So. Baptists Encouraging Creation Care

An "independent coalition of Southern Baptists who are passionate about caring for God's creation" have penned "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change," available for viewing at Southern Baptist Environment & Climate Initiative website at: http://baptistcreationcare.org/

This declaration initiates a HUGE potential for increasing awareness and hopefully action by a large population of Evangelical Christians. Although an independently-produced statement and not a convention-wide one, this is a major step for members of the nation's largest Protestant body, one that has become increasingly doctrinaire on issues of Biblical interpretation, doctrine, ethics, etc. over the past decade (it's amazing to me how many times this Statement references their commitment to pro-life and traditional marriage issues, like that has anything to do w/the topic at hand), but one must understand that its target audience includes many who dwell in the "global warming is a myth" camp and the "wow, I don't know about us entering this hippy/feminist/'Liberal' group of tree-hugging environmentalists" camp.

What the Statement does well is lay down a theological basis for caring, as Christians, about how we act and legislate and produce/consume in relation to the natural world around us. Its two main points are: one of God's revelations of Himself to mankind is through the created, "natural" order, so for us to mar His creation is to mar His witness as well as to deface what is essentially His property, not ours; the other is that the potential negative effects of global warming would hurt the poor the most. Therefore, subversively, this document also reinforces the Christian commandment to care for the poor and oppressed, another important Biblical injunctive, sometimes unfortunately downplayed by Conservatives due to the rhetoric of the political Left.

As I mentioned earlier, the Declaration spends what would seem to be an inordinate amount of time defending the group's commitment to other, extremely peripheral, issues like Biblical inerrancy and the right to life, and it spends several paragraphs in carefully-worded affirmations on the limitations of science, the fact that "anthropogenic" global warming isn't proven and that there is a significant minority of scientists who disagree w/the theory, etc. But again, given the audience, this is hardly unnecessary. I love what the statement does do, where it comes up weak is that it ends at theory and intention and the recognition that there is an issue. Granted, this is a huge beginning for many in the SBC, but it falls short of giving any guidance for WHAT we should do to begin to address these issues. It's like sharing the Gospel with a person, they convert and accept Christ, and when they ask "How now shall we (I) live?", you fall silent. There is no framework, no guidelines, no points for further action in the Declaration.

The most the website offers in this area is a list of "Resources": several books on creation care and a few links to groups like Christian environmental organizations and some "safe" secular ones like EnergyStar. These are vaguely helpful, but a few, simple, non-political action steps that everyday individuals and families could take to begin to live a "greener" lifestyle would have been wonderful and even more pro-active help from a group that deeply cares about this issue and sees the God-connection with it all.

Another thing that confounded me is its focus on the global warming debate. Why, if global warming is so controversial, does the Declaration spend so much time focusing on it? Let's suggest for a moment that global warming doesn't exist, would a Christian's responsibility for thoughtful environmental stewardship cease? Why does it take such "huge" issues like this to get us to start doing what we should have been doing all along? Think of the parallels in our personal lives. So often, God needs to hit us up on the side of our head to get us to pay attention to an important area that we have been neglecting for so long, be it a relationship, our finances, our health, our spiritual growth, etc. It's sad that it has had to come to this--potential ecological disaster--before we get serious about everyday issues like pollution, rapid deforestation, energy sources and usage, refuse disposal, unsustainable agricultural practices, unchecked consumerism, etc. Shouldn't these have been "Christian" issues all along? Loving your neighbor as yourself is a pretty huge aspect of serving Christ Himself, and when we look at these issues and how many of our lifestyle, government and business practices have gone awry due to flesh-issues like selfishness/greed, the love of money, and the rejection of wisdom and long-term thinking, the spiritual connections to these issues become apparent.

Natural causes aside, and even potential global warming-related issues aside, the immediate, contemporary problems of smog, acid rain, species extinction, etc. are reasons enough to get us to think both theologically and practically about these issues, and to actually care enough about them to be willing to alter our lifestyles enough to reflect Biblical, neighbor-loving principles.

Kudos to this group of Southern Baptists for taking an important initial stand on this critical area of life, and may more SBC folks join them, as well as those from across the broader Christian community! The group rightly points out that our historic neglect and even dismissal of these issues has caused us to seem uncaring to non-Christians, so kudos to us rightfully improving the church's P.R., and more importantly, that of Christ.