Christian Environmentalism

Christians - and Catholics in particular - are frequently accused of being obsessed with only one issue - abortion. We are accused of overlooking a host of other problems plaguing the planet to focus on an issue which should really be a private matter between a woman and her doctor.

Maybe they have a point. It's like that pesky Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. crowing about civil rights in the '60's when there were other pressing issues such as the generation gap, the population bomb and the new ice age (as climate change was described back then).

While the slaughter of 1.5 million innocent lives a year is hard to ignore, there are in fact other social issues which demand the attention and energy of Christians. One of these is the environment.

For Christians of a conservative stripe, talk of the environment is a turn off (to use a '60's phrase). It is too trendy an issue, conjuring up nightmares of hippies or the granite face of Al Gore scolding us for leaving the car engine running while we jump into the Gas and Sip for a pack of camels.

The rest of us may be tired of the scare tactics of the global warming debate or soured by the hypocrisy of the rich buying "carbon offsets" instead of changing their behavior.

Nonetheless, concern for the environment is as ancient a Christian virtue as any other. The first paragraphs of the Bible describe the human vocation as stewards or caretakers of the Earth God created. The pages which follow describe the glory of God revealed in nature from the majesty of mountain ranges to the mystery of the ocean's murky depths. Environmentalism is as Christian a calling as care for the poor and is a key component of the Church's social teaching.

One often hears Christians claim that there is no need for the Church to weigh in on environmental issues because there is an abundance of concern for ecology in the secular culture and media. We need, rather, to endeavor to keep the life issues such as abortion and euthanasia on the world's moral compass.

However, I would argue that it is precisely our commitment to human life issues that requires us to be involved in environmentalism. First of all, a healthy environment is essential to human flourishing. Without clean drinking water and fresh air, humans cannot survive. The poor are especially susceptible to the effects of pollution. Our concern for them means that we have to use less of the world's resources and press industry to discharge less pollutants into the air and water.

Secondly, the environmental debate as undertaken by the secular media and culture is growing increasingly anti-human. Women and men, because we exhale carbon dioxide, are considered pollutants. One of the stated goals of many environmental groups is to reduce population throughout the world. As they grow in influence, aid to poor countries will be increasing tied to population control. If a country's birthrate exceeds a certain level, funding will be reduced or cut off. As we have seen in China and are soon to see in Africa, this will lead to horrific human rights abuses such as forced sterilizations and abortions (there's that pesky issue again).

Because of our tradition of caring for the Earth and because of our commitment to life issues, we Christians must not only take part in the environmental movement but take the lead. We must make the case that human beings are good for the environment and that human flourishing is not antithetical to the flourishing of plants and animals. Otherwise human life will be sacrificed at the altar of Gaia, and the poor will bear the brunt of it.