What Specific Action's Should Christians Take Regarding the Environment and Its Preservation or Restoration

¶ … action(s) should Christians take regarding the environment and its preservation or restoration? Environmental Christianity There is presently much controversy regarding environmentalism and religion is particularly important when considering people's involvement in preserving the environment, with Christian groups from around the world being actively engaged in preserving and restoring it. Although there are a series of techniques that people can use in trying to save the environment, some methods are actually ineffective.

The environment is rapidly deteriorating and urgent action needs to be taken in order for the process to be slowed down and eventually even stopped. Christian values influence people in protecting the environment, as it is essential for humans to benefit as a result of having access to the resources offered by a healthy planet. Christians should take advantage of the fact that their religious preferences bring them together and attempt to fight against environmental deterioration on several fronts.

It is certainly difficult to understand whether Christians should want to save the environment or not, as the Bible in particular does not explicitly relate to preserving nature. This is likely to be a result of the fact that conditions were not as severe as they are in the present at the time when the document was written.

In spite of the fact that many Christians are presently responsible for caring for the environment, one can actually consider that Christianity as a whole can be held accountable for pollution existing in the present. Christians were influenced in thinking that man is different from nature and that it is perfectly normal for people to exploit nature any way that they can, regardless of the destruction that they provoke.

Things have changed during the recent years, however, as more and more Christians actively participate in saving the planet (Religion and Environment). Even when they rely on traditional Christian principles, Christians consider that it is their purpose to look after the world, as it was created by God with the purpose of providing people with a flourishing home. Christianity is the largest religion in the world, as it has more than two billion followers, with the number constantly increasing.

In comparison to other communities, Christians are thus advantaged by their numbers and by the fact that they are inclined to assist each-other when it comes to performing moral deeds. A Christian community can easily influence its members in employing a particular approach in trying to reduce and stop deterioration of the environment. Individuals often fail to see the bigger picture when dealing with issues concerning the environment.

It often happens that people believe that they can save the environment only by performing a certain act (such as recycling, for example) on a daily basis. This is, however, wrong, as it is virtually useless for an individual to recycle materials as long as he or she performs other activities that damage the environment. Surely, it would practically be impossible for someone today to consider that absolutely all of the activities that he or she performs are environmental-friendly.

Even with that, the respective person should do anything in his or her power in order to pollute as little as possible, as people are likely to find that it is actually very easy to assist the environment. The general purpose of Christianity is to protect and save humanity, and, considering that in order to do so Christians should first focus on saving the planet because it is humanity's home, it only seems natural for Christians to want to take on an environmentalist position.

Christians are traditionally focused on protecting the natural world, as "there is a tendency, especially among some Christian environmentalists, to invoke a model of nature as a harmonious, interconnected, and interdependent community" (Sideris 2). Christians need to understand that recycling is not limited to partitioning trash so as for garbage men to be able to select and recycle materials. Mostly everything, ranging from clothes to electronics can be reused. Also, it is very important for people to focus on buying and using materials that can be recycled.

With members in the Christian community being particularly close, it is very likely that it would achieve great results if it would unite in starting a general recycling process. Priests are particularly important in this situation, as they have the ability to promote environmentalist concepts and because the public is typically accustomed to follow directions that they receive in church. The church itself is likely to benefit from this process, as people would regain their trust in the institution, especially considering that.