Seven Reasons for Christians to be Environmentalists That Don't Have a Thing to do With Global Warming

I hate the whole global warming debate--mainly because there isn't much debating.  Skeptics of global warming would not believe it if they fried an egg on their sidewalk in winter.  Meanwhile,  global warming advocates apparently believe the best way to  convince opponents is to exaggerate evidence and cry heretic.  If either side wants to make converts, they should be less shrill and more realistic.

Frankly,  I don't know what to believe about global warming (excuse me climate change, I forgot they changed it again) But what concerns me more is that in all this discussion about global warming obscures real obvious damage to the environment that seem to be completely overlooked in the argument . There is copious evidence of the heavy boot prints of humanity on the earth that have nothing to do with global warming.

A Christian does not have to believe in global  warming to be concerned about the environment,  and you don't have to be a New Ager to have be a tree hugger.   The Bible contains many reasons for being concerned that have nothing to do with climate change. Here are a few:

1. The kingdom mandate Genesis 1:26

"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Humanity rules over the earth in God's stead.   So--what kind of rulers are we supposed to be?  If God gave us the mandate to rule,  doesn't it make sense that we should at least try to be the same kind of ruler God is?   Either  we are called to dominate the world, tear it up  as we wish, or to rule gently,  leaving it better than we came.  Are we tyrants  or benevolent kings?  Adam and Eve were put into the garden of Eden to dress and keep it, not to strip mine.  It's hard to imagine God intended us to commit environmental abuse.

2. God's possessions  "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." Psalm 24:1

However we may wish to interpret the kingdom mandate, Christians must accept that God owns the earth.  Now suppose someone you invited into your home as a welcome guest,  threw oil on your lawn,  messed up your bathroom, threw detergent in your pool and kicked your dog. Even if they did it with no malicious intent, would you be pleased?

3. "Love not the world, neither the things of this world." Let us assume that there is nothing to global warming, that pollution is  a minor inconvenience, and that the earth's supplies of raw materials are inexhaustible.  How should we live, then?   We seem to be obsessed with using more and more of the earth's resources, whether we need them or not.  We act as if happiness can be obtained by acquiring, owning, and seeking material comforts.  It has not worked in the past to bring us happiness.  Materialism hurts us, because it draws us from satisfaction with God to seeking satisfaction with worldly things. It will not work in the future.  We should take Thoreau's advice--"Simplify, simplify."
4. "Our bodies are God's temple."      Do we really think it's healthy to drink polluted water, breathe polluted air,  and eat polluted food?  We may scoff at those who exaggerate the dangers of pollutants in our food and water (and there are plenty of people who do) but they have a point. How much build up of waste products can our bodies take before it becomes more than a nuisance?  Does anyone want to gamble that we can never hurt the earth, or ourselves?
5. The  Millennial reign.  OK, this may be a stretch, but it's worth mentioning anyway.   Many Christians believe that there will be a millennium,  a thousand years at the end of civilization, when God's kingdom will be established on earth. During this time,  Christ will reign on earth. If there is such a time,  then what purpose would it serve, except as a time of global cleaning.  The millenium is a time like the time just before we left for a trip when my children were young, when we would say to them "We're not leaving until you clean up your mess!" Maybe the millennium is a time when God says "You messed it up--now you clean it up!"
6. Aesthetic witness.  "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmanment shows forth His handiwork."  God wants the earth to be beautiful, and he wants it to stay beautiful for aesthetic as well as practical reasons.  We clean our homes and our yards to make them beautiful--why would we think that God would want the rest of the world to be neglected?
7. Thy Kingdom come."   We pray for God's leadership  to extend over all the earth. If nothing else, we should take care of the earth out of reverence for God. Doesn't God's government of the earth include a rightful ecological balance? Is it fair to suggest that we alone of all God's creatures are exempt for doing His bidding, and not responsible for what we do to God's other creatures?

These are neither precise scientific or ecological reasons. I confess that I do not have all the answers, nor do I expect anyone to embrace all my reasons. But if you accept any one of them, you have to admit that whether or not we agree with  global warming, we should be sensitive to the environment, and do all we can to protect it. 

