The Nature of Environmental Stewardship

Understanding Creation Care Solutions to Environmental Problems

Lin

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498273954
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Environmental issues appear deceptively simple: science tells us what the problems are and how to solve them, and, for Christians, the Bible motivates us to care for creation. And yet, both in society in general as well as in the Christian church in particular, we cannot seem to agree on what to do regarding environmental issues. In this book, climate scientist Johnny Wei-Bing Lin argues that determining the content of environmental stewardship, far from being a straightforward exercise, is a difficult and complex endeavor. He sets forth a general taxonomy, drawing from worldviews, ethical theories, science epistemology, science-policy studies, politics, and economics, that can help us better understand what excellent creation care consists of and how to bridge the differences people have regarding environmental issues.

1

Introduction

A Parable

At the beginning of each chapter, we introduce each topic with the fictional story of a pastor, his church, and their engagement with the topic of creation care.1 Stories convey ideas in ways direct argument or didactic writing cannot. Hopefully, our visits with Pastor Gabriel Lang and friends will give us additional grist for the mill as we consider the nature of environmental stewardship.

What’s that saying, again, Pastor Gabriel Lang thought to himself, about where roads lead that are paved with good intentions? When he decided to preach a few months ago on what the Bible had to say about creation care, he had thought it would be a way of helping his congregation wrestle with how to apply the Bible to their everyday lives regarding an issue of contemporary significance. What he didn’t expect was the beehive of activity it would set off. To be sure, some of this activity was exactly what he had hoped for. People were engaging with one another, Scripture, and God in prayer and thinking about ways they could put their convictions into action. But in the mix, you would periodically hear mutterings of discord: remarks here about “those greedy businesses” or there about “those long-haired tree-huggers.” Nothing usually came out of those sotto voce comments, but even worse, when a discussion actually did occur, Gabriel would see the two proverbial ships passing in the night. Instead of talking to one another, people seemed to talk past each other. It gave Gabriel a bad feeling; they reminded him of the minor earthquakes that come prior to the eruption of a volcano.

Which finally happened. It had started with Arnold Banks’s suggestion at the monthly meeting of the church’s creation care committee that the church leadership, on behalf of the church, sign a petition being circulated around town asking the Town Council to turn down the request of Acme Industries for a permit to expand its factory. “This expansion,” Arnold explained, “would destroy the Franklin marshes, one of the last wetland areas that has remained unchanged since the pioneer days when the town was first settled.” Clearly, Arnold continued, obedience to God’s creation care command demanded the church align itself with the right side on this issue.

“But, Arnold,” replied Ralph Lee, “that expansion will provide hundreds of jobs, and Acme has already set aside funds to purchase and restore a separate parcel of former wetland, nearly twice the size of the Franklin marshes. The environmental impact studies show that the ecological worth of the restored wetland area is much higher and will even provide increased flood protection for area businesses; their flood insurance rates may even decrease.”

Ramona Anderson rolled her eyes. “Why is it always about money with you business owners, Ralph? Haven’t you been listening to Pastor Gabriel’s sermons? God cares about His creation, regardless of whether it makes us rich or not.”

Ralph glared. “Ramona,” he began, “yes, I have been listening to Pastor Gabriel.” He paused. “I also want to take care of creation. But the problem with you tree-huggers is that business is always wrong and people are the cause of all our problems. Frankly,” and here his brows furrowed, “I sometimes feel like you tree-huggers would be happier if human beings didn’t exist at all.”

The room grew quiet. People looked at their feet, shuffled papers, or checked their smartphones. Lourdes Garcia broke the silence. Like her geographical namesake, Lourdes had a heart for healing, and it didn’t matter whether it was the healing of broken bones at her medical practice or the healing of frazzled relationships. “Ralph,” she said, “I don’t think Ramona meant that people have no legitimate needs, and Ramona, . . .”

“Lourdes,” Ramona cut her off, “don’t bother. It’s high time people showed their true colors. The preponderance of the science is clear, that we are hurting the environment, so the real question is: are we going to obey God or not? That’s what it comes down to. And I’m sick and tired of people pretending they’re following God’s commands to be green when they’re really following mammon . . . .”

Ralph Lee pushed his chair from the table and walked out of the room. The people who remained heard his car door shut, engine start, and his car drive away. Everyone looked at Gabriel, but he didn’t know what to say. Finally, he broke the silence: “Maybe we all need a little time to get our bearings. I’ll email everyone to find a time for another meeting.” People nodded and politely left. Gabriel locked up the building and started turning off the remaining lights. As he reached the last switch, his eyes glanced at the “Save energy, save God’s world” sticker next to the switch. I guess we’ll have to add some relationships to the list of things that need saving, he ruefully thought, as he turned out the last light.

Why this Book?

