Christianity and Creation Care: An Interview with Matthew Bracey
The Scriptures call believers to be stewards, not only of money and talents, but of the earth too. Christians through history have affirmed this: Just consider St. Francis of Assisi’s celebrated hymn, “All Creatures of Our God and King.”
Yet today we typically associate such concern with the political left. Nevertheless, in recent years Christian thinkers have called our attention to a biblical theology of creation. The Helwys Society Forum strongly affirms this renewed commitment among evangelical Christians. This is not an affirmation to environmentalism, but to stewardship of God’s creation—or simply, creation care.
In August 2010, Matthew Bracey wrote an essay on this very topic, “Christianity and Environmentalism.” ONE Magazine later published an adapted version of this article in their February-March 2011 issue. Then, several months later in October 2011, Ellen Seltz of Moody Radio South’s New Day Café in Alabama interviewed Matt concerning this essay for their emphasis week on biblical stewardship. You can listen to the interview here—the segment is called “The Earth – God’s Creation, Our Responsibility.” We’ve provided a manuscript of the interview below. What do you think?
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Ellen: Joshua 5:13-14: “When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’ And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord’” (ESV). I spoke this week with author and scholar, Matthew Bracey, who says that too often Christians think of “environmentalism” as a political issue, when instead, we should be focusing on God’s very clear and direct commandments about the way we treat the Earth.
Matthew: It had become so politicized that it was like, “Well, we can’t support that.” But that’s not what I saw in the Bible. In Genesis 1, I saw God saying be stewards of the Earth. When we’re stewards of money, it doesn’t mean that we don’t use our money, but we use it wisely and responsibly. And I felt like that was the same thing God was calling us to do with the Earth.
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Ellen: Matthew Bracey is a graduate of Free Will Baptist [Bible] College and is taking a joint degree in Law and Theological Studies at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School. He’s also worked as a law intern with the Alabama Poverty Project, with a special interest in food security and environmental health. He’s in the vanguard of developing a contemporary theology of care for God’s creation.
Matthew: Well as I mentioned previously, it’s based in Genesis 1. It goes all the way throughout the Scriptures. In terms of developing a complete biblical theology though, I think that redemption itself is tied to creation. In the Garden of Eden, things were perfect and without sin. And then we fell, and then we became cursed and the Earth became cursed. And part of the process of redemption is restoration of the Earth itself. It’s not just restoration of who we are.
I mean, if you look at a lot of the prophets, especially Isaiah, part of their message of ultimate redemption is intricately tied to creation itself [you can see this in our recent essay, “A Gracious Hope: Isaiah’s Biblical Theology of Creation”]. And then the implications of that are traced throughout Scripture in different ways.
If you read the Law of Moses, for example, they were instructed to give the land rest every couple of years. That’s another example of just practical things through Scripture of treating the creation with respect—that [we] just treat it as God intended us to treat it.
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Ellen: Matthew says stewardship of the Earth is not just a matter of obedience to personal conviction. It affects our public witness too.
Matthew: I believe it’s tied to our salt and light activities [see Mt. 5:13-16], you know. Unbelievers, they watch everything we do, from the way that we talk, to the way that we parent and the way that we respond to situations, and, yes, even the way we treat the Earth. I mean, unbelievers are watching. So, it is tied to our salt and light activities. Salt and light activities aren’t just [about] being a witness for Christ in an explicit way: “Hey, let me tell you about Jesus.” It’s in a very day-to-day, situational, earthy way too.
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Ellen: Caring for God’s will look different in each Christian’s life. But Matthew challenges us to look over our homes and our lifestyles, to see where we could be less wasteful and more thoughtful.
Matthew: Things that I started doing immediately, for example, was thinking more about recycling. How do you do that? What are the steps to doing it responsibly? And it’s really not hard. I mean, you’ve got one trashcan in your kitchen or pantry. Just get three. Throw this here and that there. You know, that’s not a huge deal.
If you’re going to be gone, let’s say, more than two days, unplug things that are just going to be eating up electricity anyway. Watching the way that we use our heat and air, the types of light bulbs that we use, what types of light we use: Using natural light when we can open a window when it’s light outside, turning out the light when I leave the room, being more responsible in the things that I buy in terms of, you know, using energy. Instead of having everything sent to your house in paper formatting, read online articles, as opposed to getting the paper in the mail. Using things like kindles or e-readers, and different things like that to read certain books, instead of having the book.
We develop for ourselves what a Christian theology of creation care looks like. And that’s going to look different in different people’s lives. And it will have implications on all sorts of things—from the cars we buy to the decisions that we make about all kinds of things. Maybe it has implications on, if somebody’s building of a house, the way that the house is built. Generally speaking, being a Christian witness looks different in different people’s lives, depending on their context, vocations, or a whole host of things. I think, practical manifestations of creation care will look different as well.
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Ellen: What is creation care? Like all forms of stewardship, it’s looking at the gifts God has given us and remembering: “God made this. It doesn’t belong to me.”
Matthew: Of course, there will be new heavens and a new Earth. This one: we’ve broken it. But I think part of our sanctification is treating the Earth as it ought to be treated.
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Ellen: You can read Matthew Bracey’s article on “Living Faithfully in an Age of Efficiency” at www.onemag.org. For more ideas of practical ways to take care of God’s Earth, contact the Alabama cooperative Extension System at www.aces.edu. In Birmingham, you can visit their offices at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The Alabama Environmental Council has resources on air quality, recycling, and energy and water conservation. You can find them at www.aeconline.org. And the Interfaith Environmental Initiative of Alabama bring clergy, lay people, and industries together to address water pollution and energy conservation there at www.interfaithenvironmental.org. For more information on this or any other feature you hear on Moody Radio South, email us at newdaycafe@moody.edu. This is Ellen Seltz, your hometown advocate.
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