A couple years ago, I went on a field trip with a group of "Christian" activists who wanted to see "ecology in action". I was driven to the meeting place by a young man I hadn't met previously. He was obviously eager to put his faith to work on environmental issues. We talked about logging, spotted owls, pollution, population pressures, ethics, frugality - almost three hours non-stop of issue on top of issue, crisis on top of crisis. We talked about some of the things that "Christians" could do about these problems. Just before we arrived at our destination, I asked my companion if he ever got discouraged by the magnitude of the problems, or if he ever had any doubts about the problems being solvable. He answered no to both questions.
It was a good trip. We saw people working together to preserve natural areas, to restore degraded habitats, and to manage commercial uses in ways that minimized their impacts on soil, water and wildlife. I think we all learned a lot. Still, for every positive happening we saw or discussed, it seemed that there was a much bigger, much tougher issue looming in the background. I asked my questions to several more people. No, they smiled, we aren't the least bit discouraged.
As the trip concluded and we started home, I found myself vaguely discouraged by their positiveness. In the weeks that followed, I asked myself a lot of questions meant to try and square my perceptions and outlook with theirs. I couldn't do it. We really seemed to be on different paths.
I've been a natural resources professional for over thirty years. I've had a "personal relationship with God" almost as long. My faith tells me that it is right for spiritually-motivated people to be taking a more active role in addressing environmental issues - that it is right to be more frugal in our use of resources, to be more caring in our approach to the land, and to devote our own time and money to conservation causes. My experience tells me that it will not be enough: no matter what we do as spiritually-motivated persons, we will not save the World.
To put it another way: I'm excited to see so many people of faith working to refute Lynn White's hypothesis that "the Judeo-Christian ethic" is behind all our environmental woes. [Dr. White's famous paper "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis" has been re-printed many times, but was first published in Science, Volume 155, pp.1203-1207, 10 March 1967.] It's worthwhile - and I think spiritual people's responsibility - to recycle, to save an endangered species, to cut off a source of pollution, to re-establish a salmon spawning run, and to refrain from buying things we don't really need. We should do more. Still, we must not be naive: no matter how much we do, it will not be enough. The problems that the world is facing are not really addressed by using fewer styrofoam cups, by driving our cars less, or by saving a butterfly species from extinction. To use a biblical comparison, we aren't dealing with "flesh and blood" - individual excesses - but with "powers and principalities" - world systems that reward excess and waste, and that promote inequality.
I ask you :
No, it isn't a question of willingness or enthusiasm; it's a question of working against the already-established magnitude and momentum in the destructive forces we face.
Discouraged? As spiritually-motivated persons, I don't think you should be. But you need to face reality, and develop a true reckoning of what you can do, what you should do, and why you are doing it. The "whys", as I see them (illustrated by thoughts from the Judeo-Christian Bible), are:
I don't want to tell you what you should be doing to address the needs of our environment. As I hope I've made clear, I think the smallest act of environmental responsibility [recycling, shopping more thoughtfully] is loving and glorifying to God. But there are much, much bigger things to do, and they may be things that you find difficult to recognize and even more difficult to attack. "Religion" has become so much a part of culture, economics, politics, and national expectations that some have been blinded to what the real issues are. Luckily, Christians believe they have access to the Mind of Christ and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who can assure that time and energies are directed to those things that most worth doing. Remember WHY we want to be environmentally conscious, then go ahead.
We've all read a book or seen a movie in which the hero was a good person doing good things, but was unfulfilled until he or she discovered the ONE TRUE THING that should be done. So far, it seems to me that the Christian environmental movement - as welcome as it is - has not found its true calling.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will HEAL THEIR LAND" - 2 Chronicles 7:14 - a specific thought for a specific time, but I wonder if it isn't also the true answer for us, now.