Sandra Richter | We Are Only Renters Here

Richter:

I see a humanity that would have reached the stars, but would have done it in a fashion as I say, in my first book, The Epic of Eden, where expansion would not have required extinction and progress would not have demanded pollution. And the creativity and expansion of the strong would not have demanded the oppression of the weak, that this was God’s original plan. So when Adam and Eve finally get back to that plan, which would be heaven, the restored heaven and earth, that’s what we still have to do, is to explore and create and steward this planet in a fashion that honors the creator without destroying the creation. 

My name is Sandy Richter and I am the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at Westmont College.

Stump: 

Welcome to Language of God. I’m Jim Stump. Today is Earth Day, at least it is when this episode is coming out. Earth Day has not typically been a day widely celebrated within the Christian Church and in fact many Christians have been taught, at least implicitly, that they must choose between Christianity and their care and love for wild places and wild creatures. 

Our guest today, Sandra Richter, was one of those Christians who was led to believe that an emphasis on saving souls meant there was no place left in the Christian life for saving wild creatures and places. But as she studied, eventually getting her PhD in Hebrew Bible from Harvard, she came to realize that the Bible is rich with a calling to care for the Earth, and is in fact a crucial part of the Good News Jesus came to bring: by caring for the planet and its natural resources, we also care for our neighbors, for the widow and the orphan, and the oppressed. And if we don’t care for the planet, we are shirking the responsibility we were given by God. 

In this episode I talk to Sandy about the biblical basis for such a call, why this call has been ignored for so long, and how we might become a church of stewards, who answer the call to care for this planet, the work of God’s hands, and to do our part in helping to bring about a restoration. Happy Earth Day!

Let’s get to the conversation.

Interview Part One

Stump:

Dr. Sandra Richter, welcome to the podcast.

Richter:

It is wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation.

Stump:

Good. Well, it’s Earth Day, at least when we’re releasing this episode, it’s Earth Day and we want to spend most of our time talking to you about Christian’s duty toward this planet we all live on. But if we could, let’s spend a little time first getting to hear some of your background and story. So you are now a professor of Old Testament. Is that how you always thought your career was going to play out?

Richter:

Oh, what a great question. No, my story is kind of like watching an adolescent learn to drive a clutch vehicle. 

Stump:

Oh dear. 

Richter:

in a very good way— I actually came to faith in my late adolescence. So I was raised a good Catholic kid in a Jewish neighborhood. I had no idea that Protestant church even existed. So I came to faith in the Jesus movement, actually the end of the 70s, someone dropped the book, The Cross and the Switchblade into my hands.

Stump:

Oh, God. Yeah. David Wilkerson?

Richter:

Yes. And New York City. And, you know, this country pastor’s burden to do something about the heroin crisis in New York City. And it’s a fabulous story, at this point it’s a famous story. But I’d never heard anything like that. And I was 17, I had no life plan, I was a bit of an orphan, which is another set of stories. And read this book, went to one of the leaders in my fellowship and said, I” can’t sleep at night. I said I have to find these people, I have to help them.” And she said, “Oh, what you’re experiencing is a call to ministry.” And, “okay, what’s that?” And she explained about professional ministry and told me I needed to go to a Bible college and I said, “Okay, what’s that?” He told me about two. One lost my application. And I wound up at Valley Forge Christian College at the time, which was an Assemblies of God Bible College. I worked in Teen Challenge every summer through my college career. So fabulous. I worked in induction in Inner City Philadelphia. I wound up being assimilated into my new community. Went into ministry. But throughout my ministry career, God kept calling, and I wound up at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, to improve my skill set. And over the course of the years, both with a denomination that wasn’t terribly comfortable with women in leadership, and with a seminary that was very academically oriented, before I knew it, I was applying to Harvard University’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department. And by miraculous reaches, outside my imagination, I was accepted and graduated and wound up a professor of Old Testament. 

Stump:

Good. And if we might also ask about your interest in creation care and the natural world. Is there anything looking back now, when you were growing up, say, that oriented you toward concern for the natural world?

