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printWhole Earth Evangelism
Creation care is part and parcel of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
In the 1960s, the ecology movement was launched with a fundamental insight: Everything is part of a system. If you alter one thing, it will affect something else—for good or ill. For example, we discovered back then that using the pesticide DDT to control mosquitoes and malaria (a good thing) also weakened the shells of birds' eggs and threatened their ability to reproduce (a bad thing). Such discoveries helped us think beyond our immediate actions and anticipate the collateral damage created by the way we live.
Are evangelization, compassionate justice ministry, and earth care similarly connected in a spiritual ecology? In this essay for the Global Conversation, Scott Sabin, author of the newly published Tending to Eden, connects those dots.
On a precarious slope, Etienne digs in the dusty soil with a small hoe, planting beans in hopeful anticipation of the rains, which have become unpredictable in recent years. Miles away, his wife is returning from the increasingly distant forest with a large bundle of firewood on her head. She was up before dawn carrying water from the spring, nearly an hour's walk away. The infant on her back is sick with intestinal parasites from drinking the water that she has worked so hard to provide.
Though the global context may be lost on Etienne and his family, they live with the consequences of environmental degradation on a daily basis. By contrast, in the United States, frequent headlines warn of the tribulations of the earth and its ecosystems, but because the impact on our daily lives feels minimal, the steady parade of dire predictions is ignored—or worse, fosters despair.
Until I began working with Plant with Purpose (formerly Floresta), I was among those who ignored the signs, occasionally lamenting the loss of a favorite hiking place or noticing that I no longer saw horned lizards in my backyard. Beyond that, the environment was a secondary concern. Those who went before me at Plant with Purpose, however, saw a direct connection between forest health and the health of poor communities. To get beyond treating the symptoms of poverty, we would need to address the health of the ecosystem that supported the poor. Standing on a windswept hillside in Haiti one afternoon, overlooking a panorama of eroded mountains and silt-choked rivers, it dawned on me that we could not give a cup of cold water without restoring the watershed. Over the past 18 years, I have slowly realized that this observation applies beyond Haiti. We all depend on a healthy world.
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Sue R
As someone who works in the realm of International Adoption I am shocked that people write comments referring to adoption as child trafficking or profit centers - Adoption is expensive, but trust me, no one is getting rich! Most of the cost goes to 3rd parties for providing services, or to humanitarian aid that helps children left behind in orphanages. There are massive layers of government requirements and regulations that add to the cost and reduce child trafficking. And yes, you can adopt from the foster care system in the US for little or no money. Some mothers are simply unable or unwilling to parent - it makes sense to support them in their loving sacrifice to create an adoption plan for their unborn child (when they could very easily abort the child). As an adoptive parent, I can assure you that our adopted child is loved and cared for and is a tremendous blessing to our family. A true gift from God.
Angela Baker
Just a sidenote on anyone who thinks that raising a child in a Christian home sidesteps debates about "gay stuff". I find it ironic that though my oldest son was raised in the church, that he is still "gay". The things one things they will have to deal with they don't and the things they never thought to worry about become prevalent. For a couple or person wanting to safeguard and become the gaurdian of a "true" orphan is one thing but to strip that child of their identity and try to assimilate them into upper middle class (or whatever) western culture is just. plain. wrong. Most adoption is legalized baby trafficking as far as I am concerned.It has become a big money maker and that is why it is being marketed everywhere. Do not fall prey to the trap.
jimm mandenberg
For adoption to be one of the "Top Ten Theology Stories of 2009", it had to be publicized greatly. Agencies trying to place true orphans do not have large advertising budgets so they are left out of the limelight. Hollywood ("The Blind Side") and agencies dealing in infants provide the dollars to promote the fallacy that millions of unwanted babies desperately need homes, while charging exhorbant "filing fees". Truth: you can adopt a child for $250 or less in most states. Run that past an adoption agency...then talk to your local social services agency.
jimm mandenberg
"...the act that most directly mirrors God's actions toward us." Really. Adoption may rank higher than sixth place by year end in terms of pure profit here in the US, behind such proven winners as Hollywood, drug trafficking and pornography, but that is a dubious honour. As your more compassionate readers have pointed out, true brotherly love as expounded in the King James version I consult, is exemplified by helping the less fortunate achieve the means to prosper and contribute to the whole of societies' good. Societies are made of family units, the backbone of civilization, and any act which deliberately destroys this fundamental unit is detrimental and to be avoided. Any person or agency which strives to do anything but assist the new mother in keeping her family together is, by design, damaging to society. True orphans exist - children with no hope of a normal life with relatives and desperate for a loving environment - but they are seldom adopted. They won't fetch $30,000
angie tim
A more Christian, compassionate approach would be working hard to keep children with their biological families.
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