Evangelical Ecologist Blog - Conservative Christians and the Environment

Touchstone Mag calls the new Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct a "code of conduct for evangelizing."

Tuesday 28 June 2011 was officially launched in Geneva, Switzerland the final text of the code of conduct for evangelism and Christian Witness elaborated in the last five years by the World Council of Churches (WCC), The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). The document, titled ‘Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct‘ is one of the most important ecumenical documents ever signed.

You can read the entire text here.  Will let you decide how "important" it is, although I think this is pretty significant:

The first meeting of the WSF took place in 2001 and was intended as a counter to the World Economic Forum, a gathering of politicians and business leaders that takes place each year, normally in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. This year's meeting was set for Belem, in the Amazon region, to symbolise the importance of climate and environmental issues, as well as the rights of minority cultures. Since then, the world has faced a global economic crisis.

Together with its partner organizations, the WCC has sent a 15-person strong team to Belem and is organizing a meeting there on 30 January to discuss the global financial crisis.

"The pundits of free market capitalism have not given up," Mshana, a Tanzanian economist, noted. "They are simply trying in one way or another to defend it. So I think we should not be naïve." The approach adopted by the WCC, he said, is to examine the extent to which issues of finance and trade can be placed under the auspices of the United Nations.

Of course the folks who promote global financial and environmental regulation would never want to get in the business of managing Christian evangelism [be honest - these rules won't apply to these guys...ed], right?

People are created in the image of God.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made.  God has put all things under our feet. Our very existence brings glory to God, and His desire to save us from sin led Him to commit the greatest act of sacrificial love the universe has ever seen.

So it's borderline sacrilegious that environmentalists want people to eat crap sandwiches. 

Reports Jeff Hughes:

Somehow this feels like a Vonnegut plotline: population boom equals food shortage. Solution? Synthesize food from human waste matter. Absurd yes, but Japanese scientists have actually discovered a way to create edible steaks from human feces.

Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, has developed steaks based on proteins from human excrement. Tokyo Sewage approached the scientist because of an overabundance of sewage mud. They asked him to explore the possible uses of the sewage and Ikeda found that the mud contained a great deal of protein because of all the bacteria.

The researchers then extracted those proteins, combined them with a reaction enhancer and put it in an exploder which created the artificial steak. The “meat” is 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids and 9% minerals. The researchers color the poop meat red with food coloring and enhance the flavor with soy protein. Initial tests have people saying it even tastes like beef.

Inhabitat notes that “the meatpacking industry causes 18 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to the release of methane from animals.” Livestock also consume huge amounts of resources and space in efforts to feed ourselves as well as the controversy over cruelty to animals. Ikeda’s recycled poop burger would reduce waste and emissions, not to mention obliterating Dante’s circle for gluttons.

By the way, Hughes probably thinks he's clever by referencing Dante's Third Circle:

Dante wakes up and finds himself in a stinking rain and hailstorm, deep in filth and muck. It is the circle of the gluttons and is guarded by the three-headed beast, Cerebrus. Virgil scoops up muck from the ground and throws it to Cerebrus to eat, allowing them to pass. The souls in this circle spend eternity wallowing and eating the disgusting slime they live in, again experiencing punishment imitating their gluttonous sins on earth.

If this is his measure of hell, it may very well be that gluttonous environmentalists are preparing themselves for eternity.  But not the rest of us. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

[Psalm 139:14 (NIV)]

In the email this week:

NO MATTER WHAT wonderful inventions man may concoct, God always goes him one better. If we think we've done great things, we usually find that God has been there first. We're only second-rate imitators.

Take this matter of the amazing calculating machines our physicists are now inventing. In less than a second they solve mathematical problems that would baffle even the smartest professors for weeks. Or they store up information and rattle it off on cards or tape whenever you request it. But each of us possesses a far more amazing calculating machine. We were born fully equipped with it. No wires, no transistors or tubes, no electric power lines, nothing to go wrong. It comes fully protected in a bony container we call our "skull."

Right, you guessed it—the human brain. No, it can't solve some of those higher math problems. It could if we persisted and learned enough math. But it is an all-round, general purpose machine, the most amazing, mysterious, and truly wonderful creation on earth.

It weighs only a pound or so. But look what it has done. With this God-given human brain, man designed and made the pyramids of Egypt. He dug the Panama Canal. He has conquered deadly diseases and will conquer more. He has split atoms and put them back together again. He has designed, made, and operated a telescope that will explore universes billions of miles away. He has taken various sounds, put them together, and produced what we call music. He "stores" or puts away this music on records or tape, so that we can reproduce it at any time we desire. He makes airplanes that fly higher and faster than any bird, taking hundreds of people through the sky. Someday, possibly within your lifetime, man will fly to the moon and back [Obviously, this was written some time ago!  ed]. You might even go yourself. He creates huge ships which sail the oceans daily, bearing thousands of people.

All these miracles are products of the God-given brain. With this brain we remember. Words, scenes, pictures, sounds, smells—everything we ever saw, heard, or experienced, is stored up in our brains and can be called back. Sometimes, when we dream at night, our brains do bring back long-forgotten events. We solve problems with our brains. In fact, man thinks up problems and then solves them. He even invents and constructs the complicated calculating machines we mentioned a moment ago. We do all this, and more, at the same time using only about one-tenth of our brain power. Scientists tell us this is true—nine­tenths of our brain power goes unused.

Some people we know use much, much less than others.

