Does God Care About Creation?
Some thoughts from a Christian about the environment and our response to it
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What are you doing for the environment? It is a question that is at once easy and difficult to answer. We recycle. (Of course we do, we aren’t demons.) We don’t run the heat very high in the winter or the AC very high in the summer - though, to be honest, there are other factors at play there. I just traded my gas mower in for an electric model. I don’t dump old motor oil down the storm drain. Ummm … I’m sure there are other things. But what is the impact? I’m not sure. I am persuaded that a lot of activity comes from a desire to do something - even if the effect is not large. How much is this due to me wanting to classify myself as someone who is taking care of the environment? I’m not completely sure, and I may not be objective - but, probably at least a little. (I think that is where a lot of our collective activity comes from … less about the effect on the world, more about how I think of myself … but that is probably another article.)
Just Stop Oil activists affixed themselves to Vincent van Gogh’s Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) at the Courtauld Institute in London on June 30th, 2022. “Our initial assessment is that the painting is undamaged. The frame will require treatment to remove glue residue before the work can be returned to display,” a Courtauld representative wrote in an email.
Other people take more extreme actions in support of the environment. The exerpt above is from an article from last year listing 12 instances of climate activists gluing themselves to classic and irreplaceable works of art to garner attention for the environmental cause. What kind of attention is open to some interpretation. I would have liked to have been a silent witness to the brainstorming session that led to this strategy. It is a strategy, like stopping traffic on a bridge, that seems designed to outrage … if you can’t manufacture outrage for your cause, you can manufacture outrage at you. I guess. The question of the real world impact of these actions vs. the self-classification of the protesters arises. That isn’t for me to determine, except to wonder what the (positive) real world impact of such protests might be.
But what is an appropriate response from me to the issue of climate change? Specifically, as a Christian, what is an appropriate response … what is a Christian response to climate change? Far be it from me to present myself as the last word (or first word) on this subject, but I do have some thoughts on how to address that question. As a Christian, I think the Bible should have something to say (to me) about my answer to this question. If the Bible is God’s Word, you could reframe the question as - what does faithfulness to God and His Word have to do with my thoughts, words, and actions with respect to the environment? Or, does God care about the state of His creation and does He want me to respond in a certain way? Whatever the answer to that question is, please notice that it doesn’t have a lot to do with politics.
The earth is the Lords’ and everything in it.
Psalm 24:1
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
That humans are to tend to creation, to ‘take care of it’, is pretty clear, biblically. There are passages, like the above, that speak directly to this truth and there are passages that describe our responsibility to steward or manage all that God has entrusted to us - wealth, time, talents, attention … and the planet He gave us to live on. American Christians are divided on what to do with this instruction - both how to carry it out and how to prioritize it amidst all the other possible ways to act redemptively in our world, even for those who are intent on acting redemptively in all ways environmental.
Evangelical Christians have frequently listed environmental concerns lower down their list of concerns than most other demographic groups. How Religion Intersects With Americans’ Views on the Environment, from PEW Research, reinforces that view, although the data is a bit more nuanced than often reported. According to this study, 62% of American Evangelicals think that global climate change is either an extremely or somewhat serious problem. While this is about 16% less than Mainline Christians and 17% less than Catholics, it is a higher number than the narrative (“Evangelical Christians don’t care about the environment”), might lead you to believe. How people of high religious commitment view the relationship between their faith and their view of the earth - the earth we folks of high religious commitment believe God created (by whatever means). When given the statement that “God gave humans a duty to protect and care for the Earth”, 92% of such people say they completely or mostly agree. Those familiar with the Bible should not find it surprising that those most familiar with and committed to the Bible (you don’t have to look further than the verses referenced in this article) believe that we have a duty to protect and care for the earth. But many people do find that surprising. Because of how this duty is seen to intersect (or not) with political approaches for the care of the earth.
The PEW study authors identify politics as the reason highly religious people seem less concerned about climate change.
The main driver of U.S. public opinion about the climate is political party, not religion. Highly religious Americans are more inclined than others to identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and Republicans tend to be much less likely than Democrats to believe that human activity (such as burning fossil fuels) is warming the Earth or to consider climate change a serious problem.
Pew Research Center - How Religion Intersects With Americans’ Views on the Environment
From one perspective, this seems undeniable, but at a deeper level, I’m not so sure that is how the causation works. Many Evangelicals are skeptical about claims made by the government or academia when those claims line up with a political agenda they view as harmful. Some of these Evangelicals (I have heard them - under deep cover), believe that many of the political claims from environmentalists are more political than environmental. While they may acknowledge the reality of a duty to care for the environment, they do not think the standard political responses are ones they want to align with or prioritize.
A key reason why many Evangelicals oppose such political solutions is the people who support such political solutions. You should expect better from us highly religious folks, but we are not alone in that rationale for supporting or opposing this or that. And so I don’t know that Evangelicals are skeptical of environmental policies because they are Republicans, I find it much more likely that Republicans profess more and more skepticism for environmental policies because that is what the Evangelicals are doing. We live in a populist age - the mob leads the so-called leaders. All the mobs, not just this one.
Let’s return to the original question, slightly restated - “What is a Christian approach to care for the environment?” For those who are not Christian or aren't into the Bible, please forgive my foray into it here - it is the primary way for me to give a Christian answer to anything. From the verses above we have seen that the earth belongs to God and we are to both work the ground and to take care of it. Both of these things, we may note, are to be done before sin and the fall enter into the picture - in a pristine creation, we are both to work the ground and care for it. But, sin and the fall do enter the picture. As I have said before (a number of times) we are in the redemption phase of this big story we are in. And so we are to participate in the redemption of all things - though only God can bring such redemption in the fullness of time, we are still called to this movement. We are called to the redemption of disease, poverty, anxiety, fear, conflict, people … and of all things, including creation. The apostle Paul reflects on this brokenness, this suffering, and this redemption - both present and future -
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:18-25
Creation itself - groaning as in the pains of childbirth, subjected to frustration - will be liberated, brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. This is a passage about our redemption, using the groaning of the earth (2,000 years ago) as an illustration for our redemption. But it illustrates both the promise and the expectation of redemption - as it relates to the environment and everything else.
We are to participate in the care of the earth as we are to participate in the redemption of all things. Our politics may be an attempt to address this duty, but the duty is primary, and the politics must only be instrumental. However right or wrong we may be about them. But we highly religious folks must evaluate the wisdom and efficacy of political proposals - about the environment, or anything else - through the lens of our duty, mission, and calling as we see it in scripture. And not through the lens of what they think or what we think about politics and culture. I state the obvious. But sometimes that is necessary.
So what, actually, practically, should you do in response to your duty to care for the environment? I am not really sure which political proposals are part of the answer, but we are accountable to Him for the solutions we find together. I doubt that a scorched earth policy (pun intended) toward our political opponents helps us toward fulfilling this duty.
Links
Here’s Every Artwork That Climate Activists Have Glued Themselves To - ARTnews
How Religion Intersects With Americans’ Views on the Environment - Pew Research
