Haze and the environment
The recent haze that has swept across KL and Indonesia is a serious reminder of our environmental duties that is often swept under the carpet under the name of economic progress and urbanisation.
To make things worse, the church has often been slow to preach the importance of environmental ethics... (i'm not sure why)... maybe we just take the world we live in for granted - forgetting that one of our duties on earth is the redemtion of a fallen world.
As one member of M'sia's Democratic Action Party said, "We are breathing in poison every day. Things have never been this bad."
But year after year, the same thing happens over and over again... one only wonder when we'll ever learn our lesson...
To make things worse, the church has often been slow to preach the importance of environmental ethics... (i'm not sure why)... maybe we just take the world we live in for granted - forgetting that one of our duties on earth is the redemtion of a fallen world.
As one member of M'sia's Democratic Action Party said, "We are breathing in poison every day. Things have never been this bad."
But year after year, the same thing happens over and over again... one only wonder when we'll ever learn our lesson...
posted by Benjamin Ho at
7:15 AM
3 Comments:
I think the church is has neglected the environment because she has embraced a Platonist view of matter and spirit – the world and everything physical is corrupt and passing away and only the spirit will remain, so why bother with it? This idea is not from Christianity of course, and made inroads to the church in the medieval times. Also to compound to this situation, left-behind-styled dispensational eschatology preach an escapism ideal called the rapture, where we leave this sorry mess and fly to the sky to see Jesus – so again, why bother? I guess if people had a biblical worldview: “
that this world is God’s, and though infected with sin for awhile, will be redeemed by Him and set free from it’s bondage and made new (not replaced) – and that Christianity (that is the revealing of the sons of God) is the beginning of the process, where God has invaded this enemy occupied territory and set up outpost of his redeemed assemblies that are reclaiming the world to it’s rightful owner”
they wouldn’t see the environment as being apart from Christianity, but a part of it.
yeah...it seems that much of the modern evangelical circles tend to think that "spiritual matters" are more important... thus cultivating a atmosphere of indifference when it comes to environment matters - or for that matter - anything that is deemed non-spiritual/worldly.
I suppose that is only part of the reason. Developed countries have more resources and expertise to care for their environment while poorer countries will have to jeopardize the resources of the next generation just to survive for their present livelihood. Problems exist everywhere and in different significance. To many, it's a luxury to care at this level when they are struggling to make ends meet. Sure, if we live by Christian doctrines, environment is an issue we have to care. How much and how far can we do... depends on our level of understanding and our particular circumstances in life.
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