Earth Day 2008 just passed me by yesterday. The day came and went with barely my notice. And what little notice I did take came when I saw a blip on the news around 11pm.  The day was almost done in the East.

 

That’s a little disappointing because, quite honestly, a few months ago I had thought it might be a good idea to do a little research and post a short series about the Gospel and its relationship to Environmentalism.  That may seem a little odd if you are a conservative. But I honestly think many of conservative Evangelicals are missing something important.

 

1.  Psalm 24 does declare: “The earth is the Lord’s…”;  and Psalm 19 reminds us the God’s Creation declares his glory.  This suggests, to me, that appreciation and stewardship of our environment is a legitimate part of serving God. It may even be a legitimate resource for evangelism – but only if Christians reflect appropriate appreciation.  We need to, to borrow and paraphrase a title of a Tony Campolo book, Rescue Earth Without Worshipping Nature. (No, I have not read the book, but the title is cool.  I suspect, as with many of Campolo’s books, I would find many brilliant insights intermingled with a few, uh… unconventional assertions I cannot embrace.)

 

2. Environmental issues provide a forum in which we can dialogue with the world around us.  Certainly there will be a diversity of opinions, and some propositions which will never resonate with Evangelicals. But why are we largely absent from the conversation?  I think our failure to speak to this issue in our churches expresses to the world that we don’t really care about an issue that is close to many hearts; and it leaves the members of our churches with really only the non-theistic views of creation and environment to consider.

 

3.  While we battle in the courts and schools to reinstitute Creation Education, we hypocritaclly do virtually nothing with that creation that suggests we care.  It is not unlike the charge made against some Pro-Life activists, who passionately oppose abortion, but don’t appear to care enough for the unwanted and poor children who are born and live in horrendous situations.  (But that’s another subject… I only intended to point out that there is more behind the issues that Evangelicals do rally around, and that perhaps if we were as passionate and well rounded about these related matters we might find more receptive ears to our proclamations.)

 

I began to think about this issue several years ago, though I am still no expert. Living in East Tennessee, and before that Western Pennsylvania, it is easy to be awed by the natural beauty of the mountains, rivers, and wildlife. (Yes, for those of you who have never been there, Western PA/Pittsburgh, is beautiful outdoor country!) 

 

At that time I started reading some of the stuff put out by the Evangelical Environmental Network, because I could find nothing else on the subject claiming a distinct Christian world-view.  But I was a little disappointed with EEN because of some of the doctrinal views laced throughout their writings.  Then I became fully disenchanted with them when they launched the What Would Jesus Drive? campaign against SUV’s.  (Jay Leno had probably the best response to that question: “Let’s see. Jesus was a single guy, working as a carpenter, living in a small rural town in the middle of nowhere… What would he drive? Probably a large pickup.”)

 

But over the years I have found some solid thoughts from the Christian perspective.  Perhaps the best I’ve stumbled across is the Cornwall Declaration (.pdf) from the Cornwall Alliance.  This is a network of Evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews who recognize that “The Earth is the Lord’s” and that we who live in it have a God-given responsibility to be the stewards of what has been entrusted to us. 

 

Let me end this post by inviting comments.  What are your thoughts about Evangelicals and Environmentalism?  And if you know of any good resources out there, please let me know.