October 20, 1999
Movement seeks nurture for nature
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___WACO--Don't call them tree-huggers. And please don't call them nature worshippers.
___Don't call them creationists either, because their mission is not to change the way the earth's beginning is taught in public schools. Rather, their mission is to help Christians act on what they already claim to know about creation--that God did it and has assigned humans to be caretakers over it.
___They are environmentalists, to be sure, but environmentalists who begin at a fardifferent place than the Sierra Club or Greenpeace. They are environmentalists because they believe that's what the Bible teaches and what God desires.
___"If we take the Bible seriously, we will be environmentalists," explained Tony Campolo, a popular speaker and author who teaches at Eastern College in St. David, Pa.
___Campolo joined a group of like-minded activists for an Oct. 10-11 conference on environmentalism from a Christian perspective held at Baylor University. The conference, titled "Caring for Creation--Christian Stewardship of the Environment," was co-sponsored by Baylor's environmental studies department and the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission.
___Linking environmental concerns to the biblical mandate and attempting to broaden environmental sensitivity beyond the agenda of secular organizations was a recurring theme of the conference, which was attended by clergy, educators, laity and students alike. Attendance at the sessions ranged from 50 to 200.
___"What's been lacking is a forceful and dynamic statement from the pulpits of many denominations," said Larry Lehr, a range ecologist who teaches in Baylor's environmental studies department. It appears to be easier for the church to talk about abortion, homosexuality and capital punishment than to talk about God's creation, he said.
___Worse than the absence of a rallying cry for environmentalism among Christians, other speakers added, has been some Christians' preaching that humans are to dominate creation rather than care for it.
___This springs from differing interpretations of the creation account found in Genesis 1:28, which in the King James translation reads, "Then God blessed them (Adam and Eve), and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Some contemporary English translations do not use the word "dominion" but translate the passage as God's command for humans to "rule" over creation.
___Many conservative Protestants have interpreted this passage to mean humans have God's permission, even God's command, to use the rest of creation for their benefit in whatever manner they deem necessary. Evangelical environmentalists, however, see God's command more as a call to be caretakers and stewards than rulers.
___"Our theological heritage often has been harmful to the way we view ecology," said James Nash, a United Methodist minister who now is a business consultant on ethics and ecology and teaches at Boston University's School of Theology.
___"The anti-environmental position must not stand unchallenged," he said. "The fact is, we are involved in a great ethical, theological and social struggle. ... Unfortunately, we can't make our case by appealing to our shared Christian theologies."
___Christians for too long have taught that Earth was created exclusively for the benefit of humans, Nash said. This is a position that is "theologically arrogant" and causes Christians to have "created a God conformed to our own image."
___Instead, Christians are called to "reflect the true divine image," Nash said. "We must understand dominion in the true biblical sense, not as a right to plunder."
___Campolo later jumped in on this same point, saying those Christians who most fear the influence of humanism on American culture are in fact exemplary humanists themselves.
___"We have this idea that God created the planet just for us," Campolo said. "If that's not humanism, I don't know what is. The heavens were created to declare the glory of God."
___He appealed to Psalm 148 as one affirmation of the idea that God created all things for the purpose of praising God and then drew an illustration from the "songs" scientists have discovered whales sing underwater.
___"If there weren't any human beings on earth, there would still be a place for whales," Campolo said. "They are not here just to provide blubber but to sing hymns to God."
___This is an important distinction between a Christian perspective on environmentalism and a secular perspective, several speakers said.
___"We worship God as creator, not creation itself," explained Terri Morgan, special projects coordinator for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___Biblical Christianity offers a solution to fundamental dilemmas about the environment that science cannot answer, said Max Oelschlaeger, a professor of community, culture and environment at Northern Arizona University who previously taught at the University of North Texas and is an award-winning writer on environmental issues.
___He cited this paradox: "If humans are part of nature, then seemingly anything we would do must be natural. On the other hand, if humans are not part of nature, then anything goes" and what is done to nature doesn't really matter.
___"Secular reason has been defeated by this paradox," he said. "It has no answer. ... The good news is there is a solution to this paradox--the reaffirmation that we are children of God."
___The best way to see the relationship between humans and creation is through a model of stewardship, said Dan McGee, professor of ethics in Baylor's religion department. "The essence of being a good steward is not privilege but responsibility," he said.
___Baptists especially ought to champion the environment, said another speaker, because of their historic doctrine of the priesthood of the believer.
___This doctrine is "vital to understanding care for creation," said Stan LaQuire, director of continuing education for Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and past director of the Evangelical Environmental Network.
___If Christians stand as priests before God, others who look at Christians ought to be able to see in them what God is like, LaQuire said. And God not only cares for his creation, God loves it, he added.
___Christians, he said, must "demonstrate to the rest of the world the joy God has in his creation" and the compassion God has for his creation.
___That point was echoed by Morgan, who concluded, "If we claim to know and love the creator, we must live out our faith in a way that demonstrates respect for creation."
___
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
