The Third Way on Climate Change
Climate Change is a topic that quickly forms two poles: those who believe in it and those who don’t. There are those who think the world is going to end in a "Day After Tomorrow" scenario and those who think that we can keep buying Escalades and light barrels of oil on fire for fun because everything about climate change is propoganda.
Our Christian faith compels us to address climate change as we are image bearers of God made to be stewards of this earth. Unfortunately, we often interpret our stewarship as arguing about statistics and whether polar bears really fall through the ice or not.
The political conversations are useless. The statistics go no where and accomplish nothing other than the furthering of statistics and counter-statistics.
The Christian response to climate change is what I propose as a third way on climate change: who cares about the ifs, ands, or buts of climate change. We only care about what we ourselves and our faith communities can do:
-Do you or your church recycle?
-Do you or your church use paper plates and plastic cutlery?
-Do you or your church grow a garden or buy local food that does not travel as far?
-Do you or your church support local economies?
-Do you or your church use fuel efficient vehicles?
-Do you or your church use electricity efficiently?
-Do you or your church enjoy the outdoors?
These are all things we need to ponder and change in our lives as we bring our Christian perspective to the environment, a perspective that is not founded on statistics or videotape of glaciers melting, but on the imperitive God gives us to be stewards. We have each been given a little bit of the earth, our surroundings, as a talent, and like in Christ’s parable will we as stewards use it to its full potential and enjoy the abundance of our call to be stewards and increase the abundance of Christ’s kingdom? or will we bury our talent in the ground alongside our waste, refuse, and inefficient SUVs?
This post is for the 3rd annual Blog Action Day.
