Within Kairos

I just read something interesting about God’s call to the stewardship of the earth. Why don’t I start with a controversial quote that attacks both sides of the environmental stewardship debate to get things going! On The Resurgence, Anthony Bradley says this:

Because evangelicals have too closely aligned themselves with political agendas, instead of the Scripture-derived social mission of the church, two camps have emerged over the past few decades. On the one hand, you have the “Christian-means-Republican” camp where many biblical imperatives are pursued through legislation and government force, and on other hand, you have the pathetic economics and theocratic biblical theology of prophetical left in the likes of guys like Bono, the One Campaign, and so on. […] Both turn to government instead of the church to do the work of the Kingdom of God.

I believe that they all mean well, no one runs out to force their beliefs on others because they believe it isn’t needed or that it won’t help. But it is too easy to get carried away in the politics and forget that there are people involved. That God is involved, that he shouldn’t just be an excuse to fall back on to justify your own ideas.

Anthony had another great point:

How silly it is, for example, to expect the U.S. government to randomly give one percent GDP (over $25 billion) to corrupt governments and bureaucratic non-profit groups, like the One Campaign wants, when American Christians literally have a tithing potential of $143 billion?

As Christians, it is easy to fall back and hide within our churches. Which is a problem in more ways than one, but that can be discussed another day. Here we have a mandate from God to take care of the earth and to take care of ourselves, but how should we go about that?

I believe The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship has a very well balanced view, and everyone should read it. (Don’t worry, it is short) It talks about what they believe the Judeo-Christian foundation teaches about environmental stewardship. About how we need to be active in taking care of the earth, with sound theology and a careful use of the scientific method. We do not need to go crazy over speculative global disaster when there are people dying from localized pollution as I type this.

So read the Cornwall Declaration please. You may not agree with it completely, I myself have some minor differences of opinion, but that does not invalidate the message. I do believe we need to be doing more to take care of our home. After all, one way God is revealed is through nature, it can’t be a bad thing to protect that. And while we are doing that, less people will die from lung cancer in China. Bonus!