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An Inconvenient Truth Changed My Life
A few months ago an I went to see an Inconvenient Truth, the documentary by Al Gore and Jason Clark’s recent post caused me to reflect on it again. It was a very, very hard to watch movie and it struck a very deep chord with me. Whether or not you like Al Gore, or wonder about his ulterior motives, it is very, very hard to deny the facts that are presented. I grew up in a world where it was, for some reason, considered non-Christian to care about the environment (I don’t know if this was said directly, but I do know that somehow I learned to be skeptical of anyone cared about the environment). The thing I wonder is this, what do we get out of not caring for the environment and pushing this aside as some kind of political issue? Why do we feel such a need to fight against it? Did God not call us to care for his creation? I know its a politically charged issue, but seriously, I don’t mind “losing” this arguement if its for the sake of my kids and my kids kids and our general command to care for creation.
I do know that my life has now changed. Not by some great awakening or something like that. But, its changed me in how I live my life in just a few small ways….
I am now trying to drive less.
On Monday’s and Tuesday’s I only drive 1/4 of a mile (I should really walk, but let’s take it one step at a time - no pun intended) to the local coffee shop (yes, its a Starbucks) and do my work there all day. So, I’ve saving at least 40 miles or so a week.
At church we have finally started to recycle and use paper cups.
This is actually a sacrifice for us financially cause styrofoam cups are much cheaper.
These are small sacrifices but as the movie showed its the small things that matter…
Scott said...
111/3/06 8:31 PM | Comment Link |
I have not seen the movie non have I invested much energy into this topic…..but I can’t help but wonder (like you) why we as Christians seem to not take caring for the environment seriously? After all, isn’t God’s ultimate plan to redeem the fallen world (people and earth)?
I’m sure the answer has a lot to do with political ramifications.
I guess I have always seemed to fight against the notion that our environment “needed saving.” But if God is going to redeem it then I guess it is indeed broken.
Thanks for bringing up this topic.
Scott
Kevin said...
211/8/06 3:36 PM | Comment Link |
Todd, told you I still read your blog. The only reason christians don’t care about the environment is politics. That is it. Christianity has been pimped out by the right wing for so long, that any issue held by the democratic left is viewed in an adversarial way. With the Democrats retaking the house yesteday, I would venture to say that a good number of those votes came from christian people who finally defected from James Dobson’s right wing insanity of fear, intimidation, and oppression. Also, (and I will wrap it up with this)evangelicals have taken an increased interest in the environment. There was another documentary similiar to Inconvient Truth called The Great Warming http://www.thegreatwarming.com/
This featured evangelicals who advocate for environmental causes. So the tide is turning!
Markus Watson said...
311/8/06 7:20 PM | Comment Link |
I agree and disagree with Kevin. I agree that the tide is turning–and it’s about time!
But I disagree that it was politics that is the reason why Christians have historically not cared for the environment. I think that there has been a false duality–people vs. environment. In other words, the common thinking has been that if you care for the environment, then you’re not caring about people having a relationship with Jesus Christ. So if we’re to focus on evangelism, we have to screw the environment.
And I also think our Christian leaders have propagated a stereotype of tree-hugging vegan hippies wearing tie-dye as being the only ones who care for the environment. And none of us wanted to be associated with that.
Anyway, just my 4 cents…
And, Todd, it was great meeting you at the conference!
Scott said...
411/9/06 6:03 AM | Comment Link |
Kevin,
I agree that many “conservative” Christians (myself included) tend to be defensive about Democratic causes. This is a wrong attitude to have…especially when many of their causes are quite biblical.
In fact, I wish Rebublicans would take up some of their causes.
However, I don’t think the solution is calling Dr. Dobson…let me see…I think you said “James Dobson’s right wing insanity of fear, intimidation, and oppression.”
That is a bit harsh don’t you think? Just because his causes maybe are not the causes you are passionate about (just taking a guess here)that does not make them any less important. And on the flip side just because I’m not passioate about all the causes you are passionate about does not make them any less important either.
I don’t think the solution here is to dismess each other…but to take the values of each side and “fight for them all.”
I suppose this really does not work politically. But shouldn’t we as a Church and individual followers of Christ fight for all things that God deems important.
Just my two cents!
Scott
kevin said...
511/9/06 2:28 PM | Comment Link |
Hi Scott,
I will say this much, during the last election my mother, who is also a conservative republican and evangelical, was reduced to tears because her family (in particular my sister and myself) did not wish to vote Republican in the upcoming election. She had been listening to Focus on The Family broadcasts up to that point, and had become so upset that she believed if G.W. Bush wasn’t reelected, than what she described as “good conservative supreme court justices who don’t legislate from the bench” would not be appointed, and this would result in an apocolytic disaster. Ironically, James Dobson, who started his ministry to help families had actually done the very opposite thing in my family which created a lot of arguments and discord.
I’ll admit that some of this is quite personal to me, so that is reason I took such a harsh tone with this guy.
I will take your advice however, because it is important for me to act gratiously towards political public figures who I genuinely disagree agree with. In the spirit of that I will revise my comment on “James Dobsons right wing insanity of fear, intimidation, and oppression” to something that I would consider “being short sighted, and misguided political positions”
As a christian myself, (and also a social worker) I am encourged by so many things in the evangelical community, one in particular is the work by Samaritan’s Purse in New Orleans (which I was blessed to be a part of) and the great work Franklin Graham and SP are doing with the AIDs epidemic worldwide. I would guess that neither Billy nor Franklin have voted Democrat in quite a while, but these are two awesome men doing awesome ministry stuff.
Scott said...
611/9/06 3:28 PM | Comment Link |
Kevin,
Thanks for the response…and the ammended comments :-)
I totally think it is the right of any individual to vote how they see fit…without getting the “3rd degree” from someone else-especially other belivers. So I can totally see where you are coming from with the whole voting thing in your family. We have be gracious and agree to disagee in those situations.
I guess my whole point is that in my opinion I think there are worthwhile issues in both political parties and we as Christians need to embrace all Christ Worthy causes no matter what political party may be pushing them. So for the sake of this “friendly discussion” I need to take seriously and support causes such as the ones you mentioned BUT at the same time I also need to also support other issues that Dr Dobson (and others like him) value (moral issues / protecting the family type issues).
Too bad there is not a political canidate that embraces all the forementioned issues (at least not one that I know of). So I guess when it comes to voting I have to choose between less than ideal canidates and pick which issues are most important to me.
OK I need to get home to my wife!
Thanks for the discussion!
BTW, Todd says (and I quote) that you are a “fun dude.” So you must be a pretty cool guy!
Scott
Zelia said...
702/21/07 10:05 AM | Comment Link |
My spirit is encouraged to find that there are Christians that feel as I do. It is imperative that we look at this issue logically, removing political agendas from the issue, and recognize our responsibility to do all we can to be good stewards. The Lord gave us a direction to care for his creation, be it a tree, a bear, or a human being. We need to recognize that our actions (or inactions) can not be called good stewardship. If we allow the continued misuse of resources, that will ultimately cause devastation and loss of life, how can we give an accounting before the Lord. Will there be anything we can say that will justify our inaction? The movie has changed my thinking dramatically, and I too am making small changes that will lessen the burden on the environment. I am encouraging everyone I know to see the movie and to continue to educate themselves on how they can get involved.