“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…God saw all that he had made and it was very good.” Genesis 1:1 & 31 (NIV)
For me, caring for the environment is both a biblical and social mandate, and a responsibility of Christians. Our Social Principles remind us that “all creation is the Lord’s and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect Economic, political, social, and technological developments have increased our numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives. However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and over consumption of natural and non- renewable resources particularly by industrialized societies. This continued course of action jeopardizes the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations. Therefore, let us recognize the responsibility of the church and its members to place a high priority on changes in economic, political, social and technological lifestyles to support a more ecologically equitable and sustainable world leading to higher quality of life for all of God’s creation.”
Major issues addressed under the category of “The Natural World” pertains to care of the environment – water, air, soil, minerals, plants; energy resource utilization, animal life, space, science and technology, and food safety. For instance, we support and encourage social policies that serve to reduce and control the creation of industrial byproducts and waste; clean up of the environment; appropriate recycling and disposal of toxic and nuclear waste.
We consider it our duty to “wholeheartedly support the conservation of energy and responsible development of all energy resources. We support regulations that protect the life and health of animals and encourage the preservation of all animal species including those threatened with extinction. We support policies that protect the food supply and that ensure the public’s right to know the content of the foods they are eating.”
One of the thorny issues we wrestle with concerns science and technology. There are some religious denominations that may disagree with our Social Principles in this area. Nonetheless, we recognize “science as a legitimate interpretation of God’s natural world. We affirm the validity of the claims of science in describing the natural world, although we preclude science from making authoritative claims about theological issues. We recognize technology as a legitimate use of God’s natural world when such use enhances human life and enable all of God’s children to develop their God-given creative potential without violating our ethical convictions about the relationship of humanity to the natural world. In acknowledging the important roles of science and technology, however, we also believe that a theological understanding of human experience is crucial to a full understanding of the place of humanity in the universe. Science and theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible. We therefore encourage dialogue between the scientific and theological communities and seek the kind of participation that will enable humanity to sustain life on earth and, by God’s grace, increase the quality of our common lives.”
As Chair of the Committee On Church and Society of the First
United Methodist Church of National City,
I find it very challenging yet interesting to advocate issues that
affect our natural world. Many of us are not conscious of our responsibilities
as Christians in caring for our environment. But if we believe that God created
the heavens and the earth and all the things in it, then we should be mindful
of our role in protecting and caring for our environment.