Recycled Post

I was looking at some posts I had made in the past on another site, and thought that I would put one of them here. The date of original posting is July '06

A Christian Environmentalist is Not an Oxymoron

I was looking at the most recent edition of The National Geographic Magazine, and I came across an article that caught my eye. The title was "Land on the Edge" about the nation's coasts and humanity's impact on them. It featured a number of different stories about people who were making a positive impact (large or small) on the environment where they live.

One person that stood out was a man named Harry Richard "Skip" Frye. Skip is a 64 yr. old surfer in San Diego who, when most people are out surfing, will take the time to pick up garbage that has been left on the beach. What made him stand out most in my mind was an interesting statement he made regarding people's role regarding the environment. He said, "In Genesis, God lays it out. We're in charge of Earth, but we have a responsibility to take care of it."

That statement got me thinking. There are many Christians who think that taking care of the environment is unimportant because God will eventually destroy the earth, so why should we spend time taking care of it when it's all gonna burn anyway. And besides, so the logic goes, shouldn't we be spending our time dealing with people who have a heaven to gain and a hell to shun? In addition, many Christians often do not want to get involved with environmental issues because of the motives of those who are involved, namely those who think that we need to preserve the earth because it's all we got or are ever going to have. I believe that our thoughts should come somewhere in the middle.

Think of it this way. This earth is a house, and God is the owner. We are merely housesitting until He comes back to claim it. Because God is the owner, He can do with it what He wants. However, out of love for Him, we should do our best to preserve His property. What about the other people? They are also living in this house called Earth, and we should put most of our effort into helping them. We would severely criticize the man who puts more energy into remodeling his house than in caring for his family, but at the same time, how can a family truly be taken care of if their house is in disrepair?

There are other thoughts that are related to this, but I'll save them for later. However, I hope this post got you thinking, and I am curious to know what you have to say on this issue.