Part 1: Birds and the Bees

I walked into Borders at 4:00 yesterday afternoon with a stack of 60 final exams to grade. One question about my “Jesus Doesn’t Hate You” t-shirt later it was nearly six o’clock and Mark was coming by to pick me up for dinner (http://www.jesusdoesnthateyou.com/). But the mediary conversation was wonderful, answering questions about the t-shirt, the ministry and the Lord’s sunny disposition and kindness.

Half an hour into initial greetings and talk about an upcoming concert they mentioned the development of a Tallahassee plot of land. Apparently some developers scraped over some beautiful rolling hills and plucked a few pines from the earth for a new apartment complex. Then, one of the men said, “We pave paradise to put up a parking lot,” (a reference to an old Joni Mitchell song titled “Big Yellow Taxi”) and that initiated a conversation about what it means to be a good steward. In our book Wise as Serpents Mark and I make reference to the same Joni Mitchell song,

DDT and the spread of malaria

The World Health Organization estimates that over 1 million people die from malaria every year. Most of these deaths occur in Africa among children under the age of 5. What we know is that there exists a relatively safe chemical that is highly effective in malaria control. That chemical is DDT, and it disappeared from the world over several years in the 1970s due to environmental concerns, primarily related to raptor birds.

Hey farmer farmer

Put away that DDT now

Give me spots on my apples

But leave me the birds and the bees

Please!
------------Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

Only in the past few years has a principled debate begun over whether the initial environmental concerns were correct or overstated, whether other anti-mosquito strategies such as netting will or will not be equally effective, and whether there might be some compromise level of use that will balance environmental concerns with the potential reduction in deaths. This is the direction taken by the World Health Organization which has approved limited DDT spraying for indoor use.
The point of this example is not to settle the question of DDT control and malaria, although there is no doubt that the opportunity cost is not simply birds and bees but human lives. Rather we wish to point out that as missional Christians become more involved and more intensely involved in local and international humanitarian activities the stakes involved grow beyond those that might be encountered in the familiar one week congregational youth group mission trip. Missional Christians may find themselves sitting at a table with the representatives of the local health
organization, the head of the agricultural producers export committee, the local
representative of a environmental organization, all saying a different version
of “OK, here it is, your choice, it’s them or us”

After making the point that human lives were in jeopardy because we refused to use DDT, this man offered that he was a “Green Christian” and said that we should care as much about all of God’s creation including the squirrels, birds, and trees. The next station of our conversation regarded balance. Where do you draw the line of wanting to preserve nature but letting humans fall by the wayside and alternatively where humans are helped to the detriment of everything around them? He talked about Wendell Berry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry) and living simple so that others may simply live.

Wendell Berry believes in rural living and is an advocate of local economy. I'm not wise to all of Berry's literature so I don't know if that means living like the Amish and spinning our own threads but it did sound a lot like he was against the global economy. I'll put him on my reading list and try not to be too biased while reading but the true measure of the question will be opportunity cost: What does God give up by us living this way? What does God gain by us living this way? (Look for Part 2 soon Technology: A Blessing or a Curse?) In other words, how does this represent that part of the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". I'm sure I'll have to mention St. Francis at some point.

I want to close with a few thoughts about one of the things we talked about most in that two hour conversation: global warming. These are just a few notes and by no means comprehensive,

1. Fear tactics are used on all sides Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists, and businessmen.

2. Every meteorologist I've ever met has told me that the evidence for global warming is not substantial.

3. Either way you slice the cake about global warming most people tend to agree that we need to be good stewards of the environment. Does this mean that we should all take Navy style showers?

There is a lot more here to really dig into. In some later posts we will also be writing about the nature conservancy, reduced sulfate production, and pollution permits, among other things but I believe this is a good conversation starter.