I've been critical of my denomination, The Southern Baptist Convention, for engaging the public square in a way that is overly partisan and reactive. Christians can engage politics in a way that is constructive, thoughtful, and promotes the common good. This week, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the SBC made me proud to be...

When Answers in Genesis (AIG), a Christian ministry in northern Kentucky announced that it was going to build a new theme park in 2014, onlookers were bewildered by it's elephantine scale. The 160-acre plans will cost $150 million to complete and centers on a 450-foot replica of Noah's Ark complete with live animals. But AIG's plans to seek...

I recently came across George Will's Newsweek column entitled, "The Earth Doesn't Care--About what is done for it or to it." Based on an article in The American Scholar by Nobel-winning physicist Dr. Robert Laughlin. Arguing from a geolocial time frame of millions of years, he states that the way we treat the earth doesn't matter in the long...

Recently, I wrote a column in Christianity Today in response to the question, "How concerned should Christians be about environmental care?" The title of my column was "As Much as God Is" and it centered in on the connections between creation care and the gospel. The following is that column. Take a look and leave your comments where you think...

This article first appeared on Washington Post's "On Faith" Blog.

Everyone seems to be going green these days, even a growing number in the faith community. A recent Sierra Club survey reported that 67 percent of Americans said they care about the earth because it is "God's creation," a figure that has prompted many secular environmental...

The following is adapted from Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet .

The area surrounding Raleigh, North Carolina where I lived during seminary is one of the premier regions for factory farming in the United States. For two years, whenever I flew into Raleigh-Durham International Airport, I would peer out my oval window...

This three-part post was originally published in Preaching Magazine

D.A. Carson in his essay on "Challenges for the Twenty-First Century Pulpit" discusses what Paul meant when he says in Acts 20:27, that he did not shrink from preaching "the whole purpose of God" (NASB). Carson writes,

"[Paul] taught the burden of the whole of God's...

This three-part post was originally published in Preaching Magazine

I became an environmentalist at a Southern Baptist Seminary.

Several years ago, I was in a systematic theology class at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary when the discussion shifted to the revelation of God. My professor began sharing with us about the two ...

This three-part post was originally published in Preaching Magazine

In 1843, Ludwig Feuerbach proclaimed, "Nature, the world, has no value, no interest for Christians. The Christian thinks only of himself and the salvation of his soul." Feuerbach wasn't the only one to claim such a thing. In the 1967 issue of Science, Lynne White Jr. ...

This article was originally published on RelevantMagazine.com.

In 1969, a Democratic Senator from Wisconsin had a novel idea that would change the world. In response to the Santa Barbara oil spill, Gaylord Nelson proposed a holiday for the environment. Environmental concerns existed at the street level in that time, but they had never...

Matthew Sleeth is one of the kindest, gentlest, and most inspiring people I know. A former emergency room doctor, Matthew stepped away from the medical profession years ago to pursue a higher calling: caring for God's creation. Today, Matthew is one of the most sought after speakers addressing a Christian approach to environmentalism.

I first...

Anne Leonard is at it again. The girl who brought us "The Story of Stuff" has released a new video, "The Story of Bottled Water." The 8-minute video was released in honor of World Water Day tells of the bottled water industry's slick environmental-themed campaigns and the mountains of needless plastic waste they produce.

I'm a...

The other day I was talking to a pastor friend about where America is right now from the economy to political partisanship to the state of the Church. "I've never seen it this bad in my lifetime," my 57-year-old friend commented. "People are discouraged and hopeless. They need encouragement."

Can you think of a moment in your own life when...

Garden to the City is a film project with the mission of "revealing the story of God's renewal of all things." (The web site is rad, so check it out.) I can't wait to see the film series, which is divided up into four units: creation, fall, redemption, consummation. The web site for the project says the films will be available in 2009. That...

Is green becoming a new "religion?" Stephen T. Asma of Columbia College Chicago thinks so. He writes to prove it in his article, "Green Guilt," which was published by the The...

Recently, I've been thinking about the free culture movement. Wikipedia aptly defines it as "a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media." If you lay awake at night seething over copyright laws, you're probably a proponent of this...

The climate debate has been raging for some time, but recently it has reached fevor pitch. Normally, I don't post much on climate, but I felt this conversation needs to be explored in light of recent events. First, reports of hotter summers poured in. Then colder winters. There was the so-called "climategate" scandal. And now we're getting...

Holidays at the Merritt household would make Henry Ford proud. Every occasion from Independence Day to Christmas manifests itself in the same structure: a winding assembly line of food. This Thanksgiving was no different. My mom worked the drink station and was filling red plastic Solo cups with sweet tea as fast as she could. When it was time...

Looking for a VBS curriculum for this coming summer? Want to recommend something to your children and preschool ministers as an alternative to one of the cheesy VBS curricula out there? Maybe you should drop someone an email and recommend Renew, the green VBS curriculum. I haven't read through this, but it is interesting. The study focuses on...