Dr. Russell Moore of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has written the most lucid and judicious piece on the tragedy of the BP Oil Spill—anywhere. No secular media source has as accurately captured the importance of culture and creation as Moore has so able accomplished. Connecting the themes of creation care, limits, culture, and Christ, Moore's asserts that, "evangelical Christians have maintained an uneasy ecological conscience [because] we’ve had an inadequate view of human sin."
A few highlights:
Because we believe in free markets, we’ve acted as though this means we should trust corporations to protect the natural resources and habitats. But a laissez-faire view of government regulation of corporations is akin to the youth minister who lets the teenage girl and boy sleep in the same sleeping bag at church camp because he “believes in young people.”
The Scripture gives us a vision of human sin that means there ought to be limits to every claim to sovereignty, whether from church, state, business or labor. A commitment to the free market doesn’t mean unfettered license any more than a commitment to free speech means hardcore pornography ought to be broadcast in prime-time by your local network television affiliate.
We’ve had an inadequate view of human life and culture.
What is being threatened in the Gulf states isn’t just seafood or tourism or beach views. What’s being threatened is a culture. As social conservatives, we understand…or we ought to understand…that human communities are formed by traditions and by mores, by the bond between the generations. Culture is, as Russell Kirk said, a compact reaching back to the dead and forward to the unborn. Liberalism wants to dissolve those traditions, and make every generation create itself anew; not conservatism.
And...
Pollution kills people. Pollution dislocates families. Pollution defiles the icon of God’s Trinitarian joy, the creation of his theater (Ps. 19; Rom. 1).
This is an excellent post and I encourage everyone concerned about the deeper elements of culture other than what we see on TMZ or Entertainment Tonight to take five minutes and read this article.
Andrew Walker
Andrew T. Walker is an Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
