It can be activists from within the church or from without, but sometimes there can be a sense of frustration that Christians do not express the urgency and importance with which others view environmental and climate issues. 'Christian' and 'conservative' can seem to have little to do with 'conservation' to many.
Let me suggest some reasons why Christians do not seem to take up this cause as readily as other folk.
Motivation
No sense of Angst
For all the talk of science, the climate change movement is driven by emotion. The call is to act now, not to study more. When a hurricane strikes a city, or a drought is prolonged, the secular mind seeks an explanation. For most of the last century the modernist era has been characterised by a scientific optimism, "We can understand everything. We can fix anything." Continued natural disasters, brought into the lounge room by modern technology and somehow more real in our global village, smash this scientific hubris and leave the contemporary person looking for an explanation. Climate change is an explanation that fits many of the preconceptions of this age.
No feeling of Guilt
Western culture has largely given in to consumerism, hedonism, and materialism. Consider this: our information networks are funded by advertising. Our media exists by selling things. Consumerism is a cancer with its tendrils intertwined in the very nerves of our culture. We want these things but part of us knows that much of it is rubbish and most of it unnecessary. (would it be fair to say the mascot of our times is the toy from the McDonalds happy meal) So we have a lingering sense of guilt at these things and no way to express that guilt. No way to opt out of the consumerism and corporate treadmill. The green movement does seem to offer an alternative, or at least a salve to our conscience. Christians do not share this guilt in the same way as Christians stand apart from the culture of consumerism and hedonism. Christians also have effective ways to express guilt through repentance and transform their own and others' lives.
(Consider how much blaming and guilt was a part of the recent Copenhagen conference)
No desperation
For many folk there is a real fear that earth, our home, may be destroyed by climate change. Words like 'destroyed' and 'unliveable' are used repeatedly. Such destruction is a disaster because the materialist has no other home. The materialist must back away from death hissing and spitting for he has no other life. The Christian, however, does not feel the same sense of attachment to this earth. Christians know the earth is no true home, Our world is cursed and in an epileptic fit it rolls and crushes us as we live on its back. We are strangers wandering through this land, and Christians look forward to a new earth (both continuous and discontinuous to this one) in which the troubles of this earth will be healed. But more importantly we know this world rests in God's hands and our lives are in his will. Knowing the creator for the kind and merciful benefactor he is, we are more at rest in his world.
Perspective
Human Wisdom has limitations
Christians are not surprised to find things outside our explanation. Modernists believed that science could fix everything. This is a hubris which has begun to erode (consider chaos theory and weather prediction). Panic has replaced this confidence. But Christians are less confident of the ability of mankind to fix the problems in the world (droughts, storms, floods). Rather like the government borrowing money to fix the credit crisis precipitated by their intervention, we have seen that often the solution causes a new and worse problem. Is an ETS that taxes only the people who actually make things and throws money at the African leader who yells the loudest actually going to be a positive change? Christians are also less sure of the ability of mankind to so drastically affect the world. Does anybody know the actual concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? How significant it is in the atmosphere. 0.038%. Less than a twentieth of one percent.
Distrust of the Main Stream Media
The main stream media is driven by advertising and by ideology. Advertising is derived from ratings. Ratings are achieved through dramatisation and sensation, rather than information alone. Christians have been on the receiving end of the media's shaping, editing and misrepresentation of information in order to present the best story. There are well worn storylines that a busy schedule forces harried reporters to rehash. The Tennant from Hell, The Heartless Conman, The Hypocritical Christian, The Climate Catastrophe. We all use clichés. But because Christians have known the facts and seen stories bundled into these shapes, they have a more pronounced distrust of the media than the man in the street. Because Christians come from a different ideology than the media which tends to be leftist, secularist, hedonist and materialist (consumerist) we see more clearly when a hatchet job has been done on the facts. Christians are less likely to swallow the media portrayal that !CLIMATE CHANGE IS MAN MADE AND DISASTROUS! and more inclined to do some research and read alternative sources. Yes, the average Christians has probably thought and read more about climate change than your average man in the street.
