Sabbath Schools to Study Environment Issues
by Adventist Today News Team
Next week Adventists around the world will focus on current environmental issues and related Bible principles. The Sabbath School lesson published by the denomination is on “Creation Care” and will be discussed in local groups at the end of the week on Sabbath, February 25.
“How should Christians relate to the environment?” is the focus of the study. “What should we, as Seventh-day Adventists, think about the environment, especially because we know that this earth is corrupted, will continue to be corrupted, and will one day be destroyed, burned up in a great lake of fire,” the Adult Study Guide Standard English Edition introduces the topic. “We have sometimes struggled with how to relate to environmental concerns.”
Where the most popular Christian tradition places the afterlife in heaven, Adventists believe that ultimately human destiny is on this earth. The “lake of fire” will “cleanse” the earth and God “promises to make it over, to re-create it, to make a ‘new heaven and a new earth.’” It is on the renewed and healed earth that Adventists see the eternal future of humankind and the natural environment. And “that’s hardly an excuse … to abuse or exploit the environment,” the study guide states.
A search of the Sabbath School lessons in the General Conference Archives indicates that this is the first time that the denomination has focused on this topic, although there have been related studies. The lesson for the week of April 22-28, 1984, was about “Knowing God Through Nature.” In August 1999 there was a week devoted to “The Fall’s Impact on Creation” followed by a week on “Was There Death Before Sin?” All of these largely skirted potentially controversial issues that will be explored in the coming week.
Many Adventists may be surprised to find that in 1995 the denomination issued an official position paper on stewardship of the environment which expresses concern about “megalomaniacal destruction of the earth’s resources, resulting in widespread suffering, environmental disarray, and the threat of climate change.” The statement concludes that, “The ecological crisis is rooted in humankind’s greed and refusal to practice good and faithful stewardship within the divine boundaries of creation.” It is republished in the Sabbath School lesson for this coming week.
The lesson focuses on Bible study, specifically the texts used in the 1995 position paper—Gen. 1:1, 26; 9:7; Psalm 24:1; 100; James 5:1, 2, 4, 5; Heb. 1:3—and Rom. 1:25, 2 Pet. 3:10-14, Gen. 2:15, Neh. 13:16-19, Matt. 22:37-40 and a number of others. Questions suggested to start the discussion in Sabbath School classes begin with, “How would you respond to the person who says, ‘Jesus is coming soon, so why should I care about the environment?’” This is an attitude often brought up by those who accuse Adventists and other conservative Protestants of being irrelevant to contemporary realities.
Adventist Today would be interested in hearing how the discussion unfolded in your Sabbath School. Are adult groups able to discuss this potentially volatile topic without resorting to angry or accusatory statements, labeling those they disagree with, or talking past each other? Were the discussions rooted in Scripture and a serious attempt to lead Christ-centered lives or largely informed by current politics and media
Through the years my father (1925-2008), a lifelong Adventist, was a "quiet activist" as a recycler, member of the Sierra Club, and a man not inclined to throw any salvageable material or machine away until it was "just stopped breathing." Perhaps his love of repairing things stemmed from his life as a physician and surgeon, but Dad was the kind of guy who saw a garbage can as a luxury rather than a necessity. He never gave up on a patient, and he seemed just as determined to keep his ancient economical automobiles on the road. I believe many educated Adventists have been far ahead of denominational leaders in their understanding of the need to use natural resources sparingly, while preserving the natural habitats and resources of this aging earth. Dad always taught us that waste and overuse of resources was a peculiar "American problem" that future generations would have to resolve, and it was the better part of prudence to be leaders rather than followers in the inevitable move that direction.
I suspect the discussions will differ greatly, depending on where one finds themselves. Those who live in proximity to the Alberta Tar Sands, may approach it differently than someone in a relatively unspoiled area. But with all the misinformation and hysteria fostered by the mainstream media, it can difficult to have a rational discussion on this subject.
Good stewardship is not the same thing as environmental activism. Committing criminal acts to save trees or lobsters cannot be justified from Christian principles. "Waste not, want not" may be an overused cliche, but it would go a long way to improving our environment, as would a more concentrated effort to eliminate air and water pollutants from being released; as opposed to becoming hysterical about climate change (it's always been in a state of flux, at least since the flood), and labeling CO2 as a "pollutant." Shall we all quit breathing to save the environment?
Defining terms in any discussion of Environmental Activism is important, as important as the semantics of any discussion of "Missionary Activism" or "Christian Activism." Activism may, but usually does not, include civil disobedience or criminal violence. Activism is generally limited to actively promoting a point of view and acting on the principles of that view. "Radical activists" are generally seen as having an "all-or-nothing" attitude toward what they promote, and in some cases view human life as less important than the ideology they espouse. A very, very small minority of environmental activists take the radical pathway, though they get a disproportionate amount of media coverage. Most of us, while quietly promoting environmentalism through our lifestyle and conversation, understand fully that this is a long-term commitment in the larger service of quality of life enshrined in Christianity, "that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."
Horace,
You have touched on the heart of our challenge: to let how we related to the environment around us spring from our relationship with God instead of following popular orthodoxy. We are surrounded by a flood of the latter but only a tiny amount of the former.
Horace, we agree on something. "Committing criminal acts to save trees or lobsters cannot be justified…."
Utterly astounding!
Very controversial subject. If we include the allegation that man is causing global warming it becomes even more problematic.
How about all the trees consumed by passing our a church bulletin each Sabbath? Is there another way it could be done to save trees? Or do we really need to save trees?
