It's not about "red" or "blue," but green.
That's what Rebekah Simon-Peter, author of "Green Church: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice!" would like to convey. "Green Church" is a wake up call and challenge for Christians of all stripes and persuasions to set aside their petty doctrinal differences in order to reclaim our original mandate: to care for creation.
Simon-Peter begins her biblically based book reminding Christians of our responsibility to serve as stewards of God's good earth. She reminds us of the Genesis story and God's charge to humanity to take care of this blessed place for us to enjoy and thrive in. In the Genesis story, humanity got out of control, chaos ensued and God sought to restore order by ridding the earth of humans with a great flood. But then, "God repented of de-creation in forty days." Simon-Peter asks, "Can we follow suit?"
But she pointedly asserts, "The Bible calls us to be stewards of creation, but most of us are content to be mere consumers."
The book is rife with a bevy of scientific data and statistics that suggest a bleak state of affairs for the earth. Among them: "All over the world, animal and plant species are disappearing at an unprecedented and alarming rate. This is not the Rapture; this is the largest mass extinction since the age of the dinosaurs. Biologists predict that fully half of all species on earth may be gone within the next 50 -100 years." And, "Scientists predict that if we continue fishing at the current rate, the planet will run out of seafood by 2048 ... Bye-bye lobster dinners, frozen fish sticks, and jobs."
She states the unwelcome facts without being preachy or attacking. She admits to being part of the problem and has compassion for her fellow humans who are trying to live our busy lives in this modern, demanding world.
She wonders aloud what we're all wondering, "Is it too late for us to make a difference and learn to live together in fruitful harmony? Or can we find a way to live into our biblical call?"
"What has gone wrong? It seems that we who have been called to care for creation have become sinners against the creation."
What are we to do?
According to "Green Church," we need to "Repent, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rejoice!"
She remembers being an optimistic environmental studies major 25 years ago and thinking that "Someone will surely do something about this, before it's too late."
Since then, things have gone from bad to worse. Two years ago, Simon-Peter had an epiphany, "That 'someone' is me. And you."
For such a thin book (about 100 pages), "Green Church" packs a potent whallop and provides an overflowing fountain of effective suggestions and strategies for churches and church members to reduce our combined use of fossil fuels, energy consumption, the earth's resources and otherwise "green the Kingdom."
"Green Church" has a companion volume called "7 Steps to Green Your Church," which provides even more concrete steps and actions that churches (and other religious groups) can take to make as much of a difference as possible and to live-out Christ's call for his followers to be "a city on the hill" bearing witness and serving as an example for the rest of the world. Currently, the Church is behind much of the rest of society, but "Green Church" provides a way for us to live into the best of who we're called to be.
"Green Church" is a powerful read for individuals and it's ideal for small group book studies. I suspect that most of the churches who read "Green Church" will soon have a "green team" of informed, energized and inspired people who will help their congregations get on board and reclaim their sense of stewardship, of working with God to help this big blue marble shine once again.
Roger Wolsey is the author of 'Kissing Fish: Christianity for People Who Don't Like Christianity.'
We have been called to take care of the earth, but our society has a commodity-driven attitude that everything is replaceable by something newer and better. This seems to be connected to the prosperity gospel that material abundance is a sign of God's favor. The consequences are major disasters, plus thousands of children in East Africa starving to death when we could feed them if we biodiversified.
I often wonder why we as a society destroy the earth while investing in bigger, fancier homes. The earth is our home! I don't throw trash into my bathtub and expect it to miraculously self-clean, and yet that's what people do to our water sources. We have been given a beautiful planet with stunning scenery, but we show very little respect for it. Obviously, I am speaking about our collective attitude and not individual efforts. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse course unless we all invest in this effort. This includes churches that have been reluctant to take on "political" issues. Yet, you don't have to accept science in order to respect the earth. And in the process, we can reduce global poverty and hunger, as we've also been called to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism
In my mind dominion is a responsibility to care for something, but in this extreme version, they seem to ignore everything that Jesus may have said about separation of church and state!
Psalm 37:29: The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it.
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells."
pool of dogma. No relationship worth having is based on fear. Your view of god is in my opinion very immature.