HAPPY EARTH DAY, WITH A "P.S."

We are passengers on a small planet, revolving around a small star that’s one star among unknown trillions of other stars that stretch to infinity, whatever and wherever “infinity” is. Theologians, philosophers, and scientists (and some folks are all three) seldom agree on anything, but one would hope they agree it’s no less than common sense to protect our home – not just the home address where our bills are delivered - but the larger home we call “earth.”

A sidebar: Families live in homes. If the earth is home, it follows that all mankind who live in our home is family (please excuse my aged use of the aged word “mankind,” rather than the politically correct “humankind” – but I digress).

The late (and rather liberal) Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, his idea being to funnel the energy of the 60s era anti-Vietnam demonstrators and assorted hippies into a positive force to protect our environment. As one result, unfortunately, “Earth Day” has received something of a “bad rap” because it has attracted more than its share of environmental “wackos” and liberal “looney tunes” and latter-day hippies who, in a manner of speaking, have replaced, in their scheme of things, Christianity with the “holy environment." But on the other and more positive hand, Earth Day has also focused attention from the more sane among us toward environmental protection and sensible conservation - and I'm in favor of that.

The conservative and robust President Teddy Roosevelt died in 1919, long before the advent of Earth Day in 1969. Nonetheless I extend a heartfelt “bully” to Teddy for what he said in 1908 that foreshadowed the legitimacy of our modern Earth Day. Roosevelt said, “Of all the questions which can come before this nation, there is none which compares in importance to the great central task of leaving this land an even better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuation of the nation.”

How we approach Earth Day, and all environmental issues, depends much on our worldview. In my “not so humble opinion,” we should celebrate the Creator, not the creation, i.e. God not earth. The Book of Genesis (read either literally or figuratively: your choice) provides a bedrock understanding our environment: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In my faith tradition, man was created in the Image of God, and that is an honor beyond earthy treasures.

The Good Book also tells us God said earth, and all that is in it, is very very good. The same Book instructs us to be “good stewards” of His creation – and that's where caring responsibly for our fragile planet and celebrating Earth Day comes in. Happy Earth Day!

PS: Maybe we should also proclaim a “Creation Day.” Something to think about!