Christianity and Environmental Issues

Introduction

What if I were to tell you today the globe is warming because of Human action and if we don’t act now to change things we will see a catastrophic change to our way of life in the next 30-50 years?

What would you think?

Oh, here comes another sermon about the environment like I get in TV shows and movies.

Or

Wait a second, I thought we were a conservative Christian church. Believing in climate change is something that far left Democrats who believe in abortion and socialism do?!?

Or

Finally! The church is talking about a truly important issue!

Why is talking about climate change today often a polarizing issue in the church?....and in culture at large?

I really appreciate the three categories that I read an article recently that described the struggles that the church currently has with grappling with climate change. There are as follows:

1. Politics

2. Prosperity

3. Posture

Politics

First of all politics. There is a growing trend in our culture to politicize science. To claim that a scientific perspective is simply a reflection of that person's political perspective. Think of how we’ve politicized and debated science in the last year.

Additionally, we take in scientific information differently today. Think about all the articles you've read online recently. All the scientific articles you've read online. Under each of those articles you read commentary and feedback. And whether you recognize it or not that commentary and feedback influenced how you received the content of the scientific article. It influenced in a positive or negative manner the conclusions drawn in that article.

Think of how we’ve handled the Pandemic. Many of our opinions and discussions have been based on hearsay or the rumors we’ve heard from random people. And the most qualified people…scientists and doctors have been relentlessly criticized by people with no experience.

Think about the vaccine. It’s a great solution to fight COVID and protect your loved ones. Have you made the decision to take the vaccine or skip it based on the facts…based on what you’ve read from people in the medical field….or just on a whim and a rumor you’ve heard from friends?

So, there's a growing trend unfortunately for the views of climate change to be politicized. For someone to think that if you think that there is global warming then you must be a liberal left wing activist. You must have liberal politics that influence you to believe in global warming.

The best predictor of whether we agree with the science is simply where we fall on the political spectrum. Wow!

The question we must honestly wrestle with is whether global warming / damage to the environment is an issue of politics or facts.

We need to be discerning where/how we get our facts.

Acts 17:11 ESV

11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Prosperity

Another thing that influences how we see climate change is prosperity. If we live in America, if we are wealthy, we don't see the effects of climate change. We've got good heating and cooling and we can afford to maintain those systems. We don't have to live in flood prone areas.

Think just in Terre Haute…..if the weather becomes warmer or more erratic, how is that going to effect you?

What about our homeless population?

What about people in poverty who live in flood prone areas?

Think about poor populations around the world. Shortages of supplies, land, water etc will be felt painfully by people in poverty far more than those in wealthy countries like America.

Think about access to the vaccine?

Proverbs 19:17 ESV

17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

Posture

As Christians it’s very tempting to care more about souls than seas. It’s tempting to think we are only hear for a little while and the boat is sinking so lets save as many souls as possible. We don’t have energy to care about the world we live in.

While saving souls is important God did appoint us stewards over this world. So let’s do this work of stewardship well.

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Alternative religion

Another way that people frame this discussion about climate change is to cast it as an alternative religion—worshipping mother earth etc.

Interesting... We shouldn't say that we believe in climate change because it's not really a belief system. Rather we should say we simply recognize the evidence out there that climate change is happening.

We know that changes are happening because of what we can observe around us. With the minds that God has given us. And these changes matter because real people are being affected.

Let’s Look at the facts on climate change.

“After hundreds, even thousands, of such conversations, I’ve grown to understand how much of this opposition to the idea that the climate is changing, that humans are responsible, that the impacts are serious and that the time to act is now,

comes from fear: fear of loss of our way of life, fear of being told that our habits are bad for society, fear of changes that will leave us worse off, fear of siding with those who have no respect for our values and beliefs.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/sunday/climate-change-evangelical-christian.html

As Christians we have not been given a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a strong mind. We are equipped to live with compassion for others. We are equipped to lookout for the needs of others. We are equipped to handle whatever comes up.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

We have a spirit of love to have compassion for others

We have a sound mind to use to make decisions well and process the information we are facing.

And this is exactly what we need in order to face the problems that are ahead.