The USA’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord on Climate Change has ramped up the doomspeak on all sides of the issue. Some say we’re doomed if we don’t take action; others say we’re doomed if we do. How about some encouragement?
By way of background, in 2001, I received an award for Environmental Journalism from The Skies Above Foundation, recognizing a ten-year period of giving the environmental movement mainstream media coverage, even when it was still considered a “fringe element.”
Around the time it was presented, I became a Christian, and in reading my Bible, I found encouragement rather than doomspeak. Maybe you will, too.
Knowing that humanity would always face frightening times, Jesus Christ said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled ... nation will rise against nation ... And there will be famines, and pestilences and earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24:6-7 NKJV)
Doesn’t that sound like today’s situation? Terrorism is a “rumor of war,” and are not famine and pestilence often attributed to climate change? But Jesus says, “Don’t worry.”
The Book of Genesis tells us God assigned humans to “Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it.” But instead of “replenishing the earth” we have tended to take from it unsustainably; the selfishness involved is one way that the Bible defines sin.
I found that encouraging. I had turned to Jesus Christ because things I had done through selfishness had hurt others and I was incapable of breaking out of that vicious circle myself.
What if we looked at the environment in the same way? For all the time, emotion and money spent over the past decades, the situation keeps getting worse. Couldn’t we also repent of “sin” against the environment and get the same “restart”?
I believe environmental responsibility is an integral part of my personal relationship with God, even if there appear to be contradictions. For example, I used to live close to my job in Vancouver so I could get along without a car. That would be a good environmentalist choice, but I found I needed a car to help people who couldn’t drive, take supplies to Gospel Mission or visit people in hospital or jail.
Are we responsible to “Mother Earth” or future generations, or to the Lord? Jesus says the “greatest Commandment” is to love God, love others, putting our own interests at the bottom of the pile, eschewing the selfishness that put us where we are. With that attitude, we individuals do what needs to be done, without relying on governments to lead.
The Bible even has instructions regarding the environment that apply today. There’s the Land Sabbath, where we’re not to do anything with the land for a full year out of every seven. Hasn’t our over-use of the land led to famines and other miseries? The Bible promises that if we observe that sabbath, the land will produce enough for all.
We have contributed to the current environmental mess; but as with any self-made mess, we cannot fix it ourselves. The Bible contains guarantees that turning to the Lord will bring results, for example:
“When I shut up Heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people; if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face ... then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Now that’s what I call a “convenient” truth.
Drew Snider is a writer, pastor and former broadcaster. He spent a decade ministering at Gospel Mission on Vancouver's Downtown East Side and has been a guest preacher at churches including Westshore Alliance in Langford, Westpointe in Vancouver, The Oasis in Duncan and Port McNeill Full Gospel.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog Spiritually Speaking HERE.
This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday July 8, 2017.
