Our miss-use of the environment, not only damages the environment itself, but also damages other people. Unfortunately, the people most affected are those who are poorer. The greed and pollution of people in the Northern Hemisphere is having a serious impact on global warming and the worst effects f this are experienced not by us in the Northern Hemisphere but by those in the Southern Hemisphere. These people, already living in great poverty, then suffer even greater problems in terms of severe droughts, famines, flooding etc., which leaves them even poorer. The Bible makes it quite clear that in terms of looking after the world, we have a duty not only to look after the environment but also to look after our fellow human beings. Hence the most important teaching, “Love thy neighbour as yourself”. Jesus made it quite clear in the story he told about the Good Samaritan that our neighbour is anyone and everyone who is in need, even our enemy, irrespective of their race/colour/religion.
Another important teaching, called one body many parts, makes it clear that human beings physically make up the body of God here on Earth. We are therefore his hands; his feet etc and therefore we should do what he would do himself if he were physically present. What we should do is look after our neighbour. Furthermore, if just some of us, (one tiny bit of the body) does not do what it is supposed to do then everyone else will be weakened. We must work together in order to be effective.
Obviously what the Church teaches about human responsibility to the world s based upon what the Bible has to say. The aim of the Church is always to pout into practice Biblical teaching.
One group of Christians, the Quakers, very much ahead of their time realised sooner than others that our miss-treatment of the environment would have long term damaging consequences. Indeed the American Quaker, John Wooman, over two hundred years ago, made the following observation: “The produce of the Earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants and to impoverish the Earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age”.
In 1986, there was a famous pilgrimage to Assisi in Italy. Many people joined in. Some were religious, some were not. The aim of this pilgrimage was to express concerns of our treatment of the environment. At the end of pilgrimage the five major world religious each issued their own declaration represented all Christian Churches and it was therefore an ecumenical response. The declaration served as a reminder that we human beings are the caretakers of God’s world and therefore we should look after it, we should treat others with respect which means we should not go to war, we should not be racist and most importantly, we should ensure that scientific advances are not at the expense of morality. The declaration also pointed out that to help us with all of this, God has sent model examples that we should seek to follow. The perfect example of course was Jesus, but there are others, e.g. St Francis of Assisi.
The Christian Church, through its services, focuses on the goodness of God and the creation, which he has given us hence at Communion when the bread and wine are taken, the Vicar says, “ All things come from God”. The Harvest Festival is when thanks is given for the harvest being safely gathered in. During Lent, for forty days luxury foods are given up to remind people not to take Gods gifts for granted and the money saved is often distributed to the poor. Eggs eaten at Easter symbolize the resurection and the start of a new life.
The Church seeks to put into practice what the Bible teaches about caring for others particularly the poor and less fortunate when it says “Love thy neighbour” and “One body, many parts”. The main example of this is missionaries, when Christians, supported by their Churches travel over seas to help less fortunate people. If the Church knows the individual of group of volunteers carrying out the work they will bring back personal stories so the people that are supporting the missionary team will feel more involved. All Christians are concerned about the injustices and the inequalities within our world. This, after all, is meant to be one world and Christians would encourage us to see everyone as our brothers and sisters, that we are family of God, consequently there are two major well known Christian organisations that work for the world’s poor – Christian Aid and the Catholic equivalent, CAFOD. CAFOD operates because it believes in the basic equality of all people in the sight of God. It believes that human dignity demands a reasonable standard of living. CAFOD works to make people aware of the plight of the world’s poorest people. It raises money for a number of projects including food production, water supplies, preventative medicine, education, nutrition schemes etc. it makes links between the continents of Africa, and people in Britain. A CAFOD group in school or parish learns about the problems facing the poor, and raise funds to support the self-help objectives started by CAFOD.
The Liberation theology was a movement on the part of the Catholic Church to show that it did care about its poor and needy followers. The movement emerged in South America and was a response to the criticism often voiced against the Catholic Church that the Church itself is too wealthy when its original people are so poor, hence the Church sought to get out onto the streets and help the people in most need.
The Church seeking for justice worldwide had a particularly tough job on its hands in South Africa. Here the system of apartheid had existed for many years, meaning that the majority of the population, the black people, had no power at all whilst the white people totally dominated. Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke out consistently against the atrocities of apartheid and ensured that it was put onto the world stage as an issue that needed to be addressed
The Quakers promote the equality of all people. They say that within everyone, there is a seed of goodness (a seed of God), which should be encouraged to flourish. This belief means that Quakers are totally anti-war because all life is valuable and unique. Furthermore, at their meetings there is no leader, all are equal and will only speak if moved to do so by the spirit of God.
We must conclude from this that if Christians accept God as their creator and acknowledge that God loves them so much that he made them in his image, they must also take responsibility for their actions and make very effort to preserve and care for the planet and all that lives on it.
