Rebadged Environmentalism (Creation Care) vs. Creation Theology

I was recently invited to participate in a sermon series for our church’s youth. The youth were allowed to vote on a variety of issues for the kinds of things they’d like to hear about. One of the issues they wanted to hear about was Stewardship of the Earth. Our female youth pastor Amanda invited me to speak for a few minutes about the kinds of things that I do in my own home to be more efficient. Everyone was of course appalled at the sawdust toilet. It went well, there were a few sour reactions, but this is Arkansas, the South and the Bible Belt. It is going to take some time. But in listening to Amanda’s message, I couldn’t help but thing that our message was missing something. I felt it was explained too simply without having the proper theology to back it up so that’s what I’m gonna try to do here. So, Amanda, I’m not trying to rebut anything you said last Sunday, I’m just trying to build upon it and flesh out my own beliefs and to present them in the best way I see them. What you did was an excellent intro, but I believe this thing is so much more vast. Several of the Hot Topics should have been sermon series in themselves, not single day messages, but that is just my opinion, I’m not a pastor.

A search for “Creation Care” on Wikipedia will give you a page entitled “Evangelical Environmentalism” that starts out like this: “Evangelical environmentalism is a movement in the United States in which some Evangelicals have embraced the environmental movement.” If you look closely and think carefully about that sentence, you will see the problem as I see it. What we have mostly is Evangelicals and other Christians embracing the environmental movement. What we should have is Christians understanding a proper theology of Creation and understanding how God would have us steward the creation he has given us. Christians should never need to embrace the creations of others (isms) but embrace the creation of God. This is obvious to me, as it is obvious in a way to the writers of the Wikipedia article. It is Evangelicals embracing a movement, not Christians in relationship with their creator.

If all believing Christians can do is embrace the environmental movement, I say great. We need to get everyone to do what is right, even if they aren’t doing it for the right reasons. However, we can bring people into an understanding of the real reasons why they should be doing something, we are not trying to get them to do something for the something’s sake, but because the something is right and good and proper to do. It’s like the difference between getting someone to go to church and someone coming to know Jesus as their messiah. One is about rules and attendance, the other is about relationship. And that’s what Creation Care should really be all about, not Environmentalism with a fancy Christian name, but a Creation Theology, an understanding of God and creation and a relationship with them.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean to present the relationship we should have with God as the same one we should have with creation. Our relationship with God is one of worship, love, obedience and dependence, our relationship with creation is interdependence, stewardship, care and dominion. We should be interdependent with creation, but we are over it, and God over us, but also God over all creation including us. Interdependence with dominion is stewardship.

So many times I have heard people discuss creation care in useless terms. A friend of mine and I were talking about it the other evening and he spoke of it in terms of “find whatever verse you can to support it.” But it doesn’t work that way. There are very few proof texts. What there is however is a Bible-wide theology of creation, something that must be taken as a mosaic of all its parts, not as a few important verses that agree what I’m trying to say. You can’t “prove” it like the prohibition against murder. You must understand it as a complete theology.

So what is “Creation Theology” or “Theology of Creation?” First I must emphasize that it is nothing new, it only holds new meaning because of new innovations like factory farms, monoculture, pollution, and ballooning population. Theology is the study of God, religion, or spirituality from a religious, that is, from the believers perspective. Creation is that which is created, in this context, that which is created by God, or in other words, everything. Therefore, Creation Theology is the study of God by people who believe in Him without leaving out the bit about creation. Really, it is nothing more than regular theology without ignoring the creation. In most theologies, we have this relationship with God, humans to God, God to humans, but if we look a little deeper, there is this other component, a component God intended to save and restore after the fall as much as the humans themselves. God created it all to work together. Without creation, there would be nothing but the humans and God, and I’m not going to explore the consequences of that except to say that’s not how God intended it to be.

The act of creation was at the beginning. Before the fall, before humans, God created this thing called earth. God created the earth, and called it good. God created humans and what they did and were involved with is called the world. This is a very important distinction to understand. The earth is the thing, the planet, nature, ecological balance, nutrient cycles, water cycles, natural processes God set in motion at the beginning and called good. The world is another matter. The world is the sum of what humans have created and done to the planet and on the planet. Our vocabulary is confused by using these words interchangeably, but the Bible does no such thing. Read along in the bible, the earth is mentioned most in creation, the thing that God called good. The world is mentioned far more often in the New Testament where God sets a distinct delineation between his people and “the world.” He says we are to be in the world but not of the world. The world is man’s domain, earth is the domain God created for man and it is good, or at least that’s what God said it was.

