Christian Environmentalism

There is a conflict between many people who call themselves Christians and environmentalists, and there shouldn't be. If you are a true Christian you will be an environmentalist as well. The reason is that God did not create all the beauty around us so that it can be blindly plundered, and blindly plundering nature will not earn you any favors with God.

I had a biology teacher named Fred Atwood. Mr. Atwood was a devout Christian, and he held an unusual stance of social conservatism and environmentalism at the same time. He was celibate, and he kept making jokes about having an alien girlfriend named Molly Jolly Golly. Once in class I asked if Molly Jolly Golly had big tits, and Mr. Atwood kicked me out of the class.

But the issues here are no laughing matter. We are in the midst of the quicked extinction in history. We have heat waves and hurricanes. We have melting glaciers. We have rainforest being burned to make ranches that turn into wasteland in two years. Environmental issues are the greatest challenge of our times.

If you are a Christian, consider it from God's perspective. He has created all this beauty, and it is being destroyed. Would you be happy with this state of affairs if you were God?

There was an ad that said, “Would Jesus drive an SUV?” I walk the walk as much as I talk the talk. I take public transportation, and my electricity bill is $30 a month. And as a Christian I appeal to Christians to consider what they are doing to God's creation. Destroying rich, beautiful environments for short-term gain is permanent solution to a temporary problem. What is destroyed is better than what is created, and the result is an impoverished world.

This is especially the case with ranching in the Amazon. But it is also the case in less obvious situations. We have carbon dioxide that does not get absorbed by trees going into the oceans and making them acidic and killing all the fish. We have glaciers melting and flooding coastal areas. We have tundra melting to release methane into the air. In all these cases we see permanent destruction.

Would God be happy about that? Not from what we know of God. Now God is not against us eating meat or raising cattle, but He would be against ranching in the Amazon and other destructive practices. So if you are a Christian, you have an obligation to also be an environmentalist. That does not mean moving away from technology. It means using technology that is less destructive.

The question to ask before taking any action is, What would this be in the eyes of God? Am I doing what's pleasing to God or am I not doing what's not pleasing to God? In this matter the answer is clear. It does not please God for His creation to be blindly destroyed. It pleases God for people to provide for their needs in a way that is less destructive to nature.