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God's creation, our responsibility
"I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth with only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too." Those words, which were sent in a letter from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his fiancé from his Nazi prison cell, were highlighted in Larry Rasmussen's 1997 book, Earth Community, Earth Ethics.
What does this mean in the face of our present crisis?
The Christian perspective that ignores earth in favor of one leg in heaven, concentrating on the things of the Spirit, has forgotten that what God desires of us is care of the earth of which we are a lovingly created part (Genesis 1:26-28). We have forgotten God's joy in creation in all its diversity (Job 38:39-39:30, Matthew 6:26-30).
The birds struggling to emerge from the ruddy sludge entrapping them are Christ right before our eyes, demanding that we stand on earth with two legs, making our lives, as Bonhoeffer says, "a 'yes' to God's earth." And then there are the oysters, the jellyfish, the sea grass, the plankton and the snails, all struggling because of human choices, and no less cherished by God.
Whether animals have consciousness, souls, rights or sacrifice is irrelevant in the face of the fact that animals are God's good creation, which we are required to love as our neighbors.
No expense of time or money is too great in caring for these completely innocent victims of human behavior. To the suffering of God's whole amazing creation in the Gulf of Mexico, the religious answer is two legs on God's good earth. Our job is to make this real in our lives.
By
Janet Edwards
|
June 15, 2010; 3:23 PM ET
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Posted by: amber8 | June 19, 2010 1:13 PM
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geemisscrabtree,
"Am I reading that right - this Rev. is equating God's love for plankton and snails with his love for us?"
One of the nice things about believing in an imaginary god is that the believer is able to believe whatever he/she wants to believe about their imaginary god.
It's a lot easier and more fun than dealing with reality.
Posted by: PSolus | June 19, 2010 9:09 AM
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"And then there are the oysters, the jellyfish, the sea grass, the plankton and the snails, all struggling because of human choices, and no less cherished by God."
Am I reading that right - this Rev. is equating God's love for plankton and snails with his love for us?
Has this woman ever read anything about sparrows anywhere in her Biblical travels?
Someone please tell me that isn't what she meant....
Posted by: geemisscrabtree | June 19, 2010 2:28 AM
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"We are facing extinctions of innocent creatures who were on the planet long before the cruel and greedy species known as the humans arrived to destroy the planet for all other species, apparently."
Bear in mind that many millions of species of "innocent creatures" have gone extinct over the history of the planet, most of them long before "the cruel and greedy species known as the humans arrived".
Some of them went extinct at the hands of other species of "innocent creatures", some went extinct at the hands of the planet itself, and some went extinct at the hands of extra-planetary sources.
Posted by: PSolus | June 18, 2010 8:04 AM
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Thank you so much for this article; I completely agree with it. We are facing extinctions of innocent creatures who were on the planet long before the cruel and greedy species known as the humans arrived to destroy the planet for all other species, apparently. Please keep writing in support of innocent, voiceless beings who are the true victims.
Posted by: skylark1 | June 17, 2010 8:37 PM
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Beautiful article!
I agree that humans have created such incredible destruction via greed, callousness and the almighty ego that even when confronted they still rebel in ignorance and point fingers elsewhere.
Humans can not live without the plants and animals, they need them to survive but this planet does not need one iota of human consciousness to survive/thrive so whose the superior species here?