Too Bad It’s Earth Day.
by sherry mann
originally posted at ALoveBasket.com
My children woke up excited to get ready for school. They put on their green shirts, old jeans, and tennis shoes. They packed their gloves, milk jugs (for watering the plants), hand shovels and weeding tools.
Today was like no other day of the year. It was Earth Day!
The first Earth Day (April 22, 1970) had some 20 million demonstrators involved. Today, Earthday.org, which seems to serve as the central hub of Earth Day events, lists “31,464,418 Acts of Green and counting.”
Well, isn’t that nice.
Matthew Sleeth, an emergency room physician was asked by his wife Nancy, a question that would change his life forever. “What is the biggest problem facing the world?” After thinking of all the problems of war, disease, terrorism and poverty, he finally replied that “The world is dying.”
After much reflection and many life changing decisions, Dr. Sleeth released the Green Bible early in 2008. The Green Bible is bound in environmentally friendly materials: a cotton/linen cover, recycled paper, soy-based ink, and a water-based coating. It claims to highlight “over 1,000 references to the Earth in the Bible, (compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love).”
There are many essays in the opening of the Bible by leading conservationists and theologians. In the sidebars, Wendell Berry and others are quoted to offer further encouragement for the stewardship of the Earth.
While the publication may have good intentions, there are some biblical scholars who (perhaps justifiably) criticize the Green Bible. Here is an excerpt from Laurence Vance’s article, “Is God Green?”
