The core message of the modern environmental movement seems to be utter contempt for the human species. Think I\u2019m exaggerating? Then stay tuned to BreakPoint.<\/p>\n
The London Times once asked its readers, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with the world today?\u201d G. K. Chesterton, never one to pass up a chance like that, reportedly wrote back a simple response: \u201cDear Sir, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modern environmentalists seem to share Chesterton\u2019s answer, though their reasoning could hardly be more at odds with his. Humanity, they insist, is what\u2019s wrong with the world. We\u2019re destroying it, pushing species after species into oblivion and permanently altering earth\u2019s climate. But besides voluntary self-extinction, these environmentalists don\u2019t offer any solutions.<\/p>\n
Instead, they spend their time and money fantasizing about human annihilation. I\u2019m thinking of movies like \u201cThe Day After Tomorrow,\u201d \u201cThe Happening,\u201d or disturbing commercials like the infamous ad[1] showing children exploding into bloody pulp because, you see, they wouldn\u2019t reduce their carbon footprints.<\/p>\n
And last month, a new series of public service messages took up that mantle. Produced by Conservation International, the ads feature A-list celebrities voicing an assortment of living things and habitats who all have one message for us: Nature doesn\u2019t need humans, and it can kill us if it likes.<\/p>\n
Cast in the role of the ocean, Harrison Ford growls, \u201cI\u2019m most of this planet … every living thing here needs me. I\u2019m the source. I\u2019m what they crawled out of … I don\u2019t owe [humans] a thing. I give. They take. But I can always take back … I covered this entire planet once and I can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series of ads[2], which aired on CNN, also includes Robert Redford as a frustrated redwood tree, Penelope Cruz as a passive-aggressive stream, and Kevin Spacey as a sarcastic rain forest.<\/p>\n
But the capstone of it all is Julia Roberts\u2019 icy performance as Mother Nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been here for over four and a half billion years,\u201d declares Roberts \u2014 \u201d22,500 times longer than you \u2014 I don\u2019t really need people … I have fed species greater than you, and I have starved species greater than you … My oceans, my soil, my flowing streams, my forests, they all can take you or leave you … I\u2019m prepared to evolve. Are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts\u2019 ominous tone led one journalist[3] to observe that she sounds more like the White Witch of Narnia than Mother Nature.<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s most striking about Conservation International\u2019s message isn\u2019t its thinly-veiled misanthropy, but just how little it offers in the way of solutions. Humankind does more harm than good, we\u2019re told, and boy, have we got it coming. And that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n
Well, if humans truly are the problem, maybe having fewer of us would do a lot of good. Actually, that\u2019s the very conclusion Eduardo Porter came to last summer in the New York Times where he suggested population control as a solution to climate change.<\/p>\n
Secular environmentalists have reached a dead end \u2014 literally. Humans are the problem, so saving the planet will mean lots of people winding up, well, dead in the end.<\/p>\n
But this is where Christianity offers a surprising response. With Chesterton, all Christians agree that we are the problem. But that\u2019s not the whole story. We\u2019re also the solution, because the Christian worldview offers something secular ecology cannot: a concept of stewardship.<\/p>\n
You see, if we are merely \u201cthe other great ape\u201d as naturalists assume, then we have no moral obligation to care for our planet. But if, as Genesis teaches, we are fashioned as God\u2019s vice-regents, placed on earth to love one another and to cultivate creation, then we have a duty to Someone much higher up the totem pole than Mother Nature. What we need are Christian environmentalists \u2014 believers with a theology of ecology. Only then can we counter this movement\u2019s death wish with life-giving solutions.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
1. < http:\/\/links.mkt3980.com\/ctt?kn=33&ms=MTA3OTA4MTIS1&r=OTQ0MjI1MzA0S0&b=0&j=NTAwMjEwNTYyS0&mt=1&rt=0 ><\/p>\n
2. < http:\/\/links.mkt3980.com\/ctt?kn=9&ms=MTA3OTA4MTIS1&r=OTQ0MjI1MzA0S0&b=0&j=NTAwMjEwNTYyS0&mt=1&rt=0\n\n3. < http:\/\/links.mkt3980.com\/ctt?kn=21&ms=MTA3OTA4MTIS1&r=OTQ0MjI1MzA0S0&b=0&j=NTAwMjEwNTYyS0&mt=1&rt=0 ><\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The core message of the modern environmental movement seems to be utter contempt for the human species. Think I\u2019m exaggerating? Then stay tuned to BreakPoint. The London Times once asked its readers, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with the world today?\u201d G. K. Chesterton, never one to pass up a chance like that, reportedly wrote back a simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3588,2681,3585,2353,3587,1294,3586,1147],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}