It always surprises me, though it shouldn’t, the polemical nature of social media. It amazes me how exercised folks can get, myself included, over actual OR perceived differences of opinion. Case in point, a couple weeks back I posted, what I thought was a fairly, but not entirely, innocuous comment on Facebook. Here’s what I said:
“Whatever your political views, let’s not sacrifice care of creation on the altar of ideology.”
This was accompanied by a link to this article: Santorum Obliquely Suggests Obama Worships Earth, Not God
29 comments later….
Now, my point in this post isn’t to address the comments made thusly. Nor do I really want to wade into the point the article was making. Rather, I wanted to, in a sense, (a) set the record straight about what I meant and (b) why it matters. In other words, why I’m “Green.” Likewise, (c) I want to make a comment or two about the heretical nature of taking an alternative view, and why that’s a very good (and Jesus-like) think to do. Yes, you read that right, Jesus was a heretic and we love him for it.
(a) What I Meant
I meant that my fervent desire was to see care of creation, environmental stewardship, ecological mindfulness – whatever you want to call it – transcend the “he said, she said”, argumentativeness of partisan politics. Now, perhaps that is a naive desire and unrealistic. Creation, and the resources we gain from it, will always be political. It will always be something that the body politic must wrestle with. Somehow we have to debate, negotiate, and even argue our way to a common understanding of what resource gets used by what community or individual. That’s fine and to be expected. But using creation as a bludgeoning weapon to hit one another over the head with is just wrong. We can have fervent disagreement over the role of government to regulate (or not), use (or not), manage (or not) a given resource from the earth, but can we agree that we have one planet that we live on and we need to respect that fact.
In other words, one political party shouldn’t be the environmental party and the other the non-environmental party. One party, or leader, ought not lambaste another for being concerned about the environment. Again, it’s fine to have a fierce debate about how we engage the environment. But using the environment as a litmus test for whether you are in or out of our group is pathetic.
(b) Why I’m Green
I’m Green, because God is Green. God made and loves and cares for creation. And by creation I mean the whole kit and kaboodle, the cosmos, you, me, and everything we see. He called it very good – not just humanity, the whole shootin match, all things made that were made. Check the tape.
Here’s a couple of examples, key texts if you will:
- Genesis 1-2 – God hovers over waters, makes humanity in His image, calls it all very good, makes a dude out of mud, gives the dude mouth-to-mouth, plants a garden, gives us a job to do, takes a walk, talks with His creation – all in the first 2 chapters.
- John 3:16 – You’ve heard this one, right? “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Well, “world” there is κόσμον or κόσμος. That’s right, the cosmos. The whole ordered creation. God loves it all and Jesus came for the whole thing. Not just us humans. He incarnated, lived, died, resurrected and redeems you and me and earthworms and dalmatians and ficus trees and orchards and microbes and molecules. Paul has a bit to say about this too, but that’s for another time.
Which leads us, of coure, to Global Warming. Er… wait. It does? Really? No, actually it doesn’t. There is good debate about Global Warming – is it happening? is it real? do humans cause it? can we stop it? does driving a Prius really help? will I get beach front property in Ohio? I think it is fair to say that the mainstream of the scientific community is persuaded that it is real and we are causing and we may or may not be able to do anything about it. That, of course, doesn’t make them right. And frankly, for the purpose of this discussion at the moment, I don’t care.
Being Green for me has very little, maybe nothing, to do with Global Warming, Climate Change, or Saving the World. It has everything to do with my heart being captured by the Creator who loves and cares and sacrifices for His creation. I am persuaded to live as gently as possible on the earth because I respect it. I respect it because the God who made me made it. And more! I’m made out of it – dust to dust. I care about the earth because I’m embedded in it and connected to it – because that’s how it was ordered or designed to be.
(c) and other heresies
Ok, I’ve gone on long enough for now. This point briefly. I recognize that what I’m suggesting is not in keeping with the status quo. It is an alternative view. Probably one that wouldn’t play well in a political campaign, dinner party, or even some (maybe most!?) churches. You might even say that what I’m suggesting is heretical. That’s fine.
Methinks I’m in good company. Jesus was a heretic too. Status quo was for him to be a good Jew. Maybe bitch and moan about the Roman occupation. Maybe train with the Zealots to beef up on his hand to hand combat. Maybe retreat to the desert for a holy huddle with the Essenes. Or maybe just capitulate with the powers that be, keep his head down, obey the Torah, marry a nice girl, have a few kids and, you know, settle down.
Except he didn’t.
He went around talking about the Kingdom coming on earth as in heaven. He touched untouchables. And he loved the unlovable. I mean really! Crazy heretic!
