A Look at the United Methodist Stance on Environmental Stewardship

One of the assignments for this blog was to write about a social statement that comes out of your own denomination that regards environmental issues and also one from a differing denomination. This is my look at a social statement from a different denomination than my own (since I'm ELCA).

I looked at a social statement titled "Environmental Stewardship" that the United Methodist Church first adopted in 1984 and then revised and readopted in 2000. In this statement, the church gave basic definitions of its theological claims related to God and creation and then listed the items that the church advocates for at a governmental basis as well as an individual basis for its churches and the members of those churches.

The Methodist church posits that since all creation is under God's authority, we are brought into a covenantal relationship with God to "be stewards, protectors, and defenders of all creation." In this, each human being is given the charge to work toward wholeness (described as shalom) for the world and for what belongs to one another. They go on to say that shalom/wholeness was broken when sin entered the world, but that God's redemption is way to restore this shalom. So then, our stewardship is to continually work toward wholeness; reconciling, reuniting, healing, and making whole.

Some of the items that the Methodist church advocates for is responsible and equitable use of our resources, governmental working to clean up our world and to apply laws that will protect creation, clean air, minimization of our chemical use, the responsible use of land, preserving the diversity there is in life, clean water, responsible use of technology, and finally, minimization of our military's impact on the environment.

The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004. UMC.org