The church as eco-leader

How we wish the Church will actively campaign for the preservation and conservation of God's creation, Mother Earth. How we wish the Church will not only read Genesis to the believers but they will actively lead and remind all to help protect nature by doing their share daily in protecting and sustaining the environment.

A clean, pure heart should lead to the preservation of a clean, pure environment. God gave humankind a beautiful, pure world that would last throughout generations. Each generation, therefore, has the responsibility to take care of the world to be passed on to succeeding generations.

If believers proclaim their love for God, shouldn't their actions reflect this love by taking care of the earth given by God to all? If they see that others do not practice but insensitively and irresponsibly damage this earth, shouldn't the believers protect and defend the world given them by God?

Sadly, that is not the case in this present world. Nature continues to be abused in the name of profit. Despite the fact that there are socially responsible ways to earn profits, without damaging nature, the inconvenient truth is, as the Al Gore film shows, certain humans continue to destroy Mother Earth and are allowed to continue to do so through the indifference and silence of those who profess to love God and His creation.

People of this earth at present are so used to seeing and being amid dirt and stench, they think this is natural, part of a modern world. However, a modern progressive world does not have to, should not at all, be dirty and smelly. People also ignore that they cause the dirt and the stench. How can humans with clean, pure hearts reconcile with a dirty and damaged world humans themselves have constructed?

The same question can be asked of the present Church. How can the Church tolerate being in the midst of a polluted, damaged world? How can the Church just keep quiet about how far the present earth is from God's creation described in Genesis?

If the Church campaigns to save the earth, it is so easy for the church to ask their ministers and religious in every mass to ask the devotees, before the final blessing, to look around and pick up any waste they see near them. They can say that those who will pick up the waste items are actually not only cleaning up the House of God. They are also actually helping to preserve the earth provided to all by the Lord! And by doing so, the Church can remind all those who help manage the waste in the church, at home, in school, in their community, everywhere else are, in fact, showing true worship and respect for God and His created earth! The more they help take care of the earth, even with just the simple act of taking care of their waste, the more they are blessed.

The Church can also use their spare areas for natural gardening or farming. Not only will the Church help manage resources, the Church will also help in the campaign against hunger and poverty.

Those with air-con churches may also rethink this practice as a few hours of worship without airconditioning will help decrease pollution, protect the environment, and the expense for the aircon going instead for food, medicines for their poor members.

If the Church actively becomes an ardent advocate for the protection of God's earth, not only will churches and their premises be effectively protected. Believers can become eco-converts and practice their eco-conversion to clean up not only their hearts and souls but their environment, their community, their homes as well.

If the Church actively becomes an eco-leader, what blessings will pour even more on people and the whole world! What a wonderful blessed world this would be!

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