I view our world as a layperson, not as a scientific environmentalist or a professional theologian. However, I have encountered God and his world’s ecosystem on five continents and have developed a passion for replenishing and healing the worrisome environment that exists in most of the world’s nations. Thus, from a pragmatic viewpoint, I have tried to document my observations and experiences, as well as suggest a biblical basis concerning the ethics of preserving the good earth.

Even though I have a degree from New Orleans Theological Seminary, I believe any individual can readily interpret the many biblical passages that document God’s involvement in the creation of our world. However creation was accomplished, I am convinced that God was involved. I do know that God repeatedly said of the earth, “It is good—very good,” and commanded us to love, protect, and use wisely the wonders of this endowment.

Many people who classify themselves as “religious” embrace the philosophy of creation care and agree that individuals, as well as the government, have a role in directing us toward a more sustainable and healthier environment. However, some of these advocates of creation care fail to participate in or defend the hunt for an ecological balance. On the other hand, some of the greatest skeptics of the green earth philosophy are the evangelical traditionalists who use God’s word for justification to obliterate and consume the earth’s resources.

Some of the skeptics in the evangelical camps are purists with deep religious traditions. Their tendency is to interpret the King James Version’s words “have dominion and subdue it” to suggest that humans are in control and thus allowed to destroy and take advantage of every aspect of the earth for personal use. At this verse, the New Revised Standard Version_¹ states, “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28), indicating that we are to tame and keep close control over the earth, as its gardener. Some of the skeptics also adhere to the dispensationalist theory that became popular in the 1970s. This theology speculates that Jesus’ return is rapidly approaching and that the earth will be abolished; thus individuals should enjoy and utilize the world’s products with little forethought about the future.

However, there appears to be a slight shift of evangelicals’ views, with some now accepting a more intrinsic view of creation care. Their ideas most likely will not align with secular or traditional religious environmentalist views but instead will express personal idealistic, political, and social views in their environmental agenda. In 2006, Richard Cizik, leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, stated in the adoption of the resolution “that every Christian has a responsibility for being good stewards of the Earth.” He also advocates, “Every Christian’s duty is to care for the planet and the role of government is to safeguard a sustainable environment. We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part.”_²

Another thought regarding our environmental footprints comes from my former pastor, Dr. Todd Wilson, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Clemson, South Carolina, who states, “Human history shows when humans try to subdue earth for their own purposes, the image of God is defaced. When that image is obscured, dominion is impaired; when image is realized dominion is fulfilled.”

I have attempted to quote Scriptures that show God’s expectations for us to be responsible stewards of the earth’s resources and to awaken us regarding the deep trouble that threatens our ecosystem. I have sought to reveal evidence of God’s love, concern, and protection for all species of animals. I hope that the reader will derive motivation for a distinctive response to our fragile world and develop ideas for becoming more ecologically friendly.

Having traveled for twenty years to some fifty countries, my concept of America’s being the wealthiest country in the world, having the world’s mightiest military resources, experiencing a thriving democracy, and possessing an abundance of the world’s brightest scientists and educators has often been reinforced. However, I have learned that there is much for us to glean from the masses of intelligent people who live outside our comfortable America, especially as relates to the environment. I have often heard my husband, Woodie, who also travels worldwide (but often in different directions than my journeys), say, “There are many intelligent people and ideas in the world, and they are not all in the United States.” I have come to appreciate what other countries are doing to make this world a better place in which to live. Emerson said, “A foreign country is a point of comparison wherefore to judge his own.”

Globalization has affected our cultures and should enlighten everyone, including Americans, regarding the concept of a green earth. There may be more effective avenues of protecting the planet than those we presently pursue. My hope is to offer constructive, helpful concepts that we could adopt in the United States to make our world more sustainable.

For example, I was enthralled with the cleanliness of Singapore. I saw not a single piece of litter in the city. Is their clean city the result of pride, nationalism, education—or a realization that if the people drop their refuse on the ground, they will suffer punishment to fit the deed, like scrubbing the streets as well as paying a fine?

