Dutchman’s-breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), photo from two weeks ago

I’d like to take tho opportunity to recommend one of my favorite books: Pollution and the Death of Man by Francis Schaeffer. This is Schaeffer’s short (125 pages, including appendices) argument that Christians should treat nature with respect. Schaeffer argues that Christians are the only people who have a reasonable moral background to be environmentalists, and that others have a basis of mere pragmatism.

Christians, of all people, should not be the destroyers. We should treat nature with an overwhelming respect. We may cut down a tree to build a house, or to make a fire to keep the family warm. But we should not cut down the tree just to cut down the tree. . . . We have the right to rid our houses of ants; but what we have not the right to do is to forget to honor the ant as God made it, in its rightful place in nature.

. . . two factors lead to the destruction of our environment: money and time–or to say it another way, greed and haste. The question is, or seems to be, are we going to have an immediate profit and an immediate saving of time, or are we going to do what we really should do as God’s children?

See also: The Most Important Graph in Economics.

BibTeX Reference:

@book{schaeffer1970,
	Author = {Francis A Schaeffer},
	Publisher = {Tyndale House, Coverdale House},
	Title = {Pollution and the Death of Man:
			 The Christian View of Ecology},
	Year = {1970}
}

I now own a copy of The Complete Works of Francis A Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Schaeffer is the only author who has multiple entries in my short list of Books Everyone Should Read.