When Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu died at the end of 2021 aged 90, one of the things most emphasised at his funeral was his passion for racial reconciliation and justice. Delivering the eulogy, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said Tutu was ‘a man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid’, nevertheless being ‘also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world.’ He added that ‘the most fitting tribute we can pay to him is to take up the cause of social justice for which he tirelessly campaigned throughout his life.’ 

The world Tutu left behind is still ravaged by a pandemic of multifaceted dividing walls of discrimination and injustice, often along ethnic and racial lines. The world’s response to Covid-19 has been hampered by the geopolitics of vaccine production and distribution, and the crisis of the pandemic has overshadowed the ever-present realities of injustice against vulnerable people. Ethnic and racial stereotyping, among other forms of injustice, continue to be manifest in global food and trade systems, and exploitative pharmaceutical industries, for instance. There have been outcries against what some refer to as inequity in medical care, and food apartheid. Christians are not immune to these realities. Nor are our students, graduates or staff workers. Our challenge is what our response will be, both locally and globally. 

Launched in June 2021, Issue 9 of Word & World challenged us on various aspects of race, justice and injustice and how to engage with or respond to them. The articles by Paula Fuller, N.T. Wright, and Bethany Peevy generated enough conversation to prompt us to follow up with further articles on the same subject. Hence, we offer more perspectives, from some other contexts.  

Jasmine Foo, former staff worker from FES Singapore and Assistant Director in Strategic Planning & Training with State Courts of Singapore, is now undertaking doctoral research in Biblical Studies at King’s College London. She brings us a perspective on ‘Translating Vision into Reality: Normalizing the Biblical Image of Racial Relations’ through an Asian lens.  

Eleasah Phoenix Louis, a UK-based emerging theologian and consultant with various church and para-church organisations, presents us with her perspectives on preservation and liberation in relation to race and justice issues.  

Furthermore Alejandra Ortiz, a member of IFES staff in Latin America, brings us perspective from her region on how to live out the epistle of James in contexts of inequality.  

I commend these articles to you, not only for reflection but for conversation and action, as we engage God’s world and ours with his Word. 

Femi B Adeleye 

Editor, Word & World 

wordandworld@ifesworld.org

So began a Lausanne Global Analysis that I wrote five years ago. In it I highlighted some of the American church’s response—and non-response—to a wave of high-profile killings of unarmed Black men and women. I explored the significance of systemic injustice to global mission and concluded with a call for Christians, individually and corporately, to pursue practical acts of restorative justice. The article was published a few months after a massacre by a white nationalist at a Black church in Charleston SC. This was a moment in which the church could have called for a reckoning on the issue of race and the need for justice on the road to reconciliation. Instead its racial divisions and differences were brought into sharper focus.  

2020 was punctuated by another series of high-profile killings. There was a nightmarishly familiar feel to the events of last year: another death, another media wave, and another round of protests. Looking back at that Lausanne piece, it is tempting to think that little has changed, that we are just going in circles, enduring another iteration of atrocity, outcry, attention, and inaction.  

George Floyd’s killing by Officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 catalyzed the fury, collective pain, and pressures of Black life in the United States. His death came on the heels of two other national stories: the horrific killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arberry. The world witnessed massive demonstrations of primarily young adults, in all 50 states, in major cities, suburbs, and rural communities.  

Protest amidst the Covid-19 pandemic was noteworthy for two reasons. First, the willingness of protestors to risk catching and spreading Covid-19 reflected the dire need to take a stand against racial injustice. Second, the pandemic further exposed the impact of systemic injustice affecting Black and Brown people: the prevalence of pre-existing medical conditions and lack of access to health care tied to racism and poverty, coupled with higher representation in “essential worker” roles, which carried greater risks of infection and death from Covid-19. 

The cumulative impact of these killings, along with the disproportionate deaths of Black and Brown people from Covid-19, pushed me and many other Black folks beyond the customary feelings of racial fatigue into new spaces of racial trauma. At the same time, new segments of the American population awakened to the realities of systemic injustice and white supremacy.  As the video of George Floyd’s killing went viral, millions were transfixed and horrified by the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that Officer Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck.  

The response internationally to the Floyd video mirrored what was happening in the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities. People all over the world, already connected in a unique way because of the global battle against Covid-19, joined in affirming the value and dignity of Black lives, demanding policing reform and justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arberry and Breonna Taylor. Crowds turned out during a global pandemic, literally risking their lives, to protest events happening in another country.  

Historically, the United States has played the role of calling out injustices in other countries and affirming human rights for those living under oppressive conditions. In this instance, the tables turned. America was being challenged to live up to its ideals of life, liberty, and justice for all. These world-wide protests could not have been scripted or orchestrated by an individual or single group. They were a powerful symbol of solidarity signaling that the time for change had come. 

Unlike other nationally profiled killings, George Floyd’s death has resulted in police reform in cities and states across the country. By June 2020, at least 23 cities completely or partially banned the use of chokeholds, carotid restraints, or both by police.¹ Other policing reforms include duty to intervene when fellow police officers exert excessive force, reductions in police funding with reallocation for youth programs or other community services, increasing transparency, and better training and education.   

There is once again a generation in American society that has grown tired of racial injustice. Sustained protests in 2020 have increased awareness of long-standing racial disparities in American society.  The government, corporations, universities, and other public institutions have responded, committing funding, creating policies, and developing economic initiatives to address racial injustices. The church has primarily interpreted these events through political and cultural lenses, failing to acknowledge the spiritual significance of systemic injustice or engage in biblical responses. While holding, at best, to familiar historical patterns of response – lament, apologies, and symbolic repentance–the church has been left behind. Its racial divisions have hardened. 

Prior to 2015, racial reconciliation was a prominent theme at evangelical conferences. Multi-racial congregations, particularly mega-churches, were seeing more Black congregants in their churches. “In 2012, according to a report from the National Congregation Study, more than two-thirds of those attending white-majority churches were worshiping alongside at least some black congregants, a notable increase since a similar survey in 1998. This was more likely to be the case in evangelical churches than in mainline Protestant churches, and more likely in larger ones than in smaller ones.”²   

Within American evangelicalism in the last few years, racial reconciliation has become “a road less travelled.” The Trump presidency stoked racial division and white nationalism. For many Black Christians in white evangelical spaces, the endorsement of Donald Trump  in 2016 by 81% of white Evangelical voters created a painful breach of trust, which contributed to an exodus of Black members from white evangelical ministries.   Michael Emerson, one of the co-authors of Divided by Faith, noted, “The election itself was the single most harmful event to the whole movement of reconciliation in at least the past 30 years.”³  

That election was one of the starkest visible expressions of the deep differences in understanding between white and Black Christians on matters of race. Subsequent research further elucidated the disconnect between Black and white Christians about race in America. The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in 2018 examined the perspectives among white Christians (including evangelicals, mainline Protestants and Catholics) compared to whites who are religiously unaffiliated. These trends generally persist even in the wake of the recent protests for racial justice.⁴ The survey revealed:   

Similarly, in mid-2019, Barna undertook a study with the Racial Justice and Unity Center which highlighted “stark racial contrasts” in perspectives between Black and white American Christians:   

The disparity in perspectives underscores why there would be frustration in multiracial settings in which Black Christians want a higher level of engagement around issues of systemic racism, while white leaders and congregants would be less likely to acknowledge a problem with racial injustice or have the motivation to address it.⁵  The result has been dissonance and pain, which has taken a toll on the Black Christian community. 

