The event, part of Western Kentucky University’s Community Religious Literacy Project, was hosted by the university, area churches and community organizations to foster dialogue and awareness of spirituality as it relates to the green movement and sustainability. It is the first event of its kind here, sponsors said.

Sleeth, a former emergency room physician turned eco-evangelist, is the executive director of Blessed Earth, an educational nonprofit that works with faith communities on sustainability. He is the author of Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action and The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book is a Green Book.

Trees and the environment are a major theme of the Bible, he told the audience, with references to stewardship of the Earth on almost every page.

“We are a nation very driven by our beliefs,” Sleeth said. “With over 300,000 houses of worship in the U.S., this is the way we think, the way we go to war, the way we do business, but one of the conversations that has been left out is taking care of the Earth.”

The event ran all day Friday as participants examined the relationship of humans to the Earth in religious traditions from around the world. One goal was to plan for cooperation among faith communities on sustainability action, according to event organizers.

The conference is not a study in whether human activity has seriously upset the balance of Earth’s ecosystems, rather it explores the directives to humans in four world faiths - Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism - to care for and maintain the Earth’s ecosystems now and into the future, according to Margaret Bowker, a WKU biologist, Christ Episcopal Church member and conference planner.

Bowker, Eric Bain-Selbo, head of the philosophy and religion departments at WKU and organizer of the Community Religious Literacy Project, and Isabel Mukonyora, also a philosophy and religion department faculty member, along with broad sponsorship from WKU and area churches and organizations are leading the discussions.

In introducing Sleeth, Bain-Selbo also noted that gaps in society and culture - religion, politics, generations - have to be bridged for action to be effective. “The price of doing nothing,” he said, “will be high, higher than we want to pass on to future generations.”

Article by Liz Switzer, The Daily News, Bowling Green, Ky.

Wilmore, KY -- One night, one message: The Church United. On Wednesday, April 21, 2010, the eve of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, the non-profit organization Blessed Earth and other prominent partners will host a live, one-night-only simulcast event, “Hope for Creation: A Live Simulcast Event.” View the event trailer at www.blessedearth.org. 

Thousands of churches and religious leaders of various denominations will participate in the largest faith-based gathering that will include live musical performances, interactive audience participation, and a 45-minute exclusive preview of forthcoming Blessed Earth video series “Hope for Creation,” which explores the biblical vision for care of the planet.

The simulcast will be broadcast from Northland Church in Orlando, FL, the 12th largest church in America, with its lead pastor Dr. Joel Hunter serving as the moderator. Dr. Matthew and Nancy Sleeth, the founders of the environmental nonprofit Blessed Earth, will host “Hope for Creation,” which will include biblical teaching on caring for the God's creation, fellowship and call to action regarding caring for the Earth. 

“This is not a political issue. It has nothing to with national boundaries or church denominations. When we're not using resources responsibly or being good stewards of the resources God has given us, we're harming our neighbors and we're not showing love and respect for God the creator,” says Nancy Sleeth. 

“The church has reawakened to the call to tend and protect the garden,” Dr. Sleeth said, referencing the Garden of Eden from the book of Genesis. “This is a night to spend together in the garden -- worshipping God, dedicating ourselves to be good stewards, humbling ourselves in awe of what we have been given, and understanding our role in caring for the earth.” 

Asbury Theological Seminary, one of the world’s largest seminaries, is partnering with Blessed Earth on the event. Churches, colleges, small groups, families and individuals are encouraged to register at www.blessedearth.org, and also preview the event trailer.

Blessed Earth is an educational nonprofit that inspires and equips faith communities to become better stewards of the earth. Through outreach to churches, campuses and media, they build bridges that promote measurable environmental change and meaningful spiritual growth.

Dr. Matthew and Nancy Sleeth are available for interviews. Dr. Sleeth resigned from his position as chief of the medical staff and director of the ER to teach, preach, and write about faith and the environment throughout the country. Dr. Sleeth is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine and has two post-doctoral fellowships. He is the author of Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action (Zondervan, April 2007), the introduction to the Green Bible (2008, HarperOne), and will release a second book, The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book is a Green Book, in spring 2010.

By LIZ SWITZER, The Daily News

Western Kentucky University’s Community Religious Literacy Project is partnering with area churches and community organizations to sponsor an interfaith conference designed to create dialogue and foster awareness of spirituality as it relates to the green movement and sustainability of the Earth -- the first of its kind here, according to event organizers.

The Interfaith Dialogue on Earth Care will be Feb. 19 and 20 with presenters and participants exploring the faith community’s response and responsibility in protecting people, species and the environment.

During conference sessions, participants will examine the relationship of humans to the Earth in religious traditions from around the world. One goal is to plan for cooperation among faith communities as it relates to sustainability, according to conference organizers.

“This conference will not be studying whether human activity has seriously upset the balance of Earth’s ecosystems. Rather, we will explore the directive to humans in four world faiths, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, to care for and maintain Earth’s ecosystems for now and the future health of humanity and the Earth,” said Margaret Bowker, a WKU biologist and Christ Episcopal Church member.

“My faith tells me that all God’s creation is beloved by Him, and that to please God we humans should be caring for all of the Earth and life,” Bowker said. “My biology tells me that all life is interconnected and dependent on the health of the Earth.”

The conference is the result of efforts by Bowker, along with Eric Bain-Selbo, department head of the philosophy and religion departments at WKU and organizer of the Community Religious Literacy Project, and Isabel Mukonyora, also a philosophy and religion department faculty member, along with broad sponsorship from WKU and area churches and organizations.

“This is a unique opportunity for folks at WKU and in the local community to reflect upon and discuss the relationship of the world’s religions to current environmental crises,” Bain-Selbo said. “The kind of dialogue that we will have is critical across the globe if we hope to achieve a more sustainable future.”

The event dovetails with WKU’s efforts to green its campus for the last two years, according to Mukonyora.

“A lot of this work has been made possible by businesses and interest groups in the city of Bowling Green. Now, there are a number of courses now being offered by different members of the university in responding to problems of climate change,” she said. “In short, let’s have a citywide dialogue because, unlike a lot of other universities one comes across in America, WKU has made it official policy to relate to the wider society, starting with the environs of the city of Bowling Green.”

Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a nationally acclaimed speaker, author and executive director of Blessed Earth, an educational nonprofit that works with faith communities on sustainability, will give the keynote address, “Serve God, Save the Planet,” at the Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium at 7 p.m. Feb. 19. The event is free and open to the public.

Sleeth’s books include Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action and The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book is a Green Book.

The conference on “Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Earth Care” will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 20 at Christ Episcopal Church, 1215 State St. On-site registration will be $25. Limited scholarships are available. The registration deadline for the discounted rate of $20, which includes meals, is Feb. 15, but participants may register up until Feb. 19 at the $25 rate.

The event is sponsored by the Community Religious Literacy Project, the WKU Office of Sustainability, the WKU Provost’s Initiative for Excellence Grant, WKU Departments of Biology, Philosophy, Religion, Geography, Geology and Sociology, the Potter College of Arts and Letters, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, College of Health and Human Services, Graduate Studies, BGGreen, Southern Recycling, Islamic Center, Holy Spirit Catholic Church, The Presbyterian Church, State Street United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist Church, State Street Baptist Church, First Christian Church and Christ Episcopal Church.

By Alyce Gilligan, Relevant Magazine

Nancy Sleeth's mission, along with Blessed Earth, is to inform people of the spiritual benefits of living an environmentally conscious life. We spoke to her about how conservation creates community, small changes that make a big difference and her response to those against talking about creation care. 

