Not the God of Christ. Only a Satanic monster of a god. People who have bought into what you just said are ripe pickings for populist dicators and despots. The ‘bad guy’ is always the guy you’ve been trained to hate (not by Christ, but by whatever political affiliations you’ve sold your soul to). They sell you on the utterly Satanic notion that the ‘bad guy’ is always someone ‘out there’. Someone that just needs to be eliminated before the world can possibly be a better place. So rings the cry of every violent despot of history as the deluded rush to give them power. We forget Solzhenitsyn’s observation that the line between good and evil runs through each and every human heart.
As somebody else (maybe around here) recently said (quoting Chesterton): I’m not horrified because somebody could commit these atrocities. I’m horrified because I know I could!
I’ve really no interest (in this thread) in debating the truth or falsity of the climate crisis but feel free to start your own if you feel strongly about it. I am sure those more knowledgeable than I will be happy to wade in.
I’m a theologian at heart, and so my interest in this thread is how the climate crisis should inform our reading of the Bible and our prayerful confession, both individually and corporately.
But it shouldn’t. Christians will do what they have always done, be good stewards of the Earth. Anything done that harms the Earth is not Christian. However, that will not solve any global-level crisis. Those who cause the troubles are not Christians. Those who could stop it aren’t either.
And the methods that must be used to stop it, they definitely aren’t Christian.
It’s a tad dramatic to label this issue as the Dark Night of the Planet. Like I said in my original response, natural disasters have done more in the past to wreck the Earth than mankind ever could, and the Earth bounced back.
Species will be lost, but we’ve already lost 99% of those. The truly terrifying thing, like I said before too, is the cost of Human freedoms, rights and lives in trying to “solve” said issue.
Liam, this sounds like a book worth reading, and Ilike your questions.
One and Two:
Glomming your first two questions together, while I am no fan of catharsis, because it never actually happens, while lament and confession can lead to real change. In one BL interview with a naturalist, he mentioned that whenever he is in nature, he finds himself in mourning. His friends might be ooohing and aaaahing about something beautiful, but he finds himself lamenting internally about what is not “right” in the scene.
I think we need to do this. We need to be overwhelmed by the beauty, but also allow ourselves to recognize the problems and feel them.
We also need to do this with the lives of people, who don’t live like us. We aren’t all going to travel to those places, but we can pay attention to the news, and even art (what is the ancient hymnal of Psalms but poetry, that is art?). Contemporary art, which speaks loudly to me, is populated by artists like Edward Burtynsky, who examine the effect of contemporary life on resources and how that affects the lives of people all over the world. Salman Rushdie, Mulk Raj Anand, Sonya Sanchez, Audrey Lorde, Imari Baraka, Ethridge Knight, and on and on and on are authors who have changed my life by showing me what social injustice is like for people and how it destroys us all.
Let our passions be formed well, if they are what drive our reason.
And lament and confess.
And get to work.
Three:
Hope of a New Creation
I’m horrified to hear people talk about there being no reason to concern ourselves with the environmentalism and ecology, because it’s all going to burn up in the end, anyway. They better hope they understood the metaphors right.
“The Earth is the Lord’s”
If this is the case, how can we possibly justify an attitude that it’s fine to treat the Earth as something disposable. It doesn’t even belong to us.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Who is my neighbor?”
—Really? You have to ask?
The Earth is the Lord’s and the provision of it is for everyone who lives here now and will live here. This is an enormous responsibility.
I live in an area where there are all sorts of concerns about rights to life. Preserving the Earth for future generations is an issue of life and the right to it. But we can all too easily ignore the fact, because so many of us are protected from it by our wealth and socio-economic stability.
Our passions need to be informed well, if they are to rightly drive our reason.
And our reason should lead to ethical action.
Don’t forget the rest of that verse: " fill the earth and subdue it."
Mission accomplished. We are now beyond that.
I readily admit that I am not as good as I should be environmentally, and enjoy the conveniences of life in our age, but try a bit, live modestly in general, plant trees here and there. It seems to me that our attitude toward creation should be one similar to what Jesus advocates we do regarding sin: Not to worry about what others are doing so much as changing our hearts and behavior to be in harmony with God and his heart.
On a personal level, I can sometimes become discouraged when thinking that my individual efforts to act “environmentally” will not make any difference to the climate crisis or save the planet. But as a Christian, such fatalism doesn’t get me off the hook. I choose to limit my personal consumption of resources and look out for the interests of others ultimately, out of obedience (if nothing else). As I see things, God never rescinded the original human mandate to care for and to steward the planet. On the final day, God will not hold me accountable for what China did, or did not do, but on how I lived faithfully.
