Why Ecojustice?

I just didn't know any better. I know that's no excuse, but it's the truth. Part of me understood at some level that direct cruelty to a particular living animal was abusive and therefore wrong, but somehow kicking a puppy was distanced from chemical research on laboratory animals. Setting my neighbor's house on fire was distanced from dropping bombs on a faraway nation. Tossing garbage out my car window was distanced from storing nuclear waste in underground bunkers in Hanford. I believed "global warming" was just a bunch of political noise, that torture was acceptable as long as it was done in a secret bunker so that my neighbors here in America wouldn't be victimized by terrorists, that the government wouldn't let big-box retailers or oil companies do anything harmful, and that how we treated the planet really didn't matter, since God was just going to destroy it in the final coming, anyway.

Are these views extreme? Yes. Of course they are. But they're real. How many of us really look at the labels on our shampoo to see if the product has been tested on animals? And how many of us think even asking the question is silly? What's the harm in shampooing a dog? Nothing, assuming there's nothing wrong with the shampoo and the dog isn't shampooed more often than needed. But isn't the whole point of testing to weed out the variations that don't work right? That turn out to be harmful? What about testing on animals that leads not to upgrades in cosmetics but eradication of disease and disability? Shouldn't it be worth the lives of a few rabbits to cure diabetes or breast cancer?

I don't know the answer to all these questions. I don't know where all the lines need be drawn. But I have learned enough since I began to ask the questions to know the old answers are false.

As a follower of Jesus, I believe in the inherent truthfulness and validity of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as passed down through the church. I believe, whether it took 6 literal days or billions of years, that God created the heavens and the earth, separated the waters and the land, hung the lights in the sky, and populated this world with all sorts of creatures. I believe God created humans and in doing so created us in a special relationship with Creator and creation. With this special relationship came the responsibility to tend creation as stewards of the Creator. This responsibility is first given to humankind in the creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2. Nowhere in the story of God's creation is that responsibility rescinded or repealed.

From the beginning, our primary responsibility as men and women has been to steward - to take care of - God's creation. But what does it mean to steward something? Let's turn briefly to a story found in the teachings of Jesus. First, the gospel writers present a few versions of a story that goes something like this: The owner of an estate is leaving town for a time and entrusts his material goods to his servants. To one he gives 10 units of goods, to another 5, to another 1, so on and so forth. He gives no instruction except to tend to what has been entrusted to them. Sometime later, the master returns and receives an accounting from the servants. Most have invested the goods wisely, but one was scared and buried his portion so it would not be lost. Important to our conversation is this: In no case did the master give his goods to the servants to do as they liked, but rather entrusted the goods to their care. The master retained ownership; the servants temporarily managed his assets.

As stewards of creation, you and I do not own the earth or anything upon it. We do not own the land or the trees, the air or the seas, the birds or the bees, or the carrots and peas. We, the family of humankind, are given temporary responsibility for the care and management of the things creation, for which we will be held accountable. Yes, we are given permission to eat both plant and animal and to utilize the gifts of nature as resources for warmth and shelter, but we do not own these resources. They do not belong to us to do with as we please.

Where do we draw the lines? I don't know. Is it wrong to eat meat because animals have feelings? No. Do I need to apologize to Brother Gnat when I accidentally swallow one of her kindred while riding my bicycle? That's probably pushing the issue too far, too. Do I need to think about what my car's emmissions are doing to the health and welfare of both humans and habitat? Yes. Do I need to question where my food is coming from and the working conditions of those involved in the manufacture of my clothing? I do.

The prophet Micah tells the people of God that what God really wants from them is to love kindness, to do justice, and to walk humbly in relationship with their Creator. Jesus echoes these values throughout his teachings, especially in the great reversals of Matthew 5 through 7. Ecojustice is not a liberal, hippy, birkenstock-wearing tree-hugger thing. Ecojustice is not a Volvo-driving Democrat thing. Ecojustice is a people of God thing. Ecojustice is the recognition that as stewards of creation, we seek justice for all of God's creation; that mineral, animal, and vegetable are all worthy of justice; that administration of justice is not determined or restricted by distance or geopolitical boundary lines drawn on a map.