Logan Smith 28 November 2012 GEOL 340: Global Natural Resources & Environmental Issues Christian Environmentalism Dr.

J. Matthew Sleeth begins his book, Serve God, Save the Planet, with a story about a nun who gave a begging woman some money. The act was humble and went unrecognized, but the nun saw a need and met it. That, he says is the central theme of the book. The earth is the only vessel available to carry humans through the ocean of space, and it is rapidly becoming unseaworthy, he says. The book is intended to help people recognize that they might need a course correction, and help people make the required change in thought process that leads to changing their lifestyles. Just as he was not moved to action until he was a believer in Christ, he believes God calls us to be responsible stewards of the place He has given us to live. Sally, a woman with cancer, who Dr. Sleeth attended to, died when her cancer reached her brain. He tells her story as an example of the increasing number of people who are being diagnosed with cancer. Approximately twenty million Americans, or 1 out of 15 people, will be diagnosed with cancer over the next ten years. And the most dramatic increase of cancer occurs in children and young people, who are more susceptible to toxins. This, along with an increase in the occurrence of cancer in pets, is a sure sign that something is badly wrong. We are focused on the cure, but should also look for the cause: could Sallys death have been prevented? Prevention, Sleeth says, begins with dozens of changes we can make to help increase the quality of our life. If we focus on being a part of the solution instead of worrying about the problem, we help make a difference instead of feel and prevent the problem from becoming overwhelming.

There are several common arguments people give when asked about stewardship of the earth. Some say that God gave us dominion over the whole earth. However, the Hebrew word used for dominion means higher on the root of a plant; it implies that we are still dependent on the root below us, not that we can use and abuse it. God gave his blessing to all creatures on the earth, and we must honor it. A few other responses are given, but it all boils down to this: we must make Gods concerns our concerns. We should see the end times as a reminder to do good works while we have time, see wealth as something to give away, know that everything on the earth has meaning to God, and leave the planet in a good condition for future generations. Like cancer, Dr. Sleeth thinks depression is also a warning sign of our cultures unhealthy course. Lack interest in, or fear of, the future, is a sign of depression, and he has seen exactly that from many patients he has attended. God is the one who can heal us. We are God-made, and the anxiety about the future we experience may be Him telling us we need to check our heading. Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach us to love our neighbors. In this day and age, anyone on the earth can be considered our neighbor. We must learn from the spirit of this parable, as Jesus intended, and not the letter. If we care about the world and the people in it, it should have an effect on our lifestyle. This is the transition from faith to work. For example, changing the five most used light bulbs in a house to compact fluorescent light bulbs, it would have the same effect on air pollution as taking eight million cars off the road. We tend to think pollution is not our problem and we are not contributing significantly to it. But there are actual works we can do to have an impact. The parable shows three degrees of action; we can choose to be ignorant, we can acknowledge the problem but not act, or we can see a need and do something

about it. As we act, we must remember our past mistakes and never be satisfied with our current level. By world standards, most Americans are rich. If you have a home, food, clothing, electronics, you are in the top twenty percent globally. The problem with being rich is that we usually want more. It sends us down a slippery slope, from which it is hard to recover. Like in the childrens song, we end up swallowing a horse to deal with what was originally only a fly. Jesus plainly said that material possessions should not be our goal; instead, we should aim for spiritual treasures. We buy things that we dont need. Dr. Sleeth encourages to get rid of things you dont use. People who have a lot of stuff are more easily bored. Things can clutter up your home, making it harder to find things you already own, prompting you to buy a replacement for the lost item. The criteria for buying something should always be, Will this bring me closer to God? Christians are called to be responsible for their actions, which includes making wise decisions about what possessions they choose to own. Dr. Sleeth defines work as an activity that accomplishes something real, something positive, and stresses our muscles. He also believes this work Is becoming scarce, as we become increasingly dependent on labor saving devices. But there are ill effects of not participating in work. Patients in psychiatric institutions find meaning in the small chores they were required to do. Then that was made illegal, and many lost meaning in their lives. We should give up labor saving devices that require resources when the work could easily done by hand, often with benefit to our own health. Dr. Sleeth uses the examples of hanging clothes on a line to dry and using a manual lawn mower. But work requires rest, and that is why God gave us the Sabbath. To truly enjoy it, though, you need to set aside legalistic definitions of work like the Hebrews had;

