Environmentalism (a WordWatch) Paul Grimmond

Ian Carmichael07/02/2010 03:43 PM

Is Kel a “fount of wisdom” or a “font of wisdom”? Perhaps he could tell us.

Unless you’re of the Nick Minchin School of Climate Theory, this doesn’t adequately describe our society.  I doubt many of our leaders (let alone ordinary people) are either Christians or environmentalists.  They’re the same hedonistic materialists they were 20 years ago, though I’m sure there are parts of the soggy middle class who feel all spiritual and superior when they plant a tree. Kel probably knows them through the ABC social club.  But these people are probably less serious about environmental issues than (say) Landcare, the Australian Plants Society etc.  Personally, I see opportunity:  people can see there is something wrong with the world, and accept that there are morals beyond having a good time (hence Fair Trade coffee and FSC timber), and that ethical behaviour costs more.  There’s plenty of room for Christian ideas to be introduced there.  Try that with a merchant banker’s world view!

Like all idolatries, environmentalism takes something good and treats it as God. In doing so, by trying to make something good into the centre of life, it ends up distorting all of life and ultimately, failing to love even that which it tries to worship. But the solution is not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, but to show how loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength gives us a <i>greater</i> capacity to love our neighbour and to respect the beauty and integrity of the living spaces of the planet. Christians ought to be more humane than the humanists, more wealthy (in the things that matter) than the capitalists, more concerned about glory than the celebrities, more free than the liberals and more green than the greenies!

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Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.

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