Perhaps the greatest and most successful social reformer in Victorian England was Charles Dickens. He also refused to refer to himself as a social reformer. He felt the methods used by the other reformers brought as much discredit as sympathy to their causes, and so he distanced himself from them- even when, or especially when- he agreed with them.
I have often felt this way about environmentalists. I believe they have a point, I share with them many of their concerns, but their methods bring them a kind of notoriety I do not wish to share. Some st. bloggers are so antipathetic towards the environmentalists that they would do the exact opposite of what any one of them suggested. I don't care to partake in this notoriety either.
My view is very simple, and I base it in the bible. After creation, God gives man dominion over the earth. From my own experience I have seen that when man holds dominion over other men, he may be a tyrant, or benevolent, or (most often) somewhere in between. I do not put the earth over humanity. At the same time, I do not believe God gave us the earth to be tyrants over it.
I don't make environmentalism into a sacrament. I do not look to recycling as a way to my salvation. Never the less, I believe we are called upon to treat the world as we do everything else: in the spirit of wisdom and charity.
Just don't be nutty over it.
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