- July 19th, 2008, 1:16 pm
#186146
Here's an interesting perspective on environmentalism and Evangelicals from Christianity Today ...
I am not endorsing everything in the article. But it does give pause for consideration.
Second Coming EcologyHere is where the heart of the story kicks in ...
We care for the environment precisely because God will create a new earth.
David Neff | posted 7/18/2008 09:37AM
Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, my children were leaving the little Presbyterian church in College Place, Washington, where they had been attending a program. They looked up at the sky, and a verse they had read in the Bible leapt to their minds. Jesus said that in the last days, the sun would be darkened, and the moon would not give its light. The sky was so preternaturally dark that my girls thought that the end of the world was upon us. They joined hands and ran the several blocks to our home.
Too Future-Minded to be of Present Good?Click Here for Full Story
It's often said that many Christians—particularly evangelical Christians—don't care for the environment precisely because they are so focused on end times. If God is going to come and destroy all this anyway, why should we invest our energies in preserving it? A frequently cited example is James Watt, an evangelical believer and former Secretary of the Interior during the Reagan administration. Here is one account: "James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'"
To many minds, this succinct quote effectively sums up the attitudes of evangelicals, except for one crucial fact: James Watt didn't say that. This oft-repeated quote comes from a journalist who didn't bother to confirm something that he read on the Internet.
I am not endorsing everything in the article. But it does give pause for consideration.