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Opinion: We got ourselves into this mess, so surely we can get ourselves out of it.

Is the world cursed? Fires are consuming great stretches of the Australian landscape. Wikipedia reports on the Brazilian rain forest: “Through July 2019 over 7,200 square miles [18,648 square kilometers] has burned — an aggregated area nearly the size of [the U. S. state of] New Jersey.”

People feel as if the hammer of climate destruction is going to fall on many parts of the world. We live amidst fears of declining underground water supplies, and the threat of fresh water shortages in a number of regions. On the other hand sea levels are rising.

That will be inconvenient for some, expensive for others, and lethal for still others. California seems to burn more fiercely each year. Vast stretches of Alberta are destroyed by the oil industry. Reports from Canada’s arctic about the melting permafrost leave no one comforted.


The Christian Bible tells a story about how the first humans ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Some modern people take this story to show that humans are enlightened. According to this way thinking, the story reveals that we know good and evil and have crawled out from under the subjugation of the “gods.”

We are capable of handling ourselves in this world that is dangerous, and at the same time, hopeful. We are capable of deciding who should live and who should die. The future, for good or evil, is in our hands.

That’s an interesting interpretation which has an appeal to modern people and to certain kinds of post-modern people. But it doesn’t do justice to the context of the story.

In the story it is God alone who truly knows good and evil. We may aspire to becoming all knowing as God is. But when we claim to be godlike, or claim to know as God knows, look out!

We’ve seen and continue to see people who take that path. In many parts of the world, including the Middle East, China, Russia, and the territories held by Boko Haram, human life is cheap.

Human life is cheap, but so also is a most precious commodity: truth.

Consider this: In places ruled by people who assume to know all, and especially to know who should die in times of crisis, the price of truth drops like a rock. It is bent, manufactured, and used for lethal ends. Pity those who will be accused of shooting down flight PS752 by a government that once denied it could ever have happened. The goal of the process that faces the accused will be less about finding truth. It will be more about presenting suitable scapegoats to the world’s onlookers and saving face (of the government).

But it is not only people who suffer when humans assume godlike knowledge. So does land. Throughout the Bible, wherever God blesses people with land, they are called to take care of it, and even to assist God in bringing forth blessing from the earth under their feet (Genesis 2 for example).

However, in our quest for abundance all over the planet, we are in danger of leaving the earth desolate. The demands we place on the resources of this planet are generating catastrophe. I don’t like to think about it, but my children and yours will likely live in a world where collapsing ecosystems will make life impossible in more and more regions of this fragile earth.

It is true, as Christians say, that God will return to set all things right. Sometimes people call this the “second coming” of Jesus Christ. Absolutely. When that happens, the terrors and desolations of this world will finally be given the boot.

Music artists Bifrost Arts Music have a song about the entire creation looking forward to that day.

In labour all creation groans till fear and hatred cease,

Till human hearts come to believe: In Christ alone is peace.

In labour all creation groans till prejudice shall cease,

Till every race and tribe and tongue in Christ will live in peace.

In labour all creation groans till rape and murder cease,

Till women walk by night unharmed and Christ is this world’s peace.

In labour all creation groans till false divisions cease,

Till enemies are reconciled in Christ who is our peace.

On that day, our relationship with the land that we have defiled will be healed too. In the Bible, justice, peace, redemption, truth, healing, forgiveness, and beauty are all intertwined with the restoration of the earth. These are the results for which Jesus Christ worked – and works today — through you (!) if you are willing.

Until that day, I am not sure how you will navigate this world. What I can tell you is that the Christian tradition offers a path we can’t live without. It reminds us that the powerful and bejeweled are not gods. Only God is.

And God commands that every human life must be valued for their own sake. He commands that truth should be sought humbly, and with great persistence, and that no person is to (willingly) bend or abuse the truth.

And he has created us not to be ruthless exploiters of nature. Rather, we are made to be stewards, to care for this world on his behalf. So, if our actions have cursed the world, we can also act today to mitigate the curse.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.