A community of people who strive everyday to understand their place and role in todays' world; try desperately to come to grips with their short-comings; and evaluate and challenge what they believe and hold to be true.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Christians and the Environment

I am not really certain when it happened. I mean, I don't think it was any one event in particular or even one generation which started the trend. What I am refering to is the abdication by Christians of their role in protecting wildlife and the environment. After all, I believe that it was our first job. Overseers of all that God created. Trees, grasses, flowering things, animals, the seas, and the air we breath. Somehow, we walked off of the job.
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I have always been disheartened when I observed someone discarding their cigarette butts or McDonald's bag out of their car window. I am disgusted by plumes of black, choking smoke billowing out of commercial stacks or from the behind of old, non-maintained trucks. I deplore the yellowish foam seen at the edges of our streams, brooks, rivers, lakes and oceans. The haphazard, and Illegal I might add, disposal of radioisotopes and toxic chemicals into the sinks of many of our famous research centers' laboratories. Although I must admit that they have improved a thousand-fold in the last several years. I cringe, having been raised in a country-ish small town, when I drink the tap water in neighboring Boston or Providence. My water had no taste or smell to it and I prefer it that way. It makes my tea or coffee taste like it was intended to taste when the Columbian, Jamacan, or Brazillian farmers were so kindly picking the beans for us. When I see pictures or have visited villages living next to a putrid body of water filled with the excrement of every neighbor and a few thousand toxins contributed by some major western industial plant, I want to say "wake up world and see the filth you've created."
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Christians before any other people should be on the forefront of saying "this is NOT how we should treat the world given to us by God." But we cannot only talk it, we must lead by example. Here are a few steps that we can all take and must.
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We must never set bad precedence by improperly disposing of any of our own waste products. Link
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Recycle everything possible. It will also teach your children, or your frinds, or the neighbors the concept of stewardship.
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Create a compost area if possible. Use it to start your own garden. Plant some trees too.
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Create you own mulches or purchase rubber mulch. I use this stuff myself and love it.
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Initiate cleanup days in your city or town or, find already existing ones.
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Purchase a hybrid [http://www.fueleconomy.gov/](if your family can fit in one) or use as a commuter car; rent a ZipCar [http://www.zipcar.com/]; ride your bike take a motorcycle to work; walk; use public transporatation when possible; take the stairs; carpool with colleagues; check out a RideShare Program [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=RideShare+Program][http://www.ridecheck.com/ridecheck/][http://www.erideshare.com/][http://www.uship.com/people/?r=2304][http://www.carpoolworld.com/]. Who knows, you may meet new friends, lose some weight and save loads of money.
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Begin conversion to solar and/or wind power. [http://www.altenergystore.com/]
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Take shorter showers (consider installing a timer).
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Replace drafty windows, seal doors, and insulate attic spaces and turn off the heat when no one is home. [http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/]
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Perform proper maintenance on your vehicle. Consider the following:

1. Use the grade of motor oil recommended by your car's manufacturer. Using a different motor oil can lower your gasoline mileage by 1%-2%.
2. Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to improve your gasoline mileage by around 3.3%.
3. Get regular engine tune-ups and car maintenance checks to avoid fuel economy problems due to worn spark plugs, dragging brakes, low transmission fluid, or transmission problems.
4. Replace clogged air filters to improve gas mileage by as much as 10% and protect your engine.
5. Combine errands into one trip. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start, can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

Insist that your elected leaders act wisely in protecting the environment and in supporting renewable energy methods through tax incentives and legislation.
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Turn off lights as you leave a room.
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Get involved at EarthDay and similar events. Whoa!!! Did I just advise you to get involved with those stereotypically left-leaning, tree-hugging, earth-worshiping people who protest deforestation and industrial blood-letting around the world and refuse to wear deodorant because there may have been some animal injured some where during its' beta testing and clinical trials? Yes I am. We gave up our dominion over this issue and have left it to those who majorly do it without knowing who they are ultimately doing it for. Worshipping God includes loving His creation AND His created. That's what Christians need to be doing in the forefront, visibly, and knowingly that it is for Him that we do thse things. Not because we are in a love worship of the planet earth. But because we love the creation God made for us as part of His expression. It's His art work. And that's how we need to demonstrate our faith in a useful, practical way that the world understands.
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Some of my links on the right hand side are for Christian Environmental Groups. Consider starting your own in your area and be a light for Christ, albeit a green light.

posted by Dean at 7:11 PM

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