Questions Evangelicals Ask About the Environment

Question 7:

Isn’t environmental regulation opposed to America’s free-market (capitalistic) economic system?

Answer:

Not at all. In fact, it can be easily demonstrated that the best capitalist is the sincere and honest environmental scientist who is doing all he or she can do to preserve the sources of life upon which our economic system is built (our capital). A nation’s economy is built upon a diverse, fruitful, and healthy environment. Money, in fact, represents two things: our natural resources (goods) and the creative use of those resources by people (services). If people do not work diligently to maintain the health of their nation’s environment, and if they carelessly pollute or waste their natural resources, their economy declines (unless, of course, they can extort or obtain by economic enticement the resources of other nations!) That is why the citizens of every nation must seek to protect their natural environment (the creation) through personal self-control, sound and effective environmental regulation, and careful conservation practices.

This principle, in fact, is found in one of our nation's favorite songs: "America, the Beautiful." Looking from the top of Pike's Peak back upon the plains she'd just crossed, Katharine Lee Bates, a humble school teacher, began to frame the famous lyrics which eventually included these lines---at the end of her second stanza: "Confirm thy soul in self control; [confirm] thy liberty in law." What a simple but profound truth she had grasped: our nation needs people who demonstrate self control and needs laws to control those who don't. The more self control we demonstrate, the fewer laws we need. The less self control we show, the more laws we need.

Our recent financial crash was essentially the result of out-of-control, greedy, selfish people who did not have enough legal regulation to restrain their reprehensible behavior. The result is more governmental control for libertines who take advantage of the liberty most of us cherish. Unfortunately, when personal profit becomes the primary focus of people, the inevitable result is environmental degradation. The area around Nineveh in Old Testament times demonstrated that according to the prophet Nahum: “Merchants, as numerous as the stars, have filled your city with vast wealth. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and then fly away” (Nahum 3:16, NLT). This is exactly what many out-of-control nations and multinational corporations are doing to our oceans, forests, arable land, and fossil water and fuel.

We need to understand that capitalism without biblical morality becomes cruel. That fact has been clear to wise leaders from the very beginning of the American nation and throughout its brief history. Woodrow Wilson, a great visionary regarding the need for ethical behavior, said this about a free market unmarked by Christlike virtues: “We are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.” One of the virtues lost is the understanding that we are stewards of the earth who need always to consider how its material benefits can be used in a manner that ultimately honors the Creator. Biblical moral values can supply the “heart” that guides an economy in its use of God’s creation gifts. What are such values? Here are a few: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember you can't serve both God and riches. Love mercy. Act justly. Walk humbly with your God. That list could go on and on.

We Americans take pride in our high standard of living. But we can’t forget that if our standards of living destroy our sources of life, they’re not high; they’re evil.

Read Question 6
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Dean Ohlman is the host of RBC Ministries website: "The Wonder of Creation." You can read more of Dean's writing at the RBC site: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/