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By Gina Dalfonzo, The Point

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with Nancy Sleeth. Sleeth and her husband, Matthew, are the founders of Blessed Earth, “an educational nonprofit that inspires and equips faith communities to become better stewards of the earth.”

Matthew Sleeth was an emergency room physician who was becoming concerned about what he saw as an increased incidence of environmentally caused diseases (in one week on the job, he saw three women in their thirties with breast cancer), as well as what he heard scientists saying about the decreasing of living material on the earth. He left his job and the Sleeths became what Nancy calls the “poster family for the downwardly mobile.” Once they had made drastic reductions in their own energy usage, they set out to help others do the same.

At the same time, the Sleeths were starting a new “faith journey.” Nancy had been raised Jewish and Matthew Protestant, but aside from celebrating holidays, the family had little interest in religion. Nancy quips that in their house “the Fiddler on the Roof slipped down the chimney and laid Easter eggs.” But her husband had discovered a Gideon Bible one day in the hospital during a slow day, and “he picked it up and read the Gospel of Matthew and his life changed.” Nancy and the children soon followed suit. Thus, Nancy says, “Our stewardship journey and our faith journey were parallel.”

The Sleeths believe that helping save the creation is a way to honor the Creator, and that the Bible makes a solid case for taking care of the environment. “It’s old theology; it’s nothing new,” Nancy explains. “We’re just reminding people.” The response they’re getting from churches around the country has been “amazing,” especially now that Christians, like the larger population, are trying to save money as well as natural resources. That’s fine with Nancy: “I don’t care if it’s motivated by economics, it’s doing the right thing.” 

Many churches where the Sleeths have spoken have set up their own “creation care teams.” Danny O’Brien, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Baltimore, Maryland, went so far as to say, “I became convicted and I had a conversion experience” about environmental issues. Dr. Gerald Durley, pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, had a similar description of his change in thinking.

I asked Nancy if this kind of language wasn’t a little strong. Her take on it was that people like these pastors are just starting to realize that the theme of caring for all of God’s creation is “pervasive in the Bible,” and that “we haven’t been paying enough attention to it.” That theme can be seen in God-given principles like giving the land a Sabbath rest, leaving the edges of the fields for gleaning, and taking care of the poorest among us during hard times.

 

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