Christianity Actions Taken to Preserve and Restore Our Environment

¶ … Toulmin Model argument in response to one of the following prompts:

• What specific action(s) should Christians take regarding the environment and its preservation or restoration?

Active in 15 countries, "Target Earth" is a group of individuals, churches, college fellowship and various ministries that are Christian protectors for everything that God created. The group feeds the hungry, saves endangered animals, rebuilds forests, and serves as active voice for environmental concerns. The groups mission is "Serving the Earth, Serving the Poor," which defines their connection of Christianity to environmentalism as they see it (Target Earth.com).

The news media is full of warnings that deal with environmental issues of one kind or the other be it global warming, endangered species, extinction of the rain forest, pollution, nuclear accidents, and so forth. The Christian community seems to apply less attention to these issues than they do to others. It may be because we regard these issues as New Ageism or 'liberal' or that the world anyway will be destroyed after a millennium, or simply that God, patron of this world, will somehow or other set things right.

Yes, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Psalms 24:1), but God also made us his feudal assistants, in charge of His mansion and proprietors in His lieu (Beisner, 1990).

On a deeper and less visible manner, we also have to care simply due to the fact that the environment is crowding out our race and destroying both man and animals as well as wreaking unnatural transformations and degradations to God's world. Calvin DeWitt (1991), in his book The Environment and the Christian, list s seven aberrations that are occurring to the earth:

1. wilderness and natural agricultural land are being converted to urban use with increasingly less of the land retaining its original God-ordained natural character

2. As many as three species per day become extinct. They cannot be reclaimed or reborn.

3. DDT may less widely be used but other harmful pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, take its place in degrading our Earth.

4. Hazardous chemical continue to pollute the water and destroy sea life. Treatment of these hazardous chemicals and waste is inadequate.

5. Pollution is affecting distant realms of the earth that harming innocent, unrelated creatures. Penguins, for instance, have been found with DDT, and human sewage has reached Antarctica!

6. The atmosphere seems to be shrinking, and whether the warming is caused due to fossil fuels or whether the ozone layer is being corroded due to inhalants and other pollutants -- this is still the environment that we live in and that our children and fellow humans share.

7. Christian groups, such as the Mennonites and Amish that live and work in natural environments are being crowded out with their homes turned into clusters of urbanity.

The Bible exhorts care for the environment. We are the ones who yield enormous power over His creations; In fact, never before have we held as much power as now. And what we are, in reality doing, is annihilating His creatures at a daily rate.

We are created and told from the very start (at least Adam, and through him, his descendants) to care for the universe and to protect it (Gen. 2:15). God created us, we are His minions. He was pleased with the world that He created it. We need to preserve it.

The Bible has various laws that exonerate respect for the environment and for God's creatures. Leviticus, for instance, tells us to respect and care for animals (such as to lessen the load from animals and not to mistreat them); this goes for both domestic and wildlife creatures (Deuteronomy 25:4; 22:6). Leviticus too (25:1-12) speaks of the care that Israel was to have for the land. In Isaiah 5:8-10, the Lord judges those who have misused the land. Job 38:25-28 and Psalm 104:27-30 speak of God's nurture and care for His creation. And Jesus mentioned on two occasions of the Father's concern for even the puniest sparrow (MATT. 6:26, 10:29). Anything that was created by God needs to be cared for. Animals too have a soul. The Bible adjoins care and respect for animals as it does (although perhaps not on the same level) as it does for humans.

Environmentalism may be a "New Age" issue or may seem to belong to the 'camp" of the liberals but this still does not exonerate us form working on making our earth a more habitable, friendlier environment for ourselves and for others who live on it. We are commanded to care for others -- enemy as well as friend -- and refrain form killing. How does this differ in regards to the earth? True, the earth may wind to an end come the Apocalypse but this doe stop eliminate our responsibility in the meantime.

Howe can we do so?

We all know the simple steps (such as recycling and biking), but here are some original ones:

1. Eating less beef - beef production generates one of the largest amounts of carbon in the atmosphere.

2. Planning driving so there is no unnecessary gas usage

3. Changing incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs. These may be more expensive in the short run, but less energy is required to power them

4. Shopping online. This reduces publication of print catalogues and exerting energy in driving to stores (Yahoo Voices)

And, by the way, have you noticed that keeping these steps and others also helps you in terms of living a healthier life, keeping a healthier diet, being more organized, and having more exercise. Things seem to be related.