Richter:

I would say growing up, my family was military. We moved a lot which meant we camped a lot. My dad was Navy, so when we got our orders, we would go from Norfolk, Virginia, to Alameda, California, you know, nowhere in between. I camped across the country a dozen times, as a kid. And in those moments of both camping and living on the, you know, the margins of this country, God always spoke to me. I had such a profound love for the beauty of this planet and for the wild creature, and had the privilege of sitting silently in the far reaches of the Puget Sound and the redwood forests. So I always loved the outdoors and the wild creatures that inhabited the outdoors. But honestly, like a lot of your listeners, when I came to faith, I was told that those things were peripheral. And I needed to get about the business of what really mattered, which was saving souls. And obviously, saving souls does really matter. And I’ve committed my life to either ministry or the training of pastors or the training of college students who are headed into a life of stewardship in business and in ministry. So yes, this is critically important. But it wasn’t until my adulthood and both my maturation as a scholar, that I realized that the biblical text has a tremendous amount to say about Adam and Eve’s responsibility to steward this planet. And that these issues that I had been told were peripheral, they’re not peripheral in our role of faith and praxis.

Stump:

Interesting. So to dig into that a little bit further, as I said, today is Earth Day. Is that really an appropriate thing for Christians to be celebrating and promoting? It sounds almost kind of pagan, doesn’t it?

Richter:

Yeah, that’s a great question, Jim. Great question. And it is, I think the question that has, or at least one of the questions that has paralyzed the church on this topic. So the first thing I would want to say in response to that question is I have an extremely high view of Scripture. Any of your listeners who have read any of my stuff, or have studied through my curriculums, I truly believe that the Bible is our rule of faith and praxis. And my ambition as a scholar is never to move one inch beyond it. But my role, my goal as a scholar is also never to fall one inch behind it. So what I do in the introduction of Stewards of Eden, which is the book that we’re discussing today, is in the introduction, I talk through what in my experience are the three issues that I think have paralyzed the Christian Church on this topic. And let me say, more specifically it’s the American church as well.

Stump:

Oh, yeah.

Richter:

So just a year ago, I was actually in London, offering the Laing Lecture at the London School of Theology, and they asked me to present on this topic. So the title of the lecture was, Can a Christian be an Environmentalist? And all of these Brits showed up and said, “what are you talking about, a Christian must be an environmentalist.” So this is very much an American issue. 

So as I do in the introduction, as I have traveled and spoken on this topic for 10, 15 years, which I did before I wrote the book, what I have found is the church has got three issues that are circulating that really have caused struggle and division over this topic. And the first one is politics. Very much American politics. And the situation is that environmentalism has come to be associated with a political party that is not the traditional ally of the conservative church. And, of course, we’re both Americans, we know what we’re talking about. That if you are pro-life, you supposedly cannot also be pro-environment. If you are a patriot, you supposedly cannot also be a conservationist. And essentially, if you’re a Christian, you ought to be a Republican. The Democratic Party is the party that has historically been associated with environmental stewardship. And so environmentalism has wound up pigeonholed with a particular political party that so much of the church looks at with suspicion.

Stump:

Yeah, that’s really unfortunate that it’s been bundled together in the culture wars, right, in that sense. And so at least part of what you’re trying to do is unbundle that issue from other things that typically go along with it and say it is okay to— 

Richter:

Yeah, absolutely. I’m sitting here nodding vigorously. Yeah. Because, of course, we as members of the New Covenant, we are citizens of another kingdom. American politics is not our divining rod for how we ought to behave. Rather, we are called to be salt and light in a world where both political parties are riddled with issues that undermine the kingdom of God. The question that any Christian should be asking, is what does the New Covenant have to say about this? What does the kingdom have to say about this? And, of course, our politics, as Christians, are going to be at odds with both parties. However many other parties you want to throw into the conversation. So that’s the first thing I have identified over my years of dealing with this issue is let’s suspend American politics for just a moment and ask our King what he requires of us. Then the second issue that I think is always an issue, again, with the American church is this is an issue of social justice. This is an issue that involves the widow and the orphan. And anywhere else on this planet that you travel or investigate, you are going to see that environmental degradation strikes the marginalized first. But we, in suburban America, where our bills are paid, and our neighborhoods are clean, we don’t see this. We don’t see the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining in Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. We don’t see the devastation that the pollution of the Ganges water system has caused to the good people of India, and Calcutta, et cetera, et cetera. We don’t see the fallout of industrial agriculture in Punjab, India, and how farmers are committing suicide hand over fist because their land has been stripped of its fertility. We don’t see these things. And since we don’t see them, we often are unaware that they’re actually happening. One of the things I do in the book as well as I pull in case study after case study after case study, so the faithful Christian sitting comfortably in their suburban home, can see the impact of environmental degradation on the widow and the orphans.

