’s a different story behind all the headlines and generalizations. One recent survey showed 52% of Evangelical Christians supporting strict environmental regulations.
This makes sense, since the Bible refers to Man having stewardship over the Earth. That passage is at least as prominent as the Old Testament passage condemning homosexuality.
I’ve sometimes thought (on a slow news day) of finding some of the more archaic prohibitions from the Old Testament and doing a tongue-in-cheek article about the “sinners” who disobey them. Here is an example of the fun you can have with some of the more obscure passages from the Bible.
Many Christians are wary of the “environmentalist” label, which conjures up images of hippie tree huggers who worship nature. They prefer terms like “creation care.” Whatever you want to call it, this can only be a good thing. People who disagree on other issues can still unite on the issues where they do agree. After all, hunters and animal rights activists have obvious disagreements, but they agree on the importance of protecting wildlife habitat.
The Rev. Leroy Hedman of Seattle said "it's amazing to me that evangelicals haven't gone quicker for the green. But as creation care spreads, evangelicals will demand different behavior from politicians. The Republicans should not take us for granted."
The Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, said "the environment is a values issue. There are significant and compelling theological reasons why it should be a banner issue for the Christian right."
Last fall, Christianity Today, an influential evangelical magazine, weighed in on global warming. It said that "Christians should make it clear to governments and businesses that we are willing to adapt our lifestyles and support steps towards changes that protect our environment."
The magazine came out in favor of a global warming bill — sponsored by John McCain and Joseph Lieberman — that the Bush administration opposed and the Republican-controlled Senate defeated.
Hopefully the environmental protection/creation care movement will have an increasing influence.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:20 AM
2 Comments:
most of us would say "we aren't environmentalists" because that lumps us in with a bunch of far leftists and people who are far from Christian. But I think if the question were "are you a conservationalist?" most evanagelicals would say yes.
It is clear through Scripture that man has been given dominion over the earth... but we are also charged to take care of it. Adam was to oversee the garden of Eden... most evangelical farmers I know are excellent consevationalist. Look at Lundberg family farms as an example... they did organic before organic was cool.
What you choose to ignore is the fact that just because the 'greenies' belong to the democratic party it takes more than that one (or even two) issues to get people who believe in the Bible to connect with the democrats. While the enviroment is important, it takes a back seat to abortion (for 90%+ of the Christians). While we would agree with a few of the things that democrats promote - the vast majority of us are against gay marriage. Even in the arena of enviroment, most of us realize that the 'treaty' in Japan was too far over the top.
It's a matter of what DOES resonate with voters. Abortion and gay marriage, taxes and socialism rate a higher concern than does the enviroment. I'd rather vote for a party/candidate who only has one thing that I disagree with than four. I have a chance of changing one thing, it's really difficult to try to change four of them.
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