Earlier today, I commented on a Facebook post regarding a Christian perspective on environmental concerns. It was a link to a blog post on the Nature Conservancy site and was a wonderful challenge to Christians to take responsibility for the stewardship of the earth.

In my comment, I affirmed the quality of the piece and the Nature Conservancy’s willingness to post it. I added my own acknowledgement that many Christians are deeply concerned about the environment and believe that we are called to be good stewards of all creation. I even added a reference to John Wesley’s Three Simple Rules, “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.” It was not long before several other Christians “liked” my comment and went on to post similar concerns about Christian awareness of environmental issues.

I did not think much more about it throughout the day as I spent time with family on the last days of our vacation. When we stopped at the coffee shop a little while ago, I decided to read more of the 150 plus comments on the issue. I was shocked!

Rather than celebrating the awareness, passion and efforts of many in the Christian community, numerous posts were filled with anti-Christian and anti-religion rhetoric. It would seem that only atheists have anything to offer to the environment. One commentator even stated that atheism was thankfully free of the baggage of self-righteous, judgmental attitudes (even as he self-righteously judged all religions in a few short sentences).

I was indeed shocked, not by the anti-Christian attitude (I’ve become accustomed to that), but rather by the shoddy reasoning and self-negating comments of the people who stand in judgement of the faith. There is no doubt that great evil has been done throughout history in the name of God and by people claiming to belong to God. However, there has also been great good that came from faith in Christ and true followers of him.

People who celebrate their pure scientific understanding and education forget that a great majority of the institutions of higher learning that gave them such understanding were born from the Church’s support. Forgotten are the great investments in the arts commissioned by the Church. Lost are the tremendous acts of charity done in the name of Jesus Christ by the religious institution and by countless individual Christians.

The choice to be Christian is just that, a choice, but the selective memory of the past is not, nor are false stereotypes, misinformed comments and poor reasoning. These errors must be avoided by atheists and Christians alike. Just because we want something to be true, does not make it so, no matter how much we wish it, tell it or believe it.

There is room at the human table for all of us and how beautiful it would be if we could all bring our distinctive perspectives to the discussion and our unique abilities to tasks at hand. The Scripture says, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Maybe it is time to focus on working toward the truth together instead of attacking one another.

Just some thoughts from the cafe on Saturday night.