John Humphreys
Compromising or Selling Out? A Creation Care Christmas.
So, I’m feeling pretty virtuous. I buy 100 percent renewable electricity from the Energy Cooperative in Philadelphia; it’s the real deal, all wind and solar with a smidge of low-impact hydroelectric. So, when I switch on my Christmas lights, watch TV or run the central heating, I have a no-carbon, ultra-low pollution footprint. And it’s the same price as the 50 percent coal-sourced electricity from the regular supplier! AND – when I cook, I’m on propane, which is the cleanest … Continue reading
The Amazon Miracle
If you like gorgeous wildlife photography and fascinating new animals and plants, you can do no better than to visit the World Wildlife Fund’s “Amazon Alive” page and download their sixty page report. Wow! They describe the 1,200 new species discovered in the Amazon rainforest over the last decade. Now, as you might anticipate, scientists have found a lot of new small animals–over five hundred new kinds of spider, for starters–but also beautiful plants and birds, dozens of species of … Continue reading
Killing the Insect Who Prays
Whenever you see a praying mantis here in the United States, there is always someone who pipes up, ‘Don’t kill it! That’s illegal, you know!’ Well, alas, this isn’t true, as the famous Snopes site will tell you. http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/mantis2.asp I wonder how this urban legend arose? Could it be because we are a devout nation and detest the idea of killing an animal that appears to be praying? This is, after all, the basis of the name – “mantis” is … Continue reading
The Price of a Bird
We were late. We had been at a family party, and we needed to get back for another event. So we were – along with everyone else – hurtling along the freeway at less than legal speeds, knowing that if we just maintained that speed we would…just….make it. The robin flew across the highway and ducked under my wheels. I saw the twisted body thrashing around on the pavement until another car went over it. And it was too late, … Continue reading
In Memory of Crocodile John
Some animals have an image problem. They aren’t pandas or cure parrots or tigers – all of which have an ‘ahhhh’ factor – and all of which we are in danger of wiping from the face of the planet. No, there are some that people have a hard time with. One group of creatures that needs a good publicist? Vultures. They are crucial members of the clean-up squad in Asia and Africa, but they are critically close to extinction due … Continue reading
Plant Trees for Arbor Day
So, I admit it. I succumbed to the mailing and sent the Arbor Day Foundation a donation. After all, how could I not support a charity that promotes tree-planting? I know that trees do NOT belong everywhere – some madcap schemes for planting evergreen monocultures in prairie or peat bogs have been real environmental blunders. But trees are not just wonderful things in themselves, they underpin a huge web of life. The Bible is replete – as Matthew Sleeth has … Continue reading
The Electronic Toy and the Poor
The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked have no such understanding. (Proverbs 29:7) Do you really need that new electronic gizmo? Don’t get me wrong. I like iPhones and Droids as much as the next 21st Century American. And I just had to buy a new desktop PC with Windows 7. But the sad truth is that our frenetic chase of the latest e-toy is making a horrible mess for the poorest in the world. According a … Continue reading
Don’t Forget to Feed the Birds
Well, here in Pennsylvania, winter sure started early! Where I live we just got socked with eight inches and my son and his wife in New Jersey got two feet. “How do I refill the bird feeder you gave us? There were some birds around earlier and they looked hungry!” my son Matthew asked. I had inspired him and his new bride Deana to do what I have done for years – help our feathered friends out through the winter. … Continue reading
Connecting Faith with Creation
I have always been an ardent nature-lover, from when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Birds were my real love, but flowers, trees, mushrooms, moths and beetles, snakes and toads and salamanders…I have always been impassioned by all of nature. As I got older, I realized that the world was against it. This crystallized for me when I learned that the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth, the Blue Whale, was teetering on the edge of extinction because … Continue reading
Part I: Protecting God’s Medicine Chest
So many of God’s medicinal plants have been found in the rainforests. Unfortunately, these are the very forests that we are destroying at an alarming rate. What can you do to help? When you buy, look for lumber and other wood products that have been okayed by the Forest Stewardship Council. This type of wood is taken from forests that either are harvested in a wildlife-friendly, forest-preserving fashion, or they are in areas where forests did not exist before. Many … Continue reading
God’s Medicine Chest
God has provided us with hundreds and hundreds of wild plants that have benefited us - providing food, shelter, clothing…and medicines. As a biochemist with a particular passion for this subject, I can rattle off any number of life-saving medicines that owe their genesis to the plant world. The plants listed below not only work wonders against disease…they have a chemical structure which was completely unguessable—and could only be designed by an all-knowing God. For example: The Pacific Yew (Taxus … Continue reading
Small Changes, Big Impact
By John Humphreys All of us want to help God’s world — reaching out to the dispossessed and impoverished, fighting to keep the beauty of His creation unsullied — but the devil is always in the details. We have to work within the constraints of our lifestyle, our relationships and our pocketbooks and begin to ask ourselves, “How radical can I be?” My wife, Nancy, and I have quite different preferences for night-time temperatures. Our bedroom sits over the garage … Continue reading
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