As I think back on my childhood time in the isle I see a commonly misunderstood beauty in the lessons we learned. I was lucky enough to find a space where Christianity meant asking big questions, moral questions, about deepening my appreciation while internalizing a sense of stewardship to people and the world we call home. All the while questioning my own beliefs and the meaning that they’re built around. This is something I worry we’re losing in today’s externally focused yet distracted world. It’s a lens I’ve taken with me when seeing our natural world. But while the breakdown of our climate may include all the hallmarks of a biblical story – displacement of entire cultures, epic floods, ravaging plagues, vehement storms and an apocalypse of our resources – it isn’t its own belief system.
As politically conservative and theologically conservative further intertwine, preserving our earth gets bundled into “us versus them”, a shallow tactic used as a cheap alternative to creating real community. But the god I’ve learned about speaks to the opposite. Unity, compassion, and love is what connects us to him. The team we divide into isn’t this, the greater whole is what’s powerful and connects us to the holy spirit. We assume there’s a disconnect between religion and our planet because that topic isn’t whats talked about in our circles, but what if there is more concern among Christians than we think? There are now countless organizations and movements empowering us to protect God’s creation such as Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA), Operation Noah, and Georgia Interfaith Power and Light with a new poll finding that 40% of evangelical Christians support the Green New Deal.
The climate story is one of our neighbors, not rivals. It’s a test of our human spirit. We’re all trying to find the truth and every step closers leads to real transformation. This is about what is that greater truth not just the story each side uses to serves them. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” This climate story is about seeing the bigger picture, being stewards to God’s creation and our neighbors, not for ourselves but for our children.
The climate story is one of our neighbors, not rivals. It’s a test of our human spirit. We’re all trying to find the truth and every step closers leads to real transformation. This is about what is that greater truth not just the story each side uses to serves them. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” This climate story is about seeing the bigger picture, being stewards to God’s creation and our neighbors, not for ourselves but for our children.
The Stewards
It’s easy to forget that the breakdown of our climate is already (and will disproportionally be) affecting those who are most vulnerable, poor, and who have polluted the least. Jesus speaks of a spirit of love and a sound mind, specifically towards those less fortunate than us. In Matthew 25:40 he repeats this message saying “we do this for the least of these”. Our actions must not be driven by the fear-mongering around climate but by courage towards our less fortunate neighbors. In a letter to Timothy from the apostle Paul (who wrote half of the New Testament), we’re reminded that “fear is not God’s creation, that instead of a spirit of fear we were given a spirit of power. A power to act empowered by our compassion for others instead of being paralyzed by guilt or anxiety.” (Timothy 2:1) Near half of all carbon emissions are emitted by the richest 10% of the world’s population. Yet our climate breakdown will make climate refugees of the world’s poorest. Draught, famine, and extreme heat is already causing mass migration out of Northern Nepal, deadly heatwaves in Pakistan, and spiking farmer suicides and historic draught for millions across India’s largest cities where more than 28 million Christians live. Jesus went after those who are marginalized, the poor, the prostitute, and those forgotten about.
But feeling any connection to the issue when it doesn’t affect us is incredibly challenging. The modern individualist and economic culture we’ve built around us has chiselled away at humanities primary goal, morality. But religion helps to transcend this synthetic layer of humanity. We must internalize the transformative power of connection, allowing it to empower and unite us. These are the moments that we’re reminded that despite any difference of opinions, we’re all born as sons of god. When we cry with someone, chant or laugh we’re reminded of our divine connection. Not across the internet or videos but at a service, a concert, a tragedy. To imagine the mothers and children next to you in the isle. We brush it by without giving a moment to sit with people in their pain. To be courageous enough to try to truly feel it ourselves.
We can’t forget that the heart of god is unity, were all his children, and his family. His deepest heart is all of us. John 17 Versus 21 “Jesus’s heart for us is that we’re all one” Love is what creates true transformation. We stay arm’s length away to protect and promote ourselves, but doing so is born from fear, leading us away from our best selves and best decisions. It will take true courage to internalize the unimaginable hardship those less fortunate will feel as a result of our actions, but it’s in those exact moments of connections that will bring us closer to god.
Stewardship to his creation
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15). We’ve been given the responsibility for taking care of god’s creation. Of course, we can and have used nature to our benefit to create the modern marvels and masterpieces of the world. We are living in an incredible time of comfort and the coal miner should be championed as the leader in economic development around the world. But we all must live within our means as there are limits to this growth before they start bumping up against natures threshold. Where is the line between being comfortable and destroying God’s garden that he entrusted to us?
This is a time to rekindle a relationship with our environment into not one of domination but of harmony and co-existence. The results from how we’ve altered our environment help to show our embeddedness within nature not our place above it. As with God, this relationship has pushed and pull and is a constant work in progress, not a task with a finite conclusion. Christians understand this kind of relational way of living better than most. But silencing and becoming aware of our inner voice, one that constantly justifies and rationalizes our actions in the name of our quiet greed and ego, is absolutely no easy journey. “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? ” Jeremiah 17:9.
But Katherine Hayhoe, an evangelical climate scientist, echo’s opportunity; “Being concerned about climate change is a genuine expression of our faith, bringing our attitudes and actions more closely into line with who we already are and what we most want to be”
The moments of moral courage aren’t always clear at the time and don’t declare their controversy. Instead, they are choices within our everyday work and life. Senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Saint Simons, Tony Lankford goes further; “regardless of political or theological leanings, there is agreement upon the basic tenet that God formed all of this beauty around us, and scripture [Genesis 1-2] gives us a responsibility to be stewards of that creation. For me, thus, mismanagement and abuse of creation is not only immoral or unethical but is sinful.”
Something Greater
Meyaard Schaap of Young Evangelical Christian Association states their motivation is something different than politics or the side they are meant to defend, success or an extra buck; “We come at this because we’re Christians and we believe that acting on climate change and calling the church to action and it’s just part of what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st century.” This is an act of people, an act of service. How could climate change create better unity among the church and even boost attendance in a time where it’s harder to attract the youth? The breakdown of our natural world will inflict incomprehensible injustice and pain onto those already feeling it, only due to the soil on which they were born. Here is our moment to care for the vulnerable and poor, how we were put on this earth to do. There is so much richness in seeing connections with our father as relational, instilling a humbleness to our human spirit. Building a more relational and modest connection with our earth instead of one of domination and contempt is fundamental to being a steward of our earth. Just speaking up, starting the conversation among your congregation can have an exponential effect. Not being afraid to stand up for your kids on God’s word. What made Senior Pastor Tony Lankford change his voice? The emotional plea from his son saying lovingly, “Be relevant to my future, show some courage”.
This is apart of our CFB’s New Framing series where we explore using different vocabulary and value sets to resonate with this problem differently. Read more from this series here