Earth Day

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day observance led by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. After some twenty years as a predominantly American emphasis, Earth Day went international in 1990. Now more than 170 countries participate in activities highlighting the environment, care for the natural resources, and concerns about climate change.

For the Christian disciple, the environment is a stewardship issue. In the earliest chapters of the Bible, human beings are charged with caring for the "garden" they live in. That's what stewardship really is, managing the gifts God has given -- including the natural world and its resources. Clearly, we (including Christians) haven't always done a good job of this. Sometimes we have been unaware of the consequences of our decisions in the name of progress, and in other cases we have disregarded the known or potential impact on the environment of our actions.

Earth is not our ashtray, contrary to the careless flip of a cigarette out the car window. Earth is not our trash bin, despite the blight of ravines filled with cast-off refrigerators, junk cars and the like. The sky is not our exhaust vent, no matter what the plumes of industrial smoke represent.

Governments, industries, communities and private individuals have roles to plan in the stewardship of soil, water, air. The first role, in my view, is to care.