Stump:

Before issue three, let me—I think for many people who say follow issues of climate change in the news, where we are starting to see wildfires and tornadoes out of season and other of those kinds of natural disasters, that that might be a little bit more in our consciousness. But it sounds like this is the tip of the iceberg, right compared to what other communities are suffering. Is that your point there?

Richter:

Yes. And although climate change is an enormous problem, and will affect all of us, as you know, it is still an issue that is riddled with political debate. And—let me say it this way, we don’t have to reach all the way to climate change to see the impact. We can go to Madagascar right now, and in Madagascar we can see an island paradise that is full of more variety of God’s creative imagination than any other place, any other island on this planet. And we can find 90% deforestation because of predatorial industrial exploitation. 90% deforestation that has left the Malagasy people homeless, jobless and starving to death. And in Madagascar right now, as you and I are speaking, one out of 10 women die in childbirth. That’s outrageous. And why do they die in childbirth? Due to malnutrition. And so we have groups like Plant with Purpose headed up by Scott Saban, who are in Madagascar right now as environmental missionaries. And what they’re doing is they’re teaching the locals how to plant indigenous trees in their backyard gardens, so that they can sell them to the United Nations and the Peace Corps, thereby supporting their family. And when those indigenous trees and shrubberies are replanted along their water systems, their water systems are restored, and they can start fishing again. Now, it’s a long range recovery, because it’s been a long range damage, but what I’m trying to say is, these are not new problems. And again, we can head over to Eastern Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, and we can see conditions that Americans are living in, that should humiliate us as the land of the free and the brave. And these folks are living with poisoned water systems with avalanches and landslides and collapsed ecosystems and environmental impact that honestly has been hidden by our media, hidden by our media, because of the corruption of big business, and the widow and the orphan are dying. And we are sitting by, silent. So it’s not just climate change. It is an impact that if the average Christian sitting in their pew could see, I know that it would transform their posture toward the environmental problem. And that’s the information I want to get into the hands of the average faithful believer.

Stump:

Good. Thanks for bringing that to our attention so poignantly. The third reason you list for why the church has gotten lost on this topic?

Richter:

Yes, and I love the phrase gotten lost.

Stump:

Those were your words, so I read them right out of your book. I can’t take credit. 

Richter:

Thank you. Oh, and the reason I love “gotten lost,” is because I know and love the church. And I know, that at our best, the church is—we are the first to answer the cry of the widow and the orphan. We’re the first to stand up and say, “hey, our moral compass has gotten confused”. And it is the best I want to call out of the church.
Okay, so the third issue is one that is more complicated. And it takes a theologian to answer and I’m grateful that I have the skill to be able to answer that question. In our New Testament, we crash into passages like Second Peter 3:10-13, that speaks about how this present Earth and these present heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. We bump into passages like First Thessalonians five: “for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night and while those some are saying peace and safety, destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs, and they will not escape.” Or Revelation six: “when he broke the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth and the moon became like blood.” 

So we read these passages and we logically say, oh, this earth is going to be burned up. This earth is going to pass away this, this earth is disposable. And as a result, if I really love the purposes of heaven, I need to get out there and share the gospel and save souls and it is appropriate for me and for my church and for my denomination, to use up the resources of this planet as aggressively as possible to get about to real Kingdom work. So a lot of folk out there who are operating under that impression. But what I do in the book is I introduce the reader to the concept of the Day of the Lord, which is named in every one of those passages. And as you and I both know, this Day of the Lord actually comes out of the Old Testament, it’s called the day of Yahweh or the yom Yahweh in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, we’ve come to call it the second coming. Or for those with seminary training the parousia, which is when the writer on the white horse splits the heavens and the king of the cosmos returns to reclaim his land grant, as I will explain in the book. So the deal is we’re reading about the day of the Lord and what we’re reading is a lexicon, or a set of symbols that actually go all the way back to Genesis 3, and get reiterated throughout the prophets, which is the day that Yahweh shows up. And he says, “okay, enough, I have allowed Adam to rule this planet. For as long as I can tolerate. The gates of heaven are now swinging shut. I’m going to show up and do business.” And this is that great day, when those who have been faithful are finally delivered from their oppressors. And this is that great and terrifying day when the oppressors finally get their due.  