Suspicious of the World
Christians are aware that they do not see things in the same way as the rest of the world. We are aware that because we are called out of the world we no longer belong here, even though we still sojourn here. We are conscious of the anti-Christian rampages of some prominent scientists of recent times. The media and academics have taken to painting science and religion as enemies, is it little wonder that Christians begin to believe it. We have also seen the failure of science over recent years, we have more things, but more problems than ever before. And so Christians take a more wait and see attitude to scientific results. This is particularly appropriate when talking about a system as large and complicated as the atmosphere.
People Are more important than things
Christians cannot agree with many of the tenets of the environmental movement. While we feel for the dancing bears, we cannot see it nearly as important as the starving child in Bolivia. A central Christian conviction is that mankind carries the image of God in a way that animals do not. Man is the pinnacle of creation, we do not apologise for this. We do believe that man has a shepherding role over creation, to care and farm as he uses the materials of creation. But we cannot agree that a boy and a pig are equal in value. The misanthropic (man hating) bias of the green movement makes Christians cautious about jumping on the bandwagon. Is forced abortion a solution to climate change? No it's murder. But the climate extremists talk about such measures (obliquely), until these genocidal ideologues are shouted down and cast out of the environmental movement, for example, Christians will be wary of joining in.
Aware of the Superstitions
Believing in the true God and informed by his word, Christians are more able to penetrate the false religions and superstitions of the secularist. A secularist will happily talk about Gaia. A Christian will stumble, aware that Gaia is a goddess, that some greenies actually do mean that the earth is a living being who will actually be stirred to anger and purge herself of the plague of man in her wrath. For many environmentalist the earth is not a complex system, a huge garden spaceship, but a living being, a goddess. The pantheism and pop spiritualism that influences the environmental movement is seen for the cheap costume jewellery that is by the Bible reading Christian.
Answers
We Know the Solution
Supposing the conferences were actually to achieve something (other than posturing) and the taxes and schemes and protocols actually repaired whatever environmental damage has been done. People would still be knifed in the streets, taking drugs in their bedroom, walking out of their relationships. The world is damaged by sin, by it's rebellion against God. There will always be bad things happening because it's broken. We broke it. But Christians know what the solution is. God is fixing it. Jesus entered our suffering to end our suffering. We know God will fix all the troubles of the world when Jesus returns. The mudslides, the volcanos, the floods the droughts, the violence, the war.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to all the problems of the world, problems no carbon capping agreement can begin to address. Because we know the ultimate causes and the ultimate answers to the world's problems Christians are less enthusiastic about man made solutions that come from movement that do not even understand the basis of the problem.
We Are Already Part of the Solution
Christians are against consumerism. Christians live a creed which abhors greed, selfishness, destructiveness and naked individualism. Christians do not live by the, "Just doing my job." "As long as I make a buck" mantra that motivates so many of the cogs in the consumer machine. Instead Christians seek to give glory to God in how they live. Thanking him for his provision in the bountiful earth, but aware of the needs of others and less caught up with the trappings of status, culture and hedonism that fuels the consumption of the earth's resources. Christians are not going to make as much noise as environmentalists, but Christians already reduce (against greed) reuse (frugal and giving) and recycle (good shepherds). Christians give more to charities, do more as volunteers, and destroy less as consumers.
Christians know Jesus has brought God's love and peace into the world to restore it and Christians are already spreading that love and peace and harmony in the world. We are part of the solution, not the problem.
Conclusion
I think you begin to see that more than just explaining why Christians are slow to jump on the latest media trends and hot spots, I am advocating such a position. Christians indeed should be cautious. What need have we to follow the latest trends of media inflamed pop science when we have the eternal perspectives of God to consider. Better to wait and see and assist when the science actually has come to a reasoned and seasoned verdict, and in the mean time offer our solutions from the Scriptures and the character of God (that will be remarkably like what science comes up with when the main stream media spotlight moves onto the next hot topic and science is left alone to actually do science rather than sound bytes.)