RM: You say that one of the main incentives for people to conserve resources is that it adds to community activities and family time. Can you explain what you mean by that?

NS: Yes, community has been lost. We have a culture now of hyper-individuality. And part of that is because of money. Part of us thinks that because we have money, we can do everything ourselves. We are an incredibly rich society in America. It’s good to learn to receive as well as to give, and that it’s OK to ask for help. Those relationships are what the body of Christ is. When it’s all about us, it’s not a community of Christ. If you look back at the language of the OT, it’s our God, it’s a plural language. It’s not about my God.

RM: What is the one major change people should make if they want to begin a sustainable lifestyle and conserving resources?

NS: The answer I’m going to give you is not the one you’d expect, but they should start observing Sabbath. People in their 20s are just so focused on this 24-7 life that needs to be a 24-6 life. That’s the life God has set up for us and there’s a reason for it. It’s our mental health prescription, and it’s the most important thing they can start doing right now. We generally save 10-14 percent of the resources you use by observing Sabbath. So yes, it does have an environmental effect, it does have a monetary effect, but the most important effect is that it gives you time to be still and know God, to get to know your neighbors, to spend time in community, to have people over for dinner, to take a walk in nature and see the face of God. Romans 1:20 says that we are without excuse, if we just spend time in the world of nature, we will get to know God. And those things happen on the Sabbath. You know, it’s about guiltless naps. I take a nap almost every Sabbath and I could not get through the other 6 days of the week if I did not have the Sabbath to look forward to. 

RM: What are some of your most practical and effective tips for going green?

NS: There are many people around the world who do not have access to clean water. Change the way you use water. Turn the faucet off while you’re brushing your teeth. Anybody can do that. Just think before you use this precious resource called water. Transportation is the biggest use and it’s also something you can control. Can you hop on your bike instead of driving two miles that you don’t really don’t need to get into a car for? Can you slow your life down just a bit so you can hop on your bike and run that errand, or can you combine errands together so you’re not running all over the place and so you just do all your errands once a week? If you live in an urban area, absolutely, use public transportation. Again, there’s community involved in that.

RM: What do you feel the Church’s responsibility is regarding creation care?

NS: Any time that you make a decision or are about to purchase something, we recommend that you ask two questions: Will this help me love God, and will this help me love my neighbor? And if you’re even asking those questions, you’re on the right track. You’re at least thinking about it. You’re living a conscious life. God does not want to find us sleeping. He doesn’t mean physically asleep—He means not using our brains, not living a conscious life, not making conscious choices. 

RM: What is your response to Christians who don’t feel as passionate about creation care, or who even seem to be against it?

NS: In the last three years, we have seen a remarkable change within the most resistant churches. Most of our time is spent speaking in what people would call "conservative" churches now. This is not a political issue, and it has nothing to with national boundaries, and it has nothing to do with denominations. We all drink the same water and have rights to the same quality of life. And the people who are being hurt the most and the soonest are the poorest. The people we are told to take care of are the least among us. So when we are not using resources responsibly, when we are not being good stewards of the resources that God has put under our responsibility, we are harming our neighbors and we are not showing love and respect for God the creator.

[See the original article]

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky.— “How does God speak to you in your life?” asked Dr. Matthew Sleeth, former emergency room physician, at a Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy (KHIPP) event at Campbellsville University recently.

Answers from the audience varied from sports, experiences, God’s Word, music and relationships, but Sleeth found nature to be his window to God’s voice.

While on vacation near the Gulf of Mexico, Sleeth told his wife the biggest problem in the world is that the world is dying. “I say this because of the changes I’ve seen in the world in my own life.”

At the time Sleeth discovered this problem, he did not have religion in his life so he didn’t know what to do about the issue. It was then that he read Matthew 7:1, which is similar to Ghandi’s quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Sleeth said, “We’re capable of spotting flaws in others, yet we fail to recognize our own mistakes.” It was then that he decided to change his lifestyle.

“God calls us to make radical change and gives us the power to make radical change,” he said.

Through new awareness, Sleeth developed a theology on trees as a symbol of the Lord. He said, “If there’s a vine, a bush or a tree, God is there. Psalm 1 says ‘a righteous person is like a tree.’ Trees appear over one thousand times in the Bible.”

This theology is also seen through the life of Christ. “Christ was born and he became a carpenter. After He was raised from the dead, he was mistaken as a gardener... this was not a mistake.”

Sleeth encourages students to help the environment by cleaning up and by planting trees. He said a tree is “the only gift to give that can keep growing bigger, better and more beautiful.”

While on campus, Sleeth toured Clay Hill Memorial Forest, a 135-acre environmental center owned by Campbellsville University.

He was also interviewed by John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president, on his show, “Dialogue on Public Issues” on TV-4, Comcast Cable Channel 10, Sunday, Dec. 27, at 8 a.m.; Monday, Dec. 28, at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, Dec. 30, at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Article written by Christina Miller, student writer at Campbellsville University

By Drew Dyck, Christianity Today

A few minutes into his talk on the church and the environment, Matthew Sleeth, MD, called up a young man named David to share his story.

David recounted how he had recently suffered a grand mal seizure. After a trip to the emergency room, David received some devastating news: he had an inoperable tumor the size of a racket ball growing in his brain. He’s 27.

How does that relate to the environment? I don’t know. I tuned out for a good 15 minutes after hearing David’s tragic story. I just sat there looking at the guy—passionate, articulate … and only a few years to live, according to doctors.

When I came to, I gathered that Matthew is making a film about David’s story. The film has something to do with time, about not having of it, and how that sobers us, and reveals what’s important.

Matthew sees a connection between our conception of time and our treatment of God’s earth. He didn’t mince words.

“How many of you take a Sabbath?” he asked the room of Christian leaders.

Not a single hand went up.

“You might as well just take the Ten Commandments and rip them out of your Bible,” he said.

Then he took a Bible and actually ripped them out! Yeah, it’s a little cheesy, but it got everyone’s attention.

“I’m a new Christian, so I still actually believe this stuff,” he said.

“By God’s grace we’ve been given 2,000 years. Shouldn’t we pray and act as though he might give us another 10,000?”

David interjected.

“Jesus doesn’t want us to change our light bulbs. He wants us to follow him.”

Then he added.

And if we follow him, we’ll probably change our light bulbs too.”

Wise words from a young man. May God extend his years.

By Michelle Rupe Eubanks

Who would have thought that one day you would see trendy T-shirts, TV programming and teenyboppers … begging you to save the planet? Consideration and conservation have gotten increasingly trendy, yet, as most movements go, the heart behind the issue can be lost along the way. Green living becomes more about an image or a catchphrase than an actual purpose. Nancy Sleeth and her husband Matthew, a former ER physician, are the co-directors of Blessed Earth, a non-profit organization that draws attention to the issue and the practice of creation care. It’s been a long journey for this eco-friendly couple, one which Nancy says was both environmental and spiritual in nature.

“My main goal is to have people love God and love their neighbors by taking better care of creation,” said Nancy. “That’s absolutely it. It’s about my journey, and sharing it with other people.”

The relationships that benefit from living with a fresh environmental mindset are perhaps the greatest incentive and reward the Sleeths share with teach others to seek.

“Community has been lost. We have a culture now of hyper-individuality. We have to learn to receive as well as to give,” encourages Nancy. “It’s okay to ask for help. Those relationships are what the body of Christ is. It’s not about my God, it’s about our God.”

