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Silly woman! God commands us to care for the poor. That is a command of God.

HOW we care for the poor mixes theology with politics. Some say the government should do it, having more resources. I say WE - individuals - are commanded to do it, and the fewer taxes the government takes, the more I have to give. As an Anglican Bishop pointed out, you cannot give to the poor if the government has taken everything you have...

The same holds true of the environment. We are to use the earth wisely - but that has nothing to do with Global Warming, or campaigns against nuclear power. Those are political agendas, and not needed inside the Church.

“To claim we know it all and then to declare a particular political or social camp captures that viewpoint is to place the wisdom that belongs to God alone into the hands of sinful humanity.”

This bears repeating, not so much for the political connection, but for the general observation that so many people claim to have knowledge of things they do not (such as the afterlife and who goes to which part of it!)

Those folks, here on FR and elsewhere, are really really really pompous and annoying.

It’s the churches place to help the poor and almost all do! It’s not the gov’t place - because the gov’t doesn’t have money - it’s the people money. Nor does the Bible agree to STEALING from the rich and giving to the poor.

2 Thess 3:10
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

Mark 14:7 “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you WISH you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me”.

Most recently, I became a Christian environmentalist.

I am a Christian and I believe in conservation, but I would never try use one to justify the other.

Why do Christians always try to justify everything through the Bible? There are numerous good ideas (not that I agree with the author) that are not covered in the Bible.

Everything in the Bible is good, but not everything good is in the Bible.

I'm a non-denominational Christian and I have had numerous discussions with family members about this issue over the past few years.

Here is my critique and observations:

Firstly, the author asks the question "is it biblical?", but doesn't provide any Scripture whatsoever to support her position.

Yes, the earth is God's creation and mankind was created to subdue it and rule over it in Genesis 1 and 2.

When mankind fell, so did all of creation - Romans 8:19-25. We and all of creation are not existing as God intended.

Yes, we're still stewards of everything that God has placed at our disposal. But there are priorities, and those are well communicated by Jesus Himself in the Great Commission: preach the Gospel so that fallen mankind will be redeemed.

Jesus didn't die on the cross to save the physical earth. He died to save sinners. (1 Tim 1:15). Humans. Not trees. Not oceans.

I see the current interest by Christians in environmentalism as a distraction in fulfilling the Great Commission: go and make disciples, baptize them.

Is protecting the environment a good thing? Probably is. Does that activity steal time away from preaching the Gospel? What it does is do the good at the expense of the best.

But here's a question for Christian environmentalists:

If you had a house, and it had a sign on the front door that said "Condemned. Total renovation by Owner in near future.", would you go spend any time at all on the house?

Consider these Scriptures:

2 Peter 3:10-13

Revelation 21:1

There's going to be a new heaven and new earth. Old, passed away.

To sum up: lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, not in saving the condemned house.