otherwise, you miss the point. Resting one day a week not only lets your body reclaim energy, but you are using less natural resource energy by intentionally spending a day without much activity. It also allows time for reflection on God and prayer. Television can be a handy tool for parents by keeping children occupied while the parents take care of other business. But parents are making a tradeoff. They get a little bit of freedom now, but the effect the television has on the children will be much longer lasting. it can cause problems later in life, such as obesity, promiscuity, learning disorders, and problems with attention span. Television is geared towards selling products, and as mentioned before, we need to limit our material possessions. Therefore, an advertisement telling us we wont be happy unless we have a certain product are adverse to this goal. Dr. Sleeth mentions that whenever he is in an establishment such as a restaurant or waiting room where a television is on, he turns it off. No one has ever objected, and the atmosphere usually livens up. Children are a good example of stewardship. We raise them until they are fit to fend for themselves, and then allow them to move on. This is how all stewardship should operate: we take a gift, lend it some care and attention, and give it away. Therefore parenting is of the utmost importance. Children need to be raised to always look to the life of Jesus as an example, with humility especially in mind. Jesus, a prince, was laid in a manger in a barn; if he can be born so humbly, we must also desire for our children to be raised the same way: as servants of God. We must teach them to carefully set their priorities, such as how much importance is to be placed in sports relative to church activities. When we sit down for a meal, we have choices. We can eat until we are full, or eat enough to be nourished. Christianity doesnt state any specific rules about what we

should eat, but it does have moral guidelines which should direct our choices. If there is a shortage of food, we should take only our fair share. If it is harmful to us, or if its production causes harm to other people or the environment, we should not eat it. Any eating habit that is selfish or detracts from a healthy relationship with God is sinful, according to Dr. Sleeth. He visited a chicken farm, where the animals were kept in a pen with several thousand other chickens. Such industrial farms, he says, are surely sits unwell with God, who designed animals to live in natural conditions. Certain eating habits can help benefit the environment. Dropping meat from several meals requires less to be produced at industrial farms such as the one he visited. Growing a garden cuts down on produce that must be transported long distances. Composting waste prevents filling up landfills. In addition to environmental benefits, gardens started by churches can be used as community outreach programs and serve as places to relax and pray. Dr. Sleeth tells the story of a farmer whose hand he operated on, and then visited his farm. The farmer owned two draft horses. With these two horses, he did most of the work on his farm: plowing, cultivating, towing, harvesting, and moving snow. He uses this story to relate to the horsepower of modern vehicles: an SUV and a school bus have engines with the same amount of horsepower. However, the SUV likely sits only 7, while the school bus can carry ninety passengers. We use fossil fuels for 70% of our electricity production. Only 1% comes from alternative energy. There are many steps we can take to save energy, which is always better than trying to create it. Small things will add up in the end. The human condition is fatal. We are all going to die. Even Jesus says that to have abundant life, we must stop clinging to it. We are unhealthily obsessed with health, to the point where we will kill ourselves trying to get better. We will spend the

most on medical expenses in the last 12 months of our lives. A Mexican woman spends far less on health care, yet lives only 3 less years than the average American woman. Clinging to life in this way puts a strain on our family and relationships, when instead we could be making peace where it is needed. People who are scared of death are not right with God. Death is not the enemy; pain and suffering are. So have confidence in the future and let go when it is time. Every two days, 500,000 people are added to the population. Increased longevity of life from modern medicine is greatly increasing earths population. If we are going to accept longer life as a gift, then we must be responsible for the consequences. This requires being careful about adding more people to the population, and attempting to exert some kind of balance using birth control. In the end, it comes down to this: God is love. We are called to love him and love other people. This requires us to let Jesus abide in our hearts, and let our actions become his. So if we are going to care for Gods creation, we need a change of heart before we can change our actions into His actions. When Dr. Sleeth refers to Earth a vessel we are rapidly making unseaworthy, I imagined a sinking ship, and the panicked stated its passengers would probably be in. I wonder, if we continue on the same trajectory, the passengers on this ship will become panicked in such a way that problems only get worse. It will take people working together to repair the damage and prevent the chaos of a troubled global population from creating an even more hostile environment. I liked the comparison made between what Consumerism and god would say at the end of a life filled with their respective treasure (riches vs. spiritual fulfillment). Consumerism is always telling us there is more. There is always something else to buy,

