Recently in Christian Ecology Category

Tracey Bianchi:

You see, at our church, all our coffee equipment is owned by our current coffee vendor. We don't own it. The only reason we are allowed to have it is because we buy coffee from said vendor. Stop brewing their non-Fair Trade brew and say adios to the coffee equipment. Which means 2000+ people with caffeine withdrawal on a Sunday morning.

So to do something as simple as swap out the coffee for a morning cup with integrity will run our church about $35K in equipment (remember, big church, lots of people, multiple coffee stations etc). Which means, guess what, more meetings.

Which is frustrating for more than just the added levels of bureaucracy. It is frustrating because we've put ourselves at the mercy of an outside organization who could give a rip about our do-gooder intentions. They are less interested in God's economics and more interested in their bottom line. I cannot fault them for this, it's business. But when God's business is thwarted not only by business meetings but also this sort of business arrangement, I start to lose hope.

Read the whole thing. And consider answering her bleg for help.

Stanley Petrowski is a brother in Christ that dropped into my life out of nowhere. Heh - I think his was my first comment ever. He spent hours helping me design the original evaneco.com blog a couple months after I launched it a blogspot just after Christmas of '04.

Stan's also President and Director of the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership in Tiller, Oregon. His latest article in the Native Fish Society online journal is here.

His stewardship of riparian areas and coho salmon runs has been going on for years. Since the moment his family met mine almost a half-decade ago, I've admired his tenacity for creation care that so naturaly flows from his love for our Savior. Though I suspect he would humbly deny it, he's a true leader in the South Umpqua community for ecological stewardship. And he's got a wonderful libertarian streak that refuses to be pegged down by politicians.

Drop by his Singing Falls website for much more on that, or watch the video:

By the way, he and his lovely bride Alexandra offer hand-crafted items for sale. Only 110 more shopping days until Christmas...

 Greenopia:

One of the oldest beverages in the world, beer has only recently been getting attention for its environmental impact, which varies depending on the efficiency of the brewery and ingredients used. Concerns include the fact that beer production often requires 7-10 liters of water for every liter of beer and its key ingredients are often difficult to obtain through organic means.

Some beer companies, like Eel River and New Belgium Brewery have taken significant steps to decrease their impact. “We have found that the amount of resources that go into beer production is not common knowledge”, said Doug Mazeffa, Greenopia’s Research Director. “We are happy to support the companies who have been able to reduce their impact through better resource management.”

Somebody tell Tim and Jonathan too... [photo credit]

The convergence of a number of things - the new eco-movement, a slow economy and a Big Government growing bigger and more oppressive by the minute - all at the same time has made many stop and think about the rat race they find themselves in. How much of how we live is excessive? Where have we gone so far forward that we are actually going backwards? And where does this fit in our worldviews? How does this all fit together?

People have begun to looking again at conservation and energy saving techniques as a way to save money - and if it helps nature while they’re at it, that’s good too. But some may also be asking "Do I need all this stuff?" or "Why am I spending all this money?" Charles W. Sasser writes in The Backwoodsman (Jan/Feb 2009):

I looked around and observed how many of my friends held eight-to-five jobs they could barely tolerate. The average American owned two cars, a house with a 30-year mortgage, a color TV set and a stack of bills on luxuries and ‘necessities’ long worn out and discarded. It seemed to me that he did not work to enrich his life. Instead, he worked to support his possessions, all the while feeling compelled to continue to buy and buy in hopes of ever new and more wonderful possessions making him happy.  

Think about that. How much of your work pay goes to things you don’t need? Or things just to get you to work? I remember a colleague complaining about money, but also bragging about all of the cable channels he had. Who’s forcing you to pay all that money just so you can sit in your living room? How much is the electric bill? Look at the recession as an opportunity to reasses your priorities and habits. 

Technology is great and important. But how much is too much? We complain our kids are obese, but buy them the technologies that make them that way.