Okay, so why do we think as a result of these passages, that the earth is going to burn up? Because we are reading about this day without our lexicon, or without our dictionary. Let’s say it that way for those who haven’t gone to seminary. And the deal is that all of these symbols of fire and signs in the heavens and the moon turned to blood and the sun turning to sackcloth, these are symbols that we can track all the way back to our earliest prophets. And they are symbols of judgment, symbols of judgment. But they are not symbols of the destruction of this earth. I can see very clearly how the average reader would misread them. But what the average reader is missing is, one the lexicon, and the opposing voice of Scripture. And the opposing voice of scripture is the great meta-narrative of salvation, that when we get to the book of Revelation, this earth is being resurrected. When John the Revelator actually speaks about heaven, he speaks about a new heaven and a new earth. In other words, this earth is not disposable, rather, this earth is going to be resurrected. Now, am I alone in this opinion? Heck, no. In fact, the New Testament scholars that you all would elevate as your guiding host, are the ones who taught this to me. So Doug Moo and Greg Beale and Colin Gunton, will all speak of how this earth is not disposable, rather, this earth is going to be resurrected. And the resurrection is actually going to occur in the same fashion as the resurrection of the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve.

Stump:

So this is a really interesting and important point, I think, because it’s one—this is an objection that I’ve heard quite a bit from the Christian community in opposition to environmentalism in some sense. But I wonder if you might address this a little bit further, because couldn’t somebody still just respond, “well, God is going to resurrect it. So it still doesn’t really matter what we do to it now does it?” So how do we establish a more meaningful connections, say, between our actions now, what we’re doing, what the state of the planet is now, and the future Kingdom of God, where as you say, God is going to do something still. So how—why does it—do you get that objection that I coming back at, of how people might respond to that? So even if we take that as figurative language, which I think you’re right to do, there’s still the sense that God’s just gonna resurrect it anyway.

Richter:

Right. Right, right, right. So I honestly have probably three pronged response to that. Feel free to redirect. It’s your podcast after all. So the first one is I really would like to read the core issue out of Romans 8 for your listeners. 

Stump:

Go ahead. 

Richter:

Paul speaks on this. And I want to remind us all that Paul is a Pharisee. He’s coming out of the first century Paul is no tree hugger, he has never worn tie dye. And he is probably not a vegan either. He might be a vegetarian so that he can hang out with Gentiles. But okay, so here I go, Paul, chapter eight: “for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility—Doug Moo would translate that frustration—not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons—comma—the redemption of our bodies.” So Paul’s biggest point here is that the kingdom hasn’t come yet. But he goes on to say that it’s not just humans who are suffering. He says, the creation is suffering. And I use this passage all the time with my undergrads, when I want to introduce them to the idea that redemption, salvation, God’s great plan is not just about them. And when you’re dealing with emerging adults, whose entire developmental focus is on them, and only them, this is a very important point. Most of them come into my class fully convinced that Jesus died to get them fire insurance. And that’s it, right? So my job as their professor is to introduce them again to the meta-narrative, that the blueprint that was Genesis 1 and 2 is what has been marred by the fall. And our Creator will not be finished until he repairs Genesis 1 and 2, until he gets us back to the blueprint of a restored Eden. And that’s what Paul’s talking about. And in the midst of this, is the creation itself, because it was placed under the authority of the steward, who were Adam and Eve, that when Adam and Eve fell, they pulled all creation with them. And so Paul the Rabbi is placing our resurrection, our adoption as sons, that moment when our salvation is complete, and he’s juxtaposing it with the resurrection, the redemption of this planet. So he could not have made the restoration of this planet any more important in any fashion. Because we all know how Paul feels about the resurrection of the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve. So first of all, let’s put all of those passages in context to this declaration of the objective, the ambition of salvation.