A handful of Grain

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,

We were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter,

Our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow,

Will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Ps 126

The farmer looked at his storehouse with satisfaction. The grain was golden—literally and figuratively. This grain would feed his family for several seasons. With this grain, his family had a future. Without it, they would starve.
It was good that he had the foresight to store the grain, instead of eating or bartering with it. A war was coming. The Babylonians were threatening invasion.
But with this grain, the farmer needn’t worry. His family could withstand a siege. They could retreat within the fortified walls of the city and last for months. Even if (God forbid!) something happened to him, there was enough here to feed his family for the rest of the season.
Then war came. The enemy laid siege to his town. Day after day they looked for help, which never came. Each day he opened his storehouse and took out their daily rations. Each day there was less. The farmer grew worried as he watched his precious sacks of grain grow thinner.
He conserved as much as he could. He cut the rations by half, then half again. Now there wasn’t enough to feed them all. For many days, he went without eating, so the children would have enough. Only one small pile remained—about a day’s ration. Tomorrow, even that would be gone.
The farmer took a small sack and carefully, precisely put every last remaining grain into it. He tied it up, took it to his house, and put it in a safe place. He and his family had nothing that night. His wife complained, “If we still have grain, we should eat it.” He shook his head. The grain would be needed later for other purposes.
The next day, his town surrendered. The Babylonians took everything they could find of value. But they missed the last of the farmer’s grain, because he had hidden it carefully. He lost everything else, but he still had the grain.
The Babylonians marched them away into exile. They were to be resettled on the banks of the Euphrates. They would never see their city again.
But they were not completely destitute. They still had something of their old lives—that handful of grain.
The farmer scratched a ditch in the mud. He opened his little sack and took out his handful of grain. Kernel; by kernel, he laid it carefully along the furrow, and covered it up with earth. Then he waited…
First the shoot appeared—then the stalk, then the tassel. New grain grew from the old. In the fall, they harvested the new grain. For the first season, they ate sparingly, putting most of the grain in storage for the next season. In the spring they planted again. Year by year, little by little, the garden grew into a farm. The single handful of preserved grain spread over many acres.
Seasons rolled by. The farmer grew old and died, but his son took over and managed it the way his father had taught him. When his son grew old, his children carried on. Seventy years—a whole generation—passed in the land of Babylon.
The family was successful in exile, but never happy. They wanted more than anything to plant in their own soil and to raise children in their own country. Every year, they said the same thing “Next year in Jerusalem.”
Then the word came down from the government that they could return to their homes. They lost no time in deciding to go. They celebrated just as this singer tells us—their mouths were full of singing and their houses with laughter.
Before they left, they harvested the grain. They put some into a small sack for seed. Then they left for Israel, bringing their sheaves with them.
The return journey took months. Finally, though, the family stood on the ground their grandparents left.
The first thing they did was to carefully plant the grain—the offspring of the very grain they carried into exile.
The grain had returned home.

The story that frames this psalm is the return of the exiles—how they reentered the land, sowed the seed, and harvested their crops. It is the story of how the people of Israel preserved their most precious traditions—their faith, their family, their God. They returned with their identity and principles intact. No wonder they sang it again every time they traveled from their homes to Jerusalem.
We enjoy the benefits of faith, but are we continuing to pass it on to the future? Faith must be planted in new soil every season. If we do not plant anew, our faith will disappear.
The world is changing. The old ways are dying. New generations are fleeing the parochial community of the past and becoming citizens of a much more complex global world. In this interaction with different cultures and traditions, Christians are in danger of losing their distinctiveness. Christians find themselves in a world they do not recognize, cut off from their roots by time and change. The world we knew will never return again. Instead, we are entering a world of diversity, where Christianity is one of many voices in a cacophony of competing cultures.
We should not worry about this. Christianity is ready for it. We were born for such a time. Old Testament Judaism was in constant competition with the religions of surrounding nations. The early church thrived in such a culture. Christianity was born in Galilee—the “circle of the Gentiles”—a melting pot of Jewish, Eastern, and Greco-Roman culture. Our journey is not that different from the one our ancestors made.
by the time we reach the middle years, we no longer look to our elders as leaders. We discover that we are the leaders. So it is important that we know what to abandon and what to preserve.
Much of what we think of as “traditional” Christianity is not traditional at all. Our music, our church sanctuaries, our liturgy, even robes and pulpits are not as ancient as we think they are. “Traditional” Christian churches maintain the outer trappings of a tradition, but may neglect the essence. Organs and choirs, and pulpit robes are not necessary expressions of our faith. We can abandon all the trappings of the past, so long as we preserve devotion to His Word and devotion to His Spirit. This is our handful of grain. As long as we stay true to Him, we need not fear assimilation into the world.
To preserve this grain, we need to plant it. Our generation has to plant that old faith in new soil. We may believe in a two thousand year old faith, but our ancient faith means nothing if it is not planted in contemporary soil.
The world is changing. We may enjoy prosperous times now, but lean times will come. When they come, our children—spiritual and physical—will continue our faith into the future. God will preserve them as He has preserved us. But there is one condition. We have to preserve the purity of our faith; so that one day we can return and rejoice, bringing our sheaves with us.