Eric Brende writes in his book Better Off: 

Technology undoubtedly has, and will always have, some role in making life easier or better, so one shouldn’t exclude it. But the role is supplemental. Technology serves us, not we technology.

Brende and his wife spent a year living with an Amish sect trying to figure out why or how they live they way they do. They found that these "primitives" have technology, just not what we are used to. And they are happy. Why? In spite of instant 24/7 communications, and unlimited goods and services, we are still separated from our families, don’t interact with our communities, have no sense of purpose in our jobs. Yet we often see ourselves as better off than "simpler" or "poorer" folk.

From an eco-sense, how much consumerism is waste? From a Christian sense, how does God want you to spend money and resources? Churches talk often about tithing. I’m not aware of any tithing verses that say "Give your money to your church!" It’s more like, "Give some of it back to God." So in a more accurate sense, we should be supporting our church and other God-centered groups or causes. In a much broader sense, God is telling us to use all of our money (and in turn our resources) wisely. When buying something, ask yourself, "Would God spend this on this?" or "Does this improve my relationship with Him?" or "Is buying this going to make me a better or happier person?" Start thinking like this and you start to see how much money you could be saving. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but how many of us are even looking at perfect?

Does living simpler, which often includes being a bit more ecoaware, mean selling your home, becoming a farmer or living in a hut? No, of course not. Jenna Woginrich has combined her life with some old-fashioned homesteading. The Dervaes turned their urban home into a urban oasis. No, we don’t all need to start rasing animals or growing all our own food - but if you want to, go ahead.

We all could support our local food suppliers better. Saves money, conserves resources and builds the economy. Economy and community start locally. Start by supporting local churches and farms, then work your way out to your region, state and country. Corporations and governments try the "one size fits all approach." Living simpler means doing what actually works for people.

The starting local approach and living a bit simpler and a bit more ecoware means better health. We’ve seen how health is impacted on the quality of our foods and environment. Improve these things and improve your quality of life.

There’s a lot of implications here. Better health. Better lives. Stronger neighborhoods. Less reliance on government. Self-reliance. Stronger churches.

Bottom line is a life more in sync with what the Creator wanted. -D

More on Wal-Mart's new environmental product testing program. Prediction: This will green up more Baptists than Jonathan Merritt. Heck. If Wal-Mart started pushing a full-on climatist agenda even I might go along with it.

MORE: "For many, Wal-Mart’s new role as sustainability policeman seems as sound an idea as leaving Sarah Palin in charge of The New Yorker." Heh.

Rich Cizik on the new face of Evangelicalism.

This was the crux of our discussion--Mr. Cizik claims that he, or more precisely, his views represent those of a younger generation of Evangelical America, a generation which in his words is 'fed up.'

Rusty Pritchard:

Part of my reluctance stems from professional considerations. In my previous career as a college professor, I continually challenged students to think straight about the difference between environmental science and environmentalism (a distinction I still find people confused about). It’s important to know which of our beliefs about the environment come from serious science, and which ones come from our ideological makeup. My students always left taking that distinction seriously, and I think the ones who went on to careers in activism did so better grounded in science and economics, and more able to make a difference in the world.

I’d say it’s equally important to distinguish the ideas we get from Scripture and which ones we get from the culture around us. Why? Because we use different forms of argument for each of those kinds of belief. And because as a Christian, I have more confidence in the ideas I get from the book of Scripture and the book of Nature (both of which reveal something about God), than in the ideas I get from the culture around me.

[And, no, I’m not so naïve as to think I can be completely objective in my reading of Scripture and of science. But neither am I so completely postmodern that I disbelieve in truth.]

Read the whole thing.

In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an apposite education is sufficient. These are important steps, but the decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.

-- Pope Benedict XVI

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. [John 10:10, NIV]

BUMPED: Great project by a Knoxville church:

St. John's Lutheran Church, 544 N. Broadway, is revamping its main parking lot. But there is no paving involved. Instead, the church is using brick "hardscaping," a technique that aims to be pleasing to the eye as well as easy on the environment.