Next we have the command of God before the fall to go out into the world and to multiply and have dominion over the earth. Non-Christians often incorrectly believe the same things about this dominion word just as Christians often do. Non-Christians often blame Christians for environmental problems simply because of this misunderstanding. However, blaming the Crusades on Christians is the same as blaming environmental problems on Christians. If the Christians were following Christ, these things would not have happened. Let’s take a for instance. It was greed, not a biblical mandate to have dominion over the earth that got DDT sprayed all over the place and caused much damage to wildlife and to people. It is greed that keeps companies from warning the public about the dangers of their activities. The correct understanding of dominion is a bit different that we often think it is. For instance, numerous places in the Bible show God having dominion over people. That means that dominion cannot have the purpose of extracting all usefulness out of something as is often done with the earth. The most it can mean is rule or control. Now we obviously have only limited control over the earth. So what would God call us to but a righteous dominion? Jesus’ multiple parables about servants’ caring for the master’s vineyard or fields bear this out beyond any doubt. Psalms says “The earth is the LORD’s…” How can we not draw a perfect parallel between God’s ownership of the earth and our stewardship of it? How good will it be for the righteous steward when Jesus returns?

Another concept built into the Bible is one that is just now being rediscovered in agriculture. The concept of a Sabbath or over a longer period of time, a Jubilee promotes the rest and revitalization of the land. The Sabbath as Jesus says was made for man, but what was the seven year rest cycle for the fields made for? It was made for the earth so that it could recuperate from six years of harvest. Built into the Jubilee cycle is the understanding that overuse will ruin cropland. God built creation care into the law.

Jesus said “consider the lily of the field…” He never said “Look at the workmanship of this aqueduct!” He never points to anything man has made as lasting or of great beauty. Nature however holds promise and importance in his teachings. The greatest building of Jewish antiquity he predicts will fall, but a great many of his parables deal with trees and plants and earth and seeds.

One of the most important aspects of Creation Care is Jesus’ command to love your neighbor. Most of the world’s power is made in coal power plants, which spew nasty stuff like mercury, lead, cadmium and sulfur into the air constantly. These airborne pollutants travel the world over and affect everyone. The question is: how much funk am I willing to pump into the air so that I can have my air conditioner or computer or car? Would I burn trash in my yard and make my neighbors breathe the fumes to power my TV? Like I said to the youth, it’s not loving my neighbor to make them suck my iPod fumes (I don’t actually have an iPod.) The same goes for how companies often site waste facilities in the neighborhoods of the poor. Doesn’t the Bible have a bit to say about making money at the expense of the poor? This is the modern day fulfillment of these verses. We look at those verses and wonder how these things can be done, but corporations the world over have figured it out. The poor don’t complain as much when you try to kill them slowly with chemicals.

Finally, look into your heart. What has God placed on your heart to believe is beautiful? Is it a sunset? How about a mountain waterfall, a majestic river, a coral reef, a centuries old tree, deep blue water, snow covered mountains, a herd of gazelle running across the savannah, a total eclipse of the sun, a woman’s body, a rainbow, or puffy white clouds on a warm summer day? Are you sure it’s not a cell phone or a power plant or a smoking car or a heap of trash or a strip mine or a brick wall or an oil well or a Wal*Mart or a parking lot or a busy street? Which of these things is beautiful and God’s creation and which of these is ugly and of man’s design? The truth is built into your very being.

Creation care is not this new thing that Christians have to do now, it is akin to, and in fact is, loving God and loving your neighbor, Jesus’ strongest commands. It is inextricably tied to everything else involving the following of Jesus. It is inherent in all things God has revealed to us. That realization is the understanding of Creation Theology. It is not only God and man, but also everything else God created.

“All of God’s creation reveals and worships its creator; and our stewardship is an act of glorifying God.”

WiredForStereo

ANWR Email Propaganda

Some of you may have received emails lately with the subject: ANWR Deception. These emails disparage the democrats and the green point of view in general. While I'm not here to defend democrats or anyone else, I feel it is important to know the facts since most email forwards are completely bogus. This one doesn't lie necessarily, but it does present quite a bit of propaganda.