Let me suggest some reasons why Christians do not seem to take up this cause as readily as other folk.
Motivation
No sense of Angst
For all the talk of science, the climate change movement is driven by emotion. The call is to act now, not to study more. When a hurricane strikes a city, or a drought is prolonged, the secular mind seeks an explanation. For most of the last century the modernist era has been characterised by a scientific optimism, "We can understand everything. We can fix anything." Continued natural disasters, brought into the lounge room by modern technology and somehow more real in our global village, smash this scientific hubris and leave the contemporary person looking for an explanation. Climate change is an explanation that fits many of the preconceptions of this age.
No feeling of Guilt
Western culture has largely given in to consumerism, hedonism, and materialism. Consider this: our information networks are funded by advertising. Our media exists by selling things. Consumerism is a cancer with its tendrils intertwined in the very nerves of our culture. We want these things but part of us knows that much of it is rubbish and most of it unnecessary. (would it be fair to say the mascot of our times is the toy from the McDonalds happy meal) So we have a lingering sense of guilt at these things and no way to express that guilt. No way to opt out of the consumerism and corporate treadmill. The green movement does seem to offer an alternative, or at least a salve to our conscience. Christians do not share this guilt in the same way as Christians stand apart from the culture of consumerism and hedonism. Christians also have effective ways to express guilt through repentance and transform their own and others' lives.
(Consider how much blaming and guilt was a part of the recent Copenhagen conference)
No desperation
For many folk there is a real fear that earth, our home, may be destroyed by climate change. Words like 'destroyed' and 'unliveable' are used repeatedly. Such destruction is a disaster because the materialist has no other home. The materialist must back away from death hissing and spitting for he has no other life. The Christian, however, does not feel the same sense of attachment to this earth. Christians know the earth is no true home, Our world is cursed and in an epileptic fit it rolls and crushes us as we live on its back. We are strangers wandering through this land, and Christians look forward to a new earth (both continuous and discontinuous to this one) in which the troubles of this earth will be healed. But more importantly we know this world rests in God's hands and our lives are in his will. Knowing the creator for the kind and merciful benefactor he is, we are more at rest in his world.
Perspective
Human Wisdom has limitations
Christians are not surprised to find things outside our explanation. Modernists believed that science could fix everything. This is a hubris which has begun to erode (consider chaos theory and weather prediction). Panic has replaced this confidence. But Christians are less confident of the ability of mankind to fix the problems in the world (droughts, storms, floods). Rather like the government borrowing money to fix the credit crisis precipitated by their intervention, we have seen that often the solution causes a new and worse problem. Is an ETS that taxes only the people who actually make things and throws money at the African leader who yells the loudest actually going to be a positive change? Christians are also less sure of the ability of mankind to so drastically affect the world. Does anybody know the actual concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? How significant it is in the atmosphere. 0.038%. Less than a twentieth of one percent.
Distrust of the Main Stream Media
The main stream media is driven by advertising and by ideology. Advertising is derived from ratings. Ratings are achieved through dramatisation and sensation, rather than information alone. Christians have been on the receiving end of the media's shaping, editing and misrepresentation of information in order to present the best story. There are well worn storylines that a busy schedule forces harried reporters to rehash. The Tennant from Hell, The Heartless Conman, The Hypocritical Christian, The Climate Catastrophe. We all use clichés. But because Christians have known the facts and seen stories bundled into these shapes, they have a more pronounced distrust of the media than the man in the street. Because Christians come from a different ideology than the media which tends to be leftist, secularist, hedonist and materialist (consumerist) we see more clearly when a hatchet job has been done on the facts. Christians are less likely to swallow the media portrayal that !CLIMATE CHANGE IS MAN MADE AND DISASTROUS! and more inclined to do some research and read alternative sources. Yes, the average Christians has probably thought and read more about climate change than your average man in the street.