For whatever reason, many people in other countries have developed a respect for the environment. My own neighborhood is clean because each time someone drops a soda can or a fast food wrapper, a good neighbor stops to picks it up. But this act of sustaining a clean neighborhood seems to end outside the subdivision. Our community regularly collects bags of trash on the state road that passes our neighborhood. What makes the difference?

Perhaps the quandary that we face in caring for God’s good earth and its habitants is how to merge our apathy with what God wishes for us to do to sustain our world. Our needs and wants seem to have walked right past God, who desires for us to integrate our faith and the environment.

Chapter 1
A Biblical Basis for Honoring the Earth
Black curly hair fell loosely on his forehead as the slender young man ambled through throngs of people near the ghats or steppes of India’s Ganges River. He held a woven basket containing a dancing cobra, partially curled in the bottom of the basket with about a foot of its body and flat head waving in the air. I cautiously backed away from this venomous and hissing creature, trying to keep a safe distance from both the snake and its charmer. I was successful in doing so as I mingled with the meandering crowd, but it was a surreal experience.

This young man was one of the many early morning worshipers who had come to the ghats adjacent to the sacred Ganges River at Allahabad, India. Along with the snake charmer that morning were beggars, disabled people, vendors, families eating food purchased from the vendors, and drab-looking children vigorously selling chewing gum and post cards. Also there were holy men in their ocher robes, women who had come to bathe themselves and their children, and other women washing their multicolored saris and placing their clothes on the ghats to dry. Men sloshed about in the river, bathing, brushing their teeth, and washing their hair.

It was a conglomerate of people who had come primarily to drink and douse themselves in the holy waters of the Ganges. Some of the worshipers faced the morning sun with clasped hands, bowing and presenting their offerings of flowers, grain, or other foods to Ganga Ma, the Mother Ganges. Some stooped to dip their cupped hands into the river for a small amount of the holy water to drink, while others filled containers with the holy water to take to the temple to enhance their worship.

The Ganges, a sacred river, is a goddess to many of the people of India, who believe this somnolently flowing river of 1500 miles provides purity for the soul. The Hindu religion and the Indian culture embrace the philosophy that one’s sins will be absolved through washing with this holy water. People travel long distances to be cleansed in this River of Heaven, which begins at the Himalayas and flows to the Bay of Bengal, passing through many cities such as Kanpur, Varansi, and Calcutta.

Unfortunately, though, in contrast to the concept that the Ganges purifies the soul, the river today is tainted with deadly waterborne diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and hepatitis and is the feeder of death. The Indian people place burnt or partially burnt dead bodies or ashes in the river, believing that the dead may reach the world of their ancestors through this process. Industries, such as leather factories, contribute to the contamination through their dumping of raw sewage into the water. Huge pipes dump untreated human waste into the river. At the ghats of Allahabad, I observed a dozen or so bulls in the water near the place where people were bathing and washing clothes. Since bulls are considered sacred, their bodies may find their final resting place in the Ganges as well.

Although there is some response by the Indian government, as well as some organizations, to manage the foul, contaminated waters of the Ganges River, there does not appear to be significant concern by religious groups about modifying its present conditions. Though the Ganges may be revered as a goddess, the extent of illness and death that occur due to its contaminants is unimaginable.

Before I became aware of the pollution of the Ganges River, I asked my Indian friends if they would take me for a dip in the river so that I could be “cleansed of my sins.” They chuckled, knowing that I was a Christian and that I did not adhere seriously to their philosophy of cleansing sins in the Ganges River, and informed me that under no circumstances would they allow me to plunge into the contaminated water. They told me that a few of the local people acquire immunity to some of the disease-causing bacteria, but I had no such immunity. How grateful I was to my friends for their advice as I later learned about the river’s contaminants.

We may think that the fouled and infected Ganges River is an example of pollution that happens only in other counties. Can such massive pollution happen in our own country? As Christians, we have a responsibility to be sensitive and compassionate about preserving the good earth God has placed in our care. Perhaps a review of biblical insights will strike a chord regarding our understanding and responsibilities toward God’s gifts.