The Creation Care Faith Network is a growing group of people and congregations committed to sustainability as an expression of spirituality. The following congregations have been represented at the first few Network gatherings:
First Congregational United Church of Christ
Holy Apostles Catholic
Vanguard Church
All Souls Unitarian Universalist
St. Francis Catholic
Faith Presbyterian
International Anglican Church
Holy Theophany Orthodox
Living Faith Community
High Plains Unitarian Universalist
Good Shepherd United Methodist
Broadmoor Community Church
United Methodist Church
Position
From Chapter 160, 2004 Book of Disipline,
United Methodist Church
All creation is the Lord's, and we are responsible for the ways
we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants,
animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are
God's creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings.
God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these
stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect. Economic,
political, social, and technological developments have increased our human
numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives. However, these
developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of
species, massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and
overconsumption of natural and nonrenewable resources, particularly by
industrialized societies.
This continued course of action jeopardizes the
natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations. Therefore, let
us recognize the responsibility of the church and its members to place a
high priority on changes in economic, political, social, and technological
lifestyles to support a more ecologically equitable and sustainable world
leading to a higher quality of life for all of God's
creation.
Southern
Baptist Conference Position
A Southern Baptist
Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change
Preamble
Southern Baptists
have always been a confessional people, giving testimony to our beliefs,
which are based upon the doctrines found in God’s inerrant word—the Holy
Bible. As the dawning of new ages has produced substantial challenges
requiring a special word, Southern Baptist churches, associations and
general bodies have often found it necessary to make declarations in order
to define, express and defend beliefs. Though we do not regard this as a
complete declaration on these issues, we believe this initiative finds
itself consistent with our most cherished distinctives and rooted in
historical precedent.
The preamble to the
Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (BFM 2000) declares: “Each generation of
Christians bears the responsibility of guarding the treasury of truth that
has been entrusted to us [2 Timothy 1:14]. Facing a new century, Southern
Baptists must meet the demands and duties of the present hour. New
challenges to faith appear in every age.”
We recognize that
God’s great blessings on our denomination bestow upon us a great
responsibility to offer a biblically-based, moral witness that can help
shape individual behavior, private sector behavior and public policy.
Conversations like this one demand our voice in order to fulfill our
calling to engage the culture as a relevant body of believers. Southern
Baptists have always championed faith’s challenges, and we now perpetuate
our heritage through this initiative.
We are proud of our
deep and lasting commitments to moral issues like the sanctity of human
life and biblical definitions of marriage. We will never compromise our
convictions nor attenuate our advocacy on these matters, which constitute
the most pressing moral issues of our day. However, we are not a
single-issue body. We also offer moral witness in other venues and on many
issues. We seek to be true to our calling as Christian leaders, but above
all, faithful to Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, our attention goes to
whatever issues our faith requires us to address.
We have recently
engaged in study, reflection and prayer related to the challenges
presented by environmental and climate change issues. These things have
not always been treated with pressing concern as major issues. Indeed,
some of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded
that these are real problems that deserve our attention. But now we have
seen and heard enough to be persuaded that these issues are among the
current era’s challenges that require a unified moral voice.
We believe our
current denominational engagement with these issues have often been too
timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice. Our cautious response to
these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as
uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better. To abandon these
issues to the secular world is to shirk from our responsibility to be salt
and light. The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no
more.
Therefore, we offer
these four statements for consideration, beginning with our fellow
Southern Baptists, and urge all to follow by taking appropriate actions.
May we find ourselves united as we contend for the faith that was
delivered to the saints once for all. Laus Deo!
Statement
1
Humans Must Care for
Creation and Take Responsibility for Our Contributions to Environmental
Degradation.
There is undeniable
evidence that the earth—wildlife, water, land and air—can be damaged by
human activity, and that people suffer as a result. When this happens, it
is especially egregious because creation serves as revelation of God’s
presence, majesty and provision. Though not every person will physically
hear God’s revelation found in Scripture, all people have access to God’s
cosmic revelation: the heavens, the waters, natural order, the beauty of
nature (Psalm 19; Romans 1). We believe that human activity is mixed in
its impact on creation—sometimes productive and caring, but often
reckless, preventable and sinful.
God’s command to
tend and keep the earth (Genesis 2) did not pass away with the fall of
man; we are still responsible. Lack of concern and failure to act
prudently on the part of Christ-followers reflects poorly to the rest of
the world. Therefore, we humbly take responsibility for the damage that we
have done to God’s cosmic revelation and pledge to take an unwavering
stand to preserve and protect the creation over which we have been given
responsibility by Almighty God Himself.
