Christians for the Mountains

Was the earth made for humans to use or are we merely stewards of the miracle of nature around us? When I talk to many of the people around me who identify themselves as Christians, they often believe that God made the earth for humans to use as we see fit. And if we trash it, it doesn't really matter because it's all about the afterlife anyway, right? And these people often claim that the Climate Crisis (formerly known as Global Warming) is all a big hoax made up by liberals (to what end, I haven't figured out yet...but anyway...)

So that has been my (obviously limited) experience with Christians and their views of nature. And then recently my husband discovered a movement of Christians in the Appalachian Mountains who see what human beings are doing to the earth as an affront to God. Basically, this centers around coal extraction methods used in the Appalachians that involve blowing the tops off of mountains and stripping the life from the land. Besides the devestation to tree and animal life, runoff from the mining is getting into water sources and school children are getting sick in large numbers. In August, the government just announced new rulings that basically void some aspects of the Clean Water Act in order to make coal extraction from the mountains easier. Let's ravage the land and the sanctity of life for the sake of a misguided energy crisis.

I do admit that I have trouble understanding how people who call themselves Christians and presumably love God's creation, can so callously cause such widespread devestation. It was so heartening to me to see a group who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. You can check out their cause on their website at Christians for the Mountains. My husband feels a special connection to this issue since his family is from an area where strip mining was prevalent in the early 1970's in the Appalachians of eastern Kentucky. He wrote about it on his own blog at A View from the Crossroads.