Our Church and the Environment

Earthkeeping: Questions and Answers

What is "earthkeeping"?

Earthkeeping means taking care of God’s gift of creation--the planet and the plants and animals that live on it. The term refers to God’s command to till and "keep" the earth in Genesis 2:15. This passage tells us that "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to till it and keep it". To "keep" the earth is to care for it as God cares for us, as in the benediction we hear so often: "The Lord bless you and keep you" (Numbers 6:24). Earthkeeping addresses environmental issues--but it does so from a particular perspective. Earthkeeping means attending to environmental concerns in a spirit of love and concern for the object of our care--the creation--just as God lovingly cares for and "keeps" us.

What makes the environment a church issue?

In addition to the call found in Genesis 2:15, the church addresses environmental issues as a response to both aspects of what Jesus himself called the two greatest commandments: "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind," and "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:36-40). We love God by appreciating, respecting, and caring for God’s incredible gift of creation, and we love our neighbors as ourselves by working to preserve a world that is able to sustain and nurture all people.

Isn't environmentalism a secular issue?

There are secular organizations that work on environmental issues, but this may also be said about any of the other issues which the church addresses: hunger, homelessness, domestic abuse, and poverty, to name a few. The fact that others are joining us in this work does not preclude the church from hearing and answering its call to minister to those in need and to tend and serve God’s creation.

Jesus didn’t talk about the environment. Why should the church?

Throughout its existence, the church has concerned itself with multiple issues that were not mentioned in the Bible, but which have everything to do with living out our loving response to God’s grace by loving and serving God and one another. Domestic abuse, abortion, racism, and capital punishment are just a few of the issues that are not specifically mentioned by Jesus, but which we address as a church community. The concerns of this church have never been limited to those issues about which Jesus had something specific to say. Just because Jesus did not talk about the environment does not mean the church should not.

Doesn't the Bible tell humans to subdue and dominate the earth?

Humans have a special place in God’s creation, but this position implies responsibility to care for--not a license to destroy--what we have been entrusted with. In Genesis 1:28, God says to humankind, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Many people have interpreted this to mean that humans have a divine right to do as we please with the resources and creatures of our natural world. However, this verse is better understood in the context of the rest of the creation story which surrounds it.

The initial use of the language of "dominion" is tied to our identity as being made in the image of God, and our exercise of that dominion should be carried out in keeping with that identity. The language of Genesis 1:28 is an echo of the material that immediately precedes it in Genesis 1:26, material that describes how we are made in God’s image: "Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth" [italics added]. Our "dominion" over the earth should reflect the love, care, and graciousness with which God exercises dominion over us. Thus we are to care for creation in a loving way, not abuse and exploit it for our convenience and short-term gains. If we would exercise dominion in God’s image, we must look to God’s loving example.

What is the ELCA’s policy about environmentalism?

The ELCA has committed itself and its member churches to working toward a more just relationship with the environment. The ELCA has adopted a social statement, Caring for Creation, that describes the church’s official position about our response to the environmental crisis. The chapter, "What Does the ELCA Say About Earthkeeping?" describes the contents of this statement. The statement acknowledges that there is an environmental crisis, describes how human sinfulness has caused it, presents the church’s vision of what our relationship to the environment should be, expresses our hope for God’s renewal of creation, and calls us to be committed to working toward a more just relationship with other people and the environment.

Shouldn’t people be more important to the church than the environment?

The distinction between people and the environment is a false one. People cannot exist without the natural world--the air, water, soil, plants, and animals, and the ecological systems that tie us all together--and what we do to it has profound implications for our quality of life. Air, ground, and water pollution have direct health effects on individuals, which in turn can have dramatic economic, political, and emotional repercussions for those people and for our society. If global warming continues and sea levels rise, whole countries of people will be displaced. Deforestation in many countries not only destroys numbers of species, but also takes rural people who used to be able to live off their land and throws them into poverty, dependent upon urban cash-based economies. People who live under the ozone hole are prone to increased rates of cancer. Rather than being an issue separate from the concerns of people, the state of the environment has everything to with human life. The church should respond to the environmental crisis as fervently as it has responded to other human crises such as hunger, poverty, and homelessness.

Aren’t the real ministries of the church more important than the environment?