Statement 2
It Is Prudent to
Address Global Climate Change.
We recognize that we
do not have any special revelation to guide us about whether global
warming is occurring and, if it is occurring, whether people are causing
it. We are looking at the same evidence unfolding over time that other
people are seeing.
We recognize that we
do not have special training as scientists to allow us to assess the
validity of climate science. We understand that all human enterprises are
fraught with pride, bias, ignorance and uncertainty.
We recognize that if
consensus means unanimity, there is not a consensus regarding the
anthropogenic nature of climate change or the severity of the problem.
There is general agreement among those engaged with this issue in the
scientific community. A minority of sincere and respected scientists offer
alternate causes for global climate change other than deforestation and
the burning of fossil fuels.
We recognize that
Christians are not united around either the scientific explanations for
global warming or policies designed to slow it down. Unlike abortion and
respect for the biblical definition of marriage, this is an issue where
Christians may find themselves in justified disagreement about both the
problem and its solutions.
Yet, even in the
absence of perfect knowledge or unanimity, we have to make informed
decisions about the future. This will mean we have to take a position of
prudence based partly on science that is inevitably changing. We do not
believe unanimity is necessary for prudent action. We can make wise
decisions even in the absence of infallible evidence.
Though the claims of
science are neither infallible nor unanimous, they are substantial and
cannot be dismissed out of hand on either scientific or theological
grounds. Therefore, in the face of intense concern and guided by the
biblical principle of creation stewardship, we resolve to engage this
issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem
or our responsibility to address it. Humans must be proactive and take
responsibility for our contributions to climate change—however great or
small.
Statement
3
Christian Moral
Convictions and Our Southern Baptist Doctrines Demand Our Environmental
Stewardship.
While we cannot here
review the full range of relevant Christian convictions and Baptist
doctrines related to care of the creation, we emphasize the following
points:
We must care about environmental and climate issues
because of our love for God—“the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver and Ruler of
the Universe” (BFM 2000)—through whom and for whom the creation was made.
This is not our world, it is God’s. Therefore, any damage we do to this
world is an offense against God Himself (Gen. 1; Ps. 24; Col. 1:16). We
share God’s concern for the abuse of His creation.
We must care about
environmental issues because of our commitment to God’s Holy and inerrant
Word, which is “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds
and religious opinions should be tried” (BFM 2000). Within these
Scriptures we are reminded that when God made mankind, He commissioned us
to exercise stewardship over the earth and its creatures (Gen. 1:26-28).
Therefore, our motivation for facing failures to exercise proper
stewardship is not primarily political, social or economic—it is primarily
biblical.
We must care about environmental and climate issues because
we are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have
them do unto us and to protect and care for the “least of these” (Mt.
22:34-40; Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46). The consequences of these problems will
most likely hit the poor the hardest, in part because those areas likely
to be significantly affected are in the world’s poorest regions. Poor
nations and individuals have fewer resources available to cope with major
challenges and threats. Therefore, “we should work to provide for the
orphaned, the needy … [and] the helpless” (BFM 2000) through proper
stewardship.
Love of God, love of
neighbor and Scripture’s stewardship demands provide enough reason for
Southern Baptists and Christians everywhere to respond to these problems
with moral passion and concrete action.
Statement
4
It Is Time for
Individuals, Churches, Communities and Governments to Act.
We affirm that
“every Christian should seek to bring industry, government and society as
a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth and
brotherly love” (BFM 2000).
We realize that we
cannot support some environmental issues as we offer a distinctively
Christian voice in these arenas. For instance, we realize that what some
call population control leads to evils like abortion. We now call on these
environmentalists to reject these evils and accept the sanctity of every
human person, both born and unborn.
We realize that
simply affirming our God-given responsibility to care for the earth will
likely produce no tangible or effective results. Therefore, we pledge to
find ways to curb ecological degradation through promoting biblical
stewardship habits and increasing awareness in our homes, businesses where
we find influence, relationships with others and in our local churches.
Many of our churches do not actively preach, promote or practice biblical
creation care. We urge churches to begin doing so.
We realize that the
primary impetus for prudent action must come from the will of the people,
families and those in the private sector. Held to this standard of
common good, action by government is often needed to assure the health and
well-being of all people. We pledge, therefore, to give serious
consideration to responsible policies that acceptably address the
conditions set forth in this declaration.
Conclusion
We the undersigned, in accordance with our Christian moral
convictions and Southern Baptist doctrines, pledge to act on the basis of
the claims made in this document. We will not only teach the truths
communicated here but also seek ways to implement the actions that follow
from them. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, we urge all who read this
declaration to join us in this effort. Laus
Deo!
join 
