A Christian’s Call: Caring for the Environment

jamin | March 27, 2013 | 0 Comments

I did a devotion yesterday and it spoke of caring for the environment. The author spoke of a woman who didn’t feel it was her Christian duty to care for the environment. I’m familiar with this way of thinking. I’ve never thought that way, but when I did speak up against oil drilling in wetlands and how corporations only care about money and not the health of fellow citizens, I was mocked and laughed at during my high school years at my Christian school. They were obviously right-wing Conservatives and viewed it sacrilegious to speak against a business making money, even at the cost of the earth. I was told to go hug a tree to stop it from being cut down. They had no issue with the Amazon being hacked away as long as they got their firewood and paper.

So, the devotion spoke of how it is a Christian’s duty to maintain the earth that God gave to mankind. We aren’t to destroy it for our own greedy gains, but we are to preserve it as best we can. This seems to be a change in thinking among right-wing conservatism and I don’t know how to take it. Are they finally concerned about the earth because of things like hurricanes in December and tornadoes in January? I just hope it’s not too late to change anything.

The passage also mentioned that we are to care for one another in addition to the environment. With this week’s focus on gay marriage in the U.S. before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), let’s focus on what is fair treatment of people who have been maligned since the dawn of time. Let’s focus on the legal aspects of what is being discussed here. If you can’t separate your religion from the issue of civil marriage, let’s focus on how the state treats your marriage starting with a marriage license (a law; a piece of paper obtained from a state court) and how the church is not involved in any discussion concerning your divorce settlement (that’s all done in court with lawyers, not ministers). Let’s focus on how much “stuff” comes along with marriage that benefits you as a married heterosexual couple that is really unfair to same-sex couples who are doing the same thing you’re doing legally. Are you better than they are? Are you some kind of higher citizen more than they are? Are we not all equal under the law?

Think about how easy it is for you to have your spouse by your bedside as you lay dying after being together for 40 years, no questions asked. Think about how easy it is for you to be left in their will and for you to claim some of their property even if you don’t have a will. Think about how easy you had it telling your family to come to your wedding and people showed up so happily and wished you well. Think about all of that and then think about all of that being denied to you based on something that’s just as natural a part of you as your beating heart. Believe me, if gay people could turn in being gay to an agency that would guarantee heterosexuality, the line would be as long as the Canada/U.S. border. It’s not a choice. Getting married and being treated fairly is a choice that SCOTUS judges have to contend with now, and if they chicken out and turn it over to Congress, the American people will have to deal with it.

And even if gay marriage is denied today, the tide of the country is turning and it will happen whether you like it or not. Just give it time.

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