Julia Robert's "Mother Nature"

INTERVIEW

You may or may not have seen this 2-minute film, but Julia Robert's voice rendition of Mother Nature backed with majestic and piercing images of pristine nature could bring chills down your spine and send you running for your life, vowing never again to use another styrofoam box or turn on the air-conditioning.

We thought it would be a good time to email Christian conservationist Dr Calvin Loh to see what he has to say about the message in the clip. Dr Loh is a Christian scientist with extensive involvement in nature conservation, including being a former Executive Director of the Malaysian Nature Society. He is currently an independent consultant, and lectures from time to time.

tcvx: Dr Calvin, what is the voice of Julia Roberts actually saying about nature? What are the assumptions and school of thought that is being put forth?

Calvin Loh: The key message in the video is that we need Mother Nature but Mother Nature doesn’t need us. It is based on the worldview that the Earth and all life on it eco-evolved into a self-regulating single organism, or that “life maintains conditions suitable for its own survival.” This is sometimes called the Gaia theory. It predicts that if humans threaten Mother Nature by our actions, life on Earth will evolve, adapt and survive, but we will not.

tcvx: What would be the impact of such a school of thought to our living?

CL: In a world that seems primarily driven by self interest and the accumulation of material wealth at any cost, it is an important reminder that our lives depend on nature for food, water, air and shelter and there is an environmental cost and a human consequence from our unsustainable greed. It is meant to appeal to our instinct of self preservation and hopefully will spur us to positive action.

tcvx: Is the Christian view any different from this and if so, how?

CL: The Gaia worldview espouses not a caring, loving creator God but an uncaring nature and it appeals to us to act to protect nature for our own self interest. The Christian view is that we are God's appointed stewards of all nature and that our actions impact nature (Gen 1:28; Rom 8:19-21). Our motivation for action is obedience to a loving Creator God and love for His creation and other people.

For many Christians though, environmental issues are not important. Their focus instead is on evangelism (the Great Commission) and church growth (the New Commandment). Some Christian groups are also suspicious of the environmental movement associating it with godless scientific thinking, left wing liberalism or pan-theistic New Age beliefs. Many openly and publically deny the reality of issues like climate change.

As a result, many environmentalists consider Christians as part of the problem. Some believe that the indiscriminate exploitation of nature was encouraged by the Christian concept of man’s dominion over nature as described in Gen 1:28.

As Christians, we need to understand Gen 1:28 as a call not to exercise dominion but to be stewards of God’s creation. All creation is God’s (Ps 24:1; Col 1:16), He cares for His creation (Gen 9:9-10: Matt 6:26-30), our sin has impacted the world and God’s redemption plan includes creation (Rom 8:19-21) and creation is intended to testify to God’s glory (Rom 1:20).

tcvx: How does our worldview impact our living?

CL: Through redemption in Christ, creation will be set free from bondage to decay (Rom 8:19-21). So just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam and salvation through one man Jesus, so also our hope is also the hope for all creation.

Environment degradation, poverty and injustice are intertwined. Christians need to understand that by caring for nature, we are also obeying the command to love one another and especially the poor, We are playing our role as salt of the earth and light of the world and it is part of our testimony to the world.

tcvx: In view of the current degradation of nature, what do Christians need to do urgently?

CL: Caring for God’s creation should be integral to our Christian life – we should live it, teach it and fight for it. As individuals and as a church, we need to teach and share about it, we need to reduce our own ecological footprints and be an example to others by recycling, reducing waste and energy consumption.

We need to consider environment conservation as part of our work in evangelism, poverty alleviation and social justice. We also can use our economic and political clout to encourage corporations and governments to pursue sustainable development and environment conservation.

Examples include getting fastfood chains to stop using non-biodegradable containers, pushing for solar energy instead of more coal powered energy plants, buy food and materials (such as furniture) which are from certified sustainably managed sources.

tcvx: What are some books or reading materials that we can read up on environmental justice?

CL:

George Verwer in Operation Mobilisation said this:

“It is a shame that so many evangelical Christians not only have little concern for the environment, but are sometimes known as anti-environmental. How can this be when our Creator God has asked us to care for his creation? Not only is our pollution of the earth totally unacceptable, but this is an issue that our young people care about; and if we don’t connect with them on valid issues such as preservation of the environment, how can we expect them to listen to us at all?”