MACON, Ga. (ABP) -- American Christians must move beyond a theology of “me” to a theology of “we” in order to play a meaningful role in creation care, according to speakers at a two-day conference recently held Oct. 29-31 on the campus of Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

Dubbed “Caring for Creation: A Scientific and Theological Response,” the meeting was the second in a series jointly sponsored by Mercer and Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. The first was held on Mercer’s Atlanta campus in February.

The latest gathering included sessions where speakers focused their messages on inspiring those of faith to engage with science, and scientists to engage with the faithful, on caring for the Earth.

At the conference’s opening session, two prominent Baptist leaders outlined trends that are changing the debate on caring for the environment among Christians. David Gushee, a Mercer Christian-ethics professor; and Jonathan Merritt, author of the forthcoming book Green Like God and son of a former Southern Baptist Convention president, addressed the gathered.

Adding creation care to the agenda for Christians will take new theology and a new outlook on caring for God’s creation, Gushee noted (as he did in one of his recent columns for Associated Baptist press). The theological narratives of current American evangelicals are almost entirely personal -- “God and I,” he noted.

David Gushee (right) and Jonathan Merritt answer questions following their session at Mercer University’s Caring for Creation Conference, on Oct. 29. (PHOTO/Mercer)

Moving from individualistic faith

Using the analogy of a fictional “Billy Christian” -- a typical white evangelical Christian -- Gushee highlighted the obstacles in moving Billy from his individualistic faith in Christ to a more cosmic and holistic view of faith. “God’s redemptive purposes go beyond human beings. They extend to the whole created order,” Gushee said, and Billy must be swayed by the realization that “the God who made the whole world has intentions for the whole world.”

Billy must also be persuaded to read about God’s call to care for creation while he is on Earth, Gushee said. By focusing his faith on his own time and place rather than heaven, Billy will be inspired to a more global vision.

“We must help Billy transition to a social and global moral vision, not just a personal or interpersonal one,” Gushee said. “Maybe when the other theological work is done, Billy will come to see that what God is looking for in followers of Christ is a global Kingdom-of-God vision, a vision of comprehensive love of neighbors and of self, a vision of doing unto others as we would have ourselves done by. And if you think about the world as it is, this is about more than being a nice person and being honest at work. It’s about caring that others can’t breathe clean air, can’t drink clean water, can’t eat safe food, and can’t feed their babies safe breast milk because we have been bad stewards of God’s creation.”

Merritt's creation-care journey

Merritt began his quest to do just that while still in seminary, inspired by the realization that God’s creation is part of what theologians call “general revelation,” and the idea that the destruction of creation was akin to tearing pages from God’s specific revelation, the Bible.

As a result, Merritt had a change of heart, and felt called to alter his habits and his faith. He worked with others to draft the “Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.” The declaration was simple and had a number of prominent signatories. It called on Southern Baptists to refocus themselves on urgent environmental problems as a natural outgrowth of their doctrinal stances.

Jonathan Merritt delivers an address at Mercer University’s Caring for Creation Conference on Oct. 29. (PHOTO/Mercer)

The release of the document was followed immediately by silence and even strong denunciations from some prominent Southern Baptists, as well as personal attacks, Merritt said. The criticism was stunning, he said -- but it also confirmed that he was doing the work he was supposed to do.

Merritt set out to examine the obstacles to creating a more creation-focused evangelical message. Among the three most prominent barriers, he said, are misguided theology, a misinformed constituency and misplaced hope.

“Many teachers and pastors are simply not responding. Some are doing nothing. Churches that claim to teach the whole Bible sheepishly avoid or brush over the many passages that we’ve heard tonight that reveal God’s intentions for this Earth,” Merritt said.

On the misinformation side, he said the explosion of communications technology can elevate “experts” in every field who are far from expert. He urged Christian leaders and scientists to maintain “occupational integrity” and to beware of those who would spread misinformation about things like climate change.

“Neither viewership of Fox News nor ownership of a copy of An Inconvenient Truth makes you an expert,” Merritt said. “We have to do the hard work. We have to sometimes trust the experts, because a lot of us don’t have time to be experts. Christian communities should be places of honesty and integrity. Christian people should be the last people to accept contrarian information without doing the hard work of researching the validity of the claims being made.”

Evangelicals' political alliances

The final obstacle is misplaced hope in a political form of religion, Merritt noted. The morphing of Christian faith into a political movement in the late 20th century has had ramifications for the climate-change debate, he said.

“Americans began to choose sides. So the Right stole God and the Left stole green,” Merritt said. “And you almost never, until recently, saw those two words in the same sentence. One side did a lot of talking about green and the other side did a lot of talking about God, but you had to wonder sometimes, does God have anything to say about green? They were totally separated, entrapped.

“The way Christians started to talk about God began to change. Instead of God being a loving being who wrapped himself in flesh in order to bring peace to the entire cosmos ... many spoke of God as an American patriot who has a disproportionate stake in our federal government’s success. This God was not building a global kingdom on Earth, or an other-worldy kingdom beyond Earth. This God was building and blessing an American kingdom.”

A new generation of young evangelicals is realizing the paradoxes of the past, Merritt said, and is taking these challenges head on. He encouraged the audience of more than 800 to take this challenge on as well.

“At the intersection of faith and facts we sit at the feet of a green God who has placed the burden of action squarely on our shoulders,” Merritt said. “So don’t give in to the temptation to get angry or haughty. Stay humble. Constantly confess the intellectual and theological arrogance in your heart. Open up your mind to these conversations. Rest assured that inside each of us, beginning with me, there is a bulbous cyst of egotism yet to be brought under the lance of God’s grace. Don’t become callous or bitter because of those who disagree with you. Don’t be discouraged. I can tell you -- because I’ve traveled around the country and talked to people about it -- God is on the move, God’s people are on the move, transition is occurring, people are waking up to these issues, we are engaging them, and in some cases now leading these conversations.”

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   is director of media relations at Mercer University.

Previous ABP stories:

Mercer conference calls Christians to 'creation care' (3/3/09)

Leaders’ statement on climate change suggests Southern Baptist divide (3/11/08)

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