I present the following numbers:

The US imports around 5 billion barrels of oil per year. The US uses 7.6 billion barrels per year.

7 billion barrels is what we can expect in total production from ANWR at the outside top top top estimate. Over the life of drilling, which will be well beyond 30 years, we can expect the price of oil to drop about $1 per barrel as a result of drilling in ANWR. Oil is already $140 per barrel. If ANWR is allowed to be drilled now, we can expect a drop in gas prices of about 5 cents per gallon, in ten years.

We don't need oil from ANWR. It won't help us much anyway. The whole flapping thing will give us less than 1 year's worth (that's 2005 numbers) of oil, and it will take more than thirty years to get all of it. To put it in perspective, the Strategic Oil Reserve holds about one tenth of the total volume of what ANWR holds. It won't help us, it won't lower gas prices, and it sure won't help us get rid of our addiction to oil. Not that I am particularly against drilling there, but it would be like standing on the stern of the Titanic with a bucket.

I say we save it for say thirty years in the future when we need a source of plastic.
WiredForStereo

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

I just got out of the Incredible Hulk, the further adventures of Bruce Banner and a bit of a redo as far as stylistically.

Not a bad movie, just didn't make me wanna go buy the DVD. Some of the little details were ignored which kinda annoyed me, you'd think a $150 million movie would have some ripples when Hulk steps in the water. Though there was a little humor, there wasn't enough to amount to much.

No real sex or nudity, lots of violence but little blood. There are more deaths in this one than the last one, but it is also better than the last one.

6/10
WiredForStereo

Movie Review: WALL*E

This is the story of a little trash compacting robot left on earth for 700 years to clean up all the trash. It's a great story, great sci-fi, excellent animation and a good watch.

This movie will be a great addition to any collection, especially if you have kids. No objectionable content that I could see, and it has a great ecological message, if not a bit exaggerated. It also presents a future where a single company controls everything from food, service, and transportation to the government itself to nearly disastrous effect.

I give this movie 9/10. I have been wanting to see it since I first saw the original teaser trailer like last December or something. A great movie, another Pixar classic.
WiredForStereo

The Way of Energy in the Future

I was out working in the garden this morning and I got to thinking about the gas crisis and peak oil and all the rest. So I decided to write up a little prophecy sort of thing. That is not to say that the following stuff is my prediction of the future, though in some cases it is, it is just how I feel things may go or should go. So don’t quote me in the future claiming that I said something that didn’t come true so I’m a false prophet. I am just presenting an opinion of how I think it will go or how I’d like it to go, and I’m certainly not an apocalypse monger.

First thing on the agenda is fuel. I’ve read a lot of stuff and seen a documentary or two that would have us believe that the oil supply will suddenly come to an abrupt end, resulting in mass chaos, rioting, and the end of “Dancing with the Stars.” Unfortunately in the latter case, I doubt this will happen. Since the Arab oil embargo, things have changed a bit, oil supplies have proliferated, there are new sources, new processes, and new ways of thinking as well as the possibility for vehicles that use much less fuel. I seriously doubt a sudden end for a number of reasons, first being the oil sands which are mined primarily from Alberta, Canada in this part of the world. Oil sands are much more difficult and expensive to mine than regular oil, but that brings up the whole point. There is lots of oil that is just not economical to get to. But enough to power the whole world at current consumption levels, not likely. I believe it will just get more and more expensive until people largely stop using it. The current trend already sees people driving less, using less fuel and buying smaller cars. When viable mass produced electric cars come on the market, (that’s when, not if) oil consumption will drop further. Eventually, the remaining oil supplies will likely be used to extinction in poorer countries for powering vehicles while they are used for industrial purposes in the United States, used for plastics and petrochemicals. I’d like to see an electric car revolution, I personally want to get an electric bicycle and convert my pickup into a series hybrid.

Biofuels. The use of biofuels that take the place of food crops in the fields must end. People come first, and the first thing that people need is food. We don’t need to be growing fuel where our food should be coming from. Hopefully cellulosic ethanol and algal biodiesel will come in to wider usage. I see them as recreational fuels, like charcoal briquettes in a way. In the same way as you might say “we’re gonna have a barbecue, did you get the briquettes?” you might also say “let’s go out on the boat, did you fuel it up?” The concept will go further as series hybrids or electric cars with range extenders like the Chevy Volt concept enter wider usage. “Lets go on a road trip, did you put biodiesel in the car?”