[musical interlude]

BioLogos:

Hi listeners. We live in an age of COVID 19 and a climate crisis but also an age of amazing new technologies and scientific discoveries. Either way you look at it, science is a major part of our lives and undoubtedly, questions will arise at the intersection of science and Christian faith. BioLogos is hoping to help you explore those questions faithfully. The BioLogos website has articles and other resources to wade through some of the tough questions. And for students and teachers, we’ve recently released integrate, a resource designed for homeschool parents or Christian school teachers to help Christian young people grow in their faith in Christ as they develop a deeper love and stronger understanding of the world God has made. You can find it all at biologos.org   

Stump:

I’m curious, the restoration of creation that you’re talking about, that Paul is talking about there, is that simply a reclaiming of the way things were? Or is there some sense in which it’s developed even further than the way it was originally created? And the reason I asked that is the passage in Genesis chapter one, where after God says God has created them male and female in his image, the first thing he does is to say to them, “now go fill the earth be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth,” and I’m always curious that if God wanted the earth filled in subdued, why didn’t he created that way to begin with? Or is there some, is there something more that that creation was made with this potential to become something even more that God ultimately wanted it to be?

Richter: 

Alright, so the first statement I would make is that, yes, this world is being resurrected. And the parallel is that you and I are being resurrected. So Greg Beale says it this way, we are looking at an earth that is, quote, an identifiable counterpart to cosmos, and a renewal of it, just as the body will be raised without losing its former identity. So as we are looking, especially on this spring morning, at a Jesus who in his resurrection was identifiable and recognizable and yet transformed enough that his followers still struggled to some degree, we can say the same thing about the cosmos, right? Continuity with transformation. So exactly identifying what that’s going to look like, it’s right now beyond our scope. But the question that you’re also asking is, okay, we have the ideal blueprint back in Genesis 1 and 2, we know best based on Revelation 21 and 22, that God is restoring trees of life, cosmic rivers, the iconographic breadcrumbs of the blueprint to the final plan are obvious. What type of development have we seen as well? And I would go all the way back to the original plan and make the statement that in this amazing staggering strategy of a God who wanted to fill his world with, again, the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, who wanted to expand the circle of love of the Trinity—and I say that carefully, because I am not identifying humanity as deity, but full of love that that is the Trinity—that I believe the plan for Adam and Eve is that they would have reached Mars in about six weeks. The plan was a man and a woman created in the image, who were therefore, themselves filled with creative passion, a passion for creativity, whose ambition, whose desire, was to see touch and explore an ever expanding universe. And I see a humanity that would have reached the stars, but would have done it in a fashion, as I say, in my first book, The Epic of Eden, where expansion would not have required extinction and progress would not have demanded pollution. And the creativity and expansion of the strong would not have demanded the oppression of the weak. That this was God’s original plan. So when Adam and Eve finally get back to that plan, which would be heaven, the restored heaven and earth, that’s what we still have to do, is to explore and create and steward this planet in a fashion that honors the creator without destroying the creation. 

And let me just tag in here that one of the anti-voices, one of the responses to Christian environmental responsibility is, “hey, we’ve been given dominion. And so we can act as we choose, that our job is to use up this planet to get about again, what really matters, the saving of souls.” May I remind those countervoices that Adam and Eve were not made kings and queens. They were made stewards. The seven day announces who is truly king of the cosmos. Adam and Eve were set under the Almighty’s authority. And they were offered the sort of Dominion that the almighty exercises. What I deal with over and over again in my book is that we are renters, we are not landlords. And before we run out of time here, I want to announce that the way I address this issue is in a biblical theological fashion. I take the reader from Genesis through the Old Covenant through the New Covenant, and to the New Jerusalem. And the question that we’re asking over and over again, as God reveals himself to humanity, as God expresses himself through covenant relationship, is what sort of imperatives did God lay down for his people. And as we move through the Mosaic Covenant, we see over and over again, in 1200 BC, which would be about where Deuteronomy claims itself to land in the dating scheme, we see that God is laying down laws about sustainable agriculture. And he’s telling the Israelites, “if you fail to fallow, I’ll take my land back, thank you very much.” Telling them that it is their responsibility as the citizens of his kingdom to deal with livestock in a humane fashion. Industrial agriculture would never have gotten traction in ancient Israel. He is commanding in Leviticus that slaughter practices be humane and that they treat the animal with respect. Which if you could ever manage to get your cell phone camera inside a slaughter plant, anywhere in the United States of America, first of all, you’d be arrested, but if you could get your cell phone inside a slaughter plant, you would find out that oh-so-progressive United States of America is very far afield from the requirements of Leviticus 17. That God actually has laws in the Mosaic Covenant, about maintaining the habitat, and the sustainability of the wild creature. We’re talking Deuteronomy here. Deuteronomy outlaws environmental terrorism. That’s one.

