Neo-pagan environmentalism: The new orthodoxy?
By Tim Bloedow, Executive Director, Christian Governance

The term "Environmentalism" should bring to mind "being good stewards" of what our Creator has provided us. But is that how it is being used today? Have you checked your own ideas about the environment to ensure that yours line up with a Biblical vision? Are you aware of the unchristian nature of "Environmentalism" and some supposedly Christian organisations promoting it? Are you being fooled?

There are many organisations, some of them Christian and some supposedly Christian, which hold decidedly unchristian views. An inspection of their websites unfortunately, reveals them to be party-line Leftist organisations which lobby for big government solutions to the alleged problems they follow, while condemning free enterprise, profit and business interests.

Many radical environmentalist organisations, advocate "eco-justice," which "respects, seeks to preserve, and advocates for just relationships among all living things," and "ecological sustainability," which "implies a more holistic way of seeing the world as inter-connected and inter-dependent across time, where human societies are understood as not distinct and superior to the rest of nature, but part of it." (KAIROS Canada)

It's popular today to call yourself an Environmentalist whenever you can. Christians in particular, however, need to keep in mind that issues like waste disposal or planting trees or energy conservation are not in themselves examples of Environmentalism. People engaged in such behaviour long before these practices were pulled together under the banner of Environmentalism.

Environmentalism is a distinct worldview, and as such, it has its own position on the nature of god, the nature of man, reality and redemption, etc., and the Environmentalist position on all these issues is incompatible with Biblical truth.

Most Environmentalist organisations see a world in which free citizens, and by extension, private business interests, make decisions which are detrimental to ecological health, so the only way to ensure environmental protection is strict governmental control. This ideological and anti-scientific posture undermines Christian witness, and is influenced more by Marxism than the Bible.

Christianity advocates volunteerism and an ethic rooted in personal responsibility and individual accountability before God. God's law affirms private property and free economic relations. Flowing out of this, is responsible stewardship of those things in our care. This vision of economics and human relations is contrary to the vision of centralisation under the control of a messianic state that one sees in socialism.

Capitalism and the creation of individual wealth have led the world in creating better outcomes for individuals, nations, and the environment. This became clear after the fall of the Soviet Union, when comparisons of the environments there and here demonstrated the far superior outcomes in free Western nations where the Biblical model of private property leading to individual wealth and voluntary stewardship far surpassed the outcomes in former socialist regimes.

The pantheistic sentiment expressed in the definition of ecological sustainability, that man does not have a position of authority and dominion over the rest of creation, is an anti-Christian stance. It expresses the equality of all creatures, and denies that in six days of creation, man was the pinnacle of that creative activity.

Those on the Climate Change or Global Warming bandwagon also reflect a pantheistic notion of god. The impetus behind Climate Change is a panic over the threat of total destruction of the earth. If the earth is your god or part of your god, as in pantheism, this kind of anxiety makes sense. The concern over an incredibly fragile earth and eco-systems is not a scientific perspective. It is a philosophical position that denies the existence of a sovereign God who exists outside of the creation and who is greater and more powerful than that creation.

It is important to carefully examine this issue because in many ways Canadian Christians hold to a view of the environment that is an admixture of leftist and outright pagan philosophies, mixed with Biblical language. As well, many well-meaning para-Christian organisations promote anti-Christian philosophies. We encourage you to examine the organisations that your church may support to carefully look for evidence of leftist and pagan influence.

Honest self-evaluation is critical if we are to move forward by offering solutions that both improve environmental outcomes and honour God – and man as the apex of His creation.