Christianity and Environmentalism

Environment denotes the living and non- living world that are essential for the survival of humans. Environmentalism refers to the ideology that promotes and protects the environment and Religious environmentalism refers to the act of protecting the environment in par with one's religious beliefs. Here, I am sharing briefly about how Christianity requires its believers to protect the environment. To look into it, we have to trace all the way back to the creation of the world in Genesis chapter one, where God created the whole earth (environment) and the man was created at last because God kept Adam (humans) as a protectorate over the whole earth (environment) as seen in Genesis 2:15, he had the responsibility to protect the Garden of Eden (the environment in which he lived). Not only that, God, in Numbers 33:34, 35 gave a command that "You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell". This command does not specify the abominations of people the defile the land, buy also the external force that literally defile the environment, because God says he dwells among us and we cannot defile his dwelling place knowing that dwells among us. Environment is not limited to the green life alone rather it includes the animal kingdom as well. God also gives commands regarding humans' duty towards animals as well. In proverbs 12:10, He says, "whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast" which makes man liable or responsible for the well being of his animals as well. In Deuteronomy 25:4, God commands his people of "You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain" which talks about people should exhibit humanity towards the animals especially to ones which they use for their well being. Therefore, a good Christian should not only care about himself/herself but also should exhibit their responsibility to the environment as well. Now, this might be a twist to the traditional concept of Christianity focusing on their inner selves and living a God-desired lifestyle, but little did they know that God placed the responsibility over humans to protect the environment and they have been placed as the protectorate over it. We all care about human-human relationships, but why don't we care about the human-nature relationship when it is our own God given duty to protect it. We rather suck out all the benefits from them and just pretend not to care and act as if it is someone will take care of it or God himself will rectify it. Of course he wouldn't! God gave us a beautiful environment to live in, to enjoy its goods and at the same time to protect it, to eat the efforts of your hands. But where will you put all your effort or eat when you have degraded the whole environment and doesn't at all want to care about it. Therefore, as protectorate over the world, let us work together to protect and to preserve the environment in which we live.

- Shonigaa B

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