The exodus of Black churchgoers from white ministries was described in a 2018 New York Times article as “mostly quiet, more in fatigue and heartbreak than outrage.” For those who have stayed, Christian counsellors have spoken about the psychological toll of remaining in multiracial churches. Others have spoken about the necessity of spending dedicated time with those who have shared experiences, for the purpose of renewal, so Black members can return to multiracial spaces energized and ready to engage across racial differences.⁶   

In the post-George Floyd era, the focus has shifted from dialogue on racial reconciliation and efforts to bring together congregations from different racial groups to action that acknowledges systemic injustice and meaningfully increases the equity and inclusion of Black people and other communities of color impacted by racism. For veteran leaders who continue to pursue the ministry of reconciliation, the journey must begin with engaging racial injustice. Brenda Salter-McNeil, an African American woman preacher, author, and professor who has taught, studied, and practiced the work of racial reconciliation for decades, writes,     

Similarly, Chris Rice, Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office in New York City and former cofounding Director of the Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation, writes,  

In that Lausanne piece five years ago, I asked: will the church address systemic injustice on the road to reconciliation? Despite the rich Biblical language commissioning the church as an agent and embodiment of racial justice, the hard truth is that throughout history religion has more often been used to justify division and oppression.  

Nonetheless, the call remains. And given the powerful role that students have often had in driving social change in both American and broader global history, we who are engaged in student ministry face a particular responsibility. The students to whom we minister, and the students whom we hope to reach, have tremendous potential as agents of transformation, and the world needs that now. Furthermore, what they learn as students will inevitably shape how they live out their vocations long after they leave campus. How we shape their understanding of the gospel’s approach to equity, inclusion, and attention to the marginalized will have lifelong impact on whose voices they hear, whose problems they see, and who they welcome to every dinner table and conference table as they continue in their adult discipleship.  

In addition, the world is watching us. If the church is not willing to engage deeply and honestly on these pressing questions, we risk slipping further into irrelevance. We have already lost so much credibility. The church continues to haemorrhage young people, and on matters of racial justice, few are looking to the church or to older generations to lead.   

As we enter 2021, we are not merely going in circles on questions of racial justice in the United States. In multiple sectors of society—government, education, philanthropy, the arts—we are seeing efforts by individuals and institutions to understand and address long-standing systemic discrimination. The American church’s failure to grapple with a heritage of racism and the consequent inherited inequalities hurts us spiritually, and it destroys our credibility as witnesses before a student generation aching for real change.   

As our global society continues to navigate a Covid-19 pandemic, we as individuals, families, institutions, and countries are being forced to embrace change. We’ve survived major disruptions to life as we know it and finding our “next normal”  will require courage, innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness. Within InterVarsity USA, we have embraced a longing for revival and are looking to God to perceive the “new thing” that is unfolding in faculty and student ministry.  As I look to the future, one of my greatest sources of hope is this generation of young adults who have already demonstrated a willingness to stand up against systemic injustice, demonstrating courage, resilience, and a commitment to change. As we develop disciples, groom leaders, and plant new student movements, we have the privilege and opportunity to invest in those individuals who will build equitable new systems and structures that render our old ones irrelevant. 

¹ “Cities and states across the US announce police reform following demands for change”, Karina Zaiets, Janie Haseman, and Jennifer Borresen, USA Today, June 19, 2020 

² “A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches”, Campbell Robertson, New York Times, March 9, 2018 

³ Ibid. 

⁴ Racism among white Christians is higher than among the nonreligious. That’s no coincidence. Robert P. Jones, THINK, July 27, 2020  

⁵ Black Practicing Christians are Twice as Likely as Their White Peers to See a Race Problem, Barna Research, Articles in Culture and & Media in Faith & Christianity, June 17, 2020 

⁶ The Downside of Integration for Black Christians, Jemar Tisby, The Witness, August 21, 2017 

⁷ Becoming Brave: Finding The Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now, Brenda Salter-McNeil, Brazos Press, 2020, p. 20 

⁸ Racism in America, Post-George Floyd, RECONCILERS with Chris Rice, August 4, 2020 

As I contemplate the horror both of George Floyd’s callous murder and of the rage of angry mobs in America and elsewhere, I am reminded of the day when Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968. I was in Toronto at the time, and the day after the killing I stood with tens of thousands of people in a big downtown square singing, ‘We shall overcome’. This had become the anthem of those who, like King, desperately wanted to end racial discrimination peacefully. We all really believed that King’s death would stir consciences and that lasting change would come. Half a century later, it seems we were wrong. Unfortunately, grand resolutions don’t always lead to deep change.  

So how do we read the Bible at this time, and how do we put it into practice? Let me be blunt: it is not enough merely to say that “racism is sinful and we must get rid of it”. What we call ‘racism’ is not simply a failure to obey a moral standard, like loving our neighbours as ourselves. Racism is a failure of vocation. 

The church of the anointed Jesus was designed from the start to be a worldwide family: God’s new model of humanity. In our own generation, the church has struggled to reimagine something that was always in the Christian DNA but which we have all but forgotten. The point of being part of Jesus’ people was never that we as individuals could get to heaven; the point was that we are supposed to be – in our personal and corporate lives – small working models of the ultimate new creation which God has promised and has launched decisively in raising Jesus from the dead. That has always been our glorious vocation.  

Rejecting racism and embracing the diversity of Jesus’ family ought to be as obvious as praying the Lord’s prayer, celebrating the Eucharist or reading the four gospels. It isn’t just an extra rule that we’re supposed to keep. It is fundamental to who we are. The irony of the present situation is this: the churches have to a great extent forgotten that this was their vocation and that racism was a denial of it. The phrase ‘Christian racist’ ought to be heard as a devastating oxymoron.  

In Colossians 3:11, the apostle Paul insists that in the Jesus-following family there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. That’s what it means to put on the new humanity which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the Creator.  

This dream was regularly ignored in Western churches in the Modern period. But it was then picked up on in the secular enlightenment. Today’s secular vision of a multicultural global society is at its best a Christian ideal detached from its Christian foundation. When Pope Benedict addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in April 2008, he suggested that the human rights discourse has become a way of trying to get the fruits of the Judeo-Christian tradition while detaching itself from the roots. If you do that, your discourse will collapse into a shrill shouting match of competing special interests. This is where we find ourselves now, with one side of the church saying the others are racists and the other side saying the others are communists. We need to dig down deeper, below the shrill moralism, to our foundational vocation to be the new model of human life. 

