In 1967 Lynn White, Jr., (The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis) blamed those following the Judeo-Christian tradition for many of Earth's environmental problems. Many who are in this tradition believe that they have an obligation to care for creation. The Evangelical Environmental Network and the Green Cross will soon distribute the following statement, prepared by EEN, to numerous pastors and churches across the United States. Its purpose is to inform Christians who may be unaware of it that environmental problems exist and that there is a biblical mandate to care for creation. (Christians are not necessarily less aware of environmental problems than the rest of the general population, however.) As you read the declaration, be sure to keep in mind the intended audience. This is more in the category of a sermon than a scientific treatise. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AN EVANGELICAL DECLARATION ON THE CARE OF CREATION The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Psalm 24:1 _As followers of Jesus Christ, committed to the full authority of the Scriptures, and aware of the ways we have degraded creation, we believe that biblical faith is essential to the solution of our ecological problems._ * Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for the creation. * Because we have sinned, we have failed in our stewardship of creation. Therefore we repent of the way we have polluted, distorted, or destroyed so much of the Creator's work. * Because in Christ God has healed our alienation from God and extended to us the first fruits of the reconciliation of all things, we commit ourselves to working in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Christ in word and deed, to work for the reconciliation of all people in Christ, and to extend Christ's healing to suffering creation. * Because we await the time when even the groaning creation will be restored to wholeness, we commit ourselves to work vigorously to protect and heal that creation for the honor and glory of the Creator-- whom we know dimly through creation, but meet fully through Scripture and in Christ. _We and our children face a growing crisis in the health of the creation in which we are embedded, and through which, by God's grace, we are sustained. Yet we continue to degrade that creation._ * These degradations of creation can be summed up as 1) land degradation; 2) deforestation; 3) species extinction; 4) water degradation; 5) global toxification; 6) the alteration of atmosphere; 7) human and cultural degradation. * Many of these degradations are signs that we are pressing against the finite limits God has set for creation. With continued population growth, these degradations will become more severe. Our responsibility is not only to bear and nurture children, but to nurture their home on earth. We respect the institution of marriage as the way God has given to insure thoughtful procreation of children and their nurture to the glory of God. * We recognize that human poverty is both a cause and a consequence of environmental degradation. _Many concerned people, convinced that environmental problems are more spiritual than technological, are exploring the world's ideologies and religions in search of non-Christian spiritual resources for the healing of the earth. As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe that the Bible calls us to respond in four ways:_ * First, God calls us to confess and repent of attitudes which devalue creation, and which twist or ignore biblical revelation to support our misuse of it. Forgetting that ``the earth is the Lord's,'' we have often simply used creation and forgotten our responsibility to care for it. * Second, our actions and attitudes toward the earth need to proceed from the center of our faith, and be rooted in the fullness of God's revelation in Christ and the Scriptures. We resist both ideologies which would presume the Gospel has nothing to do with the care of non-human creation and also ideologies which would reduce the Gospel to nothing more than the care of that creation. * Third, we seek carefully to learn all that the Bible tells us about the Creator, creation, and the human task. In our life and words we declare that full good news for all creation which is still waiting ``with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,'' (Rom. 8:19). * Fourth, we seek to understand what creation reveals about God's divinity, sustaining presence, and everlasting power, and what creation teaches us of its God-given order and the principles by which it works. Thus we call on all those who are committed to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to affirm the following principles of biblical faith, and to seek ways of living out these principles in our personal lives, our churches, and society. * The cosmos, in all its beauty, wildness, and life-giving bounty, is the work of our personal and loving Creator. * Our creating God is prior to and other than creation, yet intimately involved with it, upholding each thing in its freedom, and all things in relationships of intricate complexity. God is transcendent, while lovingly sustaining each creature; and immanent, while wholly other than creation and not to be confused with it. * God the Creator is relational in very nature, revealed as three persons in One. Likewise, the creation which God intended is a symphony of individual creatures in harmonious relationship. * The Creator's concern is for all creatures. God declares all creation ``good'' (Gen. 1:31); promises care in a covenant with all creatures (Gen. 9:9-17); delights in creatures which have no human apparent usefulness (Job 39-41); and wills, in Christ, ``to reconcile all things to himself'' (Col. 1:20). * Men, women, and children, have a unique responsibility to the Creator; at the same time we are creatures, shaped by the same processes and embedded in the same systems of physical, chemical, and biological interconnections which sustain other creatures. * Our God-given, stewardly talents have often been warped from their intended purpose: that we know, name, keep and delight in God's creatures; that we nourish civilization in love, creativity, and obedience to God; and that we offer creation and civilization back in praise to the Creator. We have ignored our creaturely limits and have used the earth with greed, rather than care. * The earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. ``There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land...Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away'' (Hosea 4:1,3). Thus, one consequence of our misuse of the earth is an unjust denial of God's created bounty to other human beings, both now and in the future. * God's purpose in Christ is to heal and bring to wholeness not only persons but the entire created order. ``For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross'' (Col. 1:19-20). * In Jesus Christ, believers are forgiven, transformed and brought into God's kingdom. ``If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation'' (II Cor. 5:17). The presence of the kingdom of God is marked not only by renewed fellowship with God, but also by renewed harmony and justice between people, and by renewed harmony and justice between people and the rest of the created world. ``You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands'' (Isa. 55:12). _We believe that in Christ there is hope, not only for men, women and children, but also for the rest of creation which is suffering from the consequences of human sin._ * Therefore we call upon all Christians to reaffirm that all creation is God's; that God created it good; and that God is renewing it in Christ. * We encourage deeper reflection on the substantial biblical and theological teaching which speaks of God's work of redemption in terms of the renewal and completion of God's purpose in creation. * We seek a deeper reflection on the wonders of God's creation and the principles by which creation works. We also urge a careful consideration of how our corporate and individual actions respect and comply with God's ordinances for creation. * We encourage Christians to incorporate the extravagant creativity of God into their lives by increasing the nurturing role of beauty and the arts in their personal, ecclesiastical, and social patterns. * We urge individual Christians and churches to be centers of creation's care and renewal, both delighting in creation as God's gift, and enjoying it as God's provision, in ways which sustain and heal the damaged fabric of the creation which God has entrusted to us. * We recall Jesus' words that our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions, and therefore we urge followers of Jesus to resist the allure of wastefulness and overconsumption by making personal lifestyle choices that express humility, forbearance, self restraint and frugality. * We call on all Christians to work for godly, just, and sustainable economies which reflect God's sovereign economy and enable men, women and children to flourish along with all the diversity of creation. We recognize that poverty forces people to degrade creation in order to survive; therefore we support the development of just, free economies which empower the poor and create abundance without diminishing creation's bounty. * We commit ourselves to work for responsible public policies which embody the principles of biblical stewardship of creation. * We invite Christians--individuals, congregations and organizations--to join with us in this evangelical declaration on the environment, becoming a covenant people in an ever-widening circle of biblical care for creation. * We call upon Christians to listen to and work with all those who are concerned about the healing of creation, with an eagerness both to learn from them and also to share with them our conviction that the God whom all people sense in creation (Acts 17:27) is known fully only in the Word made flesh in Christ the living God who made and sustains all things. * We make this declaration knowing that until Christ returns to reconcile all things, we are called to be faithful stewards of God's good garden, our earthly home. For more information or to sign the Declaration contact: EEN, 10 Lancaster Avenue, Wynnewood, PA 19096 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pastors and churches who request it, presumably as a result of the first mailing, will receive a packet including papers on the seven degradations of creation that were mentioned in the Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation. The following is the paper on land degradation, prepared by Kenneth J. Van Dellen, Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at Macomb Community College, Warren, Michigan, who is the primary author of the geology chapter in G. Tyler Miller's "Living in the Environment". Again, it is important to remember, while reading this, who the intended audience is. Like the EEN declaration, its purpose is to alert Christians that environmental problems exist, and to stimulate action. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAND DEGRADATION Whether you believe the soil and mineral resources of Earth, our home planet, were created six thousand years ago during a creation week of six 24-hour days or are the result of God's creation and providence over millions of years, you should recognize that they are nonrenewable resources. Young-Earth creationists who know geologic processes understand, with geologists who are old-Earth creationists and those who do not believe in creation, that, although the processes that make soil and concentrate mineral resources continue today, they operate much more slowly than humans, as we use mineral resources and decrease the quality and quantity of productive soil. Cropland for producing food, firewood, timber, and fiber for clothing and other uses is essential for human survival. Many who grow crops use sound practices to conserve soil, but many do not, and much soil is being lost. Many years are required to produce an inch of soil by weathering of rock in the climates in which we grow most crops. This is confirmed by the observation that little or no soil has formed on glacially scoured bedrock in the Midwest since the glaciation. Meanwhile, soil is being eroded at rates that are 20 to 100 times the soil-formation rate. This is because improper agricultural, timbering, and grazing practices, along with use of off-road vehicles, all expose soil to erosion by reducing or eliminating the vegetation holding it. The topsoil is first to go, and productivity decreases after that. (The soil that is removed, in turn causes sediment pollution in streams.) In an attempt to increase the area of agricultural cropland in tropical and semitropical climates, we cut down tropical rain forests and irrigate deserts. Such areas are really not very suitable for agriculture. The nutrients in rain forests are mostly in the plants, and are taken up by the living plants when others die. Slash-and-burn agriculture releases the nutrients from the plants into the soil, which becomes depleted of nutrients in a few years because the rain carries them away in solution and because they are removed with the crops at harvest. Further, as the soil is baked by the sun, a chemical reaction identical to the process used in making bricks occurs, and the soil, so hard it can be cut and used as bricks, will no longer grow crops, rain forest plants, or hardly anything else. In other areas, irrigation can lead to waterlogging and salinization of the soil, eventually rendering it temporarily or permanently unusable for agriculture. Irrigation also may extract ground water