Remembering the E-Word

As a child, you could not have funneled more church into my life if you had injected it via an IV. My dad was a pastor, and as follows, going to church and living as church was a non-negotiable part of what it meant to be alive.

Despite a lifetime of constant church exposure, though, I bet I can count the number of times I heard the e-word—“environment”—raised in church on one hand. Maybe on one finger. (Even then, I am struggling to come up with an example.)

Church was a place that put salvation “up in lights.” The Romans Road, cheesy tracts, beaded bracelets that told the story of Christ, WWJD paraphernalia, the list of tools used to put salvation in the limelight is as long as the line outside the women’s restroom.

Salvation was individual-centered. One person, one prayer equaled one saved, one baptized, and—hopefully—one new addition to the congregation’s phone directory.

Salvation lead back to the life of Christ—the cross, the resurrection, the ascension—the most essential components for understanding God’s intentions for the planet.

However, salvation, at least in my case, never included a subplot that mentioned the environment. Not a reference, not even a footnote. Possibly because believing or not believing in acid rain does not make or break your eternity.

As I grew older, though, and internalized what most consider to be the central themes of salvation, I began to more seriously consider some ideas floating around Christianity’s margins. What, for example, does it mean to “live out” evidence of God’s salvation in my life? And, with that, I began asking, “How would a church who has been transformed by salvation function in my community?”

In the process of trying to envision this actively transformed church, I had no intention of surfacing issues related to the environment. Tree huggers or PETA people had always seemed like they had their own separate “gig” apart from the deacons, choir, and Sunday School crowd.

But one day, as I was standing inside what I would call a community-conscious store in Ann Arbor, the question jumped out to me from the barrage of products made from recyclable materials.

I find myself admiring the thoughtfulness of the shop owner, who had obviously been quite intentional about educating herself and others on environmental issues. And in the midst of my admiration, I noted growing awareness that I would make a pretty sad applicant for a world caretaker.

At one time in my life, I had actually memorized what God made on each day of Creation. The value of that, perhaps, has been temporarily lost for years, though, since I never bothered engaging the text. Never wondered whether I was supposed to play a role in safeguarding the six-day installment of world contents.

After all, Genesis clearly sets up humans as the main characters of the world’s drama. Man is made to rule over the fish, birds, and livestock—in fact, over all the earth. The specific words say to be “fruitful” to “multiply”; to “fill the earth” and “subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28)

Without even breaking out my Strong’s Concordance, I had a distinct sense, call it a primitive inkling, that God was not envisioning a human race who tossed their natural resources down the garbage disposal and hypnotically ignored the decay of their surroundings.

Maybe you’re not on this extreme, but I am pretty close to it at times.

Don’t get me wrong, in walking down this path—in suggesting that caref or the world is part of our larger theology as Christ followers—I’m not advocating that the environment should be somehow incorporated into the Sinner’s Prayer. Dear God, I understand that I am a sinner, I repent from my sins, please come into my life and make me a keeper of the environment…

I’m just saying that someone who is internalizing and living out the hope of Jesus would probably take interest in the well being of mankind, and thus, the maintenance of its global setting.

While I plan on reviewing more Scripture passages and generating more alternatives along these lines, I have put together a basic “Starter Plan” for people who know their environmental contribution is a “zero” or perhaps a negative number (i.e. you’re not cutting your junk mail into scrap paper to use for future phone messages). My Starter Plan doesn’t call for instantaneous, absolute conversion—buying an environmentally friendly t-shirt, using all natural deodorant, or chaining yourself to a tree in a remote rainforest to protest the possible extinction of a rare species of mosquito.

But it is a solid, rational stage one spot to begin saying—not with your mouth, but with your life—that this world and its inhabitants matter to me because they matter to my God.

1. Subscribe to a magazine or join an environmental organization. By doing so, you will not only financially support environmentally friendly causes, but you will also gain a steady incoming stream of ideas for promoting world care. Most magazine subscriptions, such as E: The Environmental Magazine, are just $14.95 for a year subscription and memberships to organizations from the World Wildlife Fund to the Sierra Club range from $15-25 per year.

2. Reduce paper waste. If you could simply eliminate a year’s work junk mail alone, you would save the equivalent of one and a half trees. Write to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, 11 West 42nd St., PO Box 3861, New York, NY 10163-3861 and ask to be taken off junk mail lists.

3. Start new kitchen and bathroom habits. Use reusable, washable plastic containers instead of overusing tinfoil or plastic wrap. Substitute used grocery bags for wastebasket liners. Grab a rag or cloth to wipe up spills instead of always relying on paper towels. Experiment with raising your fridge temp only ten degrees (this can reduce its energy use by 25%). And install a $10-20 low-flow faucet aerator or showerhead that reduces water flow by 50%—if only 10,000 households installed them, it would save 33 million gallons of water per year.

4. Shed some light. One fifth of America’s energy is used by lighting alone. And, obviously, the more power we use, the more polluting emissions plants generate. Fluorescent lightbulbs (approximately $7 each) last ten times as long and reduce your energy bill by $30 compared to traditional bulbs.

5. Give yourself some gas relief. Do you live near a co-worker? Do other parents in your neighborhood drive their children to the same school? Are you and others from your church or community group heading to the same concert or event? Look for ways to share rides in your day to day routines. Also, keep lists handy so that you can update items you need to replenish—ketchup, toiletpaper, white socks etc. This will help you cut back on frequent trips to the store. And don’t forget to walk or bike when possible!

6. Sign up for local recycling pick up or buy inexpensive containers and drop them off at a recycling center along your daily driving route. Separating glass, plastics, and papers into the corresponding bins—as you use them—will take just seconds a day. You can find one site to look for recycling centers here.

7. Make some simple shopping choices. Choose a hand-pumped can rather than an aerosol f there is one available. (ChloroFluoroCarbons in aerosols hurt our ozone layer.) Opt for rechargeable batteries. And rely on brands that are made from recycled materials. Did you know, for example, that you can purchase toilet paper made from 100% recycled fibers at Office Max?

8. Reuse what you can. Instead of setting used clothing or household items by the curb, give them away, hold a garage sale, or donate them to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or another resale shop.