Christians and Environmental Stewardship

Christians, the world over, have been given the important task of stewardship of God’s creation. The problem is, Christians and non-Christians alike have become so driven to make money that concern for the earth and it’s well-being have fallen by the wayside. As Rich Deem states, “As Christians, we should be doing everything Jesus commanded, including taking care of our families and all the resources He has given to us.” (Deem, 2009) This phenomenon has been going on since the Industrial Revolution. Urbanization is a huge culprit of environmental destruction and those who remain in rural areas to farm the land are often overrun by the industrialization of even farming. This problem continues to be ever-increasing, as society moves more and more to a self-centered viewpoint and acts solely for its own interests. There are many changes that need to be made to combat the problem of the desecration of all that God has entrusted to humankind.

The first thing that needs to be realized is that God created the world and considered its creation “good.” This is often overlooked, even by Christian believers, who sometimes only look at the verse that says we are to “subdue” the earth. (Gen. 1:28, NIV) It needs to be realized that subdue and abuse do not mean the same thing and humankind has come a long way beyond subduing and has crossed the line into abusing the earth. The earth was created to allow humankind to be sustained with plenty of food, good water, and all needs met. Instead, we have stripped entire forests in a matter of hours in order to meet our own interests in the building of homes that are far above and beyond the meeting of our needs. We blast entire mountains to build roads for our chemical fume spewing vehicles so that, w...

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...ronment in which we live. Even though these steps can be taken by anybody, Christians should feel that these steps are very important in preserving the creation that has been entrusted to them. There should be a feeling of urgency in every Christian to protect that over which we are given stewardship. No one has stated this better than Berry when he said, “What I have been talking about is the possibility of renewing human respect for this earth and all the good, useful, and beautiful things that come from it.” (Muller & Wiener, 2009. p. 336)

Works Cited

Berry, W. “In distrust of movements” from Citizenship Papers.

Deem, R. (2009) Is Christianity anti-environmental? Retrieved from: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/environment.html

Muller, G. and Wiener, H. (2009). To the point: Reading and writing short arguments. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.