The Point

HI all. First, an apology: I really have never been too fab at keeping up with blogs. If I thought anyone read this on an ongoing basis anyway, I'd maybe try harder. Hint.

So I had a conversation with someone close to me yesterday, and I felt like it got a little heated on my end. First, let me write it down, then I'm going to dissect. We were talking about where to go grocery shopping. This is not verbatim, sorry - I'm doing my best.

Her: We can stop by Wal-Mart.
Me: Or Wheatsfield.
Her: It's cheaper at Wal-Mart.
Me: Wheatsfield's producers grow organically and ethically, ensuring a better environment.
Her: God will take care of our environment.
Me: No, he won't - he left us to be the earth's stewards, it is OUR job to take care of it.
Her: God is in control.
Me: I'm not saying he isn't. He is in control - but it doesn't mean we can ignore our responsibilities.

Now, I'm really not trying to force my beliefs on people about eating organically. If you don't want to or you don't understand why it is important, then I'm sure you wouldn't want to go out of your way. I would think it is wise to choose education on any subject over ignorance, but that's your prerogative. For now. Maybe we won't see much of a change in our own lifetime, but I am sure that our kids will reap the destruction that we've sown, and I'm totally not trying to be apocalyptic.

Ok, my real problem with the conversation is - and has been - when Christians just blow off facts or responsibilities and pass the problem over to God, even when God has asked us IN THE BIBLE to take care of the earth and everything we've been given. I grew up believing it was okay to throw my trash out the window and into the ditch as we drove by because - hey! - we know how the world is going to end (RAPTURE - NOT EXCESSIVE LITTERING), and God is in control, so why bother?

Why bother, hmm? Then why bother asking people to come to church? GOD IS IN CONTROL! Why bother going to work? GOD WILL PROVIDE. Why not do whatever we feel like doing?

Oh, right - because that same God gave us a conscience to know the difference between good and bad. Plants thriving, animals reproducing, humans living in harmony with nature - GOOD. Trash everywhere, plants covered in pesticides, air pollution, animals mutating, and humans ignoring all of it - BAD.

That's the point. It's why I stopped going shopping for clothes every week so that I can spend slightly more to buy food that isn't ruining the world. That and avoiding sweat shops and promoting local artisans. The point is that we all have a responsibility to take care of the world around us. Even if you DON'T [somehow] believe in global climate change [which has been scientifically proven and the whole world conferred on it last week in Copenhagen], how hard is it to respect the land we live on? Why is it SO BAD to consider the plants, the air, the animals that we are polluting and hurting and destroying? God gave the land to us to rule, but not rule like a selfish tyrant, making choices for ourselves and ignoring all of those that are effected by our decisions. God is in control, but I have yet to see him step in and intervene when corporations pump toxic gases into the air, dump pollutants into the water, and fill landfills with waste. He isn't going to step in - he asked us to take care of it. And like everything else I've seen in human history, humans do reap what they sew. So I'm asking this: why are so many people defiantly defending their right to ignore that responsibility and do as they please, regardless of the consequences?

Steam...

I apologize to you, other person in my conversation, if I got snappy or rude. But I felt like the rules of civil discourse and logical reasoning had been thrown out the window and into the ditch just so we could carry on a conversation where the truth can be warped to create a world where everything is okay as long as you trust in God. I don't live in that world. I trust in God and I want to treat this world with the respect I believe God has asked me to give. But I love you.