So what is this ‘new humanity’ vocation, and how have we drifted so far away from it that we now see it only as a detached ethical imperative? Paul’s vision of the church shines out in every letter he writes, perhaps particularly in Ephesians. Actually, his famous doctrine of ‘Justification by faith’ is expounded only in two letters – Romans and Galatians – and mentioned briefly in the odd verse here and there elsewhere, but his vision of the united church across all the traditional boundary lines, particularly the ethnic ones (with ‘Jew and Greek’ as the central paradigm) is laid out emphatically in every single letter. Even in little Philemon, where the ‘slave or free’ point is pushed home with powerful pastoral gentleness. The theological and practical climax of Romans 14 and 15 is precisely what we might call fellowship by faith, ‘koinonia’. It is the fleshing out of justification by faith.  

Paul insists on the radical mutual welcome that must take place between Jesus’ followers of different ethnic backgrounds and the different cultural practices that go with those backgrounds. The whole point of Romans 15:6 is that you may ‘with one heart and voice glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus, the anointed One’. This is the large-scale application of the point Paul makes sharply in Galatians 2. Paul insists to Peter that uncircumcised Gentiles who have come to faith in Jesus are equal members of Jesus’ people along with believing Jews. They don’t need to be circumcised since their previous status as Gentile sinners has been erased by Jesus’ death, which rescues all his people from the present evil age.  

But it’s in Ephesians where the picture is spelt out most fully. In chapter 1, Paul declares that God’s purpose was to sum up all things in heaven and on earth in the Messiah. This stands solidly over against the normal Western Christian assumption that God’s purpose is to snatch believers away from earth so that they can live with him in heaven – something the New Testament never says. The last scene in the Bible (Rev. 21-22) is not about saved souls going up to heaven, it’s the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth. God’s plan was always to renew the whole creation (Romans 8; 1 Cor. 15), and for God himself to come and dwell with humans in that new world.  

So the church is not simply a loose association of people who have had similar spiritual experiences and get together from time to time to encourage one another as they escape the world and look forward to going off somewhere else. The church is the new family of Jesus-followers: those who have died to their old spiritual allegiances and discovered their new identity as Messiah people. Their present flesh-and-blood existence as this extraordinary, even miraculous single family is a sign and foretaste of God’s purpose for the whole world. This family in fact is called to be a worship-based, spiritually renewed, multi-ethnic, gender-blind in leadership, polychrome, mutually supportive, outward facing, culturally creative, socially responsible, fictive kinship group. A good brief definition of the church!  

So, living in this way is not an optional extra for the followers of Jesus, a kind of added hobby for those who want something different on top of their regular Bible studies or prayer meetings. It is part of the deal. 

Now all this is obvious in the New Testament and in early Christianity as a whole, and it chimes completely with Jesus’ own emphasis, particularly his high priestly prayer in John 17, that all might be one so that the world might believe. Jesus is implying that if we fail here, we are handing to unbelievers good grounds for denying that he had been sent by God. 

The beauty of Pentecost is not the collapse of all languages into one hegemonic tongue, but rather the multiple flowings of the Spirit into all the world creating a single polychrome, polyglot family. Of course, the outworking of this would not always be straightforward: ethnic and linguistic distinctions were already a point of tension in the early church. We must address these with wise and decisive action to preserve continued unity to be the advanced guard of God’s new creation.  

So how did we get it so wrong? Why have some of the best educated Christian groups in the world flouted this vision for a polychrome unity, and regard anyone who argues for it as a dangerous subversive? How did we slide into this without even noticing? 

No doubt there are many reasons, but I want to highlight two. Firstly, there is the matter of the unintended consequences of right and proper actions. One of the great achievements of the Protestant Reformation was to translate the Scriptures into people’s own language so that ordinary Christians could read the Bible for themselves. Along the way, however, it led to ethnically based churches and communities who are no longer worshipping God together across linguistic and ethnic boundaries. When this acceptance of division became the new norm, we even gave it a fancy name: denomination, which sounds quite respectable, like ‘justification’ or ‘sanctification’, and so it was easy for visibly ethnic divisions to fit into this pattern. Now the whole Protestant project has split into so many fragments that we can’t keep track of them all. Nobody seems to have noticed that despite their regular appeal to Scripture, they were ignoring one of Scripture’s’ central injunctions. The racism that is both casual and institutional that we so deplore today is but one outworking of the much deeper failure of Western Protestantism. At the very point where the church should have been a shining light of polychrome unity, the churches themselves were every bit as compromised as the surrounding culture.  

This splitting into different ethnic groups was an accidental and unintended consequence of something good that was going on, namely the communication of Scripture and liturgy in local languages. But the second factor we have to note is deeper and I think more disastrous: the almost universal assumption in Western churches that the whole point of Christianity was to go to heaven when we die, so that how things are organised in church life becomes essentially secondary. This is the almost total victory of Platonism, and a denial of the full biblical vision of the church. The trouble is that the great Pauline emphasis on grace and faith rather than works of the law has been heard, over and again, within a Platonic echo-chamber. Many Protestants, including many evangelicals, have come to believe implicitly that God is more interested in the non-material world, and the invisible inner life of the individual, than in the material world and the actual and visible life of the church and that has left the door open for the poison of racism to creep in unnoticed. In our present day, many scholars (myself included) have been insisting that Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith apart from works of the Jewish law, was both about ‘ultimate salvation in the new creation’ (not a ‘going to heaven’ salvation) and about the ‘coming together of Jews and Gentiles into the single family of Abraham’, and that these two belonged tightly together.  

Paul would have been horrified by our modern distortions. If you read Romans 14 and 15, you will notice that the mutual welcome across ethnic and cultural boundaries is not a mere distant implication of the gospel; it is the physical, tangible, visible sign of justification by faith itself. In today’s increasingly polychrome world, it simply won’t do to shelter inside look-alike fellowships. Read Ephesians 3 or Colossians 3 again – how impoverished we have become in our self-enclosed enclaves.  

It is important for us to understand why racism has emerged in the forms it has, and how the biblical gospel of Jesus, when allowed free rein, radically undermines it. As well as the two reasons highlighted above, it’s important to be aware of the influence of modernism and postmodernism on this phenomenon.  Enlightenment modernism has wanted to eliminate racism because of its standpoint that all people should be identical, like a homogeneous ‘solidarity’. Postmodernism has wanted to eliminate racism because all people are seen to be different and should be valued and respected as such. Therefore, both modernity and postmodernity have wanted to eliminate racism for opposite reasons, but the ideological confusion seems to fuel the anger rather than checking it, and those who get hurt are often the most vulnerable. The Enlightenment secular project has tried to attain this but without the means to do so, like a moth trying to fly to the moon. Christians ought to have seen racism coming and denounced it at an early stage.  

In conclusion, I would like to offer three urgent words for this difficult time. Firstly, we need to recognise that the Pauline vision of the church offers what no earthly institution can achieve: the differentiated unity in which multiple human differences, refracted through the prism of new life in the anointed Jesus, form the coherent unity of the body of Christ with its many members. This vision of the church is both a gift and a calling for us to live up to.  

Secondly, the present crisis ought to drive a new wave of genuine and urgent ecumenical effort, especially where ethnic difference is visible and obvious. I know how hard this is, but the gospel and Scripture leave us no choice. Church leaders and ministers need to get together across traditional boundaries, get to know one another, pray together, read Scripture together, swap pulpits and so on.  

