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Five Reasons Why Christians Must Make Biblically Sound Earth Stewardship a Priority

 

1. Radical environmentalism, at its heart, is false religion.

Biblical care for Creation sees God, people, and nature in proper relationship. By contrast, the core of secular environmentalism mirrors Romans 1:25, which says people “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” It results in worship of a false god.

Even if it’s clothed in “Christian vocabulary,” this unbiblical worldview can lead to:

  • Degrading Man—seeing people primarily as polluters and consumers, using up Earth’s resources and poisoning the planet in the process, rather than as producers and stewards, made in the image of God.
  • Deifying Nature—portraying nature, in its untouched state, as the ideal. Therefore, it rejects the notion of human improvement and stewardship of nature.
  • Disregarding the Poor—No matter how well-intentioned they may be, environmental policies that are not based on sound theology, science, and economics will have their most devastating impact on the people who can afford it the least—the poor, in America and around the world.

2. Radical environmentalism is the face of the anti-human, “Pro-Death” agenda.

Strident environmentalists’ opposition to modern methods of energy production, agriculture, and disease prevention—coupled with policies that strangle economic growth—contributes to the deaths of millions of impoverished people around the world. In many environmental circles, people are the ultimate pollution, and severely reducing their numbers, whether through abortion, euthanasia, or disease and poverty, is a laudable goal.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.—John 10:10

  • Radical environmentalists use bogus or exaggerated “crises”—like catastrophic, man-made global warming—to deny abundant, affordable, reliable energy and other modern blessings to the developing world, thus perpetuating and increasing a deadly toll.
  • Right now, 2 to 3 million women and children die annually around the world because they have no electricity and must burn wood or dried dung to cook their food or heat their huts. Ninety percent of the people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have electricity and so lack light to study and work by, refrigeration to prevent food spoilage, and power to operate equipment that could multiply their productivity. Environmentalists’ opposition to building large power plants and electric grids seeks to keep them that way.
  • 1 to 2 million people die annually from malaria, with hundreds of millions made extremely ill from the disease each year. Another 3 to 4 million people annually around the world die because of inadequate sanitation and impure drinking water. Many environmental policies perpetuate both tragedies.
3. A secularist, radical environmentalist Trojan horse targets Christian youth.

Today’s youth consistently rank environment and poverty among their most important issues of concern. Instead of being sold seductive but unbiblical ideas about God, people, and nature, young people could instead be taught Biblical stewardship as a particularly effective platform for the true gospel and for true help to the world’s poor. A genuinely Biblical message on stewardship could have a tremendous impact on the current youth culture both inside and outside the Church....

Continue reading on the Stewards Blog.


How Do Market Processes Simultaneously Deliver Economic and Environmental Benefits?


Lots of books explain why free markets excel all other economic orders at lifting people out of poverty and keeping them in prosperity. Lots also explain the importance of environmental stewardship—using resources sustainably, ensuring that the risks from pollution don’t outweigh the benefits of polluting activities, protecting the beauties of nature and the health of ecosystems.

But very few books explain why free markets perform environmental stewardship better than centrally planned and controlled systems of economy.

And a book that does both of those in a single chapter is a gold nugget—rare and valuable.

Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak’s Population Bombed: Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change contains that chapter.

In it, the authors chart the history and explain the reasons for what they call “the spontaneous greening of market economies.”

First, they introduce readers to the “environmental Kuznets curve,” which illustrates how economic growth leads first to environmental deterioration and then, as per capita income rises, to environmental improvement.



Then they explain how the increased efficiency of resource use under free markets—in which profit incentive leads producers to minimize consumption and waste of resources—leads to “dematerialization,” the tendency for wealth to consist more and more of knowledge, relationships, and services, and less and less of material objects.

Next comes the transformation of resource availability through substitution, “transmaterialization,” and by-product development, the latter often involving “the development of new products out of what was previously considered industrial waste.” That in turn has become a whole specialty of its own for engineers and entrepreneurs. (Their story of how John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil went from making one product out of petroleum [oil for lubrication] to literally hundreds, all in the pursuit of profitability, while driving down the cost of all those products and the benefits they provided, is fascinating all by itself.)

And that in turn leads to their discussion of how our use of carbon-based fuels (“fossil fuels”—coal, oil, and natural gas) has greened the planet not only by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to make plants grow better but also by shifting energy production from Earth’s surface (forests, pastures, and crop fields) to deep below the surface, thus keeping vast stretches of land available for wilderness and wildlife preservation.

All this is just a small taste of what Desrochers and Szurmak discuss in that single chapter. The rest of the chapter, like the rest of the book, is a treasure trove of understanding.

That’s why we want you to read it, and to share it with others—especially science, economics, social studies, and other teachers at your local private and public schools. So, through the end of January, as our way of saying “Thank you!” for your 100% tax-deductible gift of ANY size, we’ll send you a FREE copy of Population Bombed.

To make your gift and receive your copy, simply mention promo code 1901 when you make your donation. You can make your gift at our secure online website, or by phoning 703-569-4653, or by sending your check to Cornwall Alliance, 9302-C Old Keene Mill Rd., Burke, VA 22015. Don't forget to mention Promo Code 1901!

God Bless You,


E. Calvin Beisner
Founder and National Spokesman

The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation seeks to magnify the glory of God in creation, the wisdom of His truth in environmental stewardship, the kindness of His mercy in lifting the needy out of poverty, and the wonders of His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is the world’s leading evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles. The Cornwall Alliance is a non-profit religious, charitable, and educational organization. All gifts are tax deductible.
 

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