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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.
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