Recently, the House of Lords, over in Westminster, held a commonwealth youth parliamentary session that hosted several young parliamentarians debating the issue of clean energy.
Several richly-accented youth stood in the house to make their case for better energy standards for the UK (in particular). However, there were those on the right who advocated a less concentrated focus on clean energy and, instead, pushing for a more concentrated effort in job creation, implying that the fight for clean energy would compromise economic growth.
The debate wasn’t unlike what we find between the two major parties here in America. The battle for clean energy solutions and, by extension, environmental protection, continues to crop up on the political landscape. Those on the right, though not wanting to desecrate the earth, want environmental regulations to be eased so capitalists can use our resources to produce wealth for the nation. Those on the left fight bitterly, though with their own biases, to load up on environmental protections here at home.
I’m curious as to how modern interpretations of the gospel have influenced this on going debate.
Modern evangelicalism is notorious for preaching a very personal gospel, tailoring a message of personal, individual salvation from hell and the wrath of God. Unfortunately, what went by the wayside was the fact that the gospel impacts the whole creation. Salvation is not simply about “winning a soul to Jesus” but redeeming the entire world, which includes the environment. Jesus says that he is making “all things new”…not just individual people.
Doubtless, such a parochial gospel didn’t mitigate the relentless march of capitalistic production. The earth was continually assaulted with little protest from the church. Thus, we find a evangelical gospel well-suited to capitalist endeavors, while the weak and marginalized party (the earth, in this case) had little voice. It is interesting to find that this is still the case today, wherein most staunch evangelicals still believe that capitalism is the economic structure which the Scriptures affirm (see God & Caesar, for example).
Thankfully, today, there are more Christian voices preaching a better gospel, a fuller gospel; a gospel that includes the environment. People like N.T. Wright, for example, continually trumpet a gospel that believes this world (not some celestial world beyond) is what God is restoring and what Christians should focus on serving. And efforts to produce cleaner energy are necessary ways to serve the creation which we inhabit. (Wendell Berry has some great things to say about his in his agrarian essays.)
I’m not saying Jesus was on the left (though I’d like to wish that he ways), but he definitely made a habit of protecting the voiceless and the marginalized. In our case, the hollowed whimper is coming from our coastlines, forests, water ways, and more. We should listen.
Cheers.