Suspicious of the World
Christians are aware that they do not see things in the same way as the rest of the world. We are aware that because we are called out of the world we no longer belong here, even though we still sojourn here. We are conscious of the anti-Christian rampages of some prominent scientists of recent times. The media and academics have taken to painting science and religion as enemies, is it little wonder that Christians begin to believe it. We have also seen the failure of science over recent years, we have more things, but more problems than ever before. And so Christians take a more wait and see attitude to scientific results. This is particularly appropriate when talking about a system as large and complicated as the atmosphere.
People Are more important than things
Christians cannot agree with many of the tenets of the environmental movement. While we feel for the dancing bears, we cannot see it nearly as important as the starving child in Bolivia. A central Christian conviction is that mankind carries the image of God in a way that animals do not. Man is the pinnacle of creation, we do not apologise for this. We do believe that man has a shepherding role over creation, to care and farm as he uses the materials of creation. But we cannot agree that a boy and a pig are equal in value. The misanthropic (man hating) bias of the green movement makes Christians cautious about jumping on the bandwagon. Is forced abortion a solution to climate change? No it's murder. But the climate extremists talk about such measures (obliquely), until these genocidal ideologues are shouted down and cast out of the environmental movement, for example, Christians will be wary of joining in.
Aware of the Superstitions
Believing in the true God and informed by his word, Christians are more able to penetrate the false religions and superstitions of the secularist. A secularist will happily talk about Gaia. A Christian will stumble, aware that Gaia is a goddess, that some greenies actually do mean that the earth is a living being who will actually be stirred to anger and purge herself of the plague of man in her wrath. For many environmentalist the earth is not a complex system, a huge garden spaceship, but a living being, a goddess. The pantheism and pop spiritualism that influences the environmental movement is seen for the cheap costume jewellery that is by the Bible reading Christian.
Answers
We Know the Solution
Supposing the conferences were actually to achieve something (other than posturing) and the taxes and schemes and protocols actually repaired whatever environmental damage has been done. People would still be knifed in the streets, taking drugs in their bedroom, walking out of their relationships. The world is damaged by sin, by it's rebellion against God. There will always be bad things happening because it's broken. We broke it. But Christians know what the solution is. God is fixing it. Jesus entered our suffering to end our suffering. We know God will fix all the troubles of the world when Jesus returns. The mudslides, the volcanos, the floods the droughts, the violence, the war.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to all the problems of the world, problems no carbon capping agreement can begin to address. Because we know the ultimate causes and the ultimate answers to the world's problems Christians are less enthusiastic about man made solutions that come from movement that do not even understand the basis of the problem.
We Are Already Part of the Solution
Christians are against consumerism. Christians live a creed which abhors greed, selfishness, destructiveness and naked individualism. Christians do not live by the, "Just doing my job." "As long as I make a buck" mantra that motivates so many of the cogs in the consumer machine. Instead Christians seek to give glory to God in how they live. Thanking him for his provision in the bountiful earth, but aware of the needs of others and less caught up with the trappings of status, culture and hedonism that fuels the consumption of the earth's resources. Christians are not going to make as much noise as environmentalists, but Christians already reduce (against greed) reuse (frugal and giving) and recycle (good shepherds). Christians give more to charities, do more as volunteers, and destroy less as consumers.
Christians know Jesus has brought God's love and peace into the world to restore it and Christians are already spreading that love and peace and harmony in the world. We are part of the solution, not the problem.
Conclusion
I think you begin to see that more than just explaining why Christians are slow to jump on the latest media trends and hot spots, I am advocating such a position. Christians indeed should be cautious. What need have we to follow the latest trends of media inflamed pop science when we have the eternal perspectives of God to consider. Better to wait and see and assist when the science actually has come to a reasoned and seasoned verdict, and in the mean time offer our solutions from the Scriptures and the character of God (that will be remarkably like what science comes up with when the main stream media spotlight moves onto the next hot topic and science is left alone to actually do science rather than sound bytes.)
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