Caring for the environment is a "real" ministry, and is just as important a part of the mission of the church as any of the forms of ministry that we have traditionally taken for granted as being part of our call, such as feeding the hungry, alleviating poverty, caring for the sick, or doing prison ministry. The church has always had to balance the resources it puts into its various activities. The question is not whether to include earthkeeping as part of the work of the church, but how.

The earth is merely a stopping point on our way to our true spiritual home with God. Why should we be so concerned with saving it?

As Lutheran Christians, we attend to environmental concerns in response to God’s loving gift of creation, and in response to God’s command to love one another--not after we die, but here and now. We also believe, as Luther taught, that when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, "Thy kingdom come," we pray that the Kingdom of God would come, not only in the end times, but daily in this life. We also pray that we may be active participants in bringing in that kingdom, even as we know that it comes not through our doing, but God’s. Our "true spiritual home" is indeed with God--but God is with us now and throughout eternity. Our call is to live and work according to God’s will, with God’s help, now.

We can’t save the environment. Shouldn’t we just leave it in God's hands?

We depend upon God for everything, and in this sense, we alone cannot "save" the earth. However, this does not mean that we do nothing. God has entrusted us with keeping and serving the earth, as God keeps and serves us, and God works through us, helping us to act. God has given us the Word, love, reason, and technology as guides for how to live according to God’s will. At the same time, we realize the limitations placed upon us by human sinfulness. We live in the assurance that God repeatedly releases us from the grip of sin and renews us in our capacity to live according to God’s will. We cannot do this alone, but we do not give up in despair. Rather, we respond to the call to act for the care of the environment, as in all things, with God.

Won’t technology get us out of the environmental crisis?

We have no guarantee that future technology will be able to correct the environmental damage we have already done. We do already possess some cleanup technology, and certain other existing technology can be helpful in preventing future environmental damage. However, we often fail to utilize existing preventive technology, such as: energy-saving lights and windows, recycling services and recycled products, nontoxic cleaners, and other low-impact items. Prevention is always better than cure, and it would be unwise to depend upon remediative technology that may never be developed. We should act now to reduce, not merely correct, our impact on the environment, by correcting our environmentally destructive ways and by utilizing fully the preventive technology we already have at hand.

We recycle and compost already. Isn't that enough?

Recycling and composting are valuable and important, and anyone who practices them should be commended and thanked. However, they alone are not enough. The environmental crisis goes far beyond the issue of landfill space, and involves water, land, and air pollution, global warming, habitat destruction, ozone depletion, the loss of topsoil, and much more. Likewise, our environmental impact as congregations and as individuals goes far beyond the garbage we throw away, and becoming environmentally responsible must involve more than simply addressing that problem. No one can do it all, but it is important to resist the idea that any one activity can ever be "enough."

How can we make time to work on a new issue when our resources are already overextended?

Remember that earthkeeping is part of God’s call to the church, not a "new" issue, and include it in your congregation’s process of discernment as you allocate your resources of time and talents. Each congregation faces the continual challenge of using its resources faithfully and wisely in service to God and others, and no single church can take on everything. You may decide that now is not the time for you to take on a time-consuming project such as planting a community garden. However, earthkeeping does not always mean adding additional activities. It can also mean changing the way we do things that are already a part of church life, through such actions as including the creation in the prayers of the church, using live plants to decorate the altar, making double-sided copies, or holding an adult Sunday school course on earthkeeping. We cannot "make" additional time for earthkeeping or any other work of the church. However, we can acknowledge earthkeeping as part of that work and be creative in finding realistic and appropriate ways to practice it within the lives of our individual congregations.

What can we do?

There are countless ways for a congregation to practice earthkeeping, ranging from including the creation in our prayers to organizing a whole community to solve a local environmental problem. This handbook provides concrete suggestions for how congregations can practice earthkeeping, describes what earthkeeping resources are available within the ELCA, and points toward additional resources that will be of help to congregations. What your congregation chooses to do will depend upon your congregation’s level of interest in and commitment to earthkeeping, as well as the amount of time and energy people have to give to it. Choose activities that are appropriate to the situation of your congregation. Above all, remember why you are engaged in earthkeeping--out of love for God, God’s creation, and the other people with whom we share responsibility for tilling and keeping this beautiful, fragile earth.

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