Recently in Christians Environment Category

WSJ.com this evening has quite a story. Check out the effect the Catholic Church is having in the Philippines on mining specifically, but ecology in general.

The Church plays a prominent role in the Philippines. The Spanish conquistadors enlisted friars to convert many local inhabitants to Catholicism after arriving in the sixteenth century. They used religion to govern this unwieldy archipelago and unite it into a single nation.

The Church's political role has resurfaced throughout the Philippines' history. In 1986, Church leaders urged Filipinos to take to the streets of Manila to support a military coup against dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In recent years, Church officials have stirred protests against other mining projects, including the Tamapakan site in the southern Philippines led by Xstrata Copper, a division of Xstrata PLC, and Australian firm OceanaGold Corp.'s planned gold and copper mine in Nueva Vizcaya, north of Manila. Both companies say their operations follow environmental safeguards.

When the Church began campaigning against mining in the 1980s, more than 50 mines operated in the Philippines, contributing a fifth of the country's exports. The number of mines declined to 12 in 2003 as opposition increased. 

Read the whole thing.

The most striking thing is this: The reason the Philippine Catholic Church has been so effective in conserving that nation's ecology is the great influence it continues to have in the public square.

Evangelicals of late have been "secularizing" themselves by aligning with scientists, politicians and others. Certainly we've been moving away from our Christian roots as a nation. Most of the churches actively involved in ecology in the US are dying progressive denominations.

What bodes well for the Philippines must be a wake up call for the U.S.

NRDC's Rob Perks is inspired by Christians standing up against mountaintop mining operations in Tennessee. In his opinion piece he quotes two scriptures, Jeremiah 12:11 and Numbers 35:33-34.

Great to see that he's inspired by Christian leadership on the environment. I think we can do better than mountaintop mining too, and have applauded the efforts of the LEAF and Christians for the Mountains folks for years.

I wonder though if he really understands the two scriptures he quotes his article.

Just finished a detailed study of Jeremiah, so I know that the reason the land is laid to waste is because Israel and Judah were ransacked by her enemies. Their croplands and grazing fields were destroyed. That judgment came on God's people because they were worshipping idols instead of God. In other words, the root cause is not pollution but a lack of faith that caused the land to be laid waste.

In the passage from Numbers he intentionally deletes these words: . . .for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. Here, pollution is not car emissions or oil spills but the shedding of innocent blood out of revenge or selfishness. You can read the whole passage in context here.

So beyond stretching these two scriptures to fit a green agenda, which is probably OK (grace always abounds), Perks reminds us of two important things:

• The quality of crop and grazing lands - our natural resources - is directly related to our relationship with and unadulterated love for the one true God.
• In God's eyes the murder of innocents, including the blood of aborted babies, pollutes the land worse than anything else we do to contaminate it.

God is indeed interested in our stewardship of what He has given us. But His first concern is always the condition of our hearts toward Him and to our fellow human beings. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus didn't refer to Jeremiah or Numbers. He went to Deuteronomy 6:5.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

How do we do that? Only changed hearts can love that way, and in turn heal the planet. How does that happen? Back to that passage in Numbers, and the section he edited out:

...blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

Ordinarily the only justice for murder is capital punishment, eye for eye, blood for blood. Fortunately God had another plan. As Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Instead of demanding the blood from us for all of our murderous, idolatrous, polluting ways, He sent Jesus to shed his blood in our place. By accepting Christ's loving sacrifice on our behalf, we receive hearts that are free to love Him, love others, and love creation.

I have no doubt that if you asked members of LEAF where their devotion to the cause of eradicating mountaintop mining comes from, their answer would be we love creation because God through Jesus Christ first loved us.

That's the real story here.

~

POST SCRIPT: The opinion appears at an online journal called Opposing Views, on which also appears a series of surveys. Apparently the majority agrees with the "right to death," disagrees with prayer in public schools, doesn't agree that faith should influence politics, and so on.

One hopes that pieces like Perks' highlighting of faith in ecology will move things in a better direction.

There's certainly a divide between conservatives and progressives on the environment. Or is there? Anna thinks the difference is less about what we're saying and more about the words we use.

What say you?

UPDATE: I like her bit on conservation as a conservative value too.

Hugh Hewitt interviews two guys with a finger on the pulse of today's evangelical youth.

Click the dove and jump the break for a couple interesting excerpts on how ecology has factored in to the evangelical youth vote for Obama, and Christian youth culture in general.

[pjtv.com photo]

Supporting A Rocha USA has always been a good idea. Now it's even better.

Dan Harber has a Green Bible for you with your donation of $100 or more. To buy one off the shelf will run you about $25, and no tax deduction.

I scanned one of these at last week's RIIPL conference. Other than it being NRSV version (ughhh) I liked it. Passages that speak to God's care for creation are in green. It has bits by Brian McLaren, Matthew Sleeth, N. T. Wright, Desmond Tutu, and many others. Includes an index and personal study guide. Made from recycled paper (of course!) using soy-based ink with a cotton/linen cover.

Here's a link. Dan's email is usa@arocha.org. Just mention Green Bible with your donation. They'd also be "delighted and extremely grateful" for (tax deductable) contributions of any size. Every dollar helps.

Also, here's a year-end note from A Rocha's Tom Rowley:

As 2008 comes to a close, I am delighted to report to you that A Rocha is gaining traction here in the United States and activating Christians to care for God's glorious creation. Indeed, with on-the-ground conservation efforts in half a dozen locations, others taking root, and still more requests coming in all the time, our vision of a nationwide network of community-based conservation efforts is coming to fruition. Thanks be to God and to you, our faithful supporters!

