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From Greta Thunberg to politicians declaring climate emergencies and multinational companies scrambling to declare their eco-friendly credentials, nature and the environment are issues that most people take increasingly seriously. Just look at the many challenges facing our natural world: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, sea level rise, and so on. You don’t need to be an eco-warrior to admit we have a problem.
Sadly, Christians historically have had something of a checkered record on the environment. In 1967 in the journal Science, Lynn White Jr. wrote a hugely influential essay called “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” in which he laid the responsibility for the state of the environment partly at the doors of the church. Referring to a “Christian arrogance toward nature,” he proposed that the ecological crisis wouldn’t abate “until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.”
Decades after White’s remarks, some Christians still reinforce this stereotype. For example, some ten years ago, controversial mega church pastor Mark Driscoll reportedly said, “I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn it all up. So, yes, I drive an SUV.