Thirdly, what we need right now, following the necessary recognition of, and repentance for, past, evil, is a glorious amnesty of mutual forgiveness. As I said earlier, it won’t do simply to wring our hands over racism and say how wicked it is. We need to understand why it has emerged in the form it has, and how the biblical gospel of Jesus in the construction of the family of Jesus-followers radically undermines it. We have failed to live out our calling in the gospel by not living in this differentiated unity, and for this we must repent. This will involve a clear-eyed recognition of the evil that is happening, and a tear-filled repentance both for that evil and for the resentment which it has caused, followed by forgiveness: wiping the slate clean. The gospel of Jesus can pave the way to a fresh start, beginning with the crucified and risen Jesus.

As we engaged in these issues, we did not claim to have all the answers, but encouraged students to be bridges in their societies, not staying silent, but becoming agents of understanding, fostering healthy dialogues and inviting their peers into redemptive action. We take a look here at this journey through social issues in society and ministry and invite you to revisit these articles which remain relevant a year later.  

As Christians, we have so much to learn from each other. That is what Bandile discovered when he moved from South Africa to the United Kingdom for university. Sadly, he drew this conclusion after joining a predominantly white church that showed him love and care but made little effort to understand or appreciate his cultural expression of Christianity. Bandile learned firsthand the value of making space for those who are different in your church or student group. He saw the impact of his student group, which welcomed a diverse group of participants and celebrated each one’s unique perspective on the gospel. In this article, we challenge churches and student groups to consider listening to others from different backgrounds in order to gain a richer view of the gospel. 

How can we see those who have been forgotten? The only glimmer of hope keeping orphaned children in Zimbabwe from becoming forgotten is education. Still, many do not have the funds to continue their schooling. This did not sit right with Godfrey, a FOCUS staff member, who was inspired to begin a project raising and selling chickens in order to support orphaned students through their education. Read this prime example of a person paying attention to the needs around them and using their giftings to redeem broken parts of society. 

Arjun and Veer will never forget the day they were beaten up on their way home from class. As Indian international students on a central Asian campus, they were targets for discrimination from classmates, professors, and locals. After months of bearing the prejudice and abuse alone, they finally found allies. Members of the local IFES movement embraced them and stood up for them, demanding justice on their behalf. Though their peers did not understand why they would be kind to “outsiders” these Christians stood up against prejudice and discrimination, setting an example that glorifies God’s heart for all nations. The article asks, how can you stand up for those who are mistreated in your society? 

Sometimes it feels like our journey to justice is pointless. How do we react when evil seems to always win? As Christians, finding the right response to injustice can be challenging. Vinoth Ramachandra, IFES Secretary for Dialogue and Engagement, wants Christians to embrace the attitude of lament. Instead of running away from our questions, he encourages us to be honest with God. In a short interview, we asked Vinoth to share some of his wisdom about the topic of lament. We hope it will inspire readers to look at grief and injustice from a different angle in order to inspire a more intimate walk with Jesus. 

Sometimes we may not think about caring for the earth as a justice issue. But in such an interconnected world, environmental issues can have both human and nonhuman impacts near and far. Though the issue feels overwhelming, there are simple ways to honor God’s creation in your everyday life. The key is to pursue a sense of wonder at creation. In this article, members of the movement in Singapore outline three ways to begin your own journey with creation care. 

Though injustice reigns upon the earth, we know the One who is making all things new. As students wrestle with the issues of our time, we pray that they will own their redemptive role as Christ-followers, seeking to listen, engage, reconcile, and stand up for justice. May these articles encourage you to remember that you are not alone, but surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ who also wish to glorify his gospel through the pursuit of justice. 

The media spotlight on the events and corresponding protests in America highlighting the nation’s racial divide and injustices have awakened the senses of the rest of the world to issues of racial and ethnic relations and underlying systemic inequalities. From mainstream news and social media to formal and informal conversations, there has been an increasing awareness and willingness to engage with the issue of racism more overtly. This phenomenon has certainly gone beyond the Western world, as Asian countries grapple with their own versions of ethnic inequalities. One difference, though, lies in the underlying reluctance by those in positions of power to ‘wash their dirty linen in public’. Despite the prevalence of the issue, one will rarely find this a subject of discussion in any parliamentary or governmental debate. Or if at all, it will be a pretext for rejecting the importation of ‘Western’ ideas of ‘white privilege’ into the national discourse.[1] The inclination to is to leave the elephant in the room alone.

However, with the accessibility of social media platforms, it is no longer the national leaders who dictate social discourse. There is increased readiness to call out xenophobia and racism which are becoming less socially acceptable. More of those at the receiving end of such discriminatory attitudes are speaking up. The various dialogues are also revealing the nuanced nature of racism and its intricate relationship with notions of nationalism and classism. In Asia, racism rears its ugly head in different forms such as anti-immigrant nationalistic sentiments; inequitable policies favouring those of the majority ethnic group who also tend to be of higher socio-economic status; remnants of historical baggage as a result of ethnic/national conflicts or colonial rule; or even ethnic cleansing in the guise of assimilation of minority groups.

That said, I think public discourse on this divisive issue need not be so binary. When we make the issue such an absolute evil, it makes people defensive and closes off any positive discussions. At the heart of it, racist sentiments are rooted in our human propensity to group and categorise, and accordingly to ‘Other’. Here, I use the word as a verb reflecting the human tendency to pigeon-hole people into Us and Them. Seen in this light, those who blatantly dismiss the pervasiveness of racism fail to appreciate the fallenness and brokenness of humanity and how that affects not only our private lives, but also permeates the social groups and organisations within which we function. This same tendency to categorise identities may also presuppose an innate hierarchy which effectively means groups will naturally strive to assert control and hegemony over other groups. Therefore, if we are more able to call a spade a spade, we may be less defensive and more contrite about the structural failings we encounter every day. In other words, we will be less afraid of importing language of ‘white privilege’ into our contexts and more willing to call out unjust partiality and marginalisation.

When the young tennis player, Emma Raducanu, rose to fame overnight, it ironically exposed how much of an enigma ethnic identity is. Her father is Romanian, her name is Romanian and she speaks Romanian. Her mother is Chinese and she also speaks fluent Mandarin. She was born in Canada. But she lived most of her life and trained in the UK. The Romanians, the Chinese and the Brits all wanted to bask in her glory.[2] But the Chinese are the same people who abhor mixed marriages and the Brits who voted Brexit prefer a UK without Eastern Europeans like Emma and her father.[3] Ethnic identity is thus a malleable social construct that can both divide and unite. When we appreciate that ethnic identities are social constructs, it makes us more willing to question our assumptions about who constitutes Them and Us.

When the Bible paints for us the social reality in Genesis 11—of distinct groups with diverse languages scattered across the earth, unable to cooperate in any global project—that was not the end of the story. The finale comes in Revelation 7, with a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb declaring praises. Not only will diverse people groups with distinct languages be able to utter praises in unison, but we will share in the glory of the new creation as one community. The contrast between human reality and the biblical vision is stark. As people who live in the in-between, the question remains of how we usher the biblical vision into our fallen reality.

