Stewardship of The Environment - Christian Ethics

Stewardship defined:
Stewardship is an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources.
Stewardship is an inherently ethical relationship. As a model of environmental ethics, it means that

human beings are entrusted with the environment. That we have the responsibility to use and protect
the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices.
It is suggested that stewardship can be classified in 3 types: doers, donors, and practitioners.
Doers go out and help the cause by taking action. For example, the doers in an oil spill would be the
volunteers that go along the beach and help clean up the oil from the beaches.
A donor is the person that financially helps the cause. They can do anything from donating their money,
to hosting public events to raise funds. They are typically governmental agencies.
Practitioners. They work on a day-to-day basis to steer governmental agencies, scientists, stakeholder
groups, or any other group toward a stewardship outcome. Together these 3 groups make up
environmental stewards and with the help keep the ecosystem running healthily.
Anybody can be an environmental steward by being aware and knowledgeable of the world around
them and making sure they do as little as possible to negatively impact our world. Without these groups
it would be hard to get any sort of sustainability in our increasingly industrially based world.
Christian Views:
Christian environmental stewardship further specifies this trust by adding that the environment, for
which humans are morally obligated to care, belongs to God.
Believers in stewardship are usually people who believe in one God who created the universe and all
that is within it, also believing that they must take care of creation and look after it. Creation includes
animals and the environment.
Defined as: "Utilising and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment
of His creation."
The central essence of biblical world view stewardship is managing everything God brings into the
believer's life in a manner that honors God and impacts eternity.
Christian Stewardship refers to the responsibility that Christians have in maintaining and using wisely
the gifts that God has bestowed. God wishes human beings to be his collaborators in the work of
creation, redemption and sanctification. Increasingly this has referred to environmental protectionism.
This also includes traditional Christian Ministries that share the resources of treasure, time and talent.
"Tithe", or giving of a portion are found throughout the Bible as part of the Jewish law. The tithe
represents the returning to God a significant, specific, and intentional portion of material gain; under
the Jewish law, the first ten percent of one's food product (produce or animal livestock) was to be
sacrificed at the temple for the sustenance of the Levites. However, giving is not limited to the tithe or a
specific amount, illustrated by Jesus’ comment that a woman who gave a very small amount had given
more than those had given large amounts because "while they gave out of their abundance, she gave all
she had to live on." (the lesson of the widow's mite, Mark 12.41-44; Luke 21.1-4) Jesus, in another
discourse with a rich young man, concedes that this ideal of giving up all of one's possessions is
impractical: "With man this is impossible(.)" (Matthew 19:26)
Biblical References
Evangelical environmentalism can be drawn from Genesis 2:15. "And the LORD God took the man, and
put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." The drive to "serve the garden in which we
have been placed" (also Genesis 2:15), sees Christian influence in political and practical affairs.
A useful quote explaining stewardship can be found in Psalm 24:1: "The Earth is the Lord's and all that is
in it, the world, and those who live in it".
From this perspective, the response to the ecological crisis involves the restoration of correct doctrine,
the restoration of Christianity as guide, and a balancing of the Bible and biology. It is important to
Evangelical environmentalists that they are not seen as worshiping nature; they feel obligated to the
stewardship of creation because of their focus on the creator of nature.
In the modern world:
Technology is playing an increasing role in environmental stewardship. Actions that collect and report
monitoring data in an ecosystem that inform management of the natural resource that impacts the
species or environmental concerns.
Technology has also become a crutch on the preservation of the environment, wherein the modern
needs have endangered what nature can provide.
There has been increasing attention to and investment in environmental stewardship in conservation
and environmental management policies and programs globally. Yet environmental stewardship has not
received adequate conceptual attention.
Many American religious organizations have a long record of opposing nuclear weapons. Rejecting the
development and use of nuclear weapons is "...one of the most widely shared convictions across faith
traditions".
Michael Banach, the Vatican representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told a Vienna
conference in 2011 that the Japanese Fukushima nuclear disaster created new safety concerns about
nuclear plants globally. Auxiliary bishop of Osaka Michael Goro Matsuura said this nuclear power
disaster should encourage Japan and other countries to abandon nuclear projects. He called on
worldwide Christian solidarity to provide wide support for an anti-nuclear campaign. Statements from
bishops' conferences in Korea and the Philippines called on their governments to abandon atomic
power.
The global scale of many current environmental issues might lead to the perception that targeting local
environmental stewardship could no longer meet these challenges. However, environmental
stewardship is one way through which people get involved in promoting sustainability.
https://www.acton.org/public-policy/environmental-stewardship/theology-e/biblical-perspective-
environmental-stewardship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewardship_(theology)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_stewardship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_environmentalism

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Stewardship defined:

Stewardship is an inherently ethical relationship. As a model of environmental ethics, it means that

In the modern world:

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