Monday, March 07, 2005
Civically Responsible Christianity
Given that SmartChristian baited me for comments over the weekend, I wonder if he is not at it again today? Andy linked to a CBS News piece on the upcoming convention on evangelicals in Washington. The keynote of the convention will be the release of this document, Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility.
I have not read the document carefully, but I have scanned through it. It scanned great for quite a while, but then on page 11 of 12 came this:
As we embrace our responsibility to care for God’s earth, we reaffirm the important truth that we worship only the Creator and not the creation. God gave the care of his earth and its species to our first parents. That responsibility has passed into our hands. We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to “watch over and care for it” (Gen. 2:15). This implies the principle of sustainability: our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it.
The Bible teaches us that God is not only redeeming his people, but is also restoring the whole creation (Rom. 8:18-23). Just as we show our love for the Savior by reaching out to the lost, we believe that we show our love for the Creator by caring for his creation.
Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation. This involves both the urgent need to relieve human suffering caused by bad environmental practice. Because natural systems are extremely complex, human actions can have unexpected side effects. We must therefore approach our stewardship of creation with humility and caution.
Human beings have responsibility for creation in a variety of ways. We urge Christians to shape their personal lives in creation-friendly ways: practicing effective recycling, conserving resources, and experiencing the joy of contact with nature. We urge government to encourage fuel efficiency, reduce pollution, encourage sustainable use of natural resources, and provide for the proper care of wildlife and their natural habitats.I have posted repeatedly on my opposition to "evangelical Environmentalism." This, this, this, this, and this are just a few examples.
I'll try not to repeat myself here. But this represents a new low. This is not just Christians being concerned about the environment, rather this is a call for Christian to lobby the government for environmental laws. This I think is decidely unchristian. I've talked about socialism and it's problems, so I won't go there. Let's think about this though:
If the paradigm given to us by Christ is freedom from the Law, do we really want to position ourselves as law makers? - particularly when it comes to environmental matters? Shouldn't we be about the business of creating transformation in people? If we do, don't you think your environmental concerns will solve themselves?
I have not read the document carefully, but I have scanned through it. It scanned great for quite a while, but then on page 11 of 12 came this:
We labor to protect GodÂ’s creation
As we embrace our responsibility to care for God’s earth, we reaffirm the important truth that we worship only the Creator and not the creation. God gave the care of his earth and its species to our first parents. That responsibility has passed into our hands. We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to “watch over and care for it” (Gen. 2:15). This implies the principle of sustainability: our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it.
The Bible teaches us that God is not only redeeming his people, but is also restoring the whole creation (Rom. 8:18-23). Just as we show our love for the Savior by reaching out to the lost, we believe that we show our love for the Creator by caring for his creation.
Because clean air, pure water, and adequate resources are crucial to public health and civic order, government has an obligation to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation. This involves both the urgent need to relieve human suffering caused by bad environmental practice. Because natural systems are extremely complex, human actions can have unexpected side effects. We must therefore approach our stewardship of creation with humility and caution.
Human beings have responsibility for creation in a variety of ways. We urge Christians to shape their personal lives in creation-friendly ways: practicing effective recycling, conserving resources, and experiencing the joy of contact with nature. We urge government to encourage fuel efficiency, reduce pollution, encourage sustainable use of natural resources, and provide for the proper care of wildlife and their natural habitats.I have posted repeatedly on my opposition to "evangelical Environmentalism." This, this, this, this, and this are just a few examples.
I'll try not to repeat myself here. But this represents a new low. This is not just Christians being concerned about the environment, rather this is a call for Christian to lobby the government for environmental laws. This I think is decidely unchristian. I've talked about socialism and it's problems, so I won't go there. Let's think about this though:
Rom 8:3-8It seems to me that when it comes to far more important moral matters, God's intention was to transform us, thus freeing us from the law as oppressive, creating obedience in us instead of demanding it from us. Adrain Warnock today is beginning a series on preaching designed to create such transformation.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God {did:} sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and {as an offering} for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If the paradigm given to us by Christ is freedom from the Law, do we really want to position ourselves as law makers? - particularly when it comes to environmental matters? Shouldn't we be about the business of creating transformation in people? If we do, don't you think your environmental concerns will solve themselves?
