1...2....ready... THINK!

Sorry once again for going MIA on all of you devoted readers. It's been a busy week, but I'm proud to say it's also been pretty productive. So, once again, I had to put a pause on the blogging for a day or two. Forgive me.

But, I did have time to catch up on a few of my favorite blogs to read over the past couple of days. And one, written by a lady I met while doing Missions Emphasis Week at Baylor, really got me thinking about how sometime the Southern Baptist Convention can be so off on certain things.

Now, I'm not trying to stir up a nice big Texas-sized fight here... just get people thinking a little.

And because I know 90% of you won't click on this link to take you to her site to read her post - http://www.mentanna.blogspot.com/ - (for those who do click - also read the post previous to the one regarding the SBC... it's fun historical facts), I'll also repost her post here...

can't we be just a little greener?
sometimes i don't want to be southern baptist. is that heresy? can i admit that? maybe i should moderate my remarks by comparing my relationship with the sbc to my relationship with my family. i love my family. most of the time i am proud to be a part of clan campbell. when it comes to my husband and children, i find myself bragging about their accomplishments and showing their pictures to every unsuspecting guest that walks through my front door. however, there are times when i want to pretend that my children are the result of someone else's gene pool. during scream fests or whining marathons, i must admit that although i always love my children, i don't always like them. the same can be said of my relationship with my denomination. the people that constitute the sbc are my family and while i love them, i sometimes wish i could runaway or put myself up for adoption. i had one of those moments, yesterday, when i read this article. (click title to see link)

i don't understand at all my denomination's stance on the environment, and more specifically, global warming. A few months ago, over 80 evangelical leaders came together to sign the evangelical climate initiative which calls on people to do all they can to take care of God's planet. it also urges lawmakers to approve mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, but to do so in a way that will not hurt businesses. boasting the largest number of evangelicals with over 15 million members, the sbc refused to sign this initiative. their reasons are as follows...

1. environmental politics could distract southern baptists from their main task of sharing the gospel.
2. as Kenyn Cureton, vice president for sbc relations stated, "there are a number of other more pressing moral and cultural issues than mankind's impact on the environment that need to be addressed by evangelicals, namely that nearly 4,000 pre-born babies are being aborted every day in America." (gay marriage was also mentioned later as a more important moral agenda for evangelicals to focus upon.)
3. by joining environmental causes, southern baptists might give the impression that they support groups that deify mother earth.
4. most southern baptists aren't convinced that the earth is in as bad a shape as doomsday scientists predict.

i was floored when i read the reasons why my denomination wouldn't back an initiative that calls on us to be better stewards of God's creation. the argument of distraction was particularly surprising. does our leadership really believe that we as christians don't have the ability to multi-task? i resent the insinuation that i as a believer cannot find time to both care for the environment and share the gospel. apparently we can march in pro-life and anti-gay marriage manifestations while still finding the time to tell our neighbor about jesus, but we can't recycle our trash and do the same. crazy! plus, wouldn't our stewardship of the environment be on of those "works" that the world could see and glorify our father in heaven? if we believe the bible as we say we do, then we must acknowledge that the earth is full of God's glory. everything he has made screams to humanity that he exists, that he is good and that he is the creator and sustainer of all things. by not caring for this testimony given in nature, do we not hurt our witness and render the lost's ability to find God more difficult? (Rom 1:18-20) if all things are created to worship him, meaning animals, trees and everything in creation, are we then not at fault if we silence their voices through our carelessness? (psalm 65,98)

when i read the above mentioned reasons, i read a list of excuses. i honestly believe that we don't want the personal responsibility that comes with caring for the environment. abortion, which i am against, and gay marriage, which i don't support either, are issues with faceless opponents that are often removed from our daily life. all they require of us is to voice our disagreement by voting along certain party lines. on the other hand, caring for the environment by buying gas efficient cars, using less electricity and recycling our trash, well, that calls for time and energy on our part. it may even require sacrifice. in this case, we have to battle the enemy within by denying ourselves, consuming less and not owning what commercials try to convince us that we need.

maybe the small group of scientists that claim that we are merely in a warming cycle are right. my question is, what can it hurt to assume that they are wrong? cleaning up our air can only help us. trust me, i live in a big city and i would love to see less traffic and pollution and know that my children would be healthier as a result. i say we play to the worst case scenario, because everything would benefit from it. if, in a 100 years, we discover that the earth isn't warming and all our precautions were for naught, then at least we will have improved our quality of life and honored God with our efforts.

to love and care for God's creation doesn't make me a tree hugger or a worshipper of mother earth; it makes me a good steward. those of us who know the creator should be the first to defend his creation. it, too, longs to be redeemed. (romans 8:18-23) shame on us that we have given over the care of God's planet to groups that don't know whose it is and why it exists. family of God, let's take the lead on this and start defining ourselves by what we are for instead of what we are against.


Again, this is just meant to be though provoking, not fight-inducing, so don't come attacking me in the comments about how I'm an SBC hater. I feel often like Mentanna does how it's like family - you don't always get along with family.

But to think the SBC won't get on board with keeping God's earth clean (and better for all of us on it) because we'd be deterred from our most basic calls is very faulting thinking. They call us to arms about so much and demand we don't let the numbers slide in church, but no, no... let's not worry about the earth and our resources. I mean after all, we can just send the generations after us to church in gas masks to filter out all the fog and pollutants.

Your thoughts?