Creation Care as Caring for Human Beings: An Environmental Justice Case Study

Caring for God’s creation is a burgeoning area of interest among Christians in recent decades. In many Christian circles, however, caring for creation is not given high priority in rankings of the duties of Christian disciples in the world. This article will argue that caring for creation is a biblically mandated call for God’s people in the world and derives from the role of human beings as caretakers of creation, creation’s status as a recipient of God’s salvation in Christ, and the connection between human beings and the other-than-human creation. If creation care is understood as an act of healing creation, then given the relationship between human beings and the rest of creation, healing creation will frequently result in healing human beings. The case study of mercury emissions from coal-fueled power plants and the health of fetuses will provide a point of entry into this discussion.