I’m early
on this, but I’m ready to go out on a limb. I think environmentalism will
replace the anti-abortion[1] movement in the next decade as the
primary unified drive among younger Christians. Maybe not among my generation
(who still call those inclined to creation care “tree-huggers” or “enviro-nazis”). I
believe a massive shift is coming over the next decade, especially among the
emerging generations who will outnumber boomers beginning in 2010.[2] We older folk need to pay attention to what this new
majority among Christians will be saying. It might be from the Lord. Why do I
think this is going to happen among the coming majority of Christians?
1.
Environmentalism is pro-life.
The
anti-abortion movement discipled the emerging
generation to be pro-life. Protecting humans from pollution is a pro-life
stance. For instance, in the
2.
Environmentalism is positive.
The younger
generations reject the scolding negative Christianity they [think they] saw in
their youth. They prefer a more positive witness based on making a difference
or “being a World-changer.” They are not
inclined to rebuke the world’s darkness so much as light candles. One candle
they will light will be a reduced lifestyle, simpler living and a more cautious
use of energy.[4]
In the future when the world looks over at the church they don’t want
them to see a scolding judgmental[5]
angry crowd telling them they are nasty sinners, they want the world to see an
examples of “creation care” that they ought to copy—right down to the way we
build church buildings. Sure, there will be radical environmental groups who
burn down new homes just like there were radical groups who bombed abortion
clinics, but most younger folk prefer a kinder gentler approach to being a
model to the world and care of the environment is one of those ways they
believe Christians can have a positive affect on the world.
3.
Environmentalism is global
Younger
folk tend to be world Christians, not just American Christians. Most of my
students already have a passport and have been in foreign countries. Their
world view is, well, a world view.
They know air pollution, rising sea levels and deforestation affects the
whole planet and not just the nation doing the polluting. The world is
their backyard. While they act locally, they think globally. And,
they are idealistic enough to actually think they can make a difference.
4.
Environmentalism universal.
It is easy
for me as a male to be against abortion—after all, I can’t have one. Indeed,
abortion applies only to a minority of the population: women of child-bearing
age. All males, women past menopause and all younger women who are not sexually
active are off the hook. Protecting the environment is a universal issue—all
men, women and children all can play a role. Younger folk prefer issues that
apply universally to all people of all ages in all places and dislike picking
out one group to preach at.
5.
Environmentalism is micro-personal.
Before you
go thinking these younger folk are “going liberal” I should point out that this
is actually a conservative move—conservative as in conserving the
environment. These younger folk are not impressed by stuff they can’t do—they
want to be able to act personally on the big issues of the day. They don’t
think government is the solution and they sense it might even be the problem. They want to be able to act personally, do
their share, and pull their own weight in solving environmental issues. They
believe the solution is as simple as “act in a way so that if all people acted
like me the world would be a better place.” It is an environmental twist on the
Golden Rule. If I save my Styrofoam cup and use it for a whole week of
drinking [Fair Trade] coffee knowing that if all humans did likewise it would
make the world a better place, they’re happy. Creation care is accomplished
best at the end-use level—at the demand side not the supply side. So, they
don’t see the oil companies as the problem so much as their dad’s gas-guzzling
SUVs and wandering lifestyle. They can control which car they buy and how often
they ride their bike instead of start their car and they like micro-action
approaches. [6]
6.
Environmentalism is a macro-issue
Younger
Christians, however, do not ignore the larger macro-issues. They do prefer to
act personally and approach solutions with a one-life-at-a-time approach but
they believe the entire earth is at risk from pollution and plunder so the
whole earth needs to act together to save the planet. They have been trained to
be one-issue voters by the abortion movement. I think many will become
one-issue voters again as the environment becomes their primary issue. Both
political parties will have to figure out how to address the environment in
their own way if they wish to win the coming majority. Leaders who refuse to
believe there is any threat to the environment will be like those in the past
who refused to believe a fetus had any human worth. As the environment becomes
the primary moral issue for younger Christians, they will look for a
politician’s (or a preacher’s) stance on creation care before they even examine
their other stances. It will be more than a personal issue eventually.
7.
Environmentalism is Wesleyan.
I realize
many readers of this column are not Wesleyans, but for those of us who are, we
should remember that creation care was a particular specialty of John
Wesley as Duke’s Randy Maddox has shown so well.[7]
We were not put here to pollute and plunder until the eject button
propels us into Heaven but were made stewards of God’s handiwork. The redemption
of all creation is God’s intention and he wants us to work with Him even
now. When we care for creation, we are merely treating the work of the Original
Artist with respect, dignity and care as he asked us to do.[8]
So,
what do you think?
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comments for the first few weeks after this posting
Keith Drury
Keith Drury is
Associate Professor of Religion at
[1] Face it, we’ve virtually won the argument on abortion. Even liberals now believe it should be rare. The most ardent supporters of abortion “rights” now have grudgingly admitted a fetus is more than “a speck of protoplasm of no greater worth than a fingernail.” While liberals want to keep abortion “safe and legal” they now also want them to be rare. All that’s left for the movement to do is make it illegal—and many of the anti-abortion movement’s leaders are only hoping to reverse Roe-Wade allowing each state to make their own laws one way or another. We’ve largely won the major argument with the vast majority—a fetus is human life. Just imagine if we had been this successful with alcohol? If we had prohibition might have been overturned, but what if even our opposition said “Drinking should be “safe, legal but rare!”
[2] Though Boomers have imagined that they will forever outnumber every other age cohort actually by 2010 the emerging generations will begin to outnumber boomers.
[3] While life expectancy is currently at 77.8 years it has been rising at .4% per year—if this rate continues many of today’s young folk can expect to live to 100 and well beyond—no wonder they are so casual about getting serious about life until they are 30—they may have as many years for living after 30 as we had after 18!
[4] This inclination toward simpler living It comes just in time –they may have to reduce the standard of living anyway!
[5] this is not to say this emerging generation will have
no list of sins. Indeed I predict that “Creation care” will become such a
massive movement among younger Christians and it will mystify older Christians
in my generation and “turn us into sinners.” I think a neo-legalism will emerge with a new
list of sins that we older folk practice daily. Many of us boomers will reject
these new lists and we will “sin boldly” discounting our behaviors as “real
sins” (just like the generation before us rejected racism as a “real
sin”). In the coming brand of
Christianity, it us older folk who refuse to admit our sins—even refusing to
believe wasteful living is a sin at all.
[6] We in
the church need to recognize this insistence on the micro-personal approach to
religious matters too. For instance “Missions” to the younger generation is
less about sending others to do something on their behalf and more about what
they themselves do personally. However, this is not to say there is not a
whopping amount of hypocrisy among the young. For instance they will quickly
complain about two sheets of handouts in class as “destroying trees” but do so
after a 20 minute shower in their resident halls. And they are quick to condemn
gas-guzzling SUVs but happily fly to
[7] You can
read Randy
Maddox’s excellent paper (delivered at
[8] If you read Randy Maddox’s paper you saw that Christians have been accused of being the problem with creating a world view encouraging pollution and plunder. He aptly defends us as many others have too. There is only one category of Christians who have been shown to have a plundering attitude—those committed to a dispensational eschatology –but this is not a classical Wesleyan approach to the ed times (though admittedly many Wesleyans are not Wesleyan at this point.)