Are you serious about bringing peace to EARTH? If you remain as you are, the world remains as it is. Things usually disperse and deteriorate. Do you want to go to Heaven? Are you sure of where, when, how, what you really realize? Both the self realm and our shared, common world depend on our knowledge and action. If we want change, then we must change.

What should we do then? We must know and act. Do we really know and act? Consider: we are now undergoing the sixth mass extinction – the first caused by humans – with more than a hundred species per day becoming extinct. This is a direct consequence of the global problematique: a toxic combination of global warming, pollution, population explosion, depletion of resources, poverty, wars, economic and ecological deterioration, and disasters, all interrelated.

How can we solve these problems if we don’t know or understand them?…

Last year, around the time of Earth Day (April 22), I posted an essay from Concordia Seminary theologian Chuck Arand on the connections between Christian theology and the environment.

Now he’s started his own blog on the subject: Together with All Creatures.

The title quotes from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism: “I believe that God has made me together with all creatures…” As Dr. Arand sees it, this means that we share a common beginning, a common life, and a common future with all of creation.

Just passing it along for those of you who, like me, care about this stuff, i.e. the “stuff” of this earth.

“Organized religion has been at the basis of too many wars. I see very little good in it. I’m raising my children without any talk of God, as I don’t think it’s fair to push God down their throats when they’re too young to think logically.”

I came across this comment in what is otherwise a very intriguing reflection on the Passover and religious identity by Judith Warner in her New York Times blog, “Domestic Disturbances.”

One can find comments like it all over the place: the lazy dismissals of religion as the root and cause of every single thing that has ever gone wrong in the world. And I’ll confess that they drive me up a wall because (1) they often come from people who are simply buying into other people’s thoughts without thinking for themselves, and (2) they’re often wrong.

If someone is looking for something to blame for all the worst things…

Next Tuesday, April 22, is Earth Day.

Whether or not you celebrate Earth Day, and share its concern for the environment, typically falls out along stereotypically liberal vs. conservative lines. Ain’t much room for middle ground. And religion often gets caught up in the mix, it too falling along stereotypical liberal vs. conservative lines.

Except for this… Charles Arand, a theologian here at Concordia Seminary, makes a convincing case from a theologically conservative position for why religious people, and Christians in particular, should celebrate Earth Day. His thoughts center on the first article of the Christian creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”

Simply stated, Arand demonstrates that a belief in God as creator—a belief that transcends not only denominational lines but many interreligious boundaries too—should engage the believer, a fellow creature of God’s creation, in deep care and concern for the earth and for all life…