This week on Facebook, I fell upon a rather surprising post. While this is not unusual, as Facebook today is often misused as a personal journal platform for misinformed, angry people, this post in particular made me take a second look.
The status update was made by an individual who was very angry at the “liberals” whose “evil agenda” was to “force the green movement” into law through the “conspiracy of global warming.” This in itself was not an altogether head-turning claim to me, but it did not stop there. The post went on to say that, “As Christians, we cannot allow this.”
I’m sorry……….what?
As a Christian myself, I had to put my foot down at that last point. However, not desiring an Internet fight in the comment section of a misinformed post, I decided to state my case here, instead.
I would like to make the argument that the green movement is not a liberal/conservative or Democrat/Republican issue at all; it’s a humanity issue. And we, as Christians, should be its leading advocates.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
(Genesis 1:28-31, ESV)
Here, in Genesis, we are told as Christians that we have been given dominion over this earth. Many theologians argue that the word “stewardship” is probably a better word than dominion in this passage.
Think about that for a minute.
Stewardship.
As stewards of this earth, it is our charge and responsibility to take care of it and all the life on it.
News flash: that means that many of the platforms of the green movement—i.e. water conservation, planting trees, recycling, reducing wastefulness, etc.—are actually facets that we are Christians should be actively participating in in order to be better stewards of this earth.
By doing our part to help protect and preserve this planet, we are following the very first commandment that we are humans were given, and that is one of the most Christian things we can do.
