Editorial May 25, 1992 Issue

Why should Christians care for the environment?

William E. Moody

This month in Washington, D.C., a significant conference was held under the auspices of the Joint Appeal by Science and Religion for the Environment. Next week, in Rio de Janeiro, "Earth Summit" is scheduled to convene on June 1, bringing together national leaders from around the globe. These are important indicators of how seriously environmental issues are being taken today. And clearly it isn't only among thoughtful politicians, scientists, and religious workers that there is concern. Many thousands of average citizens as well are waking up to the urgent need to provide better care for our planet. The Christian Science Monitor reports, for example, that 80 percent of Americans now think of themselves as environmentalists.

The challenges we confront, however, are obviously many and varied, broad and complex. "The world may not know for decades," Time magazine states, "how costly the years of recklessness will be." And with the issues so large and the potential effects extending over such a long time-frame, it is difficult for even the most knowledgeable professionals in the field of environmental research to assess the problems adequately. For most of the rest of us, the difficulty in even beginning to understand the issues involved, much less in actually addressing them in any meaningful way, can make the task appear hopeless at times.

Yet there is something in the human heart that rebels against hopelessness. And for the Christian, that rebelling against despair is rooted in a deep conviction that the power of prayer, the love of God, the redeeming grace of Christ, always carry the hope of healing and restoration. The Christian's approach of hope and expectation, though, can never properly be one of naive avoidance or a kind of otherworldly idealism, where a person merely waits out his tour in one world while anticipating something better in the next. To be a Christian—to be a follower of Christ Jesus—if anything, always calls for individual responsibility (which would surely include facing up to shortcomings and acknowledging wrongdoing in how we treat the environment) and then bearing witness to the transforming power of Christ, Truth. It is in this spiritual awakening that we are made new men and women—enabled to do something through Christ that actually has a healing effect in our own lives and on the lives of those around us, even on the world around us.

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