Stump:

One of the things in your book that I found really interesting in this regard, as you were going through what some of these commands were about protecting the wildlife and in even the tamed animals as well, and how we use the fields and leave some behind. This was in the midst of a culture that they didn’t have a whole lot of extra, right? So it wasn’t as though you can pay attention to these things once all of your other needs are satisfied and if there’s anything left over. Talk a little bit more about that aspect of these commandments from Scripture. 

Richter:

Yeah, this is so interesting and I think so challenging for us. As you know, my expertise is in archaeology and anthropology. And we can demonstrate, based on material culture and population estimates based on architecture in the ancient cities, that the average Isrealite family was facing a hunger season of about 60 days. And anthropologists listening know what a hungry season is. This is that time between the last year’s harvest being all used up and this year’s harvest is not yet in. So that hungry season, for the ancient Israelites, was about 60 days. So for your average housewife, that means, 60 days, your freezer and your pantry is empty. So our guys are doing everything they can to conserve every calorie they can. They’re augmenting their agricultural income by hunting. That’s why there’s so many laws about hunting Gazelle and how you slaughter them. Often a family would pull some of the seed grain from next year planting which of course is going to put them behind the eight ball in the spring. These people are barely making it. And we need to just really imprint that on our experience with the text. They are barely making it. And often they are not making it. And so when Leviticus, the covenant code and Exodus, Deuteronomy, our three big law codes, when they come in and they tell the farmer, when you harvest your grain, your olives, your grapes—which are their three big crops—don’t go back over the field twice—which violates the Protestant work ethic in my life so profoundly—don’t go back and get the leftover. Leave anything you missed for the wild animal and for the impoverished. And these are people again who are barely making it. 

Then you know, the next law will come through, which is when you pull out your ox, your bovine, your 800 pound work animal, and it’s his job to thresh the grain so that you can store it for the winter, don’t muzzle him. Now, we all know this law out of the New Testament where Paul applies it to pastors, but this was an actual agricultural law in Israel’s world. So you’ve got yourself an 800 pound bovine out there, and he’s threshing the grain so your family can eat and you know, the hungry season’s coming? Well, I worked with a couple of current day students of mine who come from cattle farming families, as well as the zooarchaeologists and we’ve figured out exactly how much a bovine can consume in a day of threshing without foundering, in other words, getting a stomach ache that is fatal. And we’re looking at 10-12 quarts of grain a day. And it can take a week or two to get the threshing done. And so what is Deuteronomy saying to our hungry farmers? He’s saying, “look, I know that every kilo counts, and I know what life looks like. But that animal deserves to celebrate along with you. He’s working hard for you. Treat him with respect.” It’s crazy. And then the Sabbath ordinance—sorry, just gotta throw this in here—the Sabbath ordinance, the covenant code, this is a big 10, right? Not only does every Israelite rest, and every Christian rest, but every servant, every slave and every animal rests. So God is treating their livestock with covenant code respect. And where do we land, as Americans, in that overall declaration of how the creator would steward his animals, his land, and his wild space?

Stump:

We’re drawing toward the end of our time, and there are lots of other rabbit trails I’d love to go down here in talking to you. But I wonder if we might get you to sum up some of these things, some of your work in this book, and then some of the importance of this task for Christians today. Let me ask it this way: why is scripture so concerned about these sustainability issues, on the one hand, and why has this become such an important issue for you, in your own scholarly work to convey clearly to the church?

