We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

photo-1414542563971-94513793d046

Christians and Creation Care

Image by Ali Inay

While the mustard seed of the Kingdom has been planted, it obviously hasn’t yet taken over the entire garden (Matt 13:31-42). We continue to live in an oppressed, corrupted world. We live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” Not only this, but we who are the appointed landlords of God’s earth continue to live in rebellion against God and abuse our God-given authority over the earth. Our first mandate included taking care of the earth and animals, and I’m convinced this continues to be a foundational benchmark for how we’re doing as a human race. Unfortunately, this benchmark suggests we aren’t doing well at all.

For example, it’s well known that the welfare of the earth’s ecosystem significantly depends on tropical rain forests. Yet we are currently cutting down an area of tropical forest the size of Greece each year. Some estimate that up to 80% of the earth’s rain forests have already been lost, the majority in the last 100 years.

So too our apathy toward the environment as well as toward the suffering of the poor is largely to blame for the current clean-water crisis humanity faces. All told, approximately 10 million people die each year because their water is unclean.

Our care for animals is even more dismal than our care for the land, in my estimation. Largely due to our poor stewardship, thousands of species of animals have already become extinct or are being pushed to the brink of extinction. According to most experts, the population of over half of all animal species are in decline. Some estimate that in the next 30 years as many as one-fifth of all species living today will become extinct.

But in my opinion, the single most telling piece of evidence that shows how poorly we’re manifesting our call to care for animals is the creation of factory farms. More than 26 billion animals each year are forced to live in miserable, over-crowded warehouses, where there is absolutely nothing natural about their existence and where they are subjected to barbaric, painful, industrial procedures.

We are falling far short of the benchmark, and we, the earth, and animals are suffering as a result.

Being a follower of Jesus gives us no special wisdom to resolve the complex issues that we face regarding how we care for the earth and animals. The answers of the Kingdom are not found in voting one way or another, in boycotting certain industries, or various other activist approaches. While I’m not opposed to these activities, followers of Jesus are called to live in a way that reflects God’s original design for human dominion while revolting against everything that is incongruous with this design. Regardless of what scientific or political opinions may be in vogue, our call remains the same. We’re to manifest God’s care for the earth and demonstrate God’s merciful love toward animals.

This means that we must think critically about things like the energy we consume, the water we use and the waste we throw away. It means we must be informed about the effects our lifestyle choices—and eating choices—have on the earth and on animals.

Insofar as it is possible, we’re to manifest—in the present—the harmonious relation between God, humans, animals, and the earth that will characterize the cosmos when the Kingdom is fully come. This is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be part of a Kingdom that manifests the beauty of God’s original design for creation while revolting against everything that corrupts it.

—Adapted from The Myth of a Christian Religion, pages 148-151

Related Reading

Podcast: Did You Believe in Evolution When You Wrote Letters from a Skeptic?

Greg considers how to think about God’s relationship to time given that there are apparent paradoxes no matter how one things about it.    http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0319.mp3

Happy vs. Holy

Rebecca Tekautz wrote a reflection on Relevant Online Magazine regarding the stark difference between pursuing happiness versus pursuing holiness. We’ve been conditioned by a consumeristic society to seek our own happiness above all else, and sometimes we fail to see how this collides with our call to pursue the life that Jesus has called us to.…

Lighten Up: Eat, Pray, Love

Speaking of “the Poor”

D. L. Mayfield wrote this guest post on Love is What You Do titled The Language of Poverty. How do we think of and interact with “the poor” on a daily basis? Here’s some good insights should impact our lives as Kingdom people. From the article: Words like “the poor” mean something. They are rich,…

The Incarnation as an Example of Cross-Cultural Love

Beautiful Faces of Palestine via Compfight Christena Cleveland wrote an excellent piece about the radical cross-cultural nature of the incarnation.  I’ve never thought of it quite this way before, but the incarnation is the most profound instance of entering into another culture in a selfless way. Moving outside of our “cultural comfort zone” to more…

Why Vegetarianism Instead of Veganism?

Greg talks about vegetarianism and veganism. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0054.mp3