Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!rice!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: lieuwen@cs.wisc.edu (Dan Lieuwen) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Conservation & Christians Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 03:03:56 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Francis Schaeffer's POLLUTION AND THE DEATH OF MAN is a good place to start in looking Biblically at the creation. He wrote it about 1970, so its quite early. He argues that linking dominion with the right to destroy is to misread the Bible. If you can hear Dr. Cal DeWitt (he's from the U. of Wisconsin-Madison, but he travels a fair bit to encourage people to think Biblically about the creation), I would strongly recommend it. He's very involved in the Ausable Institute in Michigan--a place for people from Christian colleges to learn more about the environment). We are called to care for the garden of the earth (Gen. 2:15). After the fall, we do a poorer job of this, but the call remains. A gardener who decides to remove one of the varieties of roses chosen by his/her employer would deserve to be fired. We are destroying one species a day--we're not doing a very good job at our task of caring for the garden are we? In the Bible, those in charge are called to work for the benefit of those under them. Thus, dominion implies a responsibility to seek the good of every species on earth. [I know Christians who are far more than mild conservationists. The proposed new confession of faith of the Presbyterian Church (USA) lists environmental destruction as a major consequence of our sin. --clh] More conservative denominations are ahead of you on this. "A Contemporary Testimony" which appears in the Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church talks of pollution as a sin as well. It's both a consequence of and a punishment for our sins. Most sins seem to carry within themselves the punishment for the sin. Dan