Angry Discussions: A Wrong Way to Stand for Creation Care or Science Advocacy

by Oscar Gonzalez

As a biologist and a committed evangelical Christian, I have tried for several years to promote nature conservation in Christian churches, which has usually been my conversation-starter in every informal meeting I have had with Christian groups. Most of my encounters have been cordial and almost all the pastors and Christian leaders that I have met agree that we have to care for Creation because that is what the Bible says.[1]

However, one of these encounters with a pastor went badly. It happened a long time ago, when my wife and I were at a Christian retreat. We were at a table eating dinner with some friends of the church, when a man approached and asked if he can join us. My wife introduced me to him as an old friend of hers who was living in a distant city for many years, and recently became a pastor. We started talking cordially through the meal and when the question of “What do you do for a living?” popped up, I responded that I am a field biologist working in nature conservation. The young pastor smiled and told us that before getting into ministry he ran a business of selling ornamental fishes in the Amazon. He lived in one of the most important cities there and his business was very prosperous, providing very rare fishes all over the country and also exporting them overseas.[2]

He said he was already a Christian when he was doing that business, so I asked him if he considered sustainability in his captures. To my dismay, he said that no, “because the law at that time did not regulate anybody in the fisheries trade in the Amazon.” He further acknowledged that he had totally depleted species of fishes in some areas but that God blessed him with good revenues. I was outraged with that affirmation! Though my expertise is not in fisheries, I knew the impact of wrong management in Amazon ecosystems,[3] I pointed to the Bible verses that we as creation care advocates interpret as overconsumption and sin,[4] but he closed his mind, saying he did nothing wrong because he was using what God provided him, until there were no more fish to exploit. He just explained how the market worked that led to that overconsumption, without feeling personally responsible for impacting the freshwater Amazon ecosystem[5].  I kept stressing that the Bible demands that we should take care of nature, but he defended himself saying that this topic has nothing to do with the spiritual life. Here I pointed out that if he believed that God has nothing to do with his worldly business, his religion and faith were fake. I stated that God is the Lord of the fish he should have been taking care of and he failed. Then, he stopped talking and I noticed that he was starting to sob. He stood up and left the table, without finishing his meal.

I had won the discussion! I was right and that guy who was supposed to know more Bible than me was wrong! I exposed a hypocrite! But if I had won… why did no one at the table congratulate me? I demonstrated that he was wrong, because he was supposed to live by what the Bible says on caring for the creation, and he denied that! None of them wanted to talk to me again that day. My wife suggested I go to him and apologize. What?

Many years after that incident, I must admit that the hypocrite at the table was me. Not just for mistreating a brother in Christ, but for failing to do conservation outreach in the right way. The main point of nature conservation is to change people’s behavior,[6] so that their personal ethics will incorporate activities that will not damage the environment.[7] For Christians, creation care is a very good motivator.[8] But not all Christians understand what creation care is.[9] In that moment at the dinner table, my main point was to win the discussion. And I did. But I don’t think that this pastor or the people that heard the quarrel at the table will be willing to talk about conservation again, and maybe never with a biologist. They might not even remember the discussion topic, only how someone who said he was a believer mistreated a pastor.

Sometimes it is better not to join a discussion if you perceive that your conversant does not want to know the truth, but merely wants to see how you react when they (verbally) poke you. This conflict avoidance behavior is advised by the apostle Paul.[10]  We have a position, of course, but how you state a position is important or the message can be diluted.[11] I did not want to respect the view of that pastor, which in my position was totally wrong. We can sin and do a lot of harm with our words.[12] Now, I remember clearly that popular prayer, “Dear Lord, please put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.”

This is a story of failure, and we should learn from our failures so we do not repeat the same error again. As Christians, we are called to be in unity,[13] although I don’t believe this means we have to be in agreement on everything. That pastor had never heard of creation care when he started his business—he wasn’t even a pastor, yet. Maybe if someone had explained to him that Christians should conserve nature, perhaps there would be a larger diversity of ornamental fishes in the Amazon today. Perhaps if I would have been more patient, and pointed out to him what principles of sustainability we can infer from the Bible, without raising my voice and accusing him of being a hypocrite, he would be preaching creation care now, putting himself as a repented sinner for depleting fishes in the Amazon. It was an opportunity lost. There is already an atmosphere of confrontation by secular academia toward Christians, accusing them of neglecting nature conservation[14] and, mainly in the United States, as climate-change-deniers.[15] As academic Christians, we should not be eager to add more anger to the discussion; instead, we should be instruments of peace.

