David Prather
July 2006
We have contaminated our streams, damned our rivers, raped our forests,
and polluted our skies. No songbird could excel the excellency of the wood
thrush’s song yet it is being stilled by acid rain. No herbivore could
consume the diversity of Pennsylvania’s forests like the logging practices
at work today.
Last week I took inventory of the trees left after logging in nearly every
plot along the highways between here and Pittsburgh. It was the exception
that contained much more than maples struggling under maple decline. The
untrained eye may have seen endless forests, but the eyes of a forester saw
the end of our forests. I am trying to get my eyes off the problem and onto
the solution. The solution is not letting forest barons ship our remaining
hardwoods to Europe and the Orient. It is not letting chip mills reduce our
ravaged woodlands into defiled remnants of former glory until they resemble
a tattered cornfield at the end of March. It is putting our earth and
environment first. Some still ask, “How can we do this when we need jobs,
when we need money?” No right thinking person would ask their daughter to
prostitute herself because they need money or become a dope dealer because
they need a job. Daniel says, “The wicked shall do wickedly and none of the
wicked shall understand." I think many simply do not understand. They do
not understand that when God closes a door, He opens a window. They ask,
“Are we supposed to put protecting the environment ahead of human needs for
jobs and money.”
Jesus tells us that our Heavenly Father knows all about what we need and he
tells us to “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things will be
added unto us.” When we see that God’s word tells us that humans are
created to guard and protect the Earth, how could we abandon our post so
that our purpose is abandoned to fulfill our greed.
If those seeking to control the destiny of this beautiful area have their
way, our land can shudder at the plans they have to make their fast buck at
the expense of every wild thing. Saint James says that their gold and
silver will be a testimony against them. God sees that their day is
coming. "The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of
the rulers…The whole earth is at rest and quiet: the trees break forth into
singing, Yes the fir trees rejoice at thee and the Cedars of Lebanon,
saying, since thou art laid down no faller has come up against us…”
Not a day seems to go by without me hearing America’s current favorite
scripture; “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves
and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their
land.” Most read this as, I will give more power to a certain political
party. Or I will outlaw abortion. Or I will bring back pro-hibition.But
it says, “I will heal their land.” Many are not even aware that the land is
gravely injured, wounded, and suffering. The scripture says the wilderness
mourns, but they have not listened to it weeping. They are waiting to go to
heaven not having realized that the master has told us to pray that heaven’s
kingdom would be established in the earth.
We do not understand the benefits of a healed land nor do we realize the
cost of its cure. We are willing to tax the next generation into poverty
for war, but spend nothing to heal our land. Who cares today that the old
growth forests are the unique habitation of the Almighty? (Psalms 132.) We
serve God with lip service, but where are the leaders and followers who want
or are ready to care for a healed land?
This is not the time to cut more of our forests, but time to secure seed
from its remaining bio-diversity and begin seed stock to replenish them for
future generations to enjoy. All wild creatures depend upon this
bio-diversity…so does the human spirit.
Psalms 96 verses 11 and 12 make clear the direction God would have us go in
relation to our environment. “Let the atmosphere brighten so the earth may
spin joyfully through space. Let the roaring waters tumble and thunder
violently and be filled with life. Let the land jump for joy with all its
creatures – then shall the trees spread like a green old-growth blanket and
sing for joy.”
Return to Environmental Articles