This is where the epistles are quite helpful in illustrating the practical outworking of the more abstract concept of salvation and faith. Clearly, the early church struggled with actualising the biblical vision of unity amidst diversity. It was rife with conflicts and divisions. Bad enough to warrant several epistles specifically addressing this problem.

In Ephesians 2, Paul calls to attention the previous state of affairs where Gentiles were excluded as aliens and strangers, from the commonwealth of Israel and the covenants of promise. But Paul declares that Christ is our Peace. This peace is not just some kind of inner consolation or state of tranquillity, but one that is bought with the flesh of Christ which effectively breaks down the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, Us and Them. Jesus died not only to reconcile God and Humanity, but to reconcile two opposing groups into one body, one humanity. He nailed on the cross not only our individual sins but the hostilities between different entities. Only when the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple are we fit for purpose—to be the dwelling place of God. This is a glorious message, not only because it brings us, Gentiles, the consolation that we are included in God’s salvific plan, but because it declares possible a unity that overcomes innate enmities between diverse groups.

Acknowledging the reality of social brokenness need not cripple us into inaction or despair. It is, as Paul has done, diagnosing the problem and challenge. When we awaken our consciousness to the systemic and structural inequities of our society, we are taking the first steps towards the biblical vision of justice and reconciliation. Such awakenings open up opportunities as we have witnessed across the IFES movements. During the 2019 IFES East Asian Graduate Conference which ran the theme of Reconciliation, the Japanese graduates sought the forgiveness of the Koreans for the historical animosities and wars between them. In the 2017 East Asia Regional Conference, the Indonesian students embraced their Timorese brothers and sisters through conversations and prayers.  Students from FES Singapore initiated the Safe Sound Sleeping Place (S3P) project with local churches during the pandemic when the foreign workers dormitories were hard-hit by numerous outbreaks, to help arrange for temporary housing for foreign workers who were made homeless. Similarly, FES Malaysia launched the Jambatan Anak Malaysia (JAM, which literally means bridge of Malaysian people) to actively challenge the official race-based politics that the government then was playing.

When the people of God demonstrate through their lives and actions the biblical vision of unity and reconciliation, we are essentially modelling to the world this biblical possibility. We thus normalise godly ethnic relations and translate what is mere vision into reality. The Body of Christ is to embody a ‘new normal’. Beyond the baby steps we take in our individual lives and ministries, we become better able to engage and less overwhelmed by wider systemic issues. Particularly in IFES—with such an international representation involving over 180 countries—we have been given the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate that biblical vision of one humanity working alongside each other. For in Christ, we are no longer Jew or Greek, no longer Asian or African, Caucasian or Latino, no longer from the first, second or third world, but we are all one (see Gal 3:28).

This biblical vision is so beautifully encapsulated by Pope Francis’ message on this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, ‘Towards an Ever Wider “We”’, where he said, ‘we are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, but only a single ‘we’, encompassing all of humanity’.

[1] See for instance the Singapore Prime Minister’s speech arguing that there is complete racial equality in the country at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ndr-entirely-baseless-claim-chinese-privilege-exists-singapore-lee-hsien-loong-2143026.

[2] See for example https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/13/emma-raducanu-china-heritage-praised-by-chinese-state-media and https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/12/emma-raducanu-victory-sparks-debate-over-multiculturalism-in-the-uk.

[3] For a more thorough reflection on this, see Prof Guido Gianasso’s post on ‘Emma Raducanu and the Illusion of Nations’ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/guidogianasso_emma-raducanu-and-the-illusion-of-nations-activity-6844951439719190528-kpi5/.

In the last few years, I have been grappling with the question: ‘Why are black people leaving the mainstream church and joining black fringe religious groups?’. As part of my doctoral research, I sought to understand: where had the church gone wrong? What were the most influential markers of these black religious groups? Moreover, what can we learn from this phenomenon in the broader conversation about racial justice, the Bible and the church globally? The major challenge throughout this research process has been two-fold, the first being a theology student where western theology, philosophy and method is the standard for credible information and innovative, original and valuable research. The second was a more personal reflection on my theological standing as a conservative evangelical believer wading through progressive and liberal theory, philosophy and politics as the most promising context for developing a workable and liberative framework for my research. In other words, the theological standards were too white, and the liberative trajectory was too progressive for this black conservative (probably fundamentalist!) Christian.

My postgraduate research journey took place during several critical events for the Black and Brown diasporic community:

These are but a few key events I could mention; each of these events reinforced the personal tensions at play, the solutions seemingly found in behaving, voting or thinking either conservatively or progressively. These events knocked on the doors of the churches saying ‘whose report will you believe?’ The answer could never be the traditional ‘we shall believe the report of the Lord’ because now even the everyday person is asking the more profound philosophical questions: which are the best interpretations of the report of the Lord? Those that protect and uphold traditional interpretations with systems and doctrines? Or those who see the truth of the gospel in the experiences of the oppressed? Who determines how we identify the truth of God and how does it affect my role in society? And in some cases … ‘Who is the Lord?’

The recent reforms, social adjustments, policy amendments and reparatory initiatives result from the recent wave of black radical political philosophies and protests. These have charged Western society with the sin of systemic and institutional racism that denies black and brown people the ability to flourish in everyday living. I seek not to negate the work done by those considered Black, Brown and conservative – I think more specifically of the black historical churches whose legacy has been justice and reform in society through biblical Christian values– but the flavour of the era is indeed a radical one. It is radical both in that it proposes new forms of society, questioning assumed truths, and in that it sharpens the divide between overt racists, passive participants of racism and anti-racists (the intentionally repentant).

As a black Christian student, I believe it is not uncommon to feel the pull between seemingly opposing spaces in the academy, and it is not easy to navigate the extremes whilst also trying to find one’s scholarly footing and unique research path. How do we seek justice for our community with theoretical traditions that exclude our voices? Furthermore, how do we maintain our commitment to Scripture whilst engaging in deconstruction and methodology rooted in suspicion? These were the questions I had to ask of myself, the participants of my research, and the Black, British Bible-reading religions on which I focused.

Afroasiatic diasporic religions such as Rastafari, The Nation of Islam and The Hebrew Israelite communities, decades ahead of the mainstream church in the de-colonisation process, carved out their unique ways of satisfying the previously presented questions. To various degrees, they satisfy both the conservative and liberal tension that I believe many others like myself have come to face. Not only in how they consider Scripture to be authoritative (again to various, yet quite conservative degrees) and through these interpretations then condemn the neo-colonial empire for their ongoing role in the oppression of black and brown peoples. They also outline practical agendas for Black, African or Hebrew self-determination and self-sufficiency, whilst in “Babylon”; through business and economics, secure family structures and diet, derived from models in the Bible.