And what of churches and conservatives who seem resistant to or unaware of an environmental consciousness? After all, the root of conservative is conserve …

“This is not a political issue, and it has nothing to with national boundaries, and it has nothing to do with denominations,” Nancy points out. “We all drink the same water and have rights to the same quality of life. And the people that are being hurt the most and the soonest are the poorest. The people that we are told to take care of are the least among us. So when we are not using resources responsibly, when we are not being good stewards of the resources that God has put under our responsibility, we are harming our neighbors and we are not showing love and respect for God the creator.” 

So, if one wants to transition into a sustainable lifestyle, what is the first and most important step? Nancy’s answer is perhaps unexpected. “Start observing sabbath,” she says, adamantly. “People in their 20’s, they are just so focused on this 24-7 life that needs to be a 24-6 life. It’s our mental health prescription, and it’s the most important thing that they can start doing right now.” This is about more than napping and attending church, of course. “We generally save 10-14% of the resources that you use by [observing sabbath]. So yes, it does have an environmental effect, it does have a monetary effect, but the most important effect is that it gives you time to be still and know God, to get to know your neighbors, to spend time in community, to have people over for dinner, to take a walk in nature and see the face of God,” said Nancy, whose family prepares for their sabbath ahead of time by completing all tasks, cleaning the house, and turning off computers and other sources of electronic messaging. 

Other changes that Nancy considers key to a green lifestyle include taking shorter showers and modifying your modes of transportation. She is an advocate of “Navy showers,” getting in and out as quickly as possible, to conserve water. “That’s something I can do for my neighbor every single day. If we just flush our toilet and brush our teeth, we’ve used as much water as people in the third world have per day.”

She also recommends riding bikes for shorter trips, as well as utilizing public transportation and carpools to promote community while helping the environment. 

Nancy acknowledges that living green starts with a mindset, and that the practical aspects will follow. She suggests that before making an decision, even a purchase, you should ask yourself two questions: By doing this, am I loving God, and am I helping my neighbor? 

“Whatever our on ramp is, we should be encouraging each other. The point is not for us to feel guilt or shame,” explains Nancy. “It means that I’m living a more conscious life, it means that I’m being more focused on God, and more focused on being a servant to my neighbors.”

The story behind the activist

It hasn't always been this cut and dry for Nancy. When she met her husband, he was a Protestant carpenter installing a bay window in her home … where she lived with her conservative Jewish parents. “No one was happy about us getting married,” explains Nancy, noting the irony. “But our attitude was, ‘Well, if that’s what religion is about, then forget religion.’” Despite their differing backgrounds and the protests of those closest to them, they fell in love, married, and began their new life together—a life that closely resembled the stereotypical “American Dream.”

“He became a physician, and we had two kids, and a beautiful house on the coast of Maine, and all the things that money can buy. But there was a hollowness inside,” admits Nancy. “And so when bad things started happening in our life, we didn’t have an anchor.”

Within a short period of time, both their personal and professional lives experienced great tragedy, provoking Nancy to approach her shaken husband one night with two questions: What do you think is the biggest problem facing the world today? And what are we going to do about it?

“He could have said poverty, he could have said war, he could have said AIDS, he could have said all sorts of things. But the answer that he gave me is that the world is dying,” says Nancy. Hyperbole? Maybe. But there was truth to Matthew’s response.

“The reasoning that he gave me is that we have all these other problems but if we don’t have a planet to sustain it, during things like abortion, things like AIDS, things like poverty, it wont even matter because there wont be a planet to sustain all of life,” continues Nancy. As for that second question … well, the Sleeths would soon be dedicating the rest of their lives to the answer. But first, they embarked on a religious exploration.

“We read all sorts of scared texts, we were open to anything. And eventually, through God’s grace, [Matthew] picked up an orange Gideon Bible one fall afternoon in the ER,” said Nancy. Before long, both Matthew and Nancy, as well as their two children, had come to realize the truth of God’s love. With this conversion came a new sense of responsibility. “We realized that we had to make some significant changes in our lives because the life that Jesus was calling us to was very different from the life that we were leading,” said Nancy, pointing to Christ’s own habits as the foundation of this opinion. “Jesus said if you have two coats, give one away. He didn’t have a place to lay his head, he didn’t have a home to live in, he only rode once, and that was on a colt. We had way more stuff than that.”

As with most life altering revelations, drastic and permanent change took place. After conducting an environmental audit, Nancy found herself residing happily in a home the size of their old garage, living on nine tenths of the electricity they were accustomed to using. Her husband decided to leave medicine at this time, believing he could make a greater impact by “working on this global health problem.” He wrote a book called Serve God, Save the Planet, and together they formed Blessed Earth. Requests for speaking engagements began coming in. It was soon apparent that a simpler and quieter life was actually more full than they could have imagined.

“We decided to share this message that is really just an old theology,” Nancy says of the mission of Blessed Earth. “People are realizing that something is very wrong in our lives, that we’re too focused on stuff, that there is too much noise in our lives. We’re painting a better picture, of not just giving things up, but living a more joyful life, a quieter life.

[Read the original article]

A special event, Renewal’s second annual Day of Prayer for God’s Creation, will spearhead the effort. The official focus of the prayers has been set: "Energy Stewardship & Climate Change: Recognizing the severe degradation of human and environmental health caused by poor stewardship of energy resources."

Renewal's Day of Prayer for God's Creation will draw participants from Christian colleges, churches, and communities across North America.

Renewal believes that prayer is an important practice for all of us as we seek to reclaim and renew our Biblical calling to care for God’s creation. Once a year, in the fall, Renewal calls on Christians to participate in a day of prayer to seek forgiveness, wisdom, and leadership in caring for the whole of God’s creation. Renewal issues this call every year as an open invitation to all Christians.  

This year, Renewal is calling on Christians to pray for energy stewardship and climate change. Renewal believes this expression of unity in prayer is vital during an age wherein our careless and irresponsible stewardship of energy resources has led to severe harm such as: air and water pollution, climate change, mountaintop removal, environmental injustice, and violence and economic instability.

By coming together in prayer, we stand in solidarity with the people and places that are being harmed by poor stewardship of energy resources. On October 21st 2009, we will collectively express our concern as Christians, acknowledge our participation in this broken and destructive system, and ask for grace, forgiveness, and guidance as we seek God’s help to address this crisis. 

As Christians, we’re called to be “the light of the world,” and to demonstrate Christ’s vision of hope. In this time of darkness, we are called to pray for guidance, present solutions, and reach out to our neighbors who have been harmed by poor energy stewardship and climate change. 

Overconsumption of our energy resources has led to great harm, but with God’s help we can make needed changes and offer practical solutions that offer hope to the people and places affected. The 2009 Day of Prayer for God’s Creation is an opportunity to shine a new kind of light, and demonstrate Christ’s hope for the world in this important area. 

On October 21st, join Christian students around North America as we gather to fast and pray for God’s creation. 

The students of Renewal are inviting all Christians to join us in fasting from one source of energy use for the day. Examples include: not driving for the day, shutting off lights, fasting from cell phones, television, computers, or other sources of electricity, eating vegetarian for the day, etc. 

In the evening, Christian students on campuses across North America will demonstrate their unity and solidarity by turning off the lights for one hour, and hosting prayer vigils for a time of prayer for the people, places, and wildlife that are harmed through poor stewardship of energy resources. These prayer vigils should reflect your community and could include: a candle-lit service, a prayer meeting under the stars, a chapel or church service, a prayer walk, etc. Use your God-given creativity! 

Renewal is inviting all Christians to participate in this day of prayer and fasting. We encourage you to join in the personal fast and organize a prayer event in your community!

For additional resources, click on the below links:

Suggestions for Day of Prayer Events

Day of Prayer Fasting Ideas

Sample Prayers on Energy Stewardship 

A "How To" guide and sample timeline for organizing your Day of Prayer event! 

