Some of the things for which the liberal left blames the religious right, really are true. Christians can be very inconsistent, especially in the realm of the natural environment—and others notice. Speaking at Patrick Henry College, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms begins a speech on this subject with a clarion call for consistency in the lives of Christian believers. I will be reviewing the themes in this speech, in four parts here.
Listen to Joel Salatin's speech at Patrick Henry College on "Food: The Cornerstone of Christian Credibility"
[audio:http://truefoodsolutions.com/Joel-Salatin-Food-and-Christian-credibility.mp3]
Too often, Christians say that we love God’s world—then we go get a Happy Meal, the pinnacle of industrial exploitation. Christians say that we want to glorify God—then we compartmentalize our obedience, and pay no attention to the source of the food that we eat. Christians try to be moral by being upright citizens and church-going, but we often think farming and food are amoral. Christians love to read the Bible passage about being “fearfully and wonderfully made”—then care naught for messing with our intricate bodies by eating toxic food or poisonous medications. Christians say that we want God to be honored in the beauty of our households, and we do strive for that—right before supporting a farm system which scars the landscape and injures the people working in it.
Christians say we are pro-life (and we are, for little babies), yet in our actions we abuse living animals and pollute the living earth. Certainly, mankind is the crown of creation, and is eternal, unlike anything else in creation. Yet Joel Salatin points out that how we respect “the least of these”, animals, forms the foundation for how we respect “the greatest of these”, humankind. Unbelievers who respect animals but don’t respect unborn babies might not think it much different when Christians respect babies but don’t see anything wrong with factory feedlots. (While it is different, animals should still be viewed noble creatures that God made.)
Taking confidence in the truth that we were created by God rather than evolved from slurry, is not a license to pride ourselves in our power to exploit creation. While there is a fine line between taking dominion over the world versus exploiting it, the main distinction could be described by respect and stewardship. Joel Salatin said that unless Christians steward the earth—by giving heed to it and seeking to please God in our use of it—we have “squandered our credibility” to non-Christians. How can we as people command respect and act nobly when we don’t even remotely respect the God-created nobility of the animal kingdom? Harm to the world—and to Christian credibility—comes when we exercise dualism: removing the material world from its moral dimension. 1 Corinthians 10:31, however, tells us that God is glorified even by mundane, common things such as food and drink.
The main thrust of Joel Salatin’s message given to the students of Patrick Henry College was the following: View farming and food as an area to exercise consistency, such that in this—the only area in which some non-Christians will see our faith manifested—we are in harmony with our profession of serving God and believing He created the earth. If Christians, of all people, don’t value the world that was made by a Divine and Sovereign hand, what testimony at all do we have toward people who believe the world emerged out of a mat of bacteria? If Christians, who know the source of all the good gifts in nature, relinquish the use of those gifts entirely to unbelievers, we have no argument against unbelievers who appreciate the gifts without appreciating the God who gave them.
To help unbelievers to appreciate our God, we must appreciate all of His gifts, including those in the natural, material world. Having an answer for non-Christians that value the earth—and living by it ourselves—is the best way to witness to unbelievers who think the earth is worth stewarding. It is also the best way to bring the truth of God’s Word into every area of life—since farming and food are a major, significant area of our lives.
Joel Salatin shared a lot of wisdom in this message, and I look forward to reporting on more of it in coming installments of this short series. Your feedback is valued.
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I am definitely aboard his train of thought.
I appreciate Joel Salatin in many ways, but I think the strong points of this message are obscured by his overstatements. While we are not to *compartmentalize* our lives and moral duties, we certainly can *prioritize* them. Refraining from McDonalds is not even to be compared to refraining from butchering your unborn child. Tithing of your mint and cumin is to be done as Jesus says, but there are weightier issues of the law.
And while food is important, I hardly think it constitutes *the* cornerstone of our credibility. While our stewardship of the earth is some part of our obedience, it is hardly the way we treat the creation that is our primary credibility problem, rather it is the way we treat God Himself, and then one another as direct image bearers of God. Care for the creation limps along in third place and is in service to the higher priorities.
American Christians are disobedient to God in a long front that includes everything from parenting and christian education, to petty false morals such as the various alcohol and tobacco legalisms, to trimming the ten commandments to nine so we can worship Mammon (the American Idol), to supporting the war-mongering state. But where we’ve really got our heels dug in against God is in what happens in so many of our churches every Sunday as we trivialize God and his Word with our frivolous, self-serving, self entertaining worship. Then we broadcast this so the world can see it, too. This is how they justify mocking our God.
Before we can hope to teach our fellow Christians about the evil of McDonalds, we’re going to have to teach them about the weightier issues of the law. Simply driving past McDonald’s, even to attend pro-life rallies, with all this going on is going to lack effect.
I’m sure you could always find an excuse not to do even the simplest things that might make the world a better place. Keep on doing the things the easy way i guess it’s best if we live in a world where we don’t expect anyone to do anything.
Joel wants us to make our treatment of animals/plants the foundation of our moral system, but this is simply backwards. He even mangles Jesus phrase “the least of these” to mean pigs, tomatoes, etc., when Jesus is clearly referring to people (Mt. 25:40). Now I’m all for respecting the pigness of pigs, and I do so. I think that I actually respect chickenness more than Joel since I don’t raise those industrial CX chickens that can’t even reproduce after their own kind. I want to do these things, but Jesus is clearly calling us on how we treat our brothers, not our livestock.
My objection is to making these things foundational or central. Obedient stewardship of the creation flows out from true worship in spirit and truth. To say the opposite is flirting with idolatry. The bible teaches that people will always, if they are not grateful to God for the creation, turn and worship the creature rather than the Creator.
Paul even takes the law concerning oxen, applies it to the elders of the church and asks rhetorically, “is it oxen God is concerned about?” with the clear implication that the answer is “no.” God is more concerned that you compensate your pastor well than that you feed your cattle well.
These distinctions are important to maintain, otherwise our earth-worshipping friends (as all non-christian environmentalists indeed are) will mistake our concern for the environment as a hat-tip to their idol.
Amen and amen, The Gospel is to be the focus. We put a cow in our backyard and the evangelism tool it has been. God Bless!!
Ah, now you’re getting real and making faith valid. We live in such a disconnected world that doesn’t have any heart or thought about the gifts we were given.
I agree, lets plant apple trees (and other fruit trees) and veggies in our public lawns instead…all those homeless, hungry people would have free food available at all times, and it would eliminate the welfare food system, because you could just make them go out and forage for the food they needed! No, they wouldn’t like it, but it would be better for us and them. It would be closer to the Biblical ideal of supporting the widow and orphan, by supplying free food, but making them glean (work) for their keep. And you would eliminate the lawnmowing.
Are you joking with this comment or are you insane? I vote for insane.
There are those who might think that I’m off my rocker. Rows of veggies might be a little over the top…but replacing those “ornamentals”, some of which are poisonous to man and beast, with food producing trees/bushes…that can be not only pretty but also useful…it would help get cheaper, yet nutritious food to the less fortunate…maybe I’m just coming at this with #1 watching them turn farmland into stripmalls and apartments is mentally/physically painful, and #2 I don’t have much use for non-edible ornamentals…I value my milking goats more than my pet dog and my raspberries over my rhododendrons…so yeah, I’m probly crazy…
Actually Natasha, this is close to the biblical ideal of gleaning, whereby the Israelites were forbidding to harvest all the way to the corners of their fields or go over the field twice. What remained was available for the poor to glean. So as long as I got first crack at my fruit trees, I’d be good with it.
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