Although not generally considered adequate conversation partners, not meeting the Western academic markers, these Afroasiatic diasporic religions have succeeded where the mainstream church and academy have not, and they occupy a unique position. Their teachings hold to account the far-right conservatism that we have witnessed surface viciously as racist nationalism during the presidency of Trump and the far-left liberal movements that interrogate our core Christian beliefs as “colonial” and give authority to the diverse lived experiences of the named ‘other’. Deeming both extremes as the ‘tools of the enemy’, Afroasiatic diasporic religions present an opportunity for reflection on this unique position. It allows black evangelical Christian students to step away from the pull of the extremes and perhaps chart a middle course. This middle course is not a road of compromise; it is a road that draws method from the extremes, which produces a workable framework that can shine a critical torch on the extremes and itself. I call this framework the preservation-liberation framework, whereby one can preserve the authority of Scripture in our theology yet liberate it from its colonial bondage and avert the pull towards a humanist agenda.

Christian educational institutions face the inevitable overlapping of limited human philosophy and the theological task of understanding God but perhaps are not transparent enough about how this imperfect match affects the diverse Christian student body. Both these spaces reach beyond our colleges and universities and are embedded into the political fabric of the world societies, sending clear messages into the current racial justice conversation, and it is time for us to challenge the messages of the opposing extremes. We can re-consider positioning ourselves uniquely and bring the missing components for repair and reconciliation through the imperfect yet profound examples of the marginalised black Bible-reading religious communities.

Latin America and the Caribbean are the most unequal regions in the world. Ours is a history of conquest, exploitation and plunder. To this day, transnational agreements and large corporations trample on workers’ rights, thousands of people suffer labour or sexual exploitation, and farmers and indigenous people continue to be dispossessed of their lands, either by large landowners or by violence and crime. Latin American and Caribbean countries suffer inequality gaps that are caused by the concentration of power, widespread violence, lack of protection for the most vulnerable and perceptions of inequality itself.² The United Nations Development Programme Report mentions the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic worsens many of the inequalities and primarily affects access to education, thus having an impact on young people. While gaps in access to basic education have closed, access to and completion of higher education remains a privilege.³ It is estimated that 10%-25% of university students have dropped out or will drop out of university during the pandemic.⁴ There are many different reasons for this, but financial uncertainty, added to the need for internet access, puts the poorest students and those from rural and indigenous communities at a greater disadvantage, and they are unable to continue their studies.

Inequality in Latin America is a result of injustice and takes on many forms. Inequality exists when accessing food, housing, social protection, health and education. While some people have no problem meeting their basic needs and have enough to spare to store resources, 20% of Latin Americans do not have enough to eat.⁵ Inequality kills and also causes and spreads violence throughout the region. It is not surprising that Latin America is also the most violent region in the world. IFES movements are no strangers to these dangerous conditions. Some of these situations are studied at university, but students are still vulnerable to inequalities and violence. Many students are unable to stay in university because of their precarious financial situation, despite being the ones who have historically protested against inequality and injustice in their own countries. Education and the university, in essence, must contribute to the common good.

As Christians, our commitment to God’s Kingdom also leads us to work towards the common good. As N.T. Wright said in the last issue of Word & World, the Church of Christ “(…) is a sign and foretaste of God’s purpose for the whole world ”.⁶ God, through Jesus, has brought his Kingdom to earth and allows us to take part in it. God’s Kingdom has another logic that is very different from that of the kingdoms, powers and empires of this world. It is a kingdom of love, life, justice and peace that is not imposed, but made evident through those who follow Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus further describes the nature of this counter-cultural Kingdom announced by the prophets in the Old Testament and brought forth by Jesus himself. In his letter, James reminds us of many of Jesus’ teachings and, like other New Testament letters, helps us to live for God’s Kingdom, praying for its coming and looking forward to its fulfilment at the end of time.

So, ignoring the forces that bring death and perpetuate violence and injustice does not allow us to fight for peace, justice and life. If we acknowledge all the grace and privileges that university students and professionals have in Latin America, but we fail to think about the ways God invites us to serve and use what he has given us to promote the well-being of others, we will just be selfish disciples. The gospel is good news for all people, without distinction, and it invites us to live out this good news. In a continent where inequality is rife, which longs for good news for all, sharing the gospel cannot be separated from living it out. Our faith must be accompanied by action. The calling to live out the gospel and God’s Kingdom will look different for each person, but it demands our allegiance, to love God above all else, and our neighbour.

The letter of James is simple, but it is not easy to read and process. Not surprisingly, it has been a somewhat ignored and despised letter in church history. Its apostolic authority and canonicity were even questioned.⁷ It is a “dangerous” book for those who want to live a life of comfort and privilege, and it is full of challenging warnings and recommendations, particularly for the rich and for those who, despite being Christians, discriminate against the poor and favour the powerful. James gives pastoral recommendations based on the teachings of Jesus and calls for the repentance of those who are replicating the models of the world in their use of power and money, and stripping the poor of their dignity.

In the first-century world that James lived in, violence and uncertainty about the future prevailed. Financial insecurity and political oppression were daily occurrences. The communities of believers were not exempt, and inequality was present in their midst. Some believers were slaves or peasants who barely had enough to eat because they had been dispossessed of their land, while others served as patrons and could take pride in their status. The problem was discrimination based on economic criteria, appearance and convenience. In the Roman world, it was difficult to think of climbing the social ladder, but it was essential to have a patron or benefactor for legal protection and economic favours.⁸

James’ call to repentance for pursuing selfish aspirations makes perfect sense, because the brothers and sisters in the church were more interested in satisfying their own needs and desires than in the welfare of others (James 4:1-3). In his letter, James warns about the deceitfulness of riches and favouritism toward the rich: “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?” (James 2:5-6).James also tells us what true religion is – looking after those who are vulnerable (James 1:26-27). Finally, he leaves us with no excuse when he declares that faith and wisdom without action (compassion, justice and solidarity) are dead (James 2:14-26 and 3:13-18).

Christians who start university with aspirations of social advancement, more money, and greater comforts are confronted with this letter. When we talk with Christian students, they normally tell us that their motivation for going to university is the same as everyone else’s: mainly personal and family wellbeing. The letter of James calls us to lament and repent.

From my perspective, IFES movements in Latin America and the Caribbean are at risk of not recognising our privilege and therefore not accepting our responsibility. If we fail to do this, we will perpetuate ideas that lead to inequality and discriminatory practices against the weakest and most vulnerable people in our countries. For those with access to university education, it is easy to dismiss or ignore the needs of the poorest members of society. Many mistakenly believe that enrolling in university is the result of family and personal effort, and they lack a clear perspective of the responsibility of such privilege and grace. Ignoring inequality perpetuates injustice.⁹

Many young people do not access university education because they do not aspire to do so. For example, studies show that the inequality gap will widen because of the amount of people dropping out of school due to the pandemic, because the poorest children and young people do not have enough family support to face the challenges of education, basic conditions to study or digital tools to learn from home.¹⁰ Being aware of the reality of our context and the particular stories of the most vulnerable is an antidote to pride and the myth of meritocracy.

James invites us to live counter-culturally, to name, call out and not replicate the structures of inequality we find in the world as we live out our faith in our Lord Jesus. Our work personally and as a community must involve discerning motivations, desires and passions, allowing Scripture to reveal to us our selfishness and friendship with the world. In order to confess, we need to turn to the honesty of lament and repentance in the face of our desires to be, to have and to accumulate which do not lead to love. Prophetic criticism of systems of oppression is the fruit of resistance, individually and as a community, to the forces that oppose life.

