Christian Environmental Concerns????

[hillbillyhunter1]

We've been discussing global warming and other environmental issues in the other forum and I was wondering.

Many Christians today feel that the "end times" are near or here and sometimes that leads me to believe that they don't particularly care about the future of the planet (because to them it is already determined).

My mother is "born again" and has been throughout my life. She really is one-dimensional in her activities/hobbies/interests meaningif it has something to do with reading the bible, or one of dozens of books about the bible, or participating in church activities, or "witnessing", then she is pretty much for it. Shealso works full timeat a church-sponsored children's home. What I'm trying to say is that she doesn't have much other information coming into her life. Yet, when I mentioned global warming to her, she said that it was a hoax (or something similar to that) and I thought "You didn't even give me time to tell you what I think or explain some of the effects that will be caused by it, etc and I KNOW that you have not really even thought about it on your own or researched it".

Instead, she just wrote the whole thing off instantly.

Many of the members discussing the issue here on HNI that seem to dismiss it also are ones that I know have strong religious beliefs. But it's not only the global warming issue that I'm talking about. Lots of times when Ihear oforganized efforts to "save the rain forest" or other large scale projects, it seems christians are either indifferent or outright opposed to such causes. Now, I am not talking about local hunters saving their neghboring wetland duck habitat or fisherman cleaning their local trout stream, just about everybody that is a hunter/fisherman will get behind that.......I'm talking more on a global scale down to something as simple as recycling.

Do you guys feel that because it (the earth's fate)is inevitable that those issues I described don't really cause any concern? Are there those here that are concerned?? I understand that it may be your top priority to spread THE WORD, but is the room for issues like this.

Thank you for your attention and thoughts
hb

[Chuck7]

Excellent topic...

I'm quilty as well concerning alot of current events. I do however have concern about the global warning. Many Christians are very simple minded folks whose concerns are mainly about pleasing God. I have no problem with thAT. There is not any thing your mom can do anyway except for understanding why we shouldn't be using a lot of aerisol cans and why we have a lot of anti pollution stuff on our cars. It's like the Mary and Martha scene in John 11. Your mom like Mary has chosen what is most important. ..to sit at Jesus feet.
C7

[manuman]

Tell me you're not a WV Mountaneer fan and Ill answer for you!Well,I'll tell you that if there are believers with this attitude, they are wrong. We were put here to be in charge of this planet, which was one of th efirst original callings in the garden, and we are to be stewards of all of creation , including the environment. People will always take priority, but we certainly have a responsibility to the ecological issues facing us today. In fact, I don't believe anyone else should be leading in this issue over the Christians. Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith and son Frankie have written very extensively on the subject as well as others. he is one of the leading intellectuals in the church today, along with Ravi Zacharias(and before anyone reminds me, I know Dr Scheaffer passed away several years ago--but his writings are as relative today as ever). Unfortunately, there is a subculture within the church that runs along the lines of being anti-intellectual as if we aren't commanded to love God with our minds, so many won't see any relevance or the need--which is a shame.We absolutely need to be dealing effectivelywith teh environmental issues facing us today.

[hillbillyhunter1]

Tell me you're not a WV Mountaneer fan

Yeah, WVU Graduate. I think they may have played some kind of a bowl game down in your neck of the woods

I do however have concern about the global warning.

We absolutely need to be dealing effectively with the environmental issues facing us today.

Boy I'm glad to hear thatguys, thanks for your opinion. The environment is something that is very important to me and I have seen great examples of stewardship as well as terrible ones (Unfortunately, many of the terrible ones come from right here in WV. Many leaders seem to really have their priorities out of "Whack" around here"). But larger than that even, is the picture I worry about. I just can't help but see the billions of tons of pollution and wonderhow the Earth has managed to stay as good as it has. God has put in a lot of "safeguards" to helpbut I'm sure he's not pleasedwiththe attitudes and actions of many toward his creation. We can/must try harder, but it seems the hardest thing is convincing people that there is a problem.
thanks again
hb

[m.t.hands]

i don't like pollution, in fact when i get out and see how "trashy" our lakes and rivers and country roads are it makes me sick, i try to be consious of everthing i do in regards to what God has given us and that we are to be good stewards of our earthly items while we are here. as far as global warming, i'm really unsure, read alot, and hear alot, but record keeping in regards to climate are really kind of new, and i kind of believe this is a cycle that would happen regardless..

BTW has anyone seen the dam built in china that they (scientist on the discover chanel) say will affect the earths rotation/angle/axis in relation to the sun... kinda like SEC football, sometimes i think we (people) are our own worst enemy[:@]

[DaveH]

I agree with manuman that we are supposed to be good stewards of all that God has given us. However, I don't think we're really hurting the environment as much as some of the environmentalists want us to believe. I don't say that because I'm a Christian, but because I think the scientific backing for global warming is lacking.

[hillbillyhunter1]

However, I don't think we're really hurting the environment as much as some of the environmentalists want us to believe.

I can understand that Dave, but it seems obvious that we are hurting to SOME degree and shouldn't we strive for the MOST MINIMAL impact possible???

i kind of believe this is a cycle that would happen regardless..

m.t.,
I don't think anyone would ever say that cycles aren't going to happen--I think where the concern lies is the speed of "warming" that data seems to indicate. Thanks for your responce and again I want to thank you guys as this seems more positive then what I initially expected. Good Hunting.

[DaveH]

I can understand that Dave, but it seems obvious that we are hurting to SOME degree and shouldn't we strive for the MOST MINIMAL impact possible???

Absolutely. As I said, the Bible tells us to be good stewards of all God gave us. I hate pollution like everyone else. It infuriates me to see people throw trash out there window while driving and I can't stand second hand smoke. However, I think that some environmentalists overstate their case and jump on the "global warming" bandwagon.

For just one example, some recent volcanic eruptions put far more of the most dangerous types of "atmosphere busters" out there than mankind has produced in all the years we've been around. The earth's inhabitants haven't been negatively influenced by that from my standpoint, so our effect has been minimal.

Should we strive to take care of the planet. Sure, but we need to let common sense influence how much we restrict ourselves from things which may not even matter in the grand scheme of things.