In 2019, Oxford Dictionary named “climate emergency” the word of the year. Indeed, we are bombarded with ever bleaker reports on Earth’s impending demise. As Christians, we understand that the end of the world will come when God judges it, not when we accidentally destroy it. So we’re off the hook when it comes to caring for the Earth, right?
Christian biologist Gordon Wilson disagrees. In his new book, A Different Shade of Green, Wilson rejects climate hysteria, but explains why Christians, more than anyone, should care for the planet God created. “The dominion mandate, Genesis 1: 28, is the foundational command behind conservation,” says Wilson, and “the underlying reason for this imperative is God’s own evaluation of his work” (15).
To start with, Wilson describes four stereotypical Christian views of the environment. (I don’t know many conservative Anabaptists like Green Greta, but Anti-Green Andys, PreMill Petes and Apathetic Aprils abound.) “Christians too often just take the natural world for granted as if it were a lovely stage with props and backdrops on which we Christians act out the play of life” (77).
I’ve read other books about Christians and the environment, but Wilson’s contagious love for God’s creation sets this book apart. He spends much of the book explaining the value of biodiversity: for food, plants, clothes, medicine, and more. But ultimately, “the primary reason for conservation should not be anchored in the utility of the species or society’s opinion of it” (19). In other words, God called his creation good, and so should we. God could have just given us “a limited array of utilitarian species like corn, cattle, and cane” (89), but instead, he gave us this biodiverse abundance to use and enjoy.
In the last section of the book, Wilson looks at environmental problems and solutions. I appreciate the presuppositional approach he takes to sorting out the real from the imagined. For instance, secular scientists who demand immediate action on climate change, overpopulation, or species loss do so groundlessly. Survival of the fittest leaves no room to coddle the weak. Many environmental problems are indeed real, but only the Christian worldview can accurately discern and properly address them.
Wilson’s argument could be summed up like this: don’t give up the moral high ground. Don’t surrender the natural world to the sphere of secular science. As Christian farmers, developers, teachers, and stewards, we each have an opportunity to proclaim God’s glory by enjoying and caring for what he has made.