This week Pope Francis released his latest encyclical, Laudato Si’ – On Care for Our Common Home. I have yet to read the whole document, but I have read parts. So my remarks here are tentative.
First, I am a climate change agnostic. By this, I mean that I just don’t know what to believe. I trust the science, but I don’t trust the scientists who may be biased by politics. About 35 years ago I took an environmental science class in college. For twelve weeks I listened to the coming horrors of population growth, consumerism, and exploitation. Many of the horrors were predicted to be just a decade away. Well, the science I was taught was more hyperbole than fact. Even so, I know enough science to know that the eruption of one supervolcano, or the impact of a large asteroid, can cause a mass extinction. It may be that the care of the earth is God’s sovereign domain.
With that said, I am a committed Christian environmentalist. God has called humanity to care for and cultivate the earth. The earth is God’s garden and humans are God’s caretakers (Genesis 2:15). God has blessed the earth and warned us that if we don’t listen to God’s commands the land will be cursed (Deuteronomy 28:1ff). How we live matters; and how we cultivate (or exploit) the earth matters. I want clean air and water for my grandchildren. I don’t want the earth to become littered with landfills, or irreparably scared by exploitation. When BP spilled millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico it grieved the Holy Spirit. The oceans and rivers are not large septic tanks. Christians should support laws that protect creation.
Some have suggested that Pope Francis has sanctified climate change science. I just don’t know enough about that to make an informed decision. But I do know that humanity will die if we don’t care for the earth.
This brings me to presidential politics. First, I must offer a disclaimer. I like Jeb Bush. But Jeb made a remark in response to the Pope’s encyclical that must be challenged. While campaigning in New Hampshire, Jeb said, “I don’t get my economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope.” He has also said, “I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.” Jeb, who is Catholic, uttered a classic heresy. Ancient heretics taught that all matter was evil, only the spiritual can be redeemed. Contemporary Christians fall into the same error when we try to separate religious issues from “worldly” issues. Irenaeus challenged the gnostic heretics and affirmed that God seeks to redeem all creation – material and spiritual. That’s why the resurrection of the body is the foundation of the Faith (1 Corinthians 15:13f). The body is saved, the body is glorified. Likewise, all creation will be glorified (Romans 8:19-23).
Jeb is so wrong. Christian theology informs all spheres of human life – economics, energy, sexual morality, and creation care. I don’t want Christian theology separated from politics. When Christian theology informs the politics of right and left, then the gospel is proclaimed. But, I do want Christian theology be free of politicians and political agendas. When politics informs theology, and when politicians use theology, then we have fallen into idolatry.