The way Christian university students respond will be diverse and creative, if they are dedicated to God’s Kingdom and his justice. There are no recipes, but we are inspired to be faithful to God and to love our neighbour in a radical and supportive way. Calling out prophetically does not replace sharing the gospel – these two things go hand in hand. IFES movements, faithful to Scripture and context, will take the proclamation of the good news of Jesus seriously, presenting it as good news for all, especially the most vulnerable. God’s Kingdom is present. As Christian university students, professionals and academics, the grace we receive is just that: grace. There is no room for pride because God does not prefer the powerful, successful and rich. God gives grace to the humble.

IFES has many examples of people being creatively faithful to God’s Kingdom. As part of the Logos and Cosmos Initiative in Latin America, which seeks to foster dialogue between science and faith, there are university professors and academics, dedicated to God and to the university, who are being trained in this area. They are an inspiration and a clear example of how you can use your career to serve others. I would like to mention two of them. Sandra, from Mexico, is a university lecturer who is pursuing a PhD in Community Psychology, and her field of research is violence and enforced disappearances in her country. Her work has led her to seek changes in legislation, to accompany search brigades, to encourage the church to provide this type of support, and to work for God’s restorative justice, the fruit of which is peace. Johnny, from Guatemala, is studying a Master’s degree in Development, Economics and Climate Change and his motivation is to promote sustainable development in his country. Johnny wants to address development issues in rural areas by studying the relationship between poverty relief efforts and the protection of natural resources. His interest lies in both academic dialogue and practice.

To conclude, I would like to leave some questions for reflection, hoping that our faithfulness to the gospel will lead us to respond. How do we respond to the challenges of the letter of James in our contexts? In what way are our privileges a grace from God? What inequalities do I see around me? What have I received by grace which God invites me to use to serve others? I hope we are able to find creative answers in our lives to these and other questions, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

1 “Coronavirus Reveals Inequality in Internet Access and Digital Technology in Latin America: ECLAC,” Voice of America, accessed September 29, 2021, https://www.vozdeamerica.com/a/ america-latina_coronavirus-revela- desigualdad-acceso-internet-tecnologia-digital/6067517.html. 

2 “REGIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2021. Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean,” accessed September 28, 2021, https://www.onu.org.mx/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/undp-rblac-PNUD_IRDH-2021_ES.pdf, 2. 

3 Ibid., 38. 

4 Julie Turkewitz, “Millions Drop Out of College in Latin America Because of Pandemic,”The New York Times, September 4, 2020, sec. in Spanish, https://www.nytimes.com/es/2020/09/04/ espanol/america-latina/crisis-universidades-coronavirus.html

5 “REGIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2021. Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean”, 23. 

6 N.T. Wright, “Undermining Racism,” IFES Word and World, Race and Justice, no. 9 (June 2021): 18. 

7 Samuel Escobar and Eduardo Delás, Santiago, la fe viva que impulsa a la mission (Lima: Puma, 2013), 11.

8 Maria Luisa Melero, Letter of James (Spain: Verbo Divino, 2015)., 37. 

9 “REGIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2021. Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean”, 113. 

10 Ibid., 79-81.

Environmental sustainability is a hot topic at many universities, named as a major goal of my new university. What are Christians at universities to think? The latest issue of IFES Word & World explores Hope for Creation.

Las Newman from Jamaica writes that faith in Christ means hope for creation and caring for creation as a way to cherish God’s gifts. Read now

Ruth Hicks de Olmedo presents how the students of CECE, the IFES movement in Ecuador, are presenting good news for the whole creation through the Genesis Project. Read now

Andrew Shepherd from New Zealand invites us to recognize non-human animals as our fellow creatures, breathed into life by God as his agents and our fellow-worshippers. Read now

Pablo Pistilli from Argentina invites readers to move beyond a pessimistic theology to caring for God’s creation.
Read now

E. Daniel Cárdenas-Vásquez from Peru and the United States proposes that genetically engineered foods are a way to feed those in most need and proclaim good news to the poor. Read now

It will be clear in this issue that IFES Word & World is meant to spark conversation and not present a consensus. Readers may not agree about whether ‘pessimistic theology’ should be condemned or whether genetically modified foods are good. Readers may not think there is as much hope for the renewal of creation as these authors say there is. But parallel discussions are going on in universities around the world, and IFES staff and students are already taking part in those discussions. I hope that this issue feeds discussion and action about creation and environment with a fitting hope in the liberation of the whole creation through Jesus Christ.

Since I have taken up a new position as Research Fellow in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, this will be my last issue as Editor. To mark the end of four years, I have written a brief history of IFES Word & World.

I am sad to leave, but I will stay in touch with the IFES community as a member of the developing Theological Advisory Group. I hope that IFES Word & World will continue to serve IFES staff and any from around the fellowship and beyond who want to reflect theologically about the world students live in.

Robert W Heimburger, Editor
wordandworld@ifesworld.org

Such views were not isolated. Just ahead of the UN conference on climate change in Cancun, Mexico 2010, a special report, the so-called ‘Consensus Buster’, claimed that ‘More than 1000 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims’. The 321-page special report was supposed to ‘further chill UN Climate Summit in Cancun’. Climate skeptics and deniers who produced the report argued that the IPCC reports have (a) distorted the scientific evidence, (b) induced ‘climate fear’, and (c) caused a scandal in the climate science community referred to as ‘Climategate’.[3]

Now, a decade later, the world is alarmed by the overwhelming scientific evidence and existential realities of global warming. A ‘climate emergency’ has been declared. Evidence of significant environmental disruptions is everywhere.

As I see it, the debate over the state of the earth and the future of the environment is causing some despair. Questions abound. Is the current vulnerability of the earth caused by natural or anthropogenic forces? Is the global ecological crisis cyclical, irreversible, and beyond repair? Is our civilization, as we know it, on the verge of extinction?[4] Is there enough political and moral will to combat the impending and inevitable disaster that is before us? Is there hope for creation? 

From the perspective of Scripture and the biblical worldview, the answer is emphatically yes, there is hope. Christian hope is rooted in the God who is the owner of the planet and the biblical mandate for creation care and human responsibility. This perspective helps us avoid Christian fatalism that suggests we can do nothing to avert or overcome the overwhelming challenge posed by global warming and climate change. 

In my view, creation care is Awareness, Analysis, and Action (Triple A) towards everything in the world around us. That includes the air we breathe, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the home we live in, the transportation we use, etc. We should be paying attention to everything in our space that supports life and health. Jesus called attention to creation as an object lesson about life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. “Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field”, he said, “they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Mathew 6:26). God cares about everything in his creation, human and non-human.