For more information or to register your event, please email: ajjoyner@renewingcreation.org

By Jesse Chambers of the Birmingham Weekly

Environmentalism must be getting popular if even Jesus is going green. And he is, big time, as an increasing number of American churchgoers come out of the closet as tree huggers.

There is a growing environmental awareness even among evangelical Christians, despite the fact that this demographic — at least since the Reagan era — has been identified with mostly conservative causes.

The movement is called “evangelical environmentalism,” “stewardship of creation” or “creation care.” Some Christians believe that while humans may have dominion over the earth, that doesn’t mean that they are free to destroy it in order to gratify their impulses, with no thought of the damage they may do to future generations or their own relationship with the Creator.

For example, in 2006, a group of U.S. evangelical leaders launched the Evangelical Climate Initiative, calling on Christians to push for legislation limiting carbon dioxide emissions. In 2007, the conservative Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution affirming the need for Christians to care for God’s creation. Birmingham’s Samford University, another conservative Baptist institution, now celebrates Earth Day and, in 2001, established the Vulcan Materials Center for Environmental Stewardship and Education. Many smaller organizations have sprung up nationwide, including the Evangelical Environmental Network, Care of Creation and Restoring Eden.

One of the stars of this movement spoke recently during Sunday morning services at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood.

A former emergency room physician, Dr. Matthew Sleeth is now the executive director of Blessed Earth, an environmental non-profit based in Wilmore, Ky., and the author of the books Serve God, Save the Planet (Zondervan, 2007) and the forthcoming The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book is a Green Book (HarperOne, 2010).

Sleeth, in the old tradition of the testimony, told the congregation how he found faith in Christ. The twist? The story of his faith is intertwined with the story of his desire to help save the earth.

However, like all Christian testimonies, new or old, Sleeth’s story is marked by a restless hunger to spread the name of Christ and to proclaim faith in God as the necessary condition for any lasting change, personal or environmental.

According to Sleeth, he was once a successful emergency room doctor and had a cushy lifestyle. He and his wife Nancy, who have now been married 30 years, had two school-age children (a boy and a girl) and a house on the Maine coast. “Push a button and your garage door goes up,” Sleeth said. “It was a nice life.”

But Sleeth was worried about the ecology, at least in part because of what he was seeing in the hospital. “I had seen a shift in diseases,” he said. “In one week, I saw three women in their 30s with breast cancer, and all three are dead now.”

He was also seeing things in the natural world that troubled him. “There were no elms on Elm Street, no chestnuts on Chestnut Street and no caribou in Caribou, Maine,” he said.

At the time, however, Sleeth was not religious. “I had no belief in God,” he said. “I had a secular, humanist worldview.”

One February, Sleeth and his family fled the brutal Maine winter for a vacation on an island off the coast of Mexico. Sleeth and his wife were sitting outside one night after the kids went to sleep, looking at the water and enjoying the warm breezes.

“What’s the world’s biggest problem?” his wife asked him suddenly.

“The world is dying,” Sleeth said.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I had no answer,” Sleeth told the congregation.

The answer would not come until one night in the patient lounge at the hospital when Sleeth found an orange Gideon’s Bible among some magazines on a coffee table. He took it home and began to read it.

“I was profoundly affected when I was confronted with Jesus Christ,” Sleeth recalled. “Judge not, lest you be judged,” he said, quoting a verse from the Book of Matthew. According to Sleeth, he applied this verse to himself and his environmental concerns. “How much of the problem or how much of the solution am I?” he wondered.

This was in 2000, and Sleeth made major changes. He and his family moved into a smaller home and drastically reduced their use of fossil fuels and other energy. “More important, my wife, son and daughter all came to Christ,” he said. Sleeth’s wife also became an author, publishing a book of eco-tips called Go Green, Save Green.

During a question-and-answer session in Trinity’s Fellowship Hall after the service, Sleeth was asked what sort of attitude he found regarding the environment as he traveled to churches, particularly evangelical churches. “My experience the last four years, during about 850 speaking engagements, is you can’t put God or the church in a box,” he said. “I’ve been to churches that are very conservative that are way out on the edge of green, and the other way around. God surprises us.”

He was also asked what he thought was the single biggest threat to the planet. His answer went to the heart of his philosophy, and perhaps close to the heart of the creation care movement. “We need to believe the Bible more, and to have more people sacrifice their lives for Christ, and that would make the changes we need,” Sleeth said. “If you ask me whether I would rather somebody change a light bulb or find Christ, that’s easy. If they find Christ, they’ll say, ‘I can do that.’”

Dr. Dave Barnhart, Trinity’s Minister of Outreach,said he believes that Christians will continue to speak out regarding the environment. “It’s heartening because it’s not just left-wing churches, or one particular political orientation,” he said. “People are becoming more concerned about good stewardship. You hear a lot about stewardship in churches, usually about money, but stewardship of the earth really goes to the core of that issue.”

LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Filmed in their neighborhood and outside their home in Wilmore, KY, the second segment is titled, "Outside Green."

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"OUTSIDE GREEN"

Help Get the Word Out!

• Tell The 700 Club what you think about the segment. [Click here]
• Spread the word. Have a Christian friend who is skeptical about going green? An environmentalist friend who doesn't believe in the Creator? Share the interview with friends who are just beginning their creation care journey, or as an encouragement to dedicated creation care leaders.
• E-mail us and tell us about how you are going green at home, church, work and beyond.

By Robert King, Indianapolis Star

Dr. Matthew Sleeth was living large as an emergency room physician and chief of staff at a hospital -- with all the financial blessings that sounds like it might entail -- when he decided he had to give it all up to save one patient whose case superceded all others.

The Earth.

Sleeth came to this conclusion after it dawned on him that he was seeing a lot of young woman with breast cancer. When he started looking at cancer rates in young people, he noticed that they were increasing. The same was true of other problems -- asthma, autism and autoimmune deficiencies, to name a few. The more he looked into the research, the more convinced he became that we were killing the Earth. And the Earth was starting to kill us.

But he didn't know what to do.

He began a spiritual search that lead him from no faith to Christianity. And in the words of the Bible he saw that nature -- from the Tree of Life in Eden to the Tree of Life in the heaven of Revelation -- was a common theme.

And he found a calling -- to show others that caring for the Earth is not just a hip, trendy thing to do. It is the Biblical thing to do.

Sleeth, author of "Serve God Save the Planet", will bring his message of Biblical greenness to Indianapolis this weekend for a series of appearances at the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Sleeth points out that God's first command to man in the Bible (Gen. 2:15) was to tend the garden and keep it. In an interview with me Monday, Sleeth said, "There's no expiration date on that command."

As "new" as green theology sounds to us today, Sleeth said it was once an essential aspect of the Christian faith. When America was still an agrarian society, dependent on the land for survival, it was not uncommon for people in church to pray for rain and relief from drought. And there was an understanding among the faithful about the importance of stewardship of the land. Somewhere in the wake of Industrial Revolution and our ability to create cities in deserts we forgot. Sleeth is trying to remind us.

He has become a full-time attending physician for the planet.

[Read the original article]

Help us get the word out!

1. Spread the word. Have a Christian friend who is skeptical about going green? An environmentalist friend who doesn't believe in the Creator? Share the interview with friends who are just beginning their creation care journey, or as an encouragement to dedicated creation care leaders.

2. Let The 700 Club know how much you appreciate their interview with Blessed Earth founders, Dr. Matthew and Nancy Sleeth, and all things green. Click here to write to The 700 Club.

3. E-mail us and tell us about how you are going green at home, church, work and beyond.

Thank you for all you are doing to care for God's creation. We are grateful!

