Gardening Eden :: why the church should care about environmentalism

Growing up, there’s one thing I remember most about working with my dad during the summers. No matter what — the radio would be on and we’d work listening to Paul Harvey and the man behind the golden EIB microphone — Rush Limbaugh.

As I look back now, I’m not sure if it was hearing Rush day after day, or just being around the people we connected with, but by the time I read Rush’s first two books – I was sold on the idea that it truly a battle between us and them. Good vs. Evil. Honest conservatives against the lying, tree-hugging, liberals.

Listen to Rush each day and then throw in a couple hours of Bob Larson each day and you’ve got yourself one hell of an education about the world’s evil doers.

Now I’m not trying to down anyone for listening to Rush or Larson, I know plenty of fine folks who do, but over the years I’ve come to see that they no longer subscribe to my personal beliefs. And I can pretty much guarantee that it’s not that they’ve changed one bit – but I can definitely say that I have.

Ten years ago I might have picked up a book about environmentalism. I might have even tried reading some of it. Fifteen years ago I would have scoffed and pointed out all I knew about why environmentalist wackos were — well wackos.

I would have quoted the latest anti-environmentalism stats from Rush and information on the imaginary hole in the ozone and then gone on to talk about how the earth goes through cycles on it’s own and man has nothing to do with it. I would have talked about how environmentalism is really a front for New Age earth lovers and how it can lead to Wiccan practices and evil tree worshiping.

But, today I’m getting over certainty.

Over the last several years I’ve personally become much more interested in environmentalism and creation care/stewardship. I’ve come to realize that regardless of whether or not the planet’s getting warmer, whether or not man’s completely to blame or not (even though I’m believing more and more that we are) – we as followers of The Way and people of faith have an obligation to care for creation.

Reading Michael Abbaté’s book Gardening Eden shares just that. And he does a great job of making that point through more than just scare tactics and simply pointing fingers and casting blame.

For the last century, religious institutions have missed — or ignored — our responsibility as stewards of creation and to the Creator… We instinctively understand that we are designed to be gentle gardeners. We just haven’t realized that the entire planet is our garden.

And while we may not agree on global warming, or the cause of it, Abbaté challenges the reader to set that argument aside and focus on more general, personally relevant questions:

• Do I have a responsibility to protect the planet?
• Are some of my current actions having a detrimental effect on the environment?
• Should I make changes to better steward the resources we’ve been given?

In reading the book, I love that (unintentional or not) Abbaté adds to an idea that Rob Bell writes about in Sex God – that how we treat the creation shows just how we feel about the creator. As Bell suggests, when Jesus speaks of loving our neighbor, it isn’t just for our neighbor’s sake. If we don’t love our neighbor, something happens to us. I think the same can be said of all creation. If we don’t love nature and all of God’s creation it changes us. We become hyper-consumerists, thinking the world and creation as our own to do with as we please.

And as Abbaté points out, sadly, its often conservative Christians who are the strongest against caring for the environment.

People of faith claim to know the Artist but lack any compunction for protecting the artwork.

And from the comments elsewhere on this site:

I have always been confused as to why Christ-followers think we have little to no responsibility to care for creation! I would hope a book like this would help bridge the confusion gap for many!

I think that Christians have typically maintained a mental separation between “heaven” and “earth”. While there is certainly validity to maintaining a higher focus on heaven and “God stuff”, here on earth is still God’s creation placed here for us. We have a responsibility to take care of everything God has given us (physical or otherwise).

Many have decided that creation care doesn’t really matter since many believe that God will come back and destroy the planet at some point anyways.

We’ve taken Gen 1:28 to suggest that our “dominion” over the earth means we can do whatever we please, when in reality “the verse does more to suggest authority with the attendees responsibility.” In other words, as a parent you may have “dominion” over your children, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to treat them however you see fit, or ignore them whenever you’d like. You have a responsibility for caring for them.

So whatever side of the environmental/tree-hugging/global warming issue you find yourself on, I believe Abbaté makes a strong point that as people of faith, we should be on the side of God and caring for the things he’s created and cares for.

Check out the book for yourself and then share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

– Malt­bie D. Bab­cock

Author Bio:
A nationally recognized expert in “green” development strategies, Mike Abbaté is a founder of GreenWorks, an award-winning landscape architecture design firm. He frequently speaks to students and leaders about practical ways to minimize the impact of building and landscape design on natural resources. Abbaté’s work has been featured in national magazines such as Metropolis and Landscape Architecture and in many local newspapers and trade publications. He and his wife, Vicki, have two adult daughters and live near Portland, Oregon.

BTW – there’s still a few more hours left in the contest to win a copy of the book. Click here to find out more.