Posted on Nov 14, 2007

Is God Green?
by Maria Fisher
14 November 2007

It’s no question that the environment and caring for the environment are of top priority in voters’ minds as the 2008 American elections draws near. Issues like the fight for cleaner air, as well as the continued work in Louisiana in response to Hurricane Katrina are mentioned almost-as-often by today’s candidates as the War in Iraq.

All this talk makes for controversy, naturally. But one of the biggest debates going on in America today regarding the environment – and just how top-priority it should be – is not among presidential candidates, but rather among the nation’s conservative Christian leaders.

Traditionally, America’s Christian movement has spoken much more loudly on human rights issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, than it has on the environment. Lately, though, a movement has sprung up among American Christians that has been dubbed the ‘creation care’ movement.

Creation Care: God and the Environment
Care of Creation, Inc. – a self-proclaimed “Christian environmental organization” – highlights the Christian reasoning behind ‘creation care’ in its mission statement, saying it seeks to “love God’s world by working with and through His people to care for and heal God’s hurting creation.”

Reverend Richard Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), cites a Bible verse that he believes mandates ‘creation care’: “God says in his own word in Genesis 2:15, ‘Care and protect [the earth],’” he told MSNBC last week.

Cizik’s program, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), recently distributed an Evangelical Leaders Survey posing the question “What are the top issues of concern to American evangelicals today?” ‘Creation Care’ was one of the top five responses, according to the NAE Web site.

And on November 6, the NAE officially joined forces with the Environmental Protection Agency to launch the Energy Star for Congregations Program, which, according to the Christian Post, is the first ever “religious-government partnership to tackle energy consumption in religious facilities.”

The Energy Star for Congregations Program will help churches to “more easily improve stewardship of [their] budget’s energy dollars, and of the earth by reducing energy waste and energy costs, while protecting the environment,” according to Energy Star’s Web site. The program encourages churches to, among other things, purchase ‘Energy-Star-qualified’ electronics, appliances and heating and cooling products.

The historical joining of the NAE and the EPA on this project was commemorated in Minnesota by Reverend Cizik, who said that if churches (“that’s Protestant, Catholic, Muslim mosques, everybody,”) were indeed to learn to function in a more ‘energy-efficient’ matter, they would be helping not only the environment but themselves – saving an estimated $200 million a year to use toward ministerial purposes (“such as evangelism”) instead of electric bills.

Cizik also believes that the environment should be equally important to the church as other, more traditionally ‘Christian’ priorities. In a recent statement to MSNBC, he said “I think [the environment] should be on par with all the other issues, like abortion and same-sex marriage. When you think about it … hundreds of millions of people around the globe are already being impacted by climate change.”

A not-so-green controversy

This relatively new movement of ‘environmentally-minded’ Christians is not without controversy, however. Several influential Christian leaders have called for the firing of Reverend Cizik since the Spring. While much of the media has assumed that this is because of a division in the church as to whether the environment should be an object of its care, that does not seem to be the case. There is hardly a man or woman left on the planet – including those in Christian leadership – that will (at least publicly) deny the fact that the environment is in trouble. The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, a ‘green’-minded group of US evangelical leaders who are NOT members of the NAE, wrote a letter recently to the president of the NAE calling for Cizik’s removal – but not because he cares about the environment; because he does not have the knowledge to be speaking on such issues – and especially to be speaking on behalf of his entire organization, they said. The following is an excerpt of the letter, which was signed :

*“The liberal media has given wide coverage to Cizik’s views and has characterized them as being representative of the NAE member organizations.*

We, the undersigned, want to state our position again. We believe the NAE lacks the expertise to take a position on global warming. That is the essential point of this letter. Richard Cizik also lacks this expertise, and to our knowledge, he has never been asked to speak for the rest of the Association in such areas of controversy.”

The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (those calling for Cizik’s removal), according to its Web site, is “a coalition of religious leaders, clergy, theologians, scientists, academics, and other policy experts committed to bringing a proper and balanced Biblical view of stewardship to the critical issues of environment and development.” The Alliance claims to support all principles of the Cornwall Declaration, a statement issued in 1999 by the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship that centered on what it called the “moral necessity of ecological stewardship.” The Declaration was signed by such Evangelical leaders as Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family ministries; Dr. Charles Colson, chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries; and Rev. Dr. Alexander A. Di Lella, Biblical Studies professor at the Catholic University of America.

The Cornwall Declaration states that while many view humans simply as God-permitted “users” of the earth (a reportedly common belief among Christian groups), they are in actuality called upon to be responsible “stewards.”

And perhaps the two most environmentally-centered of the Declaration’s “principled aspirations” are: “We aspire to a world in which right reason (including sound theology and the careful use of scientific methods) guides the stewardship of human and ecological relationships;” and “We aspire to a world in which advancements in agriculture, industry, and commerce not only minimize pollution and transform most waste products into efficiently used resources but also improve the material conditions of life for people everywhere.”

Several of the evangelical leaders who advocated the removal of Dr. Cizik from his vice presidential position at the NAE publicly claim to be in agreement with this Declaration, which openly and proactively confronts the ‘green’ issues of today. They are calling for Cizik’s removal, however, because of his lack of expertise to speak on these issues (especially on behalf of his organization).

We all care
It would seem that the many evidenced movements of our earth towards an abused and sickly environment, are now of everyone’s concern – not only the Liberals, but also the Conservatives. And while there remains controversy, traditionally Conservative Christians – those who support Reverend Cizik and even those who do not – are beginning to show publicly that they, too, are starting to think twice before they leave the water running. ☺