"Is it another Death Country?" asked the European
missionary. "Well, we've lost 90% to malaria within
days of their arrival" the mission agency responded; this
being a paraphrase of a conversation between a Basel
Mission representative and a prospective candidate for
Cameroon. I am not dead- but only God knows why
that is.
Though modern medicine keeps the malaria at bay there
are poisoness snakes, spiders, caterpillars (not kidding)
and even frogs. Since they live outside you might
assume such creatures are easy to avoid. I too believed
this until I opened the fridge and a frog leaped out. The
next day I saw one in the toilet. When talking to a
friend he said that maybe I had offended someone and
that now they have come as an animal to get me. Six
months ago I would have dismissed this superstition out
of hand ... but now I am starting to wonder whether I
may have upset T B Joshua? Consider for a moment.
There has been a snake in the house, a frog in the fridge
and one morning we woke up to find the floor covered
with a carpet of ants. It is surely beyond reasonable
doubt that this accumulation of probabilities means that
I have upset someone very seriously (is it one of
you???? is it my letters???? just let me know
and I promise I will remove you from my
mailing list - i'll do anything to stop the
wildlife entering my fridge). That is not to mention
the huge hairy spider that Grace saw in the bath. I was
terrified. After much fear and trembling I decided that
in desperate circumstances such as this my strong
ecological sensibilities might need to be set aside. I
realised that this would be a teleological suspension of
the ethical but I grabbed a great big stick and whacked
the thing as hard as I could. What else was I to do? (I
wish there was a chip shop here - I tell you
that night I would have eaten two large
portions!)
Circumstances such as the above have, I am afraid, lessened
my renowned environmentalist sympathies. I do still find the
natural world majestic when there is a screen of glass (and
several thousand miles) between us. Nevertheless, in reality I
am coming to the conclusion that however hard I may want to
save the planet it is doing its very best to finish me off! Just
yesterday a student woke only to find a snake lying next to
them (a black mamba).
I know that in England (and other countries like it) much of
the natural world has been converted into a “safe” place where
you can walk the dog and feed the ducks. But when you think
about it, during the majority of human history the natural
world has been seen as harsh, inhospitable and dangerous. In
much of the world today, people have to struggle
against the environment in order to survive. If the rains
fail, they starve. If there is a drought, they die. I guess
modern science has largely removed the developed
world from many of these difficulties.
The events of the last few months (particularly the
snake) have got me wondering. Is it possible that our
compassionate view toward nature belies the mistaken
presumption that we are in control of it? Sometimes you
hear people speak about the planet as though it were a
vulnerable animal that needed our protection. This is of
course understandable. The more we domesticate our
environment, the more we think we are in control, the
more we view the dwindling wilderness as a symptom
of its vulnerability. However, when you think about it,
our supposed mastery over nature is false (if there were
no electricity or gas in the UK this winter who knows
how many would die from the cold). The super storm,
the bush fire, the tornado and the many other natural
disasters show us how utterly vulnerable we are to
nature – however much we cover it up with tarmac.
I am not saying that we should be violent consumers of
natural resources (how can I – I wash in a ¼ of a bucket of
water (I still smell really nice though) and rarely have the
option to switch anything on). I am not saying that we should
destroy the earth. Clearly in so many places around the world
human beings have desecrated the environment. We should be
good stewards. We should, as far as it depends on us, live in
harmony with our surroundings. However, though I firmly
believe that there is nothing wrong with recycling, I have the
feeling that it would be far more effective if we were able to
fix our incessant craving for new stuff. Nature is not a pet
stuck in a tree (there are pythons in the trees here). It is not a
domesticated animal (I would be dead within days of arrival
in Cameroon if there were no drugs to cure malaria).
I may be wrong but hugging trees is not going to do anything
to stop our rabid desire to go shopping for more things that we
do not need. I guess that if we are really serious about climate
change then we need to stop buying new things and start
fixing the old ones. Throughout its history, the Church has
taught that it is the rebellion of humankind that has brought
the world into a state of dissonance. Whether we accept this or
not it remains clear that the root of the problem lies in our
selfish sinful hearts. Our rampant and insatiable consumerism
is the human cause of climate change. The new contract
phone, the new car, the new laptop etc. We need to stop
thinking of nature as though it can be saved. It is we who need
to be saved. The problem is in us. We always want more.
Pray for us. Pray especially for Grace who will have the baby
sometime in the new year in the UK. Pray that she would have
a safe delivery in a world where so many mothers do not have
a chance of this (in Cameroon one in ten children die at birth).
Thank God for modern medicine.