When confronted with fellow Christians who do not understand why science is important, or why we should conserve nature, remember that you might win the discussion, but at the cost of losing potential allies who could promote science or conservation. We might easily lose our temper and get angry at what we judge silly or unjust affirmations, but we should remember that “…human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”[16] Teaching creation care or basic science to our fellow brethren in the church may be very challenging, but the Lord desires that we show patience and love, even to those who oppose us.[17]

References

[1] Gonzalez, O. 2013. “Engaging the evangelicals of Peru in creation care”. Perspectives of Science and Christian Faith. 65(2):116-122.
[2] Moreau, M.-A., and O. T. Coomes. 2007. "Aquarium fish exploitation in western Amazonia: conservation issues in Peru". Environmental Conservation 34:12-22.
[3] Castello, L., D. G. McGrath, L. L. Hess, M. T. Coe, P. A. Lefebvre, P. Petry, M. N. Macedo, V. F. Reno, and C. C. Arantes. 2013. "The vulnerability of Amazon freshwater ecosystems". Conservation Letters 6:217-229.
[4] Deuteronomy 22:6-7, Jeremiah 2:7, Revelation 11:18. I collected what does the bible says on nature, in a time when I did not know much on the doctrine of creation care in Gonzalez, O. 1994. “La Biblia: Un Tratado sobre la Naturaleza”. In: Perez, O. (Editor). El Sermón Ecológico. Un Encuentro de la Fe Cristiana con la Crisis Ambiental. (Lima: CONEP-APEP-Vision Mundial): 79-102.
[5] Gerstner, C. L., H. Ortega, H. Sanchez, and D. L. Graham. 2006. "Effects of the freshwater aquarium trade on wild fish populations in differentially-fished areas of the Peruvian Amazon". Journal of Fish Biology 68:862-875.
[6] Schultz, P.W. 2011. “Conservation means behavior”. Conservation Biology 25(6):1080-1086.
[7] Ehrlich, P.R. 2011. “Ecoethics”. In: Sodhi N.S. and P.R. Ehrlich Conservation Biology for all. (New York: Oxford University Press).
[8] Brand, D. (Ed) 2002. God’s Stewards. The role of Christians in Creation Care. (Monrovia: World Vision International)
[9] DeWitt, C. B. 1994. “Preparing the Way for Action”. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 46(2): 80–9.
[10] 2 Timothy 2:16.
[11] Wiseman, J. 2011. “Civil discourse and the ASA”. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 63(1)1-2.
[12] James 3:1-12
[13] John 17:23, Ephesians 4:3
[14] Stuart, S. N., G. W. Archibald, R. J. Berry, S. D. Emmerich, D. M. Evans, J. R. Flenley, K. J. Gaston, D. R. Given, A. G. Gosler, P. Harris, J. Houghton, E. D. Lindquist, D. C. Mahan, M. D. Morecroft, D. C. Moyer, D. Murdiyarso, B. W. W. Musiti, C. Nicolson, A. Oteng-Yeboah, A. J. Plumptre, G. Prance, V. Ramachandra, J. B. Sale, J. K. Sheldon, S. Simiyu, L. G. Underhill, J. Vickery, and T. Whitten. 2005. "Conservation theology for conservation biologists - A reply to David Orr". Conservation Biology 19:1689-1692.
[15] The most outspoken group of Evangelicals in this group can be found here http://www.cornwallalliance.org/
[16] James 1:20. Other verses useful for our anger management are 1 Corinthians 13:5, Ephesians 4:26, Colossians 3:8.
[17] 2 Timothy 2:24-25.

Oscar Gonzalez is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the University of Florida. He was born in Peru where he got a BSc in Biology and later an MS in Zoology. Then he went to Spain and earned another MS in Tropical Biodiversity Management. His research focus is bird ecology and has several publications in this topic.

Oscar has taught natural sciences courses in Peruvian universities. He is a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, but when he travels for research or studies attends to Presbyterian, Pentecostal or independent churches. He has been promoting creation care in all the churches he has visited and also has published in Spanish and English on this subject. He loves going outdoors with his wife Marlene and tries to travel everywhere in a bike. His professional and personal email’s username is “pajarologo” which in Spanish means “birdologist”.

Oscar's professional web page is http://plaza.ufl.edu/pajarologo and where he keep his publications and talks is http://florida.academia.edu/