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Betraying the garden?
By Lynda C. Ward
Are Christians today being responsible and faithful in caring for the environment? When recently asked this question, Dr. Stephen Wilson, Assistant Professor of Theology at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, replied that the current Christian response to the environment is "woefully inadequate."
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We Christians have a history of 'woefully inadequate' stewardship of this earthly garden in which we live. Some Indiana congregations are trying to change that. |
Other theologians, such as Sallie McFague, Emeritus Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, and John Cobb, Emeritus Professor of Theology at Claremont University, agree with Wilson's assessment. Cobb, who has written extensively about ecological issues, believes not only do Christians have a responsibility to care for the environment and that current Christian efforts are lacking, but that the lack of care for animals, plants, rivers, trees and streams by Christians is affecting their relationship with God.
"We see a planet in increasingly poor health," says McFague, who also has written several books on environmental theology. Issues of global warming, the logging of virgin forests, the extinction of species of both plants and animals, the pollution of streams and rivers, and the literally hundreds of thousands of companion animals euthanazied each year are just some of the issues clamoring for attention from people of all faiths.
But Wilson believes the current "inadequate" effort by Christians is not necessarily based in intentional irresponsibility as much as it is grounded in a lack of understanding of the relationship between God and humans and the world.
According to Wilson people usually hold one of two notions about the world. One is that the world is ours, therefore we can do with it as we choose. The other is that the world belongs to God, so God will take care of it; humans should only concern themselves with spiritual matters. Wilson believes that, given the creation stories of Genesis 1-2, both notions are false. "Our world, all of creation, is a gift to us from God and must be used accordingly. We must treat the world rightly for God to be glorified." Cobb, in his book God and The World, makes the same point, "devotion to the divine which turns its back upon the world is a rejection of the God known in Jesus Christ."
In the past year, however, many Christians have begun to turn their attention toward the world and environmental issues. There has been a surge in environmental activism in many faith communities. Mainline Protestants along with Roman Catholics, evangelical Christians and Jewish leaders recently formed the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) and began to offer a faith-based response to environmental concerns. In 2002 the NRPE mailed a document titled "The Interfaith Call for Energy Conservation and Climate Justice" to every United States Senator.
In Indiana, the Rev. Perry Richards, pastor of Brookville UMC, signed up to the chair the Eco-Justice Group (EJG), a sub-committee of the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis. EJG is a part of a 21-state interfaith initiative working with the National Council of Churches in cooperation with the NRPE. A relatively new group, the EJG is the only inter-faith environmental group in Indiana, but they have already become active in local communities. The group has participated in various Earth Day celebrations and begun a state wide Climate and Energy Campaign, bringing information about their faith-based global climate change campaign to area colleges and churches.
Richards says the EJG is addressing the issue of global warming by offering literature on how churches can become more energy efficient, and by selling light bulbs that conserve energy, which also are available for churches to purchase and sell as fund raisers. They host a Web site too, www.churchfederationindy.org, where more ideas and information can be found. This year the EJG plans to broaden their spectrum to include other Avery important topics" like pollution, recycling, and plant and animal care. "We also would like to train representatives from individual churches," says Richards, "so they can then train and educate members of all Indiana faith communities."
How congregations are responding
An informal poll of United Methodist pastors in the Michiana District in Northern Indiana revealed that training and education, indeed, is needed to prepare lay and clergy to become more faithful stewards of creation. The poll of the more than sixty pastors of the Michiana District showed that most felt the environmental stewardship issue was very important. Yet, other than participating in a recycling program or celebrating a Blessing of the Animals liturgy each fall, pastors did not readily know of practical ways their congregations could respond to the many environmental concerns.
In response, Wilson believes the Christian liturgy is a good starting point. "The liturgy gives us a model and a practice for the right use of material goods. In the church's worship we see material elements like bread and wine being used with a threefold purpose in mind: the glorification of God and the sanctification of humanity which leads to communion between God and humanity. This threefold purpose should inform all our uses of material goods [including our response to the environment]. Yet this is a fundamentally different approach than we find in the consumer-driven 'he who finishes with the most toys wins' mentality that permeates our society."
The
Rev. Steven Brey, pastor of Epworth UMC in South Bend, agrees with Wilson but
adds, "Our communion with God is meant to take place in a corporate context that
includes not just other people but the rest of creation: animals, plants,
forests, the air and water as well."
When Brey was appointed to Epworth in 2001, he put into practice what he preaches. He encouraged the church to take advantage of the fact that they were located only a few blocks from the city's animal shelter. Brey, who works in animal rescue, serves as the chair of South Bend's Animal Care Task Force and teaches a class at Notre Dame titled "Creation: The Context for Salvation," suggested that the Epworth community reach out to their neighbors at the animal shelter and become involved in helping some of the homeless, abused and neglected animals there find good homes. As a result some of the officers and volunteers at the city shelter started attending Epworth, and together the church community started an animal stewardship ministry: a foster care program where some of the members of the Epworth care for, in their private homes, animals from the shelter until loving, permanent homes can be found - animals, who might otherwise have been euthanazied.
