Home   News   Article

SUSTAINABLE STRATHSPEY: What’s faith got to do with it?





Abernethy Presbytery clerk Rev Jim MacEwan has said it may be some time yet before kirks reopen for congregations.
Abernethy Presbytery clerk Rev Jim MacEwan has said it may be some time yet before kirks reopen for congregations.

A wee jingle remembered from childhood…

The world belongs to God and all that it contains,

except the Highlands and Islands - they are David MacBrayne’s.

I’ve no recollection of David MacBrayne issuing instructions for the management of the Highlands and Islands, but according to the book of Genesis, God certainly laid down the law for humanity.

We are to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, and to have ‘dominion over the earth’ – and how problematic our obedience has been!

Let’s take the first of these. Any instruction can be taken to extremes, which can make a nonsense of the original intention.

A cartoon a few years ago showed Prince Charles singing the national anthem, and at the line ‘send her victorious, long to reign over us’ he was thinking ‘Yes, well, within reason!’

So what is reasonable in terms of the world population? While some worry about the growth in the size of the global population, more troubling is the growth in our consumption rates.

The average Westerner consumes far more resources than someone in the global South, and continues to do so.

The average Westerner eats more meat, uses more fossil fuels, flies more, owns more cars, and uses the internet more than the global South: all behaviours with huge carbon footprints.

Global consumption of both food and other natural resources is immense and will only continue to grow as more nations emulate unsustainable Western lifestyles.

Undated Handout Photo of a mosquito. See PA Feature GARDENING Advice Marigold. Picture credit should read: Thinkstock/PA. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature GARDENING Advice Marigold..
Undated Handout Photo of a mosquito. See PA Feature GARDENING Advice Marigold. Picture credit should read: Thinkstock/PA. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature GARDENING Advice Marigold..

What remains of the earth’s riches for the generations to come is rapidly decreasing, and it is like stealing from our grandchildren!

We are only able to consume so much, of course, because we do have dominion over every other living being on earth.

Sadly, it seems to be human nature to exploit any and every opportunity, and maximise productivity without regard for the future.

Some years ago Jared Diamond wrote Collapse, in which he outlined the fall of a number of communities, and even civilisations, which had grown fat on the riches provided by a finite resource until the day the fish-stocks collapsed, the last tree was felled, or the water ran out, and suddenly life as people had known it was no longer possible.

The average Westerner eats more meat, uses more fossil fuels, flies more, owns more cars, and uses the internet more than the global South: all behaviours with huge carbon footprints

As someone observed – ‘Too much of a good thing is a bad thing!’

We need to constantly have an eye to the future as we use the world’s resources – for example even if the climate crisis were not exacerbated by burning fossil fuels, it would make sense to minimise our use of them to prolong their availability.

Surely ‘having dominion’ is to do with stewarding, caring for, and even loving the earth and all that is in it.

It is precisely the opposite of doing anything we like just because we can; it does not mean we have the right to wipe out other species of animal, bird, fish, or insect - no, not even midges!

Is it not astonishing that there are objections to rare animals or birds taking some livestock when we humans eat the vast majority of it?

As if we are the only species which matters! We do matter, of course, but we’re not the only ones.

So just as I believe that God – the spirit of life and love – has given us so much power, so I believe that God requires of us to care for all of creation.

Discussions, and often arguments, will naturally occur as we decide how best to do this, but the principle is a matter of faith which each person has freedom to accept or reject.

Rev Jim MacEwan is a member of Grantown-based Sustainable Strathspey.


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.


This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More