WILMORE — Nancy Sleeth doesn't use her oven very often. At least not her conventional oven. Instead, she turns to her more energy-efficient toaster oven, microwave and convection oven. When Sleeth bakes bread, she uses a bread machine.

She also uses fresh ingredients and avoids processed foods. Her pantry is filled with grains, fruits and vegetables. The family eats very little meat; when they do, it's locally raised.

Their next-door neighbor grinds wheat for them, and Sleeth and her husband, Matthew, share a garden with their neighbors. "We share our talent and gifts and resources," Nancy Sleeth said.The Sleeths' food choices and cooking habits are just part of their bigger effort to help the environment. Eight years ago, they decided to face the issue head-on.

They were "living out the American dream. My husband was an emergency-room physician, and we were living in a big house in New England," Sleeth said.

One evening while the family was on vacation, she asked her husband two questions that would change their lives: "What do you think is the biggest problem facing the world today?"

"The world is dying," he replied.

Her next question was: "If the planet is dying, what are we going to do about it?"

A couple of months later, Matthew answered her. "I'll quit my job and put all my energy toward saving the planet."

The story of how the Sleeths and their children, Clark and Emma, downsized their lives, gave away half their possessions and moved to a house the size of their old garage is the heartbeat of the Sleeths' ministry.

As the Sleeths embarked on their environmental journey, they also began a faith journey. When Matthew Sleeth picked up a Gideon Bible in the hospital waiting room on a slow night, "a light came on. Here were the answers we had been seeking," Nancy Sleeth said.

"We took Jesus' advice and began cleaning up our own act before worrying about cleaning up the rest of the world," she said. During the next couple of years, the family began to change its lifestyle.

The Sleeths chose to move to Wilmore because son Clark was attending Asbury Theological Seminary, and when Emma was 15, he received a full scholarship to Asbury. "We couldn't justify flying the kids back and forth," Nancy Sleeth said.

"It's worked out great. We love it here," she said.

When the Sleeths speak to audiences, a topic they discuss is keeping the Sabbath.

"It's like a mental-health prescription. It's one day a week for us to stop. We live a 24/7 life. We need to shift to a 24/6 life," Nancy Sleeth said. "We need to take one day a week where we don't drive, or we're not shopping, running errands, eating out, and just be with our family and friends and with God.

"It will change the other six days of the week, I promise. It's the most important thing if you want to start this journey. We tell people even before you even change light bulbs, this is the most important thing to do, is to be still and come to rest. You can't know God's creation, you can't enjoy God's creation, if you're running around all the time. Coming to rest has been one of the biggest changes in our family, and we guard it jealously."

They often spend that time with friends. Even though their home is small, there's plenty of room for sharing meals with Asbury students and neighbors.

"Contrary to my earlier fears, we found the more we gave up in material things, the more we gained in family unity, purpose and joy."

[See the original article]

The influential evangelical leader in the USA, Chuck Colson, recently broadcast on the subject (http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=11425).

Christians don’t have to let concern for the environment—that is, concern for God’s creation—be hijacked by those who are hostile to our beliefs.

Nancy Sleeth’s approach is a perfect example. Sleeth and her family started learning about how to care for the environment around the same time they came to faith in Christ. Of every religion she and her family investigated, she says that Christianity was the only one that placed a high value on caring for the earth. So she offers an unusual perspective on environmentalism through the eyes of faith.

No matter how you feel about environmentalism, it’s hard to argue with two points that Sleeth makes quite well. First, God made the earth, and we are stewards of His creation. Second, consuming less saves time and money. And that is time and money we can better spend in God’s service and building up our family life and serving our neighbors.

The Sleeths' years of simplifying and conserving resources have paved the way for an authentic ministry. By sharing their own experiences, they make the learning process easier for all of us—in the home, in the yard, at work, at the dinner table.

That is why I have included over the years articles here on gardening, growing your own vegetables, ways to conserve water and power, practical methods of improving your gardens and lawns, caring for your own chickens and eating your own eggs, and a whole series of articles on keeping healthy, improving your marriages and family life. It is all part of our theology of the stewardship of all God has given us.

Christians who avoid these issues, and even fight against them, are only partial Christians, neglecting the full truth of the scriptures and disobeying many of God’s commands.

Many of our family and friends have children and I have recently been telling them that all the efforts, worries and concerns about their teenagers are occurring during the most blessed time of their lives. At the same time, I do wonder if we can’t be involved with our children in a smarter way.

For example, must every child be driven to school every day? Each day I walk past our nearby schools I see buses arrive with hardly a child on them but six or seven hundreds cars pulling in to drop children off, only to return after six hours. That is tens of thousands of dollars every day, plus pollution, wear and tear on vehicles, crowded roads, and lost time that could be spent in more productive pursuits. All this because parents do not organize themselves into rosters and form car pools to collect and deliver all of the children from a local area instead of all of the families using all of the cars. Car-pooling could save each family over $2000 each year. Multiply that by driving a child for ten years and you will see the savings.

All of the good parents near me have enrolled their kids in summer and winter sports, music lessons, swimming and tennis lessons and one or more parents are making four or five trips every week to and from these. Undertaking one less activity would save $400 for each child per year. Plus over $1,000 on car costs.

I have written before on the benefits of going to garage sales. Buy second hand. Recycle, reuse, and refuse to take more plastic bags. Give away anything you are not using to charity shops. Caring for the environment is not a radical political agenda. It can be about improving your own health, the state of our community, improving your own behavior, expanding your mind by being informed by values like good stewardship, protecting family time, self-restraint, and helping others. That’s not radical. It is common sense and, most importantly, thoroughly Christian. All Christians should be green!

Written by Rev. The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.  Find out more about Dr. Moyes at GordonMoyes.com.

For years, legitimate environmental concerns have been wrongly exploited by activists — left and right, non-Christian and Christian. In fact, the majority of serious global environmental issues have been neglected because of politics. The “hippies” of the 70s adopted an all-or-nothing agenda of liberal ideas which happened to include environmental issues. Of course, the right-wing evangelicals wanted nothing to do with such a collectivelly liberal agenda; as a result, the protection of the environment has not received a unified effort from the major divisions of our population.

Until now.

Times are changing — depending on how you look at it. The codes for morality and responsibility related to humans’ caring for creation have not changed since The Beginning. During the Industrial Revolution, however, big business and a massive upswing in manufacturing and trade made these tenets inconvenient. For generations now, our Earth has suffered because taking care of it has been inconvenient politically, denominationally, socially, and economically. Only now are Christian opinion leaders taking note that we have selfishly ignored God’s intention for the planet he created for us, and that we must act now.

Chuck Colson, legendary political, Christian and activist figure, endorsed the everyday approach Nancy Sleeth brings to the ministries of Blessed Earth.

"In the end, Sleeth shows us that environmentalism doesn’t need to be about a radical political agenda," Colson said. "It can be about our own behavior, informed by values like good stewardship, protecting family time, self-restraint, and helping others. That’s not radical. It is common sense and, most important, thoroughly Christian."

This endorsement is not only good for validating a growing body of work the Sleeths have created, but for the creation care efforts of Christian environmental leaders. Representing the “old guard” of the evangelical church, Colson has been an ardent critic of environmental efforts and arguments for global warming. His examination of Sleeth’s presentation of creation care as an everyday Christian value, however, rings true with a growing number of evangelicals today. 

Read the rest of this exciting commentary by Colson.

Blessed Earth teamed up with Houghton College for the 2008-2009 academic year to help establish a model of how a culture can shift throughout a Christian college campus.  

Throughout the year, our executive director Matthew Sleeth spent one week every two months sharing the creation care message.  Working with every constituency and venue on campus—student chapels, classroom discussions, meetings with the faculty and cabinet, conversations with custodial and physical plant staff—we shared our experiences with other campuses and helped plant seeds.  It’s been exciting to see how the students, staff, and faculty embraced creation care principles and discovered creative solutions that both save resources and honor God’s creation.

2008-2009 Highlights

The Houghton College community is actively looking for ways to change the way we do things here in order to become better stewards of what God has given us.  Many of these changes save us money in the long run.  Others may cost a little bit extra but will help us to implement more environmentally sustainable practices.  Here is a partial listing of some of the things that Houghton is doing to show better stewardship of God’s Creation.

Safety and Security

• Turn off all unnecessary lights on a nightly basis, saving 320 kwh (~$32) per night.
• Shift reports and cross reference records for keys are stored electronically instead of using paper copies
• We turn down the heat and close any open windows during college breaks.
• An electronic appeal process for parking tickets is used, saving a tremendous amount of carbonless duplicate paper.
• Key agreement forms have been changed to eliminate the need for a carbon sheet.  We’ve also added the capacity for multiple keys on the same agreement, again saving much paper.

Pioneer Food Service

• All trays have been removed from the cafeteria, saving water, soap, and energy.
• Single serve napkin dispensers have been placed on each table

Creation Care Task Force

• Sponsors shuttle service for off-campus faculty/staff events 
• In April, we’ll be sponsoring a tree seedling planting to help reclaim almost 1 acre of grass. 
• Beginning an “adopt a tree” program where alumni, faculty, staff, students, or community members can contribute funds towards the purchase, planting and care of a mature sapling.

Facilities

• In conjunction with Troy and Banks, an energy consulting firm, we will be implementing a voluntary “brown out” program which could potentially reduce our overall electric usage and lower the rate that we pay for electricity.
• Working on a comprehensive tree planting plan for all parts of campus.

Custodial

• We use canister vacuum cleaners in several buildings, saving an estimated 300 vacuum bags from the trash each year.
• We switched our toilet tissue and paper towel supplier to Cascades/North River brand.  Not only are they manufactured in New York State, but they are also Green Seal certified, with chlorine-free processing and a minimum 60% post consumer content. 

Student Programs/Student Government

• Highly visible recycling containers have been placed in public areas of each major building on campus, including extra bins that are placed out for public functions such as athletic matches.

Java 101- (on campus, privately owned coffee shop)

• Uses only organic, free trade coffee
• Uses cups made from recycled paper

Faculty Initiatives

• Art:  Using a collaborative research grant, Professor Gary Baxter is working with students to develop ceramic glazes that will work at lower kiln temperatures, saving energy.
• Art:  Professor Ted Murphy recorded the progression of seasonal change in watercolors done from life as part of his gallery show in January 2009.
• Australian Studies:  Students and faculty planted flower beds in Melbourne as part of their fall, 2008 semester in Australia.
• Biology:  Professor Jim Wolfe and students continue their research at Star Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.  Their fall semester program includes a strong emphasis on understanding and preserving the environment.
• Biology:  Professor Aaron Sullivan and students continue their research on local amphibian populations.
• Biology:  The biology department collaborates with faculty in other disciplines to offer a biology major with an environmental studies emphasis.  Biology also offers a major with a new forestry emphasis.
• Biology, Chemistry, and Physics: Faculty members have prepared a first-year honors program that will focus on alternative energy, of which a major topic will be sustainability.
• Communication: Professor Doug Gaerte reports that a student intern is videotaping and photographing renovations to the Angelica school that will turn it into a conference center and hotel.  The visual documentation will help verify that the work meets requirements for LEED certification and will be used as a training video for other groups seeking LEED certification.
• Communication:  Professor Daniel Minchen includes issues of sustainability and creation care in his Marketing Principles class; discussing socially responsible marketing, the social value of creation care in products and marketing, and how to help people get past the sticker shock of environmentally responsible vehicles.
• Communication:  Professor Daniel Minchen is also working on radio or television interviews for Dr. Matthew Sleeth during his visit in March.  
• Communication:  Professor David Huth is preparing a video project on creation care, including interviews with Dr. Sleeth. 
• English: Professor Jack Leax and Professor Jim Zoller continue to write on creation and its care.
• Intercultural Studies, Psychology, and Sociology:  Students have worked on urban gardening projects in Buffalo.
• Physical Education supports, promotes, and enables the use of trails for hiking, skiing, and snowshoe hiking.
• Political Science: Professor Peter Meilaender redid his Introduction to Political Thought course so that questions about the relationship between nature and convention serve as an organizing theme for the semester, using the metaphor of gardening as a central theme.
• Psychology:  Professor Paul Young developed a PowerPoint slide show on Eco-Driving, which has been incorporated into the driver’s training required of all people who operate college vehicles.  
• Psychology:  The theme for the capstone senior seminar in psychology for both fall 2008 and spring 2009 has been environmental psychology.  
• Psychology:  For the past two years, students in Professor Paul Young’s statistics classes have analyzed utility bills for the college to prepare answers for a report to the Presidents Climate Commitment.  They have also analyzed the carbon sequestration in Houghton Forest, the carbon footprint of Houghton’s international programs, and the distance travelled by commuters.
• Recreation:  Professor Thom Kettelkamp’s Natural Resource Management classes have been designing and developing trails in the Houghton Forest.  A new trail called the Old Oak Trail has been completed and an interpretive trail in the river valley has been approved for implementation in the spring of 2009.  

It is easy being green.

At least that's how I'm feeling after a conversation with Nancy Sleeth.

I'm ready to compost a garden, ban plastic bottles, buy only organic, bicycle to work and give up air conditioning.

OK, the reality is this: I would like to do those things, but maybe that's a bit drastic for someone who's new to this. I have good intentions, but I realize I fail miserably on a daily basis in being a good steward of this earth.

How many reusable bags have I bought at Publix - and realize I've left them at home when I get to the checkout? How many times have I bought bottled water instead of filling up my personal mug? And why didn't I buy a hybrid when I went car shopping last year?

"You don't have to make overwhelming changes all at once. Just a little at a time," Sleeth says. "And just the smallest changes can make enormous differences in the long run."

With Earth Day coming up Wednesday, we're all talking - and hopefully doing - something to contribute to this precious planet's well-being. I don't think it's a choice anymore. We're finally coming to understand that our resources are limited and we've endangered our health. Even our pets are getting cancer.

Sleeth and her husband, Matthew, are co-directors of Blessed Earth, a faith-based environmental nonprofit group that focuses on creation care.

The couple, who live in Wilmore, Ky., believe there is a correlation between spirituality and environmentalism. As their faith walk intensified about seven years ago, so did their commitment to preserving the planet.

"Our hope is that all faiths will stand together in this movement," she says. "When religion puts its clout behind something, we can move mountains."

Regrettably, she says, the Christian church has not been as diligent as it should. But times are changing, and she has hope for the future.

"Caring for creation is actually old theology," Sleeth says. "It starts with the mindset that everything given to us is a blessing, not an entitlement. It's part of caring for our neighbors, whether it's in our community or across the globe. We've been given a mandate by God to be good stewards of this earth."

But wait: Didn't we do this dance back in the 1970s? When the oil embargo hit, everyone fretted about the energy crisis and demanded smaller cars that needed less gas. President Jimmy Carter appeared on television and asked Americans to turn down their thermostats.

We all did - for a while. Proponents of Earth Day, now in its 39th year, haven't changed their message. We just choose when we want to listen.

"We have very short memories," Sleeth says. "Even last summer, when gas prices went through the roof, and we got all excited about smaller cars and hybrids. That died down when the price at the pump went down."

She and her husband make purchases with this in mind: Am I loving God, and am I showing respect for my neighbor? They maintain an organic vegetable garden, share one hybrid car and stay out of debt.

Sleeth says we've lost time by not following through with our promises and plans from decades ago. Now there is no more time to waste.

Ready, set, go green.

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.

EARTH HOUR: MARCH 28, 2009

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm -- Wherever you are. Earth Hour is independent of time zones.

For more information, please visit the Official Earth Hour 2009 Website.

Feel free to download this podcast via iTunes or by clicking here and let us know your thoughts.

by Aaron Ogg, The Grand Rapids Press

Humans' "moral responsibility" is to help the poor by being good stewards of the Earth, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said.

He told more than three dozen people at Calvin College on Saturday that climate change and U.S. energy consumption are related and are "a very serious problem."

Brewer's comments came at the Creation Care Summit, an event organized by the Faith in Public Life. The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit provides resources to faith groups for justice and the common good.

Another summit panelist was state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, who is vying for the U.S. Senate seat held by Carl Levin in the Nov. 4 election.

An evangelical Baptist, Hoogendyk said encouraging "growth and prosperity" will yield additional resources to fight global warming.

"I think it's important for us as individuals to remember the world does not belong to us, nor do we belong to the Earth," he said.

Eric Sapp, of the Alliance for Climate Protection's We Campaign created by former Vice President Al Gore, said climate change hits the poor hardest.

He pointed to those displaced in August 2006 by Hurricane Katrina, asserting the disaster's impact was partly a result of rising ocean temperatures.

"Climate change is real, and it's human-induced," Sapp said.

"It was those who couldn't afford to leave who bore the biggest brunt of the consequences."

Matthew Sleeth, executive director of Blessed Earth, advocated observing a "day of rest" to curtail energy usage by up to 14 percent.

"I think we are coming into a time when we can no longer claim ignorance to our effect on the planet or the environment or ourselves," he said.

By Brian Bethel, The Abilene Reporter News

When he worked as an emergency medical doctor, J. Matthew Sleeth, executive director of Blessed Earth, wasn't much of a believer in matters spiritual or environmental.

Sleeth was at the height of his career living on the coast of Maine, "head of an ER, having a really great life doing work I loved and was really good at."

But during a Christmastime vacation to an island in the Gulf of Mexico, his wife asked him what he thought the biggest problem was in the world.

Out of hatred, terrorism, starvation, greed and economic ups and downs, he chose a single answer: "The world is dying."

"Getting your head around the whole world dying is almost a God-sized problem," said Sleeth during an afternoon special lecture at Abilene Christian University's Summit, a Bible-based meeting that attracts participants from around the world.

Not an environmental scientist, he based his answer on simple observation, he said, from no caribou in Caribou, Maine, to no pike in the Great Lakes.

"If the world keeps growing, expanding and using things up at the rate it is, no one can suppose in 100 years it's going to turn out OK -- no one, no matter what your beliefs or politics or anything thinks it's going to turn out OK if we just keep on like we're doing right now," he said.

His wife asked what he planned to do to change that. He said he didn't know.

Sleeth began to wrestle with the concept of evil, he said, and at least from his perspective, it seemed evil came calling.

A mentally ill patient began to stalk him with the intent to kill him. His wife's mother drowned in front of his children. Other ills manifested, including things he saw in his daily work.

"Nothing in my humanist worldview gave me anything to deal with this, either personal evil or the kind of evil that lets the world die," he said. "So I began to explore, looking for answers, and I read through a number of the sacred texts of the world."

It wasn't until he literally stole a Gideon Bible left in a patient lounge that his life began to change, radically.

He found a new faith, becoming a follower of Jesus. And he decided that his family needed to reduce its environmental footprint to become better stewards of creation.

Sleeth explained his new faith to his family, including his plans to "quit my job and work for free," he said.

"We began to try to live a little more humbly," he said.

Downsizing just about everything they could, including moving into a home the size of their old garage, the family also started going to church.

This was where Sleeth was first called a "tree-hugger."

But trees feature prominently throughout the Bible, he said.

"Every Christian should be a tree-hugger," he said.

In fact, the Bible mentions trees more than any other living thing, other than humans, Sleeth said.

Even after Christ's resurrection, Mary Magdelene mistakes him for a gardener.

"That's our job," he said. "It never runs out."

But "we forgot about this 100 years ago and started buying stuff," he said.

Using the parable of the good Samaritan, Sleeth said it's important for each of us to take the initiative to help save the environment, even if it's inconvenient.

"The first thing we're going to have to do if we're going to be this Samaritan is get off our ass," he said, making a joke in referring to the animal the Samaritan in the story was riding when he came across another man in need.

From turning lights off to choosing to shop with reusable bags to putting money that would have been spent on Christmas presents into environmental or activist work instead, there are many ways an individual can help, he said during a question-and-answer session.

Little things add up in both directions. The foil from every Hershey's Kiss candy eaten in a single day, for example, would cover more than 133 square miles.

Although God gave man dominion over the earth, that doesn't mean Christians shouldn't take care of it, Sleeth said.

"God makes nature to glorify him and to sustain him, and he made man to take care of nature," he said.

From the cafeteria to the classroom, students are learning to be environmentally conscious.

By Cindy Crosby for Christianity Today

Flush twice. It's required at Calvin College's Vincent and Helen Bunker Interpretive Center's restrooms; once before, once after. The flushed water, which is the consistency of a bubble bath, washes waste to an underground room. There, preserve manager Cheryl Hoogewind and I climb up on a metal receptacle and look into a huge bin of waste that smells pleasantly of wood chips. This compost will eventually be spread as fertilizer on the college grounds.

Above us in the 5,000-square-foot building, a student-designed solar photovoltaic system generates electricity from sunlight; meanwhile, gray water from drinking fountains and sinks nourishes plants lining the classroom windowsills. It's all part of the Bunker Center's environmental sustainability.

Integrating creation care with academics is a growing emphasis on Christian campuses around the country. According to Paul Corts, president of the interdenominational Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), about 40 of 105 North American member schools have adopted significant green initiatives. These vary considerably, from multimillion-dollar sustainable "villages" and student volunteer educational programs to majors in environmental studies and recycling pop cans in school cafeterias. There is also national action.

Last November, 30 Christian college students met in Washington, D.C., to present elected officials with the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative (EYCI), signed by 1,500 Christian students. EYCI is an independent effort of young evangelicals to follow up on last February's Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), signed by 86 Christian leaders (including 39 Christian college presidents).

Amanda Benavides, a sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, says, "Going to Washington was just another step toward discovering new aspects of my faith in God and ways to serve him."

Network building is gaining momentum. In January, an environmental summit on the Wheaton College campus brought together Christian college students from all over the United States. "We need to cultivate younger leadership," says Wheaton College senior and environmental studies major Ben Lowe. "Rather than reinventing the wheel, we can share ideas, offer feedback, and cooperate with each other."

Many students come to college believing that environmentalism has little to do with their faith. College is often the first time they are challenged to think differently.

"Christian campuses … are considered theologically safe places where new ideas can be examined and tested," says Peter Illyn, founder of Restoring Eden, a parachurch ministry based in La Center, Washington, that helped recruit key student leaders for the Washington, D.C., event.

"I grew up thinking: 'environment, liberal, bad,' " says Benavides. Her freshman year was a turning point. "When I read the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative, I was encouraged by its message and challenged to act as a Christian for environmental justice issues."

For Yuri Semenyuk, a 2005 graduate of Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, it was a study-abroad program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua that prompted him to major in environmental engineering.