"John Wesley clearly interpreted Scripture to read that the death and destruction of animals or the environment was not a part of God's original intent for creation," says Brey. "Since we bear responsibility for making this present mess, we have an added duty to help clean it up. If Christians won't speak out for a vulnerable and defenseless environment, who will?"
Skepticism and stewardship
Jill Blomberg of First UMC of Valparaiso agrees with Brey. "God made the earth for all of us to use. We need to be stewards." Blomberg and her church have recently become better stewards by joining the Partners for Clean Air, a voluntary coalition of businesses, churches, schools and city governments sponsored by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Their goal is to work together to improve overall air quality and public health.
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"Until we can see God's divine glory reflected in even the smallest creatures...we can never hope to see God face to face." |
Yet Christians responding in word and deed to environmental issues do not do so without some controversy. The Rev. Dick Yeager, a retired pastor and the part-time director of adult education at Castleton UMC, says that some people make light of his being conscientious about turning off lights. Yeager, also a member of the EJG, says when he speaks of the climate change issue Christians sometime ask, "What is your information base, what kind of research has been done to support this?" The Rev. Perry Richards admits that one of the challenges the EJG faces is that many people do not believe global warming or other environmental concerns are really an issue.
In response to Epworth's animal stewardship ministry Brey says, "The questions I hear frequently are, 'Aren't people more important than plants and animals?' and 'Isn't this some kind of new age nature worship?' or I get comments like, 'Caring for animals or the environment doesn't have anything to do with Christianity.'" Brey is quick to cite Scriptures such as Psalm 36:6 or Romans 1:18-25 and to remind people that The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church supports environmental stewardship and that John Wesley, himself, taught that all of creation, plants and animals included, is waiting for redemption; salvation is a corporate event.
'We're all in this together'
"The question isn't should we help people or the environment," says Brey. "The decision to help care for the environment or to help care for people isn't an either/or situation. You can't help the animals and the environment without also helping people, and you can't truly help people without also helping the animals and the environment. We are all in this together."
Theologians agree. "The problem is not humans vs. nature," says Wilson. "The problem is that we are using more than our fair share, and we are not being responsible with what we have been given."
John Cobb states it another way saying, "It is my clearest conviction that the vision of the world as creation is the context and presupposition of Christian belief ... The intrinsic importance of the world derives from its relation to God, and this relationship is such that faith in God expresses itself as the affirmation of the world and involvement in it." Cobb believes most environmental problems today have their root, at least for Christians, in too weak of an understanding of the world as a part of God's creation, as well as the context for Christian salvation.
How to reclaim the vision
Where and how, then, do Christians begin to reclaim the vision of the world as creation: creation with a divine purpose that ultimately belongs to God? Richards says the EJG hopes to offer some literature in the form of Bible studies and small group discussion guides, as well as an instructional video tape for churches to use to invite members to talk about environmental stewardship. Another of EGJ's short term goals is to establish small groups throughout Indiana, a kind of grass roots movement, to encourage a dialog among faith communities and to begin to formulate a faithful response to environmental issues.
First UMC of Valparaiso offers packets of information about the region's polluted air, along with a video and a Power-Point slide show that are available for presentation to church boards or ministerial staff.
Wilson's
Spring Hill College hosts a comprehensive web site,
www.shc.edu/theolibrary/environ.htm, which offers many faith based articles
about environmental stewardship, links to environmental organizations,
directories and highlights of local stewardship efforts. And Epworth UMC hosts
www.EpworthMethodist.org
with information on animal stewardship and articles on the United Methodist
understanding of the Doctrine of Creation and United Methodists' responsibility
to care for the environment.
"It's not too late for Christians to take their environmentalists stewardship responsibilities seriously," Brey says. "For in the final analysis not only does the world's continued survival depend upon profound changes in our attitudes toward the world, but so too does our own salvation. For until we can see God's divine glory reflected in even the smallest creatures here in God's world, we can never hope to see God face to face."
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HOW TO GET INVOLVED: |
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| Indiana Faith-Based Global Climate Change Campaign | |
| Web site: www.churchfederationindy.org/climate.htm Contacts: Rev. Perry Richards, Brookville UMC, chairman (765) 647-5265 or The Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis (765) 926-5371 |
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| The Indiana Department of Environmental Management | |
| Partners for Clean Air Web site: www.state.in.us/idem/oam/partners or contact volunteer Jill Blomberg at (219) 464-7523 |
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| National Eco-Justice Working Group (of the National Council of Churches) | |
| Web of Creation is an ecumenical Web site offering
ecological justice resources for faith-based communities. Web site: www.webofcreation.org Phone: (212)870-2923 Email: ecojustice@ncccusa.org |