A reminder of God‘s care for creation is in the hymn that sings,

The psalmist also drew attention to creation as an object of awareness, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

Awareness of creation involves not just curiosity. It is taking an interest in environmental standards set by the community in which we live. Each citizen should know what is expected of them as they inhabit and share common space. Do we know what the anti-litter laws are, how to manage our garbage, how to take care of common spaces, our recreational parks, beaches, nature trails, mountain slopes, and specially protected areas? Awareness extends to global policy agreements that aim to protect planet earth, our common home. For example, do you know what the Paris Agreement in 2015 is, agreed by 194 member-countries of the UN?[6]

It is one thing to be observant, to be aware. It is another to know the facts, to analyze. Climate sceptics and deniers profess to be agnostic about the facts agreed by the majority of climate scientists. ‘Nobody really knows’, they say.[7]

We cannot ignore the brutal facts of global warming and climate change. If we do, it is to our peril. The realities demand immediate action, adaptation, mitigation, conservation, preservation, and prevention of environmental abuse and degradation. The integrity of the earth demands justice. Doing justice requires action, including advocacy for environmental care and protection and prosecution for environmental crimes such as the wanton and extensive destruction of the Amazon rainforest.[8]

Christians care about the environment for three major reasons.

Jesus said, “if you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15, NIV). Obedience to Christ is foundational to our Christian ethic. As Chris Wright points out, ‘trashing someone else’s property is incompatible with any claim to love that other person’.[9] As the Cape Town Commitment says, ‘We care for the earth, most simply, because it belongs to the One whom we call Lord’ who created it and loves it.[10]

The gospel is for the whole creation, human and non-human. The whole creation ‘groans’ and longs for redemption (Rom. 8:18-22). In Christ, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).

The Lausanne Movement’s Cape Town Commitment offers clear guidance on what Christian responsibility is toward the environment. ‘Such love for God’s creation demands that we repent of our part in the destruction, waste and pollution of the earth’s resources and our collusion in the toxic idolatry of consumerism. Instead, we commit ourselves to urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility’.[11] ‘Urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility’ means taking bold and decisive action to safeguard the well-being of the environment without regard to vested interests and countervailing forces. Bold, prophetic actions in the current global ecological crisis reveal how much we cherish and honor the Lord of creation.

Creation care fits squarely in the mission of God. As Creator of heaven and earth, God establishes his creation to reveal who he is, to offer avenues of praise to him, and to declare his glory to the ‘ends of the earth’, so that the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord ‘as the waters cover the sea’ (Habakkuk 2:14).

Evangelical missions have a critical role to play in creation care. Like medical missions or Missionary Aviation Fellowship, creation care is crucial. The scale of the global environmental crisis is enormous and multi-dimensional. It affects the world’s population that now exceeds seven billion people. That is why when over 4,200 global evangelical leaders from 198 countries gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2010 for the Third Lausanne Congress, creation care was high on the agenda. Lausanne’s first post-Cape Town global consultation was on ‘Creation Care and the Gospel’, and I was among its senior leaders. That consultation, held in Jamaica in 2012, drew 57 global participants from 26 countries as diverse as India, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Kenya, Uganda, Singapore, the UK, the USA, and Canada. Their collective resolutions, known as the ‘Jamaica Call to Action’,[12] spawned a very active global Creation Care Network that is leading a global campaign for creation care.

As individual students, faculty, staff, and graduates, and collectively in our fellowships and organizations, there are many things that we can do to affect directly the present and future ecological challenge that confronts us. Actions include: 

In this time of climate emergency, everyone must take heed and act. We must not reject science, especially climate science, without careful assessment of big, peer-reviewed global scientific data. Let us reject so-called ‘alternative facts’ of dubious scientific opinion that are disguised forms of political ideology or economic expediency. Too much is at stake. Humanity is suffering. Hope is needed.

Let us read Scripture through an environmental lens. Scripture teaches so much about environmental care and human responsibility. Join the creation care movement. As God works through us, let us help save our planet and save lives. 

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we see God’s presence turning chaos into order, separating light from darkness and creating a vast range of plants and animals, and humans. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” And 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

The fact that we have been created in the image of an incredibly creative God means that we have been made to create. We have also been entrusted with the responsibility of caring for creation and cultivating the land. We can see that humans have two main roles: to be co-creators with God, and co-carers of EVERY created being, including the land, animals and humans. According to the biblical narrative we know that sin breaks up that harmonious relationship between humans and God, causes division between humans (Genesis 3:12) and creates a rift that affects creation (Genesis 3:18). Throughout the Bible we see that the reconciliation brought about by Jesus on the cross offers not only hope for humans as individuals, but also reconciliation for the cosmos (Romans 8:19-24 and Colossians 1:20). The gospel gives hope to all individuals and also to every created being.

We know that the gospel is good news for all creation, but how can we help university students to connect such a deep text like Genesis with their understanding of being co-carers and co-creators with God? And how should this have an impact on their daily lives in terms of caring for creation?

Every year students and staff of CECE (Comunidad de Estudiantes Cristianos de Ecuador) choose a book from the Bible to study together throughout the year. In 2018 we chose the book of Genesis. When the opportunity came up to request funds from IFES for inspiring evangelism, we created the Genesis Project.

Thanks to our readings of Genesis as a group, we were encouraged to reflect upon, teach about and act on the issue of creation care in the university context of Ecuador.

The Genesis Project was made up of three complementary parts. First, the student groups used a series of Bible studies exploring the topic of creation care and stewardship based on the book of Genesis. Second, we came up with several ideas and a small fund so that the students in the group could carry out a specific project to serve in their campuses, focusing on creation care. Third, we created a PROXI (a visual outreach tool) on the topic of the environment, which was used to engage in conversation with their fellow students.

At the end of the year we estimated that around 700 students had interacted with at least one of the parts of the Genesis Project, together with our 16 student groups. It was amazing to see the impact on the lives of CECE students, and the conversations on faith and creation care that they held with their friends. Valery, an architecture student from Guayaquil, shared:

What impact did it have? For many students it was the first time they discovered that the Bible has a lot to say about the responsibility and privilege of caring for creation as humans, as part of God’s invitation to take part in the project to reconcile creation as a whole. It is essential for Jesus’ disciples to understand that the gospel calls us to be agents of reconciliation for the entire creation.

The serving project was different in each university and met needs that students observed in their campuses. Some of the projects included recycling clothes and planting a new garden in an abandoned courtyard in one of the buildings, building and installing containers to recycle plastic in the dining halls, and collecting cigarette stubs from the university lake. Thanks to these serving projects, some of the students’ non-Christian friends got involved and came to the Bible studies.

The PROXI tool helped us to engage in conversation with many students, who were actually surprised that Christians were concerned about the environment. Thanks to the interest that the project stimulated, there were many talks about the chance to work with other student associations and the environmental clubs on several campuses.

When the Genesis Project ended, each CECE student received a reusable eco cloth bag, and they made the commitment to teach their families about the importance of reducing the use of plastic, and to implement other ideas to care for creation in their local contexts.

Is the gospel good news for all creation? Yes, indeed! The Genesis Project helped CECE students understand that God invites us to be involved in his reconciliation project on all levels – humans with God and with one another – and to promote caring for and restoring the entire creation.

Suggested documentaries to see and/or use at a university video forum

Footnotes

Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®