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Mainline Protestant Denominations' Perspectives on Land Use
The Land: God's Giving,
God's Caring
American Lutheran Church, 1982
A quiet crisis haunts our planet. The crisis
is global, but it takes particular shape in the
United States. It is a crisis of the land, and
it has three chief expressions.
- CONSERVATION Survival of the land itself as
the placenta for life.
Concerns over maintaining
soil and water quality.
- COMPETITION Survival of all who live from
the land.
Concerns over preserving the most appropriate
uses of land for sustaining all living things.
- CONCENTRATION Survival on the land of those
who tend it.
Concerns over dispersion of land ownership and
control.
Survival is not too strong a word, even though
many of us have only recently become aware of
our society’s land problems. This statement
seeks to expand that awareness among church members.
Concern for the land is not a new concern among
us. God’s people have always lived with
a strong sense of the land. The biblical people
have known for centuries that the land is central
to God’s covenant with them, central to
the shaping of human community central to relationships
of justice among all peoples who dwell on the
earth.
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Land is understood to be the created earth, given
by God for sustenance of all life. It includes
soil, air, and water for producing food. It also
includes the land as supplier of resources such
as fuels and lumber and metals, the land as base
for human settlement and transport, the land as
playground and renewer of spirit through re-creation.
A theology of the land is a way of thinking about
the land-people relationship which has God at
the center. It puts the focus on the experience
of the people of God with the land, under God.
It relies on both the biblical witness concerning
the land as gift and trust and on the experience
of biblical people to this day.
A land theology must result in a land ethic,
that is, a way of behaving that is consistent
with our believing, actions suited to our faith
commitments about the land, God, and people. To
speak of a land ethic means that concerns about
the land are more than economic and political.
Our relationship to the land is also a moral matter,
a question of what is just and good and most likely
to convey love to our neighbor.
Read
the complete statement in the Environmental Anthology
of Denominational Policy .
Other mainline Protestant denominations have made statements and policies on similar topics, including: Land Development, Natural Resources, Wilderness Protection, Mining.
To read more, browse the Environmental Anthology of Denominational Policy by denomination or by environmental issue. |