Environmental Stewardship – A Biblical Foundation for Green Behavior

March 4, 2007 by
Filed under: Environment, Religion 

The link below points to a paper entitled “Environmental Stewardship – A Biblical Foundation for Green Behavior”.  I wrote this paper for the Lawrenceville (NJ) Presbyterian Church’s “Green Team” committee.

The gist of the paper is as follows:

  • Humankind is part of Creation.
  • God sees Creation as Very Good.
  • Humankind was given “dominion” over the earth and all living creatures. This dominion includes both the right to control it, and the responsibility to care for it.
  • Christ’s redemption is for “us” – which includes all of Creation.
  • Creation itself will someday be set free from bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
  • Creation must be shepherded in such a way as to preserve sustainability.

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I can’t take credit for authoring most of the ideas in the paper – with few exceptions they came from the sources listed in the acknowledgments and footnote.  There is a little of me in there, particularly the parts about baptism and rabbits.

Download Environmental Stewardship

The paper has been given to our church Green Team to review, but has not yet been endorsed (mainly because we ran out of time to even start considering it this week).  If there are changes I’ll upload a new copy and post again about it.

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Comments

5 Comments on Environmental Stewardship – A Biblical Foundation for Green Behavior

  1. Anonymous on Sun, 4th Mar 2007 3:05 pm

    2. Environmental Stewardship – A Biblical Foundation for Green Behavior

    This paper lists the biblical foundation for environmentalism. I wrote this paper for my church’s Environmental Stewardship committee (aka Green Team).

  2. Paul Schmidt on Thu, 8th Mar 2007 3:54 pm

    3. Mark,

    I saw the plug for your document on Environmental Stewardship and wish you had answered the question of HOW head on. The Barmen Confession has a great short description of the tools of government (the use of threats and force to maintain peace and administor justice.) The document leaves out the important question of HOW to enforce Environmental Stewardship. If government is to be used, the biblical justification for the use of threats and force should be provided. If government threats and force are not to be used, say so explicitly.

    I hope this helps.

    Paul

  3. Mark on Thu, 8th Mar 2007 4:29 pm

    4. Paul,

    It comes down to the purpose of this document. This document was designed to answer WHY from a religious aspect. The HOW is still being worked on by the Green Team. We’re getting some rough estimates together to propose for our church’s upcoming capital campaign (things like solar panels on the roof, better use of setback thermostats, changing lighting to compact flourescent and more efficient flourescent, possibly using biodiesel for the oil furnace, etc). Once the time crunch for that effort is complete, we’ll move onto education.

    As far as force, I don’t think we’re headed that way. We see environmental stewardship as a voluntary thing – in much the same way that Christianity is voluntary. It’s the right thing to do, and everybody should do it, but we’re not looking to coerce. Instead we’re concentrating on being a positive example to the community.

  4. Paul Schmidt on Fri, 9th Mar 2007 12:19 pm

    5. Mark,

    Great! I did not know if you were writing this for the purpose of political action or for your own voluntary action. I applaud your efforts and wish you the best.

    I do have problems with many of the PCUSA political actions that never answer the question I asked. The justification looks much like your report, with the conclusion being that we must take political action.

    Paul

  5. A Little Busy : Mark Time on Tue, 20th Jan 2009 1:24 pm

    6. […] of next week (April 13) to get my presentation together.  I have 15 minutes to present what is in my paper.  I’m planning a powerpoint presentation with the verses, and I’ll talk to the […]

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