faster than precipitation replaces it, so an aquifer, that could provide a continuous supply of water if its sustainable yield were not exceeded, becomes depleted. This is happening with the Ogallala aquifer in the midwestern United States. Use of the land for inappropriate purposes has caused expansion of deserts into areas that once were fertile and has caused conversion of cropland into desertlike conditions, as in the Dust Bowl. The total area of the world's cropland is decreasing, not only through soil erosion but by urban expansion and other construction. Look at what has happened in the last twenty years to a rural community or a large city near you. In nearly every case these urban areas have spread out over surrounding agricultural land. Ironically, the increasing population that is responsible for this growth of communities needs more cropland, not less. In addition, we have covered a vast area of land with Interstates and other highways. A certain amount of metallic, nonmetallic, and energy resources are found concentrated in Earth's crust and are being added to by a variety of geologic processes, including weathering of rock, deposition of sediment, volcanic activity, and mountain-building, all which occur very slowly. For all practical purposes, these resources must be considered nonrenewable, because, like the soil, we are depleting them faster than they are being concentrated. We can switch from fossil fuels to solar energy, but no substitute exists for some of these resources, such as metals and helium, and we had better start realizing there is not an unlimited supply of them. Geologists can estimate how much of a resource is in known deposits, and can predict how much is likely to found worldwide because they know the geologic setting of these resources. It is then possible to project how long the resources will last at present rates of consumption. The projected lifetime of many important metals and nonmetals is a few centuries or, in some cases, a few decades. The key phrase here is "at present rates of consumption," because the rates of consumption have not remained constant. Consider how much higher your lifetime consumption of resources is compared to that of your parents. We also need to evaluate the effect of world population that is increasing exponentially (like a bank account with compound interest) and of increased per person demand for resources by developing countries. Of course, people in less developed countries may become less able to afford them if the per capita income in more developed countries goes up, taking prices with it, and that in less developed countries remains comparatively flat. We can perhaps increase our resources by mining the sea floor or going to Mars or the Moon, but even then the only way to keep what we find is to conserve it. This means that we need to apply the three R's of resource use, reduce, reuse, and recycle. It is foolish to think that there is more where the last came from, and inappropriate to think that God will provide more for us or that Christ will return before things become a problem. God has provided the resources that we are now abusing, and we don't know when Christ will return. Many Christians are indistinguishable from non-Christians when it comes to accumulating things in a "He who dies with the most toys wins" mentality. If we would keep our "wants" from exceeding our "needs" by as much as they do, and would learn to appreciate more the value of intangible resources such as love, solitude, the companionship of family and friends, and the beauty of God's creation, we would conserve Earth's resources and have more economic resources that we could use to help others. Laying up treasures in heaven instead of on Earth is better for the environment and for our souls. In Psalm 24:1 (NIV) we read, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." This was echoed by Paul in I Corinthians 10: 25. Do we act like the earth is the Lord's or ours? Genesis 2:15 says that God "put [the man] in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." The world is not a Garden of Eden, but Christians would honor God by caring for this earthly home and using these resources wisely and unselfishly. The Judeo-Christian tradition has been blamed for causing environmental problems because its adherents supposedly are more interested in subduing the earth than in caring for it, but these problems are more the result of selfishness among people in general, particularly in more developed countries, than an outcome from following a biblical mandate. Some Christians say the environmental movement is some sort of political-economic conspiracy. Surely environmentalism has political considerations. Most of what we do can be tied to politics in some way. Some may see elements of socialism or communism in environmentalism. Sharing resources and making sure all have somewhat equal access to them is not communism. God has been very good to us in providing the resources we need and supplies beyond our needs. Is it right and pleasing to God when we use these resources as quickly as possible and try to accumulate as much as we can, as though all the silver and gold and copper and lead were just for us as individuals and as a country? Economically, degrading the environment is more costly in the long run than not degrading. Too often we fail to consider the real cost of environmental degradation when we look at the cost of reducing our negative impacts on the environment. The automobile illustrates this principle well. Inefficient cars use a disproportionate share of our energy resources, and produce air pollution in proportion to their fuel consumption. Better fuel efficiency would save money and result in cleaner air, which means less damage from air pollution, so we save two ways. Furthermore, it extends our reserves of petroleum. We also hear Christians say that the environmental movement should be avoided because it is New Age. Do they avoid watching their favorite baseball team or shopping in their neighborhood super market because some of the players or employees have a religious orientation they disagree with? Something is not automatically wrong because atheists or New Age adherents or liberal Christians do it. I disagree with some statements environmentalists make that are almost a creed. ("We are not the most important form of life on Earth." "We belong to the earth." "Something is right when it tends to maintain the ecological integrity, sustainability, and diversity of Earth's life-support systems.") You don't have to subscribe to an environmental statement of faith to care for the environment. Christians can have their own reasons. If you are uncomfortable with secular environmental groups, get involved with one of several Christian groups that have formed or just practice sound environmentalism on your own.