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Pastor Greg Boyd said in one of his sermons that the Bible tells us to care for the earth and caring for the earth isn't wacko. Indeed, God calls us to be good stewards of the environment. “The Lord God placed man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it." Genesis 2:15. "Let the fields and their crops burst forth with joy! Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise before the Lord!" Psalm 96:11. Also God refers to protection of the environment in Deuteronomy 20: 19-20: "...do not destroy the trees...they are not enemies that need to be attacked."
 Environment issues can be seen as a new age or liberal concern and sometimes Christians don’t think they should be involved. One time a friend accused me of worshiping the birds, trees, and mountains when my hopes had been to increase his awareness and influence his actions about the environment. The best balance is to appreciate and love God’s creation and I think that is a way of honoring and loving God.
Unfortunately there are many examples in our country when we haven’t done this very well: in the south we didn’t preserve much of the marsh lands, even though environmental groups such as the Sierra Club advised us to. The flood water from Hurricane Katrina couldn’t soak back into the ground because parking lots and other man-made barriers were in the way. The Appalachian Mountains are being blown up for coal, and nearby residents have black toxic water coming out of their faucets, since the material from the mountains gets into their drinking water. Churches helped by bringing water to home owners.
A study done by researchers at the University of California found air pollution connected to birth defects: cleft lips, damaged heart valves, and low birth rate; also there was an increase in infant deaths. Pregnant women who live in less polluted areas have a higher rate of healthy babies.
 Less snow and more severe droughts have been linked to pollution by some scientists. Phoenix, Arizona has had a severe drought for the past ten years. Joan Thomas, a native Californian, has lived in Phoenix for 36 years and has done extensive hiking in the west. On a recent hike she told me that “the present drought is the worst in recorded history.”
Looking down from a mountain peak in the dry and ugly desert (see picture to the right) I felt surely this could be the worst. According to an article headline in USA Today, “Southwest suffers historic drought;” Phoenix didn’t get any rain for 4 months in a row during 2006. Arizona hasn’t gotten the rain it needs for about 10 years. Currently the city is trying to get people to cut back on their water use.
Mary Jo McConahay, an editor at Pacific News, wrote in "No Place to Call Home" for the Sierra magazine Nov/Dec issue: "millions are forced from their homelands each year by flood, drought, hurricane, earthquake, volcanic eruption. Once known as acts of God, such disasters are no longer necessarily natural, they are often provoked or amplified by human activities such as damming rivers, clearing forests, over-extracting groundwater, or building unsafely in hazardous zones."
 Prayer is powerful and certainly not all problems in nature are caused by people. Demonic forces could be at work in situations or other causes that we don’t know about could be affecting nature in negative ways (for a deeper discussion of this topic, check out Greg’s sermon from July 15, 2007, “A War-Torn Creation”). My mother who lives in Arizona told me that she prays for rain every day. I suggested to other family and friends that we should pray for rain also. This winter it rained for three days in Phoenix. They still need a lot more rain to get the healthy green springs they used to have.
A mixture of better earth-care management, prayer and even little things, like walking more often instead of driving short distances, can make a positive difference. What things can you do to protect and care for God’s beautiful creation?
Voices piece by Anne Craigmyle
contact the author at lighted_trails@yahoo.com | 
