10 Myths and Facts about Christianity and the Environment: a new project

As part of my work towards a class I'm teaching in September, (entitled Theology, Ecology, and Earth-keeping), I am now working to develop a lecture entitled:
"10 myths and facts about Christians and the Environment".

I have conducted an informal survey to try and find the 10 most common responses given by Christians when discussing the environment. (Thanks to the 30 or so of you who responded, and if any didn't yet or want to take part, please email me.) This includes the too oft-quoted theological brilliance of, 'Why should we care if its all gonna burn?'

In reading the responses I have become ever more convinced that this is a very serious discussion that needs to take place. Many important questions have been raised through these responses which probe the meaning of living faithfully in our world today. Take, for example, one respondent - 'doesn't Paul say to seek the things which are from above and not the things of this world?' (hence, things like 'environment' are not what we should be thinking about) - and yet the fact remains that many of these reactions reflect what I think can be legitimately called a 'half-baked' theology. (Yes, of course Paul says to 'seek the things from above' but he surely doesn't mean we should neglect washing our clothes, cooking supper, or loving our spouses! Much less does he mean we should stop caring about the health of our communities and ecosystems, or things like clean air and water!) To put it sharply, conversations like these, (which I find as vital as often frustrating), reflect a theological laziness and biblical illiteracy which plagues our churches and exposes the cultural captivity of the Gospel in our time.

I believe Peter Harris, founder of A'Rocha, is right when he recently wrote,

"So even though the core beliefs of the Christian faith and the texts that inform them are before our eyes, we simply haven't appropriated them in a way that does them justice. Either we don't think they are important, or the authentic Gospel lays such a sharp axe to the root of the cultural trees which shelter and sustain us that we cannot easily open our lives to its challenge." From(Kingfisher's Fire (Oxford: Monarch Books, 2008), 101.

Just take another response, which I have heard countless times, 'If we did live in a more earth-friendly manner we’d have to all become Amish, (and I don't want to give up the advances in health and technology which we now enjoy).' Another way this is often expressed is something like, 'It's not like we can all move back to the farm' or 'Do you just expect that people can be so concerned about nature to stop making money', etc. Now, I respect the complexity of these issues, (I don't suggest that we all a priori become Amish, move back to the Farm, or give up our jobs), but I think these sorts of responses are dangerous and deceptive in the way they defend the status quo as the best and normal way of life. I think we should be very nervous about implicitly accepting our current way of life as the norm, and aware of the dangers of blindly living this without allowing Scripture to call it into question.

Furthermore, I think it is essential that we see our own cultural moment as one of great danger for those who seek to witness to the Gospel. The totalitarian regime of Walmart, MTV, and Burger King (Have it your way) have so co-opted our minds and imaginations that we have trouble living into something different. The cultural logic of late capitalism which provides an ever-shifting stream of desires and impulses for 'More-Bigger-Better' proves insatiable and yet oddly addictive. These principalities and powers are at work in our world in a way that is far more deceptive and seductive than ever before, and the really scary part is the way that many of our contemporary churches blindly participate. Like a fish in water, we have been so formed by the dominant ideologies of our time as to be blind to their destructive effects and blind to the Gospel call for metanoia (meaning repentance, changing/re-forming one's mind, going a different way).

It is on this note that I'd like to begin this series. For faithful response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is at the heart of my concerns. This is no call to join Greenpeace or the environmental movement. In fact, I aim to avoid as much as possible the language of 'environment' and 'nature' but prefer rather to speak of 'Creation'. For it is Creation which beckons us back to its Creator. Living faithfully as creatures who are made in the image of God is that which most drives this discussion and the theological and exegetical work which guides it.

I invite comments, questions, and responses to each 'myth and fact' as they are so mentioned and look forward to fruitful engagement!