There are many wonderful causes which Christians enthusiastically support.  Unfortunately environmental responsibility is usually not one of them.  The green movement is generally associated with liberal atheists as opposed to bible believing Christians.

            Here at Bella Vita Aquaponics, we believe that this should not be the case. We believe that Christians have an obligation to care for God’s creation.  Environmental stewardship is a theological issue that needs to be explored. After all, the first commandment from God was in regards to our relationship with our environment.

“28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:28-31

            Not all people interpret these verses in the same way. Some people think that to, have dominion over the earth and subdue it, gives them God ordained justification to pollute and destroy nature.  After all God gave it to them. However if we look elsewhere in scripture we see that the earth still clearly belongs to the Lord.

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” Psalm 24

             Since nature still belongs to the Lord, that means our relationship to the environment is more like that of a steward. The definition of stewardship is “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”. [1]  This means, God has entrusted the care of the environment to mankind.

Let’s scale this back for a minute. Your friend gives you a dog to enjoy and train. How will you take care of the dog? Will you read up on training information and buy it the best food? Will you give it lots of toys to play with and take it on walks? Or will you beat it with a newspaper whenever it suits you? Will you forget to let it outside and then yell at it when it has an accident in the house?  See, you “have dominion” over the dog either way. But that is not in question, the question is, what kind of dog owner are you and what will your friend think of entrusting you with its care?  

For God cares about his creation: 

“You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made” (Ps. 145:16-17)

and

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge."(Psalm 19:1-2)

So, do you think we are doing a good job? Will he say “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness (Matthew 25:21)?

If we look at the current state of the environment, I really don’t know if he will. There are many examples of misuse, poor care, and outright abuse. Species are going extinct before we have even discovered them. [2] Deforestation occurs at the rate of 48 football fields per minute.[3]  So many toxins are ending up in our oceans that marine mammal cancer rates have sky rocketed. [4]  The ratio of plastic to plankton in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 6:1[5], and 35% of fish found in the area had ingested 2.1pieces of plastic[6].  About 40% of human managed bee colonies have been dying off annually due to pesticides and other problems.[7] I could go on and on.  As I am writing this, the local estuary, the Indian River Lagoon, just experienced a massive fish kill due to algae blooms from over -fertilization. I do not see how this is glorifying God. I do not see good management of resources.  I see only the consequences of sin.

Because that is just it, usually the mistreatment of the environment is due to the sinful nature of man. We are slothful and choose disposable items over reusable ones. We are gluttonous and choose to eat what we want as opposed to more sustainable options. We are greedy and would much rather build a mall than keep a nature preserve. Making the daily changes to be environmentally responsible goes against our sinful nature. It is hard work and like any sinful habit cannot be expected to change overnight. Our heart needs to change first and bit by bit our habits will change as well with time.

If all this hasn’t convinced you that as Christians we should care for the environment, maybe this will. God makes it very clear that we are to care for the poor (Isaiah 58:6-11; Matthew 25: 35-40; 1 John 3:17-18). Many studies have been done which show the relationship to poverty and environmental degradation. The poor are generally the first to be negatively affected by a depleted, polluted environment [8]. They are the ones who go hungry when fishing stocks have been depleted. They are the ones whose farms fail due to drought.   When we destroy the environment, the rich and wealthy usually don’t notice, but the poor people living directly with nature, take the brunt of the hit, and suffer greatly.

In conclusion, trying to live a greener, more earth friendly life is something that we as Christians should strive for. Of course, like anything, we can overcompensate and become legalistic about it. After all, earth is but a temporary home and should not be worshiped, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect taking care of it while we are here. Also, people do need to eat and live which means we can’t just make the world one giant nature preserve. That is what is so wonderful about Aquaponics. Aquaponics gives people in poverty a chance to feed themselves without taking from or harming their environment.   It satisfies both of God’s commands: responsible environmental stewardship, and caring for the poor. Aquaponics, when partnered with spreading the Gospel message, can truly change the world.

 

[1]  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stewardship

[2] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-many-species-can-we-find-they-disappear-forever-180950184/?no-ist    

[3] http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation

[4] http://www.bluevoice.org/news_issueseffects.php

[5] http://www.yalescientific.org/2013/12/mythbuster-the-truth-about-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/

[6] http://www.cleanwateraction.org/files/publications/Fish%20ingestion%20of%20plastic.pdf

[7] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/13/bees-disappearing_n_7273862.html   

[8] https://www.worldvision.org.nz/WorldVision/media/media/Resources/Topic%20Sheets/Topic%20Sheet%20Images/Topic%20Sheets%20Downloads/Topic-sheet-poverty_and_the_environment.pdf