Jerry Townhill's blog

England's Green and Pleasant Land

The words of William Blake’s poem “And did those feet in ancient times”, made famous by the hymn ‘Jerusalem’, suggest that there is something godly and commendable about unspoilt countryside and something evil and demonic about industrialisation. Blake’s romanticism overlooked the fact that ‘England's pleasant pastures’ are the result of centuries of agricultural endeavour and of human impact upon the landscape. We now accept that industrialisation is necessary if we are to support the burgeoning world population as well as the comfortable lifestyles that we have got used to. However human activity does have a negative effect on the natural environment and even threatens human life as we know it. What is the Christian response to this?

Younger people particularly are concerned and if the church wants to connect to younger people it needs to talk about ‘green’ issues. A 2021 study of the attitudes of children and young people around the world, reported in Nature magazine, found that climate change is causing anxiety, distress and anger among 16-25 year olds. A few weeks ago ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests brought the M25 around London to a standstill as protestors climbed overhead gantries over the motorway. I was struck by one young protestor interviewed on the radio. She was clearly very distressed about climate change, concerned that the future for her and other young people is very bleak and angry that governments around the world are failing to act. What does the Christian faith say to young people who share such anxieties?

In Romans chapter 8 we read, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed . . . the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay..” and in the book of Revelation we see that there will be a new heaven and new earth. Because we know that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead we are confident that God will renew the earth and therefore we are not anxious about the future of the planet. Rather we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ with confident hope and even excitement because we know that the whole of creation will made new.

So if God is going go to renew the earth when Jesus Christ returns, does that mean we don’t have to do anything about climate change and the planet, and we can just carry on using the earth’s resources as we please and wait for Jesus to come back and sort everything out? No it doesn’t, but rather as Christians we should demonstrate a positive response to the climate emergency. Christians are uniquely placed to respond without fear or anxiety, taking positive action to care for the planet that God has created and called us to care for.

Here are three reasons why Christians should be taking action to combat climate change.

Firstly, we are called to advance God’s kingdom on earth. When Jesus Christ came into the world he launched the kingdom of God but we know that the kingdom will not come in completeness until Jesus Christ returns. In the meantime we expect the coming kingdom to break into the present and we work to bring a foretaste of God’s kingdom on the earth. We pray as Jesus taught us, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.” We know that in the kingdom to come there will be no death, no pain, no disease. And in the meantime we pray for those who are ill, expecting God’s kingdom to break into the present through gifts of healing. Rightly, we honour all those Christians who work in health care, as doctors and nurses and in a myriad of other roles, as they work to bring in a foretaste of God’s kingdom where pain and suffering will be abolished. In the same way, although we know that when God’s kingdom comes in completeness the planet Earth will be renewed, in the present we should work to bring about a foretaste of that kingdom by caring for the planet.

Secondly, God has given human beings a special responsibility to care for his creation. In Genesis chapter one we read that humankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation but not independent of the creation. Traditionally the church has understood that humans are ‘stewards’ of God’s creation: we not owners who can do what they like with the planet but we are stewards who must give an account to God the owner as to how we have looked after his creation.

Thirdly, Jesus commanded us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. In this interconnected age we know about things that are happening all around the world. That makes the poor and vulnerable person living in the Ganges delta in Bangladesh our neighbour. So loving our neighbour means doing all we can to halt climate change and prevent a rise in sea levels that would bring flooding and devastation to 10% of Bangladesh’s land area and many other places around the world.

In conclusion, Christians should not only be involved, but should lead efforts to care about our planet and combat climate change. Our motivation is not fear and anxiety but a confident hope that God will renew his creation. This should not lead to complacency but instead to diligent action as God has put us in a special position of caring for his creation.