Housing. I was in Lowe’s the other week and was excited to see a book of energy efficient homes on the shelf near the checkout. My excitement quickly became disgust when I found that the primary feature of these “energy efficient home designs” was 2x6 walls. The best a 2x6 wall can expect to get using spray foam insulation is about R30 insulation value. That is not good enough, especially since the boards themselves present huge problems with thermal bridging. One of my home design plans features no less than R60 whole home insulation, that is ten inches or better of spray foam insulation and air tight. The best solution is adoption or at least some sort of promotion of the German Passive House standard or something like it. I believe there are less than ten of these houses in the US currently. There needs to be many more. I know this is Arkansas and all, but how is it forward thinking that I should be able to go into Lowe’s and buy windows that aren’t even Energy Star certified? The same goes for any appliance or other device. The worst part is that people actually still buy this stuff, windows last for 30 years or more, do you really want to replace them in five because you can’t afford all the heat pouring out of them all winter and pouring in them all summer?

Electricity and other fuels and energy sources. First of all, I’d like to say that hydrogen is not an option. It is not a fuel, it is an energy transfer medium with extremely inefficient conversion processes. It will never work in the face of efficient and advancing technologies like simple electricity. It just can’t beat electricity at anything considering costs and problems. Won’t work. We can argue about it later, but it won’t work. Electricity with distributed generation is the best option. Imagine having electricity when the grid is out, having heat during an ice storm, even if it is less than normal. Having it is better than not having it. Nanosolar is now printing solar panels like an ink jet. Whether the promises prove to be true or not is yet up for debate, but they are promising solar panels at less than a dollar per watt. As I’ve said before, I’d like to see renewable energy systems required on every new construction. Warehouse style stores have vast stretches of flat roofs, and vast parking lots in need of shade. The average Wal-Mart super center at 20 to 30 acres could produce quite a bit of electricity on a sunny day if covered by solar panels. Plus that shade will save additionally on power bills. Anyway, back to what I was talking about. The best option is for people to have solar panels on their roofs, and also for those who have opportunity, to have micro and pico hydro as well as small wind. These things not only allow people to produce their own electricity but there is this strange phenomenon where people begin to consume less to match their generating capacity, which can only be a good thing. I’d like to see micro grids in the future where an advantaged (locationally) group of neighbors sets up their own little grid with several small power sources and become their own utility. The technology is quite simple, and very scalable. There is benefit in having a grid, but in the future what will become of the huge ones we have today? Energy intensive applications like metals processing will still need large amounts of energy, which is why many of them are located next to hydroelectric dams or large powerplants already.

Food. Now that I’ve discussed being more like Europe, I’d like to discuss being more like Cuba. Before the USSR fell, Cuba was almost completely dependent on it for everything, being the Communist little brother as it were. When that era came to a close, Cuba was left mostly without an oil supply, and quite suddenly as well. Now, as a result, Havana is able to produce the vast majority of its food supply within the borders of the city because people have created community and rooftop gardens. Translated to the modern day, home food producing gardens are already a good idea, and as the price of food goes up with fuel, the prospect of growing “free” food at home will be that much more alluring. I believe the trend toward more sustainably grown food will continue, and I’d love to see Steve Heckeroth’s electric tractor idea hit the big time. http://renewables.com/Permaculture/ElectricTractor.htm One thing that is very much needed is for humans to eat far less meat, or eat only meat that they themselves raise. Something Al Gore has inconveniently ignored is that the methane and other emissions from meat production likely does more damage concerning global warming than tailpipes do since methane has around twenty times the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide does. Additionally, most of our crop land in the US is used for growing grain for animals. It’s an extremely inefficient operation and it will come back to haunt us in the form of food and fuel prices.

One thing that’s not going to work is just doing everything the same way we are doing now. Some have already chosen the route of efficiency and reduced consumption, but for our society to be sustainable, many more need to do the same.

WiredForStereo

Electricity Usage Update

Well, last month turned out to be our low. As we have begun using the AC, our daily usage is up half a kwh to 15.7. In the last year, we have used 8758 kwh which is 82% of the normal American house.

I think with a full year of the technologies I am already using, I can get that down even lower. The house had a huge gaping hole in the ceiling until last September or something and we didn't get the on demand water heater until March.
WiredForStereo