Totally, I can, and do, get in a major funk about it. I think this is where collectivism (in the sense of a collective cause) can be such a powerful thing. When I talk with others and discover the things that they are doing, I’m encouraged to hear that so many are doing something. Whether it is enough is another question, but it is a start, and that encourages me that I am not alone.
Churches, I believe, should be a beating heart of creation care, sadly many are not, some are even aggressively hostile, which only compounds the sense of isolation.
While I focused on individual behavior and heart in my previous post, you make a good point about corporate responsibility. The Bible is certainly full of examples about how we are responsible and accountable as a people for our behavior, regardless of our personal positions if we look at the Flood, at Sodom, at Israel. Perhaps in democratic societies, that responsibility is magnified, not lessened. And, if not responsible in the greater culture, we are responsible as we are part on the body of Christ in our churches, as you state.
With limited resources, there has been a historical tension between financially supporting our calling to “go and make disciples of all nations” with and against the necessity of other financial outlays and overhead (megamillions into lavish church buildings and salaries? ), but evangelical environmentalism is a healthy way of addressing both.
You have a point, as saving the planet can be idolatrous, but no less so than desiring a life of comfort on the backs of the poor and disadvantaged. Again, I confess my love of air conditioning and driving my pickup, so I am hardly a shining example of what we should do.
What should we do? I’m not a scientist or anywhere near as knowledgeable of the environment as I should be. Somehow, I think our only hope is genuine worship. When the leaders of the world honor God in their hearts, I am optimistic for the future and think our collective wisdom will find a better way
I understand, yet to me, your statement can come across as gaslighting. It seems that when people suggest changes to society to make businesses more profitable, others become excited. But when the same is suggested to protect those in the majority world who are being affected by the climate crisis or to prevent a food chain collapse caused by the depletion of pollinators, the reaction is different. Instead of support, there are insinuations of idolatry, claims that it won’t make a difference anyway, or accusations of communism.
I realize that some people are more optimistic about the immediate future, and I genuinely admire that. I too look forward with hope to the New Creation. However, I struggle to see how such hope makes others complacent about the problems we face now. It’s like a teenager who wrecks the Ferrari his dad gave him and says, “Who cares? Dad’s buying me a new one for my birthday.”
— [EDIT] —
In 2019 Malawi’s Carbon Emissions were 0.9 metric tons per Capita compared to 5.22 and 14.67 in the UK and the US respectively. And yet:
Cyclone Freddy, one of the most powerful and longest-lasting storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, made landfall in southern Malawi on 12 March 2023, causing heavy rainfall, floods, and landslides. It affected 14 of 28 districts, displacing more than 500,000 people and killing over 500 as at 21 March. (Source)
Why is the West’s collective soul more valuable than the collective soul of Malawians?
When the leaders of the world honor God in their hearts, I am optimistic for the future and think our collective wisdom will find a better way.
Can you explain the relationship or summarize the relationship between certain forms of environmental activism and Marxism? I’m also not against communism, but there is a key distinction between godly and demonic versions of this. Can you expand on that as well?
True, both sides should be careful of cognitive anchoring, as the article says later on:
At the same time, significant floods and heatwaves in 2021 destroyed key crops in the Americas and Europe.[16]
We all like simple solutions and being able to point to something and say “This thing is the cause” but the reality is often more complex than that. Yes, Covid and War played a role. But I believe the evidence indicates these factors compounded what is an already precarious situation brought about by global temperature rise, melting ice caps, intensive farming and pesticide use, fossil fuel consumption, plastic waste, water pollution (domestic, agricultural, and industrial), deforestation, and worsening extreme weather patterns, and Western culture’s gregarious consumption.
Sometimes I feel like solving racism might be easier. Honestly, most of the time I don’t know, and on a bad day it all feels too little too late anyway.
As I said, in the OP, I never intended to get into the weeds on the evidence and solutions. But rather to what extent our times should shape how we engage with God’s word.
And for me it’s atheism A world free from pollution or racial discrimination isn’t so hard to imagine, but one where atheism is a relic of the past, is really something to consider.
I guess where I’ve experienced change recently, is that I no longer see these goals as mutually exclusive. I believe the Bible calls us to pursue both/and not just either/or.
Consider for example how Paul uses the gospel to resolve racial tensions in Ephesus:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ~Eph 2:14-18 (NIV2011)
), but evangelical environmentalism is a healthy way of addressing both.