Why Going Outside is Really Good For You

#Earth Day? Yes!

George Verwer:

It is a shame that so many evangelical Christians not only have little concern for the environment, but are sometimes known as anti-environmental. How can this be when our Creator God has asked us to care for his creation? Not only is our pollution of the earth totally unacceptable, but this is an issue that our young people care about; and if we don’t connect with them on valid issues such as preservation of the environment, how can we expect them to listen to us at all?

Why have so many Christians historically shied away from creation care? I think the answer is that concern for the environment is generally regarded as part of the liberal agenda. What sounds socially liberal sounds theologically liberal. And, understandably, biblical conservatives don’t want to sound liberal.

We need to think this through carefully. I’m morally/politically conservative on issues such as abortion, in which lives are at stake. But I am also concerned about the welfare of the environment God has entrusted to our care. We need to understand that human lives are at stake in the issue of creation care! Consider, for instance, how many people die from contaminated water. Taking care of water is taking care of people!

There is absolutely no conflict whatsoever between standing up for human lives and caring for the environment. In fact, they are a perfect fit. How can you be prolife and not care about environmental conditions that can either foster and sustain life or harm and destroy life?

Read the rest. We should love what God loves and affirm the goodness of what he says is "good".

The Merits of Jonathan Merritt’s USA Today Op-ed

Some good thoughts here from Owen Strachan.

Does Earth Day Have Anything To Do With Good Friday?

Russell Moore:

Believing that salvation includes the restoration of creation does away the notion that the earth is irrelevant to the kingdom purposes of God—be they now or not yet—by declaring the place of the creation in the the establishment of the kingdom from the original creation through the Noahic covenant (Gen 9:8-17) to the final regeneration of the cosmos (Col 1:20).

We understand that we live in the “already” of an “already/not yet” framework of this restoration. We cannot therefore share an economic libertarian’s purely utilitarian view of the earth and its resources. Nor can we share a radical environmentalist’s apocalyptic scenarios of the complete destruction of the earth. In our care for creation, we must maintain both the necessity and the limits of environmental action, knowing that the ultimate liberation of creation has everything to do with our resurrection and the resumption of human rule through Christ over this universe.

That means that this Good Friday, and this Earth Day, we need to love what God loves: his entire creation. We need to conserve and care for the good earth that God has created. And we need to remember that, ultimately, the curse is rolled back by a bloody cross.

The risen Jesus, for his life and death and resurrection, saves us from an ecological catastrophe of the worst kind. And he raises us to newness of life to reign with him in a new creation—a different kind of Earth Day, a different kind of earth.

Read the rest.

Greenboozeled

Dr. Anthony Bradley has an interesting article over at the Acton Institute called, "Greenboozled". He writes:

Being "green" is the new cool. Your family's "green Christmas" and toy purchases from Greentoys.com this season will advertise to your friends and relatives that you care about the environment. But environmentalists are balking. They say that too many companies are claiming to be green and thus are "greenwashing" everything.

Greenpeace describes greenwashing as the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The deeper irony is that greenwashing was the original tactic many environmentalists used to manipulate us into adopting practices that actually do not sustain the environment. A another term for greenwashing would be greenboozled.

One of the unintended consequences of a greenwashing environmental rhetoric is that being green has turned into a fad. Marketing departments have discovered how easy it is to sell products to people who want to feel good about their consumption problem. Greenwashing works because most Americans do not think about negative spill-over effects, environmental processes, long-term effects on the poor, or the economic implications of allegedly environment-friendly proposals. Simply saying something is green is enough for most of us. Who cares if it's true or if it works? We are satisfied with the arbitrary labeling.

Read the rest.