About a year ago, bumper stickers started appearing on cars that said, “What Would Jesus Drive?” They pointed to an obvious irony in the attitude of your average gas-guzzling, energy-oblivious, supporting-big-money-polluters-with-their-votes Christian family. But a growing movement among evangelicals in America is focused on stopping global warming and saving the planet, as part of being good stewards to God’s creation. In places such as the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boise, Idaho, the faithful go on pilgrimages of trash-collecting and spread the gospel of recycling.
Traditional Christian values include… well, a lot of things that don’t get much attention these days, like “judge not lest ye be judged” and “that which you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me…” but in America’s sweeping evangelical mega-movement, traditional Christian values have come to mean preventing abortions and same-sex marriages. In fact, when Focus on the Family leader James Dobson got wind of this new greener godliness, he admonished evangelicals for getting off message.
But while the church’s old establishment isn’t cozying up to the air it breathes, people like Tri Robinson of the Vineyard Fellowship and Calvin DeWitt of the Evangelical Environmental Network see a new concern among the pious about things like pollution and wildlife protection, one that is leading them to reconsider how they live, work, vote, and practice their faith. In fact, the biggest stumbling block for the majority of born-agains may be one of terminology.
Dewitt said evangelicals will not call themselves environmentalists. “They are going to call themselves pro-life,” he said. “But pro-life means life in the Arctic, the life of the atmosphere, the life of all the people under the influence of climate change.”
Okay. Fine. I don’t care. Call it pro-life. Call it creation care. I’ll give you a few more to consider: global garden-tending, planet-Christing, God-greening, envirofundamentalism, and saving the doves. But it’s about time. After all, what is the Endangered Species Act, if not the modern equivalent of Noah’s Ark? Noah only kept two of every species, but then again, he only had a boat instead of the whole planet, and just keeping two is a little risky, in case the couple has a lover’s spat (let’s not talk about the unicorns…)