Over the last several decades, the global environmental movement has grown in ways few could have imagined just a century ago. People from all kinds of backgrounds—different ethnicities, religious beliefs, socioeconomic classes, etc.—have begun to wrestle deeply with environmental issues. In parallel, a movement has grown within the evangelical church that seeks to renew her calling to live as a steward of creation. Theologians, philosophers, scientists, and other Christian leaders have faithfully reminded us of the Scriptural foundation for such a mandate and have prophetically exhorted us to consider ways we might live differently, both personally and as a society, in order to better fulfill this mandate. In response, whether in the form of policy declarations, lobbying efforts, youth rallies, Bible studies, or churches and individuals carefully and consciously changing their lifestyles to support environmentally-friendlier options, Christians from all walks of life, all political stripes, and all throughout the nation have begun a grass-roots movement to obey God’s call to us as stewards of creation. Yet for all the clear and compelling work that has been done regarding the importance of creation care to God and His church, comparatively little work has been done regarding how to translate those commands into obedience.

For many in the church, the idea of a difference between the two—that an understanding that God commands human stewardship of creation does not automatically tell us how we are to obey that command—seems exceedingly strange. After all, when confronted by a command in Scripture, we should not respond, “Let me think more about what obedience means,” but, “Let’s do it!” When God commands us not to steal, we do not reply, “How do I go about obeying this command?” We just stop stealing. And given the clarity of Scripture regarding our responsibility as stewards, as well as the lessons from science regarding environmental problems and solutions, the idea of needing to translate command into obedience seems more than odd: it seems evasive. Why do we need more clarity in order to properly obey the environmental stewardship command?

Consider the following thought experiment.2 Pretend there are two Earths, identical to each other except in the following way:

1. In the first Earth, which we will call the “Fossil Fuel” world, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are projected to result in a 2.8 degrees Celsius increase in global mean temperature by 2100, with attendant effects on climate, extreme weather, ice sheet melting, species population impacts, etc.

2. In the second Earth, which we will call the “Solar Variability” world, changes in solar luminosity are projected to result in a 2.8 degrees Celsius increase in global mean temperature by 2100, with attendant effects on climate, extreme weather, ice sheet melting, species population impacts, etc.—the same effects as in the “Fossil Fuel” world.

In both worlds, the certainty of the science describing the mechanisms involved are the same. Assuming a Scriptural creation care mandate, what should be our response in each of the two worlds? Are our responses the same or different between the two? Why or why not?

One possible response is that our actions in the “Fossil Fuel” and the “Solar Variability” worlds should be different: In the “Fossil Fuel” world, because the problem is due to human activity, we should act by stopping the emission of greenhouse gases to prevent the warming, but in the “Solar Variability” world, we should not (or cannot), do anything because the problem is natural. But why should the nature of the cause of the problem (human or natural) make a difference in our response? In both worlds, regardless of the cause of the warming, the same warming, with the exact same consequences to both human and non-human creation, will occur. If the translation of stewardship commands into obedience is straightforward, then does not “care” for the environment demand responses in both cases to prevent the effects of global warming?

Of course, other responses are possible; the point here is not which response is correct. Rather, the point is this: If we conclude in the “Fossil Fuel” world the correct response is to do something, while in the “Solar Variability” world the correct response is to do nothing, we have translated the biblical commands into obedience not directly, but rather through a number of mediating assumptions about the meaning of creation care. For instance, we may have decided that the goal of creation care is to keep the Earth “natural” (where we have defined this as meaning “unaffected by people”), and thus mitigating actions in the “Solar Variability” world are wrong, while the opposite is true in the “Fossil Fuel” world. The same is true if we believe we should act in both the “Fossil Fuel” and “Solar Variability” worlds: We also have not directly translated biblical commands into obedience. Rather, we have used a number of mediating assumptions about the meaning of creation care. Examining the question of how to translate biblical commands into obedience, with respect to creation care, requires more than getting our theology right.

If it takes more than faithful exegesis in order to determine how we are to obey God as stewards of creation, we might expect different groups of evangelical environmentalists, while agreeing on the imperative of creation care, to advocate very different prescriptions for that care. In fact, we see just such a dynamic in current evangelical approaches towards creation care, with various Christian environmental organizations emphasizing different practices of creation care: some emphasize the importance of living a life of simplicity, others focus on worship, others on social justice, while still others focus on the connection with mission work.

These differences, however, can encompass more than emphasis in a response. Consider two of the major evangelical declarations regarding creation care:3 On the Care of Creat...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: If You Could See What I See
• Chapter 3: The Bible Says It
• Chapter 4: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• Chapter 5: Science to the Rescue?
• Chapter 6: Left, Right, and Center (or Not)
• Chapter 7: Not Just Hearers But Doers
• Chapter 8: It Isn’t Easy Being Green
• Glossary
• Bibliography