While doing the mental problems, our brain controls our bodies. Where and how we walk, what we eat, the words we say—all these functions are brain controlled.

God gave us this marvelous brain. He wants us to use it for his glory and mankind's benefit. That is its real purpose.

The New Lutheran's New Mission.

What we might call The New Lutherans seem to be intent on reinventing Lutheranism, Christianity, or whatever it is they want you to call it: The LEPA, Lutheran Environmental Protection Agency?

From the linked article:

At a meeting taking place from 9 June through 14 June in Geneva, members of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) will vote on adopting a renewal process for the years 2012 through 2017 that places greater focus on responding to emergencies, especially those having to do with the environment. The new focus also includes proposals for increasing the role of youth and creating financial sustainability.

"There is a need to explore how to get involved in advocacy work that is linked to climate change," said LWF General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge, who is leading the renewal process. Under the proposal, Lutheran churches hope to be able to better respond to human suffering through coordinated actions with partners.

The creation of regional hubs for emergency response in countries such as El Salvador, Nairobi, and Kathmandu will make it easier to distribute food, water, medicines, and blankets in the event of a natural disaster. Lutherans were on the forefront of issues such as AIDS and the environment, said Junge, and from now on this will make up a bigger part of the LWF agenda.

Just wondering what becomes a smaller part of LWF's agenda. 

Barbie.

"Mattel, which makes Barbie, must stop wrapping the world's most famous toy in rainforest destruction," he added.

Greenpeace said its investigators used forensic testing that showed Barbie's packaging comes from Indonesian rainforests.

Activists also used 'in country' investigation, mapping data and traced company certificates to show that Mattel, along with other toy companies including Disney, were using packaging produced by Indonesian paper firm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which Greenpeace accuses of destroying rainforests.

Mattel's paper supplier APP says (if you can believe Wiki) that 80-90% of its paper packaging is either recycled or from sustainable wood products, and will be 100% sustainable/recycled in three years. 

We report, you decide.

(photo source)

Ted Lapkin on Lybia and Australia's Green Party:

But despite news of Hamza Ali al-Khateeb’s slaying featuring in all major Australian media outlets, a Factiva search of statements and news articles reveals that the Greens have been entirely mum on the topic. In recent days there have been press releases on party’s website that assail the live cattle export trade. There have been statements that bag “big tobacco” on the topic of plain cigarette packaging. But there’s been nary a word about a 13-year-old child who was tortured to death by the henchmen of a brutal despot.

Morality picks its battles, I guess.

More here.

Did the Catholic Church forbid access to the Bible?

It's the stuff of Christian legend (disputed here) that the pre-Reformation Church limited the distribution of the Bible, either by rendering it in Latin (the language of Rome, not the original Greek and Hebrew), or by physically limiting its distribution outside the "lettered" church. Relief came, the legend continues, when Gutenberg and Luther and King James brought the word of God to the masses.

In the long line of parallels that people have drawn between climate change advocacy and formalized religion, this is one I haven't seen yet.

See if you can get the obvious clue in this Drudge headline:

Climate scientists complain about Freedom of Information laws...

And then here:

Has it already been five years?

The conservative Media Research Center recaps Gore's magnum opus a half-decade after its release. I don't think you'll be surprised at their results. 

What's more interesting is how soon climate change peaked as an issue, and how far (and how fast) it has fallen since - as rapidly as a collapsing 401k or the loan-to-value ratio on a home mortgage, I'd imagine.

My thoughts, more spiritual than atmospheric, were posted over here way back then.

JJ Ballor:

In the commentary this week over at the Acton Institute, I examine the move toward urban agriculture in the city of Detroit. I argue that the trend represents a small but significant area of hopefulness in a city in desperate need of economic, cultural, political, and spiritual transformation. In a distant allusion to Edmund Burke, I call these urban gardens "little plots of liberty."

One of the potential problems, though, is that the city government can stand in the way of such transformation. In an environment where everyone needs to "get theirs" and the culture of graft and corruption reigns supreme, the subsistence and rudimentary efforts of many urban farmers can easily be crushed.

But of course.

Regular attendance at local town hall meetings is strongly recommended. 

May is National Bike Month, and this week (May 16-20) is Bike to Work Week.  If a week of cycling to work is too challenging, Friday is Bike to Work Day.

Of course, there are other ways to bike to work...

Tony Watts:

The promise was to help you control your electricity bill by becoming more aware of your energy use. The downside is that with the data gathered, other people and businesses can also become more aware of your habits, like when you go to work, go on vacation, etc. Is the potential energy savings worth the invasion of privacy trade-off? I sure don’t think so. I really don’t want PG&E or anyone else for that matter knowing how I live my life inside my own home.

Gee...who could have seen this coming? 

We've had a "smart" water meter installed since writing that post, mostly because I was tired of getting stuck with big bills based on "estimated" water use (they never estimate on the low side).

For what it's worth, it's not hooked to the internet (as far as I know), but the meter guy can take a reading from the street instead of wandering through my basement.  From that standpoint it's better for my privacy.  Easier on the dogs too, who were never crazy about the guy.  I assume the water meter guys can cover the same batch of houses more quickly, though the chances that they'll fire the excess meter reader and cut my water bill are zilch.

"Is the potential energy savings worth the invasion of privacy trade-off?"  I don't know that anybody knows the answer to that question yet, Tony.  Problem is, when we're sure the answer is "no" it will be way too late to do anything about it.