There's no storm water runoff (a pollution problem for big parking lots), and the pavers last decades longer and look better.

Lush trees and flowers, benches and a large open greenspace will create an area for the church and community members to gather outdoors. Outside of church activities, the lot should be mostly empty. "We wanted to create something uplifting instead of another asphalt jungle," said Don Shell, a designing architect for the new parking lot as well as former president of the church's council.

"Uplifting." Amen, brother. [photo credit]

UPDATED: With some local governments charging rain runoff taxes, this type of paving could prove more cost effective in the long run.

Rome operates a telescope in Arizona. Who knew? (h/t)

The Roman Catholic Church’s interest in the stars began with purely practical concerns when in the 16th century Pope Gregory XIII called on astronomy to correct for the fact that the Julian calendar had fallen out of sync with the sky. In 1789, the Vatican opened an observatory in the Tower of the Winds, which it later relocated to a hill behind St. Peter’s Dome. In the 1930s, church astronomers moved to Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence. As Rome’s illumination, the electrical kind, spread to the countryside, the church began looking for a mountaintop in a dark corner of Arizona.

Building on Mount Graham was a struggle. Apaches said the observatory was an affront to the mountain spirits. Environmentalists said it was a menace to a subspecies of red squirrel. There were protests and threats of sabotage. It wasn’t until 1995, three years after the edict of Inquisition was lifted against Galileo, that the Vatican’s new telescope made its first scientific observations.  

~

 SouthCoastToday.com:

Ana Suzel DeSouza got down on her hands and knees and dug in the flower and shrub beds for the Evangelical Church of the Nations when she first arrived from Brazil six years ago.

Six years later, her husband, the Rev. Rogerio DeSouza, says she suffers from a neurological disorder. He wonders if it is related to the former Parker Street burn dump on which the church was built some 30 years ago.

At that time, the Rev. Adelino DeSousa (the church's original pastor) oversaw the excavation for the foundation, and he is said to have described the land as containing big chunks of a material that looked like coal.

Now, two years after the city issued building permits to expand the church — which is located near to where the new Keith Middle School was also constructed on contaminated land — Pastor DeSouza and his parishioners have found themselves in a no-win position.

After they spent an estimated $250,000 renovating the interior of the church with the city's full knowledge, they say they've been informed that proceeding with the exterior expansion would be ill-advised.

The reason?

City testing around the structure has found sharply elevated levels of toxic chemicals, including PCBs, benzopyrene compounds, cadmium chromium, lead and others.

The NAACP is pressing the city and Fed EPA to at least let the parishoners know whether it's safe to attend church. I hope/pray they're successful.

Many read scriptures like this, believing if we are faithful to God in our giving God will respond abundantly to us. The Church has been diligently getting her creation stewardship act together. Could this be a chance for God to respond in a big way?

Jon Rutz:

The fruits of the spirit are one of the most oft-quoted groupings of spiritual values in the whole of Christianity. The fact that they’re described as fruits indicates that they grow with time, and eventually provide nourishment. The fact that they’re of the Spirit means that we can’t produce them on our own. After reading over them a few times, it occurred to me that taking a closer look at how the fruits of the Spirit relate to the realm of environmental stewardship can be a very fruitful (sorry) exercise...

BeliefNet: Dr. Mary Veeneman reviews Harper and Metzger's Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction. "The question we need to ask, especially of evangelicals, is this: Does the church matter? And if so, how does it matter? Now over to Mary..."

Do you think the gospel has anything to do with creation? Is creation care redemptive in a meaningful sense? I don't remember exactly how I responded, though I somehow pointed out that not all evangelicals are premillennialists, that there are actually a number of evangelicals interested in environmental protection and moreover, that environmental protection was consistent with evangelical values. It is this topic that Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger seek to address in the chapter, "Eschatology, the Church, and Ecology in this book we are discussing here at Jesus Creed blog.