Sometimes we have a tendency to brush off other religions' ideas simply because they are other religions' ideas. Sometimes, by doing this, we throw out the baby with the bathwater.
If you walk in to my house right this second, it will be a little bit of a mess. I have a little bit of dog hair on my couch. There is a stain on my carpet from where my son spilled chocolate milk. There is a little bit of a funny odor in the air from this morning's gym clothes. It's not a toxic environment and most of the house looks pretty good. So I'm going to leave it like it is, and just keep living my life. Besides, if I clean up my house some people might think I'm devoting too much time to my house and I'm making an idol out of it. Eventually the kitchen sink will fill up with dishes, the couch will be burried with dog fur, the trash will overtake the living room, the spot on the floor will mold, and the sanitation department will kick me out. But if I clean the place, someone might think I'm worshiping my house!
Of course I'm not serious.
But this illustrates my point about the common Christian attitude toward environmental issues. Lots of people around the world worship the created things but ignore The Creator. So, just so we're not associated with them, a lot of Christians (dare I say, a majority) ignore environmental issues or even try to make them worse.
Naturally, no sane person is going to live in a house like the one I described. But we do it to ourselves every day on a much larger scale.
A quick Google search for "floating island of trash" will spit back 84 results (not terribly impressive but it's a long phrase). Better yet do an image search for "garbage patch" and you'll get satellite images and maps showing the real impact. If you do an image search the results will likely turn your stomach. It turns out this trash is breaking down and releasing toxic chemicals (arsenic and other lethal chemicals) into the oceans. A lot of folks say, "So what? Why should I care? The ocean is huge, it can absorb it!" Well, those chemicals get into the food chain and we end up ingesting it. And one of these floating islands of trash in the Pacific is a little larger than Texas. And that's just one of them.
Or give a thought to all the plastic bags we go through every day. Take a look at this website to get a visual depiction: http://www.wendmag.com/blog/2009/04/13/an-american-self-portrait-artist-chris-jordan-looks-at-overconsumption/ . That's a lot of bags. 60,000 every second in the U.S. alone. It's a number so vast, my frail, human mind can't really comprehend it.
It is foolish to put off environmental issues simply because another religions does and they do not embrace The Christ. In fact, it borders on insanity. A lot of Christians argue that we don't have to take care of the earth because Christ is coming back soon (I hope He does). This may be true, but people have been looking to the heavens for two thousand years and He hasn't returned yet. No one can say He won't be another two thousand years (I hope He comes tonight). But at our current rate of cosumerism and environmental impact, life is going to become very miserable, very soon.
Think about this the next time you see or hear an unbelieving environmentalist. Try to stand in her shoes. Try to see the world through his eyes. Does Christianity become more or less appealing given our prevailing attitude toward environmental issues? Were I strictly an environmentalist, Christians would be probably be my favorite group of people to hate the most.
We should be on the front line, shoulder to shoulder fighting for the health of this planet. Does this mean we're worshiping the planet? No. It just means we're serious about cleaning the place up. Just like I'll have to do this weekend when I try to get out the chocolate milk stain out of my carpet.
If you walk in to my house right this second, it will be a little bit of a mess. I have a little bit of dog hair on my couch. There is a stain on my carpet from where my son spilled chocolate milk. There is a little bit of a funny odor in the air from this morning's gym clothes. It's not a toxic environment and most of the house looks pretty good. So I'm going to leave it like it is, and just keep living my life. Besides, if I clean up my house some people might think I'm devoting too much time to my house and I'm making an idol out of it. Eventually the kitchen sink will fill up with dishes, the couch will be burried with dog fur, the trash will overtake the living room, the spot on the floor will mold, and the sanitation department will kick me out. But if I clean the place, someone might think I'm worshiping my house!
Of course I'm not serious.
But this illustrates my point about the common Christian attitude toward environmental issues. Lots of people around the world worship the created things but ignore The Creator. So, just so we're not associated with them, a lot of Christians (dare I say, a majority) ignore environmental issues or even try to make them worse.
Naturally, no sane person is going to live in a house like the one I described. But we do it to ourselves every day on a much larger scale.
A quick Google search for "floating island of trash" will spit back 84 results (not terribly impressive but it's a long phrase). Better yet do an image search for "garbage patch" and you'll get satellite images and maps showing the real impact. If you do an image search the results will likely turn your stomach. It turns out this trash is breaking down and releasing toxic chemicals (arsenic and other lethal chemicals) into the oceans. A lot of folks say, "So what? Why should I care? The ocean is huge, it can absorb it!" Well, those chemicals get into the food chain and we end up ingesting it. And one of these floating islands of trash in the Pacific is a little larger than Texas. And that's just one of them.
Or give a thought to all the plastic bags we go through every day. Take a look at this website to get a visual depiction: http://www.wendmag.com/blog/2009/04/13/an-american-self-portrait-artist-chris-jordan-looks-at-overconsumption/ . That's a lot of bags. 60,000 every second in the U.S. alone. It's a number so vast, my frail, human mind can't really comprehend it.
It is foolish to put off environmental issues simply because another religions does and they do not embrace The Christ. In fact, it borders on insanity. A lot of Christians argue that we don't have to take care of the earth because Christ is coming back soon (I hope He does). This may be true, but people have been looking to the heavens for two thousand years and He hasn't returned yet. No one can say He won't be another two thousand years (I hope He comes tonight). But at our current rate of cosumerism and environmental impact, life is going to become very miserable, very soon.
Think about this the next time you see or hear an unbelieving environmentalist. Try to stand in her shoes. Try to see the world through his eyes. Does Christianity become more or less appealing given our prevailing attitude toward environmental issues? Were I strictly an environmentalist, Christians would be probably be my favorite group of people to hate the most.
We should be on the front line, shoulder to shoulder fighting for the health of this planet. Does this mean we're worshiping the planet? No. It just means we're serious about cleaning the place up. Just like I'll have to do this weekend when I try to get out the chocolate milk stain out of my carpet.
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