Why Many Have Neglected the Call to “Tend the Garden.”

WHOSE AGENDA?

Many Christians perceive the environmental movement as a liberal agenda.
We often assume that those who champion the environment also champion other liberal issues. Environmentalists are falsely stereotyped as militant extremists who push their agendas in non-biblical ways. The Church has resisted environmental issues because we have watched angry demonstrations and negative behavior. These perceptions have been used to successfully polarize people against one another for the past several decades. Christians are commissioned to take God’s love to all, yet we often resist those with motivations that stem from experiences other than biblical. We have wrongly turned away from issues for which we should have taken personal responsibility.

Likewise, liberals often perceive the Church as anti-environment. This perception is often due to the lack of acknowledgement and promotion by the Church for Christians to be active environmental stewards. As a result, liberals wrongly deny the idea of Christianity, calling it irrelevant. In order for healing to begin, these attitudes and perceptions must change.

Many of today’s pastors are baby boomers with varying backgrounds regarding this issue. Most have one thing in common: they were college age during the 60’s and 70’s. They experienced the environmental movement of that era, a movement that was equated with heavy drug use, immorality and “free love.”

Some pastors genuinely wanted to make the world a better place. However, in the 80’s, many of the most outspoken comrades on the issue abandoned the values once held so dear. There was a lack of authenticity, resulting in hypocrisy. Each group’s fervor had been based on their own ideals instead of Truth and their cause crumbled. Left with disillusionment over such a passionate issue, many not only rejected the environmentalists, but the environment.

Our perceptions were wrong and it’s time we leave behind our cynicism and return to God’s commission -- to appreciate and be responsible stewards of His creation, and in the process, to show God’s unconditional love to others.

As Christians we are to operate in what we refer to as the “Jesus Style”. When we gave our life to Christ, we committed ourselves to be Christ-like. We are called to live in the upside-down kingdom of God, where everything is opposite from the world. In this kingdom the first is the last and the greatest is the least. We are to love those who hurt us and turn the other cheek. Jesus told us the greatest in His kingdom is the servant of all. To be Christ-like is to be compassionate and others-centered. We must cease our non-constructive attitudes and take responsibility for the world we all share together.