Sunday, June 03, 2007

Christian Environmental Stewardship

Sometimes I think the chances of science and religion coming together in a meaningful way are next to nil.

If you take as proxy the evolution 'debate' for the science and religion discussion, you may be right. Maybe neuroscience will be the domain of the next schism. But maybe there is some hope. If you want to talk about environmentalism, scientists, community activists and religious people are more likely to be on the same page than not.

Specifically, consider the back page of the May/June newsletter from the church I attend. There's a story there about the church's Christian Ecology Group. They facilitate pickup of of organic produce grown by Southeast Asian and East African immigrant families living in Seattle's High Point neighborhood. This is part of a partnership between several churches, the local P-Patch Foundation and the city called Seattle Market Gardens.

By participating with this program, citizens are satisfying goals of living a more healthy lifestyle, providing meaningful supplemental income for immigrant populations, reducing the burden of carbon emissions involved with the global agriculture trade. Christians should identify that the Biblical imperative to have dominion over the Earth is one of stewardship, not exploitation. For a comprehensive article supporting this view, consider this paper. Another innovative thinker in this area is Holmes Rolston III.

I wonder what would happen if the fundamentalist Christians that are the face of religion in the United States these days added environmentalism to their political platform.

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