we mus keep going, but we will never have satisfaction. God, n the other hand, will tell us that we have done well. Our life has been completed, and now we can rest. That is a concept that I greatly enjoy. The author mentioned that when we cause a species to go extinct, we are denying that animals blessing. Sometimes I wonder about animals that have gone extinct without human intervention. Because it does not exist in the same time we do, does that mean its disappearance was less important because it did not benefit humanity? There are so many species we never got the chance to benefit from, but no one complains about that loss. Humans are not always the cause for the end of a species, and we may in fact be preserving a species longer than God intended. Dr. Sleeth comments about people who buy SUV because they think they will be safer in a crash. He presents a bible verse that says wealth cannot be used as a defense. I dont think this applies to buying an SUV for its safety advantages. It was not bought as a symbol; it was bought on a basis of increased chance of preservation of life oin an accident. He says it is an example of trying to be safe at any cost, but I dont see it that way. If a tree stands in the middle of a forest and is never seen by a human, it has meaning to God. I really liked this sentence. It tells me there is still some mystery left in the world, some undiscovered, secret place. And still, it stands to glorify God. There is so much of the universe beyond our own solar system that has yet to be discovered, but it is still out there, proclaiming His glory. The comment about a badminton set that is only used twice a year really struck a chord with me. A few summers ago, my family bought a volleyball net. It was taken

down at the end of the summer, and has not been put back up since. This is the kind of excess stuff I would like to decrease in my life. When Dr. Sleeth talked about only owning a manual lawn mower, I cringed. On my familys farm, there are many yards that need mowed. And it is not always only for cosmetic purposes. In order to access our grain bins and set up equipment necessary in order to move grain, we need to keep the yard around our bin clear. There is also the issue of controlling weeds that could potentially invade our fields. In this case, only using a manual lawn mower or letting the yard grow up just isnt practical. Speaking of farming, the story about the farmer with the two horses really caught my interest. I honestly have never seen farm work done with real horsepower. Im sure the horses work well for the farmer, but he only has forty acres. My family, on the other hand, farms 3000 acres. At the rate of two horses per forty acres, we would need 150 horses, which once again, would be impractical. The distance over which are fields are located would make transportation slow. However, using the comparison of horsepower made me wonder what the total horsepower of all our equipment is. We do not own very many pieces of equipment that we do not use regularly, so I believe we are conservative in that manner, but there may be places we can cut back. Overall, I found Serve God, Save the Planet to be very good as an instructional book. It included many good tips for how we can have a positive impact on the environment. I agree that it will require a change of mind before someone an implement these steps. But sometimes I had a hard time making the connection between the environmental aspects and some biblical passages, and some seemed like a bit of stretch to me. For example, using the proverb about helping the donkey of man you hate as evidence for protecting animals. I have a feeling the focus of the scripture

was more about helping a person in need even though you dislike them, and not about helping the donkey. However, I feel like my eyes have been opened to Gods care for creation, and how I can express that. At one point while I was reading the book, I realized I was using my computer only to listen to music. The power cord was plugged into an outlet, drawing electricity. This was an unnecessary use of electricity, as I had a portable music player that I could have been using, which would consume much less energy. I have noticed similar things since I started reading the book, and while I doubt I will become as energy frugal as Dr. Sleeth, I hope I will come to act on these and have an impact, no matter how small. As his grandmother said, Take care of the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves.