SOME local clergymen are agreed that the church, in general, has fallen short of its mandate to protect and preserve the environment, and are urging their congregations to make amends by nixing bad habits like buying more then they need, using plastic bags and bottles, and throwing garbage in the correct bins.

“The church certainly has a role, but has not been playing it very well,” Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Kingston Bishop Robert Thompson told the Jamaica Observer yesterday when asked if the church has a role in environmental preservation.

Part of the problem, he explained, is that “the Christian relationship with the environment is a bit ambivalent” in terms of the biblical exhortation to have dominion over the Earth.

“Some people have taken it very literally, thinking that to have dominion means to have control, but that control can lead, often, to destruction. If you relate to the role as caring for the world, it can instead lead to a view of good stewardship of the Earth,” he said.

In a sermon at St Stephen’s United Church in Union Square, Cross Roads a few weeks ago, Rev Naggie Sterling called man’s use of the world’s resources abusive and said it was time the church does something about it.

“It is time for the community of faith to wake up, to take a stand and to speak up for our most vulnerable populations. It is time that we make good on our call to love our neighbour and value future generations by not engaging in such activities that will make the planet inhabitable – however economical(ly viable) such activities may seem,” Rev Sterling said.

“I believe that the community of faith must take a leading role in such activities which deal with the preservation of the environment, because we cannot claim to love the Creator and not love and care for his creation. Even the Christian steward with only a basic knowledge of ecology can see that God’s natural laws are still in effect to sustain a marvellously intricate life support system on Earth,” he continued.

Thompson and Sterling’s views are aligned with those expressed by Pope Francis in his encyclical on the environment directed at “everyone, regardless of religion” and released in June.

“This sister (Mother Earth) now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will,” the pope said in the 184-page document.

For their part, The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica directed the newspaper to the website of its governing body, which sets policy and outlines spiritual and developmental plans for the church around the world. A statement dated 1996 outlined that the church was aware of the “dire predictions of global warming, rising sea levels, increasing frequency of storms and destructive floods, and devastating desertification and droughts [due] largely to human selfishness and greed which result in ever-increasing production, unlimited consumption, and depletion of non-renewable resources”.

However, the document suggested that Adventists might not be as guilty of environmental mismanagement as other denominational groups.

“Seventh-day Adventism advocates a simple, wholesome lifestyle, where people do not step on the treadmill of unbridled over-consumption, accumulation of goods, and production of waste. A reformation of lifestyle is called for, based on respect for nature, restraint in the use of the world’s resources, re-evaluation of one’s needs, and reaffirmation of the dignity of created life,” the Maryland-based organisation said.

To arrest the devastation, Rev Sterling said “there are some simple things we can do”.

“We can reuse our own shopping bags or opt for reusing products, or choose products with less packaging. We can choose locally grown foods in season rather than food flown in at the expense of the environment.

“Plastic bottles have become everybody’s friend as we seek to rehydrate ourselves, but where do these go after our using them? We buy more than we need simply because we can afford it. We use up more electricity and water more than necessary simply because we can pay the bill at the end of the month. In fact, it is those who do not normally pay their bills who tend to use up more. We spend hours exercising and spend thousand on our personal health and fitness, but we are poisoning the Earth – The source of our lives. Our farmers use chemicals and engage in practices that are harmful to the environment. We cut down trees that took 40 and 50 years to come to maturity and build homes in places that affect our underground water supply,” the pastor said.

He added: “The generations of yesterday may have engaged in recycling out of necessity, scarcity but it worked. It is no accident that temperatures were more bearable then, and that rainfall was more proportionate.

The Jamaica Association of Evangelicals declined comment, while spokespersons for the Jamaica Pentecostal Union and the Jamaica Council of Churches could not be reached.

“As Christians and people of all faiths and denominations around the globe, we must do our part by every decision we make as consumers each day, to make choices which are life-giving to our world. You can begin by committing today to be a good economist or steward. A good steward loves his role as a manager and would do nothing to jeopardise his/her role or place. He loves his neighbour and will do nothing that will cause the neighbour harm.

“We can be silent witnesses to terrible injustices if we think that we can obtain significant benefits by making the rest of humanity, present and future, pay the extremely high costs of environmental deterioration,” Rev Sterling said in his sermon.