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We are all in this together

Theological education should include environmental issues for creating a greater awareness in people on sanctity of life and environment. We need to internalise the truth that humans and the rest of creation belong together and the peaceful survival of mankind rests on the proper use and care of natural resources.

Martin Adhikary
CLIMATE change directly hits Bangladesh and will continue to do so. Low-lying Bangladesh is under constant threat of flooding and crop production failure. Millions of people are already exposed to climate change through extreme weather, rising sea levels, and river erosion.
Stability in climate, eradication of poverty, health and sanitation, and overall human development -- all are interlinked. All the other MDGs will remain elusive if the seventh one (achievement of environmental sustainability) is not achieved.
According to the Bible, man is not the owner of anything, but the manager or steward of God's creation. The Psalmist wrote: "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.’ (Psalm 24:1, see also Acts 17:24).
The food we eat. the water we drink, the air we breathe, the soil we till and the sunshine and the rain we cherish are all God's gifts. But we use these resources thoughtlessly.
According to the Genesis account of the creation of the world, man is created in God's image and likeness. This reflects on God's moral attributes of love, holiness, justice, and peace, so that man can be the vice-regent of
creation to protect, nurture, and enjoy and let others enjoy them, and praise Him.
In these scriptures, the concepts of ruling or having dominion or subduing creation, naming of the other animals, etc by man can be understood to mean having the responsible authority to care under God's sovereignty.
But we are responsible to God: we have the most dignified position under God to work as the faithful stewards of his creation.
When mankind went too far with our lust and greed, disrespecting God, He sent the deluge and destroyed all mankind except the one just man. Noah, and his family. But God renewed His creation and blessed it anew.
Classical western Christian theology was based on a dichotomy between matter and spirit, man and nature. As a result of this, man alienates from nature. One way we suffer alienation is the lack of faithful stewardship of resources. By our selfish use and abuse of resources we alienate ourselves from other people, from nature and environment and also from God and have failed the mandate of stewardship of the resources of the world.
Churches and Christian NGOs can orient people to implement the stewardship mandate.
From a historical point of view, the Church has failed in this mission. Let me quote Martha Kirkpatrick: "The crisis state of our planet has been recognised for decades as a problem that has serious -- one might say dire -- implications for human and ecological health. For the last forty years, environmental concerns have involved scientists, engineers, lawyers, architects, urban planners, writers, poets, artists, and ethicists as
well as government at all levels, businesses, nonprofits, hospitals and schools. In short, it has involved practically everyone, except the churches." (AnglicanTheological Review)
Many of the environmental problems are caused by the production and consumption patterns of the rich nations, who deplete the world's natural resources, creating imbalance in the eco-system. What we need now is cco-justice. Without justice there can be no peace and harmony and no sustainable future for mankind.
Christian NGOs have been playing a good role in transforming community awareness about environmental issues and climate change. They need, however, to focus on this more. 1 am reminded of a Chinese proverb: "If you are thinking of a year sow a seed, if you are thinking for a decade plant a tree; and if you are thinking for a generation or even for a century make people aware."
Influencing of public opinion and policy makers on such issues arc of great importance. Christian NGOs should join hands with the government and other national and international organisations to address the concerned issues. They can concentrate on empowering community people to adapt to environment degradation and climate change. Christian NGOs and churches can organise and, or participate in interfaith dialogues on issues like cli-matc/environrncnt to mutually inform each other what the different faiths/world views have to say about these.
The very issue of climate, ecology and environment is a faith-issue, affecting the whole creation. We have faith in a creator God, who sustains His creation, renew His creation. We believe in the sustainable future, holistic growth of mankind. We need to be both God-ccntrcd as well as eco-centred the same time. Towards this end there is no alternative to a pragmatic interpretation of scripture.
For instance, let us take Genesis 1:28: "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over {have dominion) the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and
over every living creature that moves on the ground."
The original Hebrew words that I italicised in this verse respectively are barak, parah, rabah. male, kabash, and radah. All these terms must be interpreted from a godly perspective of holiness, love and justice. Man is supposed to have godly control over God's creation and harness resources for use. However, over the centuries this important scripture has perhaps been interpreted with an anthropocentric bias.
Theological education should include environmental issues for creating a greater awareness in people on sanctity of life and environment. We need to internalise the truth that humans and the rest of creation belong together and the peaceful survival of mankind rests on the proper use and care of natural resources.
The Bible testifies to a covenantmaking God, who made covenant with Adam for the care of his creation. In course of time he renewed the same with Noah. We are reminded of the chaos and disorder of Genesis 1:2 (the formless, emptiness and darkness) by the deluge in Genesis 7-8.
After the deluge, God renews the same Covenant with universal application, i.e. including all living beings: "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” (Gen. 9:17).
The affluent Western nations primarily are to blame for the environmental pollution and ecological
imbalance on a regional and global scale, while the poor and developing ones are responsible for the smaller and local versions of the same. God gave man the world as a banquet of good food and drink. Are we perhaps turning it into a huge garbage bin?
A holistic world-view is needed. Human life is not to be seen as isolated. The environment is intricately lined up with all human development. Before creating man, God created the right environment for him. So man needs to love and protect the environment, not only to consume, but also to conserve. Rev. Martin Adhikary is a social leader and also a teacher of
Christian theology