The Emporia Gazette

February 11, 2012

• Headlines
• Sports
• Forums
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story
• Post a comment
• iPod friendly version

An increasing awareness of environmental responsibility in America’s churches is inspiring a practical and outspoken green Christian movement.

  There’s even a new Bible dedicated to the cause, The Green Bible, an eco-friendly slant on the New Revised Standard Version published by Harper last year.

Unlike the vehemently anti-environmental “dominionist” Christian outlook that sprang up in the 1970s, the current movement appears to take a more careful reading of the Genesis story about humankind having “dominion” over the Earth and its creatures, one informed by the original Hebrew meaning of words that have been erroneously translated throughout the ages.

Theologian Michael A. Bullmore states that the original Hebrew scripture emphasizes a nurturing responsibility toward nature, not an exploitative one:

“Adam is placed in the garden to serve (‘abad) and preserve (samar) it,” Bullmore writes. “He is, in other words, to exercise his dominion over the garden by managing it so as to preserve it. ... Thus his dominion is one of service, serving — cultivating and protecting — the creation.”

The mission statements of organizations such as Kansas Interfaith Power and Light reflect this pro-environmental spirit of this reading and emphasize the need to deal with global warming.

“As people of faith, we are called to address climate change,” states KIPL materials. “One way we can do this is to be better stewards of energy.”

With that goal in mind, KIPL offers energy audit resources, educational programs for congregations and an online store for purchasing energy-efficient products.

To date, 26 Kansas churches have signed on with the organization. Among them are Village Presbyterian in Prairie Village, which added solar panels to its buildings; Bethany Lutheran in Lindsborg, which revamped its heating and cooling system to geothermal; and Trinity Episcopal in Lawrence, where all the light bulbs were switched out to compact fluorescent light bulbs and two energy audits were conducted.

The green Christian philosophy, with a strong focus on reducing emissions that contribute to climate change, is shared broadly throughout America’s denominations.

On behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Richard Cizik said, “Climate change is real and human induced. It calls for action soon. ... If we are to be obedient to the Scriptures, there is no time to wait, not time to stall.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced its position that “global climate change is ... about the future of God’s creation and the one human family... If we harm the atmosphere, we dishonor our Creator and the gift of creation.”

In 2006, the Presbyterian Church General Assembly wrote a resolution on climate change that “strongly urges all Presbyterians to immediately make a bold witness by aspiring to live carbon neutral lives ... [and] to use less energy.”

Churches in Emporia also reflect a strong sense of environmental responsibility.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church has an extensive recycling program and a stewardship committee that puts a high priority on environmentalism.

“Everything we do is based on taking care of God’s Earth,” one church member said.

When building its new addition a few years ago, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church followed its commitment to the environment by installing the most energy-efficient HVAC system available. Along with an active recycling program, the church expresses this commitment by including in its Sunday services “a prayer for the environment, for the protection of our natural resources,” according to the Rev. John Davis.

First United Methodist in Emporia is also engaged in recycling and conducting energy audits, and last spring a member of the congregation attended a conference in Arkansas called “Caring for Creation” with the Rev. Kurt Cooper of the United Methodist Campus Ministry.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church shows its green side by recycling paper, using regular plates and cups instead of Styrofoam during coffee hour, putting timers on the thermostats and switching out all the light bulbs to CFLs.

The words and actions of those discussed above diverge sharply from the dominionist view.

Adherents of dominion theology maintain that preserving natural resources is unnecessary because the “end times” are upon us, anyway. It is tempting to dismiss the this view as the workings of a harmless fringe, but its effects have played too large a role to ignore.

This type of thinking became federal government policy in the Reagan era under the leadership of Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt. Motivated by the belief that the end of the world was near, Watt spent his three years in office eliminating as much federal environmental regulation as possible and selling an unprecedented number of leases for mining and drilling.

At a Senate hearing, Watt justified his aggressive policy of selling off the public lands by saying, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.”

Citizens did not have to count on Watt for long — he resigned under heavy controversy.

In addition to the Interfaith project (kansasipl.org), current national Christian environmental organizations include the Evangelical Environmental Network (creationcare.org), American Scientific Association (www.asa3.org) and Target Earth (www.targetearth.org).