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Going green with God
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Environmentalism has been around since long before the term was invented, going back to pagan earth worship that predates the time of Christ. In the seventies, we saw the birth of the modern environmentalist movement and the celebration of a new holiday, Earth day. In the eighties, we were bombarded with warnings regarding the earth’s supposedly fragile layers of atmosphere called the ozone, and the harmful risks of chlorofluorocarbons. In the nineties, recycling saw a huge boon and was perceived as an individual’s duty to save the planet. And now in the current century we see the environmentalist's biggest push in the going green movement in corporate America.
The fear behind environmentalism is that given enough time and enough abuse, that the human race can eventually destroy our own planet though carelessness and neglect. Or at least alter the face of the planet to such a degree as to make parts of it uninhabitable. But does mankind truly have that kind of power? Could we alter the face of the earth forever? Could we actually destroy the earth?
First, we have to acknowledge a question of ownership. Behind this fear that we might destroy the planet is an assumption that the earth is in fact ours to destroy. Certainly the human race governs the earth, administers to it, and has great knowledge of it. But it is not ours in an absolute sense. The earth belongs to him who created it, and it is he alone that determines its fate. Mankind is arrogant to assume he has such powers of destruction, when the earth is clearly preserved outside of man’s intervention. And God has foretold what will happen to the earth, as he has destroyed it once before by flood. He has given us the promise of the rainbow as a sign that he will never destroy the earth again. Fear of rogue asteroids colliding with the earth, nuclear war, ozone depletion, overpopulation, killer viruses and any other sort of annihilation that we can conceive of is held in check by this simple promise.
It may be vain to attempt to save the planet, but that does not mean we should not keep it tidy. The earth is not ours but it is under our stewardship, and in that sense we are responsible for it. We should be responsible with our waste and its byproducts. It may be prudent to conserve natural resources. We should treat all life on the planet with the dignity it deserves. If we go green, we go green with God and with the understanding that it is he and he alone who preserves all things.
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