Our task now is to equip these efforts with the tools they need to succeed (training, scientific materials, Bible studies, and more), while continuing to take the creation care message to even more churches, campuses and communities across the country. All of which, of course, requires funding. We need your help. Will you please support this critical work with a year-end gift? Thank you. And may God bless you in this Advent season. In a time of such great uncertainty--economic, political, environmental and more--may the celebration of our Savior's birth remind us all of God's steadfast love. He is certain!

An interesting email from Wittenburg Door Senior Editor Robert Darden. More of the Door's outrageous satire? Will let you be the judge... We have tweaked our friend the Rev. James Dobson pretty regularly in the past, particular for his involvement in politics. And when Dr. Dobson called for the resignation of the Rev. Richard Cizik, president for the National Association of Evangelicals because he believed that Cizik was spending too much time worrying about global warming and not enough time spent on "core" Religious Right issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriages, we gigged him pretty hard then, too.

"We are the Same Species as God"

We need to understand that all of creation is beautiful and wonderful in its own way, the plants and trees, the angels, the planetary system, but only man is the same SPECIES as God. Genesis 1:26 says man was created in the image of God. We are made in His image and in His likeness and only man is created the same species as God.

-- Jeff Jansen

UPDATE: Neglected to mention National Downshifting Week 21-27 April. "Slow down and green up!" Tracey Smith has a good thing going here. Spread the word!

Remember, the more money you spend,
the more time you have to be out there earning it
and the less time you get to spend with the ones you love.

Don,

I am currently working with Discovery Channel who is airing a new series that I believe would be a wonderful tie-in for your readers to help them remember the importance of Christian environmental stewardship, especially as Earth Day approaches. The series is the 11-part, high-definition "Planet Earth" series that shows never-before-seen animals, animal behaviors and landscapes. This series shows images of the beauty and wonder of God's creation and is a reminder that creation is a gift from God not only for people to appreciate and admire, but also to protect and preserve.

After reading the transcript linked by Joe Carter today...

20. Michael Crichton and others recently participated in a debate on the proposition "Global Warming Is Not a Crisis." Before the debate 30 percent of the audience agreed with the motion, while 57 percent were against and 13 percent undecided. The debate seemed to affect a number of people: Afterward, about 46 percent agreed with the motion, roughly 42 percent were opposed and about 12 percent were undecided. [Full debate (92 minutes); Transcript] (HT: Pseudo-Polymath)

the post I wrote a year ago (reprised below) seemed still current, particularly the stuff I found in National Geographic on climate stability.

And it came to pass at midnight that that Lord struck all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. [Exodus 12:29]

My son and I have been working our way through the Pentateuch - a sort of New Year's resolution that has turned into some very good fellowship for us. As we waded in the headwaters of Exodus this week and Moses' account of the plagues in Egypt I was struck by how tightly the fate of creation is bound to the fates of Egypt and Israel and the decisions of God and Pharaoh.

GOD USES NATURE AS signs and wonders. In Exodus Chapter 7 a wooden stick briefly becomes a serpent, a river temporarily bloody, a sky is filled with deadly hail. Gnats, flies, frogs and locusts are all used by God to smite Egypt. Here creation is dutifully doing the Creator's will. There's no God allowed such and so nonsense going on here. Nature's participation in these perfectly awful plagues shouldn't surprise us. These critters are simply putting the "pest" in pestilence.

Don't imagine us leaders to be something we aren't. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God's most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge.  [1 Cor 4, The Message]

Heard an interesting sermon this morning that spoke to my heart. It was about a several-hundred-year-old church in England that had "We Preach Christ Crucified" engraved on its brick and stone archway. Here's my best recollection:

Under that banner the preacher brought sermon after sermon on the power of God, redemption and revival: The God-Man Christ born, died, buried, resurrected, ascended in glory, and coming again to judge the quick and the dead.

From Spirit Daily: (via)

We see then how the devil plays both sides as the master of divisiveness and confusion. Get the good Christians worried that by supporting the environment they are supporting a one-world government, and at the same time, make those who do trumpet the environment do so in a purely pagan, secular, or even occult way -- with no thought of God -- and you are having it both ways if you are the prince of deception (and darkness).

More:

Thus conservatives miss a sign of the times by arguing against global warming, period, while liberals have covered over the same signs by blaming it all on pollution and trying to use it as a tool for globalization.

Read the whole thing.

Saving souls and spreading faith is a good cause, but it is very hard to spread the gospel amid piles of trash.

-- Pastor Dave Heckman, Newark Valley NY

Shea Gunther has launched Green Options. Go over and run up his new hit counter, will you?

Been a while since our last cow flatulence update. (via)

While I'm a skeptic about anthropogenic global warming gas, I have been steadily pointing out the suspicious silence by the MSM on the meat issue -- because according to all the official data, human meat consumption is said to be the number one cause of global warming. I now I see that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is laying the issue at Al Gore's feet -- and they accuse his movie of failing to address cause number one...Among other things the letter cites studies showing that switching to a vegan diet is more effective than switching to a Prius...I hope they hold Al Gore's feet to the fire on this one. Something about the way they're avoiding meat strikes me as downright devious. I suspect it's because they don't believe their own rhetoric. Or maybe it's because they think taking the country off meat will be too much of a hard sell. Whatever it is, I'd like nothing more than to get to the bottom of this nonsense.

I hope PETA makes Gore squeal like a stuck hog.

Time to start thinking sirloin offsets! More on cap"-and-charade" at Greenie Watch.

"[W]e should not mistake cleaning up the environment with saving the planet."

-- Terri Choate