"When I was exposed firsthand to the impact that poor environmental care can cause, I was shocked," Semenyuk says, recalling a protest he witnessed in Nicaragua. "The people were field workers on banana plantations where extremely powerful chemicals are used to make a 'perfect banana' for consumers in the U.S. The chemicals are outlawed in the U.S. and in other developed countries." The people protesting had permanent chemical burns, Semenyuk says, and their children suffered birth defects. Semenyuk realized that his own consumption patterns—even ones as simple as buying a banana—had a significant impact on people living elsewhere.

J. Matthew Sleeth, executive director of Blessed Earth, says, "Students need to realize there is more to life than how fast an Internet connection is or how big your house is." Sleeth, who spoke on 21 college campuses in the last six months of 2006, says reaching students before they graduate gets them to "rethink issues before beginning real patterns of consumption."

Daryn Dockter, a senior biology major, has already changed his consumption patterns. As president of the ecology club Terra Nova at Iowa's Northwestern College, Dockter helps manage campus recycling. "Now I try to recycle every piece of paper that passes through my hands," he says. The Terra Nova club has also made a video about Northwestern environmental science professor Todd Tracy's study on wasted cafeteria food to show at new student orientations and other campus functions. "The findings were so shocking, I rarely waste a scrap of food anymore," Dockter says.

Many colleges have programs to spread the environmental word to others. Goshen College's 1,150-acre Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center lies 30 miles from the campus in Wolf Lake. Situated in a diverse Indiana ecosystem encompassing wetlands, fens, lakes, forests, prairie, and savanna, the center is staffed by 15 people who teach the 400 college students and more than 7,000 local K-12 students who come to the center each year. Among other environmentally sensitive efforts, Merry Lea boasts a wind generator with 20-kilowatt output potential that, along with photovoltaic panels, generates all of its electricity.

Goshen also added an accredited master's degree in environmental education last September—its first graduate program.

Dollars and Sense? 

Environmentally friendly campus buildings, though expensive to build, may save costs in the long term. Calvin's Henry DeVries, vice president for administration, finance, and information services, says, "A college can be faced with the difficult choice of balancing the upfront desire to maximize the square footage of construction … versus the long-term opportunities for lower energy consumption and reduced environmental impact."

Paul Helgesen, the physical plant director at Gordon College, says recycling is "the right thing to do despite being labor intensive." (Gordon recycled about 35 percent of its waste in 2006.) Gordon has saved money through environmental efforts such as low-flow showerheads, lighting retrofits, and state-of-the-art building energy management systems. Changing more than 400 dormitory light fixtures can result in an annual savings of $20,000, Helgesen says. And the Gordon Biodiesel Project—a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit used by a staff member—runs on fry-ladle oil from the student center that previously cost $100 a month to dispose.

At Judson College in Elgin, Illinois, building committee chair Keelan Kaiser oversees construction of the new Harm A. Weber Academic Center, a $28 million, 88,000-square-foot facility designed to be a model for environmental stewardship when it opens in the fall of 2007. By making use of natural ventilation during half the year, the center is projected to use 47 percent less energy than a conventional academic building.

"As evangelicals, we frequently use expressions like 'financial stewardship' or 'family stewardship,'" Kaiser says. "The God- made natural environment is another area of stewardship that we sometimes overlook. What better place than an institution of higher learning, with a Christian focus, to reinforce all aspects of stewardship?"

Creation care is a part of these schools' basic mission. "[We] invest our lives in the students so that they can go out and make a difference for the Lord in his world," Gordon's Helgesen says. "We [also] believe strongly that the Lord has given us a beautiful section of New England to care for."

The Missing Link 

Connecting the environment with other issues, such as poverty and evangelism, has helped environmental initiatives gain support.

Semenyuk, who is now doing graduate work in environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University, says he considered studying medicine, but realized he would only be helping one person at a time. "Through engineering," he says, "I can help [whole] communities at a time, be able to train others, and relieve people from the need of seeing a doctor by solving the problem that is causing disease in the first place."

There is also an evangelistic dimension. Lowe notes that some of the 40 members of Wheaton's student chapter of A Rocha, an international conservation organization, volunteer at the county's forest preserves each week. "People who are not in contact with a church or who are frustrated with Christians or don't view Christians as caring about the environment see us caring for creation," he says.

Merry Lea's probable platinum status with the U.S. Green Building Council gives Luke Gascho, executive director, the opportunity to speak in secular venues such as the Sierra Club. "Sometimes, people outside the church think we are only interested in heaven and hell," he says. "To find out that we actually care about the here and now is a great witness opportunity."

For many students, creation care is grounded in soul care. When people ask Semenyuk if he is a "tree hugger," he replies, "I'm a people hugger."

He explains, "By taking care of the environment, I am taking care of people. I feel called to missionary work in preaching and evangelizing, but if people will not live to hear my message by the time I arrive because of my poor environmental decisions, the Word is preached in vain."

Cindy Crosby is co-editor with Tom Oden of the Ancient Christian Devotional (InterVarsity, 2007) and author of By Willoway Brook: Exploring the Landscape of Prayer (Paraclete Press, 2003).

[Read the original article]

As our family sits together, eyes closed, we say grace. Today it's Timothy's turn. "God, thank you so much for all we have," he begins in what turns into a typically prolix nine-year-old's prayer. Eventually he is done—"in Jesus' name, Amen"—and I turn the key. We have just filled up our car with gasoline.

Those of us who say grace at restaurants know the discomfort one feels bringing a visible expression of religious gratitude into a public place. I can testify that it's stranger still in a gas station, where one becomes aware just how unprayerful the act of pumping gas normally is. Unlike a well-prepared meal, gasoline does not prompt gratitude unbidden. The stuff is smelly, dangerous, and not at all self-evidently good in itself. It is a means to my ends, juice for a momentary sense of power and control. It is surprisingly hard to remember to stop and say thanks before I pull out, a little too quickly, into traffic.

Yet, of course, thanks is due, if not overdue. I can reasonably expect that the food I eat today will be replaced by a fresh crop next season. But the gallon of gas I burn today is gone for good (though it does leave behind 19 pounds of carbon dioxide for the biosphere to absorb). In this fleeting historical moment that will be remembered as the petroleum era, saying grace seems like the least we can do.

Sleeth, it seems to me, is the perfect missionary for the environmental cause to American evangelicals (indeed, he is now in great demand as a speaker to churches and colleges). Evangelicals trust doctors—many evangelicals are doctors. Doctors specialize in practical intelligence; evangelicals, no matter how intelligent, lean toward the pragmatic side. Sleeth's bedside manner is perfect. He sees the symptoms of too much in our lives—the stress on the environment, on our families, and on our own bodies. He wisely does not prescribe quick fixes, but he does offer disciplines that could restore health. He does not dwell on grand global debates over climate change and overpopulation (though he has opinions on both, and shares them with his readers); he recognizes, in time-honored evangelical style, that the most important battleground for any social change is the human heart.

And Sleeth understands the value of symbolic practices—grace at the gas pump, compact fluorescent bulbs in the sockets, clothes on the line rather than in the dryer. Compared to the vast global structures that just today have gobbled up 80 million barrels of oil, any single family's reduction of consumption seems pitifully small, however admirable. But the value of these small practices is the way they transform our vision—and Sleeth truly believes, as every Christian should, that repentance changes hearts. Fifty million Americans saying grace at the gas pump would not reduce America's consumption of oil one bit. Or would it? Perhaps we should try it, and see.

Andy Crouch is editorial director of the Christian Vision Project and executive producer of the documentary series intersect|culture.