Keith Drury wrote a GREAT post entitled “Abortion movement becomes GREEN movement” and in this post he talks about the idea that he is suspecting that environmentalism will replace the anti-abortion movement in the next decade. I’m confident that the comments that Keith receives on this post will be ALL over the board from Boomers who just refuse to believe this is a good thing -  to uninformed but well-intended individuals who can’t see past the secular version of the environmental movement -  to people like me who TOTALLY agree with him! Whatever your position – here’s my thoughts – I think he’s right on target and this was my response to his post!

KEITH!!!!! YOU GET IT – YOU TOTALLY GET IT!!! I had to read your post a couple of times to make sure that I actually read it correctly! I don’t think you are an early adapter of this thinking as well – I first heard about this concept from a Christian movement last year when I read the book “Serve God, Save the Planet” by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD. While I was starting to go green, that book really helped put the pieces together for me!

Here’s what appeals to me about the Green movement. It’s not necessarily a Green movement as much as it is a Creation movement. I don’t care at ALL about the political agenda that the Green movement has. Global Warming could be happening – but that’s not my reasoning for taking care of the environment! What I care about is that fact God has given us this place to live and to dwell upon for a short while. But instead of caring for our earth and working to make it better for future generations, I see that this creation that God has given us is being abused. I figure that if God gave Adam charge of the earth – then it still applies to me today and because of that I need to be responsible with my actions.

Yes – I recycle FANATICALLY. Yes – I take my own bags to the grocery store. Yes – my wife and I only have one paid-off car (in South Dakota during winter – it’s definitely a necessity!). Yes – I use CFL lights in my home. YES – I freeze during the winter and sweat during the summer for the sake of a few degrees on my thermostat. YES – I’m planning on commuting the 5 miles to and from work this summer on a bicycle so that we can save money on gas. YES – my wife and I INTENTIONALLY purchased a home that was highly efficient with a footprint that was small enough for my wife and I to live beneath our means. Those are choices that we have intentionally made because we want to be better stewards of the world that God has given us.

Why do I do this? Because, Keith, we live in a flat world – and I’m not just talking about the book by Thomas L. Friedman. Our world is flat in the sense that the example that I set by the slight uncomfortableness of bringing my own bags to the grocery store to cut down on my plastic bag consumption is NOTHING compared to the miles that people walk in Africa just to have clean drinking water. Just because I live in America does NOT mean that I’m entitled to live in such a way that other countries and people are DRASTICALLY affected by my mass consumerism! Case in point – look at the pollution that is having such a catastrophic affect on the land and rivers in China and then when you’re in Wal-Mart to get what ever convenience you MUST have, look at where it’s being made! Shocking and sobering!

Gotta finish up on this because I could write forever on this post, but I would go as far to say that if you are not environmentally conscious – you’ve got no business calling yourself a Christian. If we can’t take care of the very world that we live in – how can we ever expect to take care of each other??? After all, How we take care of the Creation tells us how we feel about the Creator – (I think Rob Bell said that). That’s my thoughts!