Creation Care (CC)

Creation Care (CC)

Overview

* A project of the Evangelical Environmental Network
* Believes that environmental activism is a fundamental requirement of the Christian faith
* Maintains that free-market capitalism is inherently destructive to the natural environment and the human spirit alike


Established in 1993 as a project of the Evangelical Environmental Network, Creation Care (CC) believes that environmental activism is a fundamental requirement of the Christian faith. Emphasizing that “pollution hurts the poor the most,” CC contends that “Christians are called to care for the poor and the less powerful” by “preventing activities that are harmful (e.g. air and water pollution, species extinction), and participating in activities that further Christ’s reconciliation of all of creation to God.” “It’s hard to love a child with asthma when you’re filling her lungs with pollution,” CC elaborates.

CC promotes the foregoing principles via its Creation Care Blog and its in-house periodical, Creation Care Magazine, which is published six times annually and is available to subscribers for $45 per year.

In one representative blog post from November 2012, CC states that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for … a broad range of human and natural systems”; that there “clearly” is a “correlation between rising carbon dioxide levels and the increase in the earth temperature”; that “with the beginning of the industrial age, we started burning more and more fossil fuels and thus changing the delicate balance God created for sustaining life on His creation”; that “climate change already impacts millions around the world, especially the poor”; that “the poor across Africa now face shortfalls in rain, leading to food and water shortages”; and that “some estimates place climate deaths over 300,000 annually.”

Another CC blog post, from June 2012, asserts that “our addiction to old fossil-based, non-renewable energy” has led to a “changing climate” that is “causing floods, droughts, and famine that severely harm [the poor] at home and across the globe.” To address this problem, CC urges readers to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts “to implement pollution-control policies under the 1990 Clean Air Act,” which would “promote a cleaner, healthier environment, and … mov[e] us toward a clean economy we can hand down to our kids and grandkids.”

A noteworthy article from the Spring 2012 edition of Creation Care Magazine, titled “Lent 2012 + Carbon Fast,” is a daily devotional that urges readers to observe the Lenten season not only through mindfulness of spiritual values like prayer, charity, patience, and kindness, but also by trying to mitigate the environmental harm caused by modern technology. Among the suggestions:

  • “[D]o something to consciously reduce your energy consumption,” such as “turning off some or all of your lights,… taking a faster shower,… taking extra time to use mass-transit, or car-pooling.”[1]
  • “If you don’t recycle, start doing so today. If you do recycle, make sure you are recycling everything that you can.”
  • “If you are still regularly using plastic or paper bags, think about switching to reusable canvas or the many alternatives now available to you.”
  • “Do a light check in your house, [and] if you can switch to CFLs or LEDs make the switch today. Do this on the basis of wisdom and compassionate regard for all on the planet who still do not have electricity.”
  • “Build your understanding of things that impact our neighbors around the world,” such as “severe climate change.”
  • “Pray for the growing number of climate orphans and climate refugees.”

CC’s anti-technology worldview is founded on the belief that free-market capitalism and its by-products are inherently destructive to the natural environment and the human spirit alike. For example, “Lent 2012 + Carbon Fast” states that “for multitudes” of Americans, work is merely a means of “making money in order to live, to succeed, to acquire material possessions, perhaps to become [widely] known”; that too many people “so identify with the nature of their job, career, or profession that they become driven and defined by it,” losing “their unique personhood” in the process; that the capitalist system causes many to “grow cold and controlling” and to shun human interaction “except for personal gain [or] for the good of the company”; and that “the affluent and wealthy among us” commonly suffer from an “inner emptiness” that they seek to fill by “striv[ing] for more” possessions or working “longer hours.”

CC is funded directly by the Evangelical Environmental Network, which in turn is supported by member donations and foundation grants.


NOTE:

[1] Viewing energy consumption as a zero-sum game, CC maintains that by “reducing the energy you normally use, [the energy] you have not used is thereby still available for a neighbor or one of the millions less fortunate than yourself.”

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