Richter:

Great questions, all of your questions are great. Well, let me answer with—there’s several anecdotes of my own journey in the book. But let me let me launch at least with one, and it was one Kristen Page who is an endowed chair at Wheaton College in biology, she and I partnered up during my days at Wheaton College to teach a course on Christian environmental concern. We titled it The Bible and Biology and we got a faith and learning grant, we got to co-teach the class and how cool is that, right? So here, a very real biologist, and here, a very real Biblical Studies person are standing in the same classroom, trying to address these issues. And we had 25 of Wheaton’s best and brightest sitting in front of us. And we deployed a very standard icebreaker for every teacher out there. We’ve all used it. And it was the first hour of class and we said to our students, “hey, tell everyone your name, your major, and why I decided to take this class.” And Kristen and I sat there while 25 wheaties—and these were all well educated, theologically informed, and socially conscious, fabulous, young adults—every one of them said the exact same thing. And what they said was, “I’ve always loved the outdoors, camping, birdwatching, you know, fill in the blank there. I’ve always loved Jesus. But I’ve always been told that as a Christian, I was not allowed to advocate for my love for endangered species, the wild spaces, and be a Christian at the same time. I’m so grateful that you decided to teach this class.” So Kristen and I get to the end of this icebreaker, we’re both nearly in tears, we look at each other. And she says to me, “me too.” And I say to her, “me too.” So I think that the church has been placed in a position where they think they can’t advocate for what the image of God within them is crying out for them to advocate for. So that’s one reason. Two reason: the widow and the orphan need us and we the moral compass of society need to take our stand on that issue. And three, I think that for this generation, for the church to remain silent on this topic is not only for us to shirk our responsibility with our God, we are losing one of the most powerful of evangelistic moments of our generation. And so I think of Danielle and Neal Carlstrom, who are the cutest young family you’ve ever seen, who packed up their lives and went to Madagascar, as a botanist and a midwife and in the name of Jesus, they are loving the Malagasy people by teaching them to plant trees, helping them restore their water systems, and helping these young women to give birth without dying. And they’re doing it in the name of Jesus. And we have got environmental missionaries who are slowly trickling out, all over this planet, and are changing what life looks like in Haiti. I just had an interview with two young women who are organizing all the Christian groups in Haiti around the environmental question. So all of those are reasons that I want to speak up. And of course, I’m one of those people who loves both this planet and this church. But if you’ll allow me I would love the chance to read a quotation coming from a good solid secular environmentalist as the last answer to that question. 

Stump:

Sure.

Sandra:

Okay, great. Thank you. His name is Gus Speth. He was the Chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality under President Jimmy Carter. He has founded several environmental organizations himself, he is a total insider on the issues of global environmental concern, and this is what he has to say at his retirement. He says this, “I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that 30 years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy. And to deal with these, we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists, we don’t know how to do that.”

Stump:

So I hear there’s a role for the church.

Richter:

That is—I hear that, quote, and Jim, all I can think is, “put me in coach.” And I look at the pews filled some of the finest people and I know—and I say, “stand up.” Let’s take our moment, stand with the opposition. We won’t necessarily win. But we’re not going to win on every orphan in Darfur either. But we need to faithfully stand with the opposition. We need to represent the values of the kingdom, we need to stand with a creator. We need to be the ones who are are shouting out to our world. We are only renters, and this land these wild creatures, this livestock needs to be in as good a shape when we got it as it is when we hand it off to our children. That is that is what the creator requires.

Stump:

Well, Dr. Sandra Richter, thank you so much for talking to us. The book, again is called Stewards of Eden, What Scripture Says About the Environment and Why it Matters. And if you are looking for a way to join, start by reading this book. And we’re so grateful for the work that you’re doing in this regard. And if the coaches put you in to play, we’re on the same team.

Richter:

Thank you so much for this moment to speak to this topic. And I hope we’ve garnered a few hearts and anything I could do to answer those questions and to further ignite those hearts, I’m right here.

BioLogos:

Language of God is produced by BioLogos. It has been funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation and more than 300 individuals who donated to our crowdfunding campaign. Language of God is produced and mixed by Colin Hoogerwerf. That’s me. Our theme song is by Breakmaster Cylinder. We are produced out of the remote workspaces and homes of BioLogos staff in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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