Tuesday, March 01, 2005
I Should Leave This Alone...
...But I cannot. The specter of "Evangelical Environmentalism" has once again raised it's ugly head. This time, it's from SmartChristian and In The Agora.
I like that fact that Clayborn is trying to alter the vocabulary by calling it conservationism instead of environmentalism, but after that he gets a little too general for my taste.
I do not dispute our stewardship over the planet, but what exactly that is is a huge discussion. The issues are just too complex for the kind of flat statements that one can make based on a theology of planetary stewardship.
Consider one example -- DDT. Thousands die every year because DDT is not available in the Third World, either from malaria or other pest born illness, or from a lack of food because other pests have decimated crops. Yet we banned it, not because of imminent threat to human health, but because of a threat to avian eggs. Is it really within God's principles of stewardship for people to die for the sake of birds? I for one cannot endorse such a position.
And I still want to know what Christians are supposed to do with their environmental stewardship -- lobby? To date, that is all environmental activism has consisted of. The books are full of half baked, barely constitutional, overbearing, freedom robbing, near communistic laws.
You want to set up a recycling system in your church -- fine. You want to send out your youth group to collect litter -- fine. But you better think awfully hard before you wade any deeper. The water is cold, choppy, and their are lots and lots of sharks about with all sorts of misinformation and propaganda.
I like that fact that Clayborn is trying to alter the vocabulary by calling it conservationism instead of environmentalism, but after that he gets a little too general for my taste.
I do not dispute our stewardship over the planet, but what exactly that is is a huge discussion. The issues are just too complex for the kind of flat statements that one can make based on a theology of planetary stewardship.
Consider one example -- DDT. Thousands die every year because DDT is not available in the Third World, either from malaria or other pest born illness, or from a lack of food because other pests have decimated crops. Yet we banned it, not because of imminent threat to human health, but because of a threat to avian eggs. Is it really within God's principles of stewardship for people to die for the sake of birds? I for one cannot endorse such a position.
And I still want to know what Christians are supposed to do with their environmental stewardship -- lobby? To date, that is all environmental activism has consisted of. The books are full of half baked, barely constitutional, overbearing, freedom robbing, near communistic laws.
You want to set up a recycling system in your church -- fine. You want to send out your youth group to collect litter -- fine. But you better think awfully hard before you wade any deeper. The water is cold, choppy, and their are lots and lots of sharks about with all sorts of misinformation and propaganda.