Many in USA have at least two vehicles; is that good stewardship or is it plain selfish when not absolutely needed? One could go on and on.
We get our bulletins by email. Printed bulletins are for visitors and those without email. There are many things we could do as a church and as individuals.
Our goal is first and foremost to love the Lord and our neighbors as ourselves. At times I think we have told ourselves, "Don't worry about how you live, just deliver the warning that Jesus is coming!" Yet it's instructive that Ellen White spent a LOT of time promoting better lifestyle—temperance, healthful living. Sometimes HOW we live preaches more fervently than our declamations from the curbside or pulpit.
I once paid a call on an Adventist lay leader at home and found his presumed acreage with piles of uncovered rubbish strewn about, etc. Fearful at who might come to the door, I knocked first on the door of his immediate neighbor's home (a comparatively well-kept residence) and was told yes, the family I sought lived next door, but that the couple lived in squalor and had never made a thoughtful overture to any of the neighbors—and this had been the pattern as long as they had lived there, for the past 6 years. "We don't know them, and we don't want to know them," he concluded.
"How, then, shall we live?" is a huge question, and the more educated and discerning our friends and associates, the higher the expectation that we as Christians should set the tone and pace of a better way. If we live and behave selfishly and carelessly, people will tend to care less about our faith. There is indeed an expectation that good Christians SHOULD lead the way to better ways of life, and I am persuaded that how we consume/conserve is a means of showing respect to God and Christian leadership in our communities. I write humbly, as one who has not yet attained, but presses toward the goal….
Your experience with that particular Adventist family is unfortunate, but I don't believe it is the norm. I've seen very few Adventists who live like the ones you described. Most of the SDA families whose homes I've visited, keep a very clean and tidy house and yard. It would seem odd that Adventists, who historically taught pagans living in squalor the advantages of cleanliness and order, would themselves degenerate into slovenliness. My wife has often said somethng to the effect that just because someone is poor, is no reason to abandon neatness and cleanliness. Here in my part of the world, poverty and sloppiness seem to frequently go together.
The Christian faith is not practiced in isolation from the so-called secular life. Everything is interconnected. If we are careless in our daily life, we are likely to be careless in our religious life, and vice versa. If we expect unbelievers to be attracted to the gospel, we must live exemplary lives, both in the spiritual realm and the secular realm.
In my use of the example of the unkempt acreage, I was citing the experience of a strongly professing Christian whose outward way of life erased any spiritual impact he might have on his neighbors. I chose not to mention, however, that this particular family favored driving flashy and/or bright, new vehicles. They did. And I might add that the family in question moves about a great deal, rarely staying in one location very long.
With education and awareness of the needs around us comes an expectation of order, cleanliness, and careful rationing of resources—areas where Adventists have, so far, been adequate but not the strongest of leaders. That said, in areas of temperance and healthful living, we have chosen to be unabashed leaders. We should be able to extend that coverage to how we consume and how we preserve nature.
Many Adventists for practical and health reasons do keep their homes neat, clean, and clear of garbage, and for reasons of economy drive environment-friendly vehicles. But we rarely equate this "practical behavior" with an ethical imperative to behave resonsibly in the arena of consumerism and environmentalism. I believe in part this is because our Adventist culture emphasizes that the earth will soon be destroyed, anyhow, so why waste time and money repairing a planet bound for the wrecking yard, anyhow?
I might add here that our personal belief that Christ is coming soon is no guarantee that it WILL HAPPEN within a matter of a few years. Throughout the history of Christianity, belief in and hope for a soon return has motivated Christ's followers, but we must humbly admit that Christ himself warned us that only God knows the day and the hour of his Son's return to earth. Some Adventists have built shoddy buildings, declaring that to build well would evince lack of faith in the soon-coming of the Lord. Long-term planning is NOT something at which we have excelled, as a church and as individuals, leading in countless cases to our members retiring in older age, dissatisfied that Jesus has not come in their active lifespan, as they had dearly hoped and expected. Far better to "assume" that we must "occupy" this world indefinitely, while living every day prepared morally and behaviorally for it to be our last.
We have been admonished to "occupy 'til I come," and we have also before us the idea of the "soon" coming of Christ, the need to spread the message before it's too late. Adventists seem to have difficulty achieving balance between the 2; some falling into the one ditch and some falling into the other. The idea of being "salt and light" wherever we are would seem to go a long ways toward achieving that balance. That would include being good citizens and responsible stewards of the envirnonment, while constantly looking for opportunities to plant the seeds of truth in those within our sphere of influence.
We were created "a little lower than gods" and should behave like Him in maintaining, prerserving and artistically creating and recreating our world.
A recent oped at the Wall Street Journal should provide an interesting reference for discussion about stewardship of our environment. Be careful not to let the class be carried away with the controversy.
One of the original reasons for bringing this up, was to hear "how the discussion unfolded" in our SS classes today. On our end, nothing earth shattering. I repeated some of what I posted earlier. We discussed the concept of responsible stewardship of the environment; things such as minimizing waste, as well as air and water pollution. We also discussed the need to have a balanced approach; avoiding the extremes of radical environmentalism or corporate greed, which leads to environmental destruction. At one point we got sidetracked discussing the changes to the environment caused by the flood.
No one expressed concern over climate change.
Much the same occurred in my SS also. Except we didn't get sidetracked on the flood, but briefly on what 'subduing the earth' meant in a perfect world.