Theme: Created to work and keep the earth; live in harmony with nature

“What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and our destiny – that is by religion…Since the roots of our [ecological] trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must re-think and re-feel our nature and destiny.” – Lynn White, The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis (1967)

“So we find that when we begin to deal on a Christian basis, things begin to change; not just theoretical things, important as they are, but practical things. Man is not to be sacrificed, as pantheism sacrifices him, because, after all, he was made in the image of God and given dominion. And yet nature is to be honoured, each thing on its own level. In other words, there is a balance here. Man has dominion; he has a right by choice, because he is a moral creature, a right by choice to have dominion. But he is also by choice to exercise it rightly. He is to honour what God has made, up to the very highest level that he can honour it, without sacrificing man.” – Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man (1970)