Jonathan Merritt: In his own words

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — Jonathan Merritt didn’t think he would be setting off a denomination-wide controversy when he took his seminary professor at his word during a standard lecture.

“I was listening to one of my seminary heroes, John Hammett, discuss divine revelation and how God uses different ways to reveal Himself. He was discussing the difference between general and special revelation; how God uses nature, for example, to reveal himself through general revelation and how He uses other methods such as through the Bible to reveal Himself in the life of Christ (known as special revelation),” the 25-year-old master of divinity student explained.

“At one point in the conversation about general revelation he talked about the beauty of creation and how Psalm 19 addresses that so well. Then he made this simple statement that stuck in my heart. He said that the act of destroying any part of God’s creation is just like tearing a page out of the Bible,” he added.

“What he was saying is that creation is so precious and such an intimate part of who God is, that we should go out of our way to protect it; and, in fact, the Bible teaches that very concept.”

Taking the professor at his word ultimately caused the young seminarian far more grief that he ever imagined. Here, in an exclusive interview, Merritt explains why he believes Christians should tread more lightly on that creation without becoming the extremists like others have charged him with being.

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INDEX: By your own admission you have been called a socialist, a tree-hugger, and a liberal. Are any of those charges accurate?

MERRITT: By no stretch of the imagination. (Chuckles.) I completed my undergraduate work at Liberty University and did not consider myself to be a friend of the environmental movement, per se. But when my systematic theology professor challenged me to take a look at our role of protecting God’s creation, I had to revisit my biblical obligation. That’s when I began to explore how I could be a better steward of creation in my own life first, and then in my circle of influence.

 

INDEX: How did the Declaration come into existence?

MERRITT: I wrote the initial draft over a number of weeks and then sought the counsel of others in the denomination including Timothy George at Beeson Divinity in Birmingham, David Dockery at Union University, my seminary president Danny Akin, and David Clark at Palm Beach Atlantic University. I included as diverse a group of people as possible to maintain a centrist position on the issue. Some were very conservative, like my dad, others were further along and wanted stronger language.

 

INDEX: You wanted this to be a centrist document? It doesn’t sound like your critics share the same point of view.

MERRITT: Unfortunately, it has been stereotyped as coming from the Left. Nothing could be further from the truth. The contributors went out of their way to include verbiage that avoids leftist extremism. Much to my surprise, even after intentionally affirming the Baptist Faith and Message and writing in a very strong affirmation of being pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, the head of the Family Research Council still said that this document was the first step on the path to accepting abortion and homosexuality.

 

INDEX: Some of your critics have said that such a document will lead the denomination to be “off message” and that we should never stray from our purpose of evangelism. How would you respond to that?

MERRITT: I have no doubt that Southern Baptists will continue to be the world’s leader in evangelism efforts. But to be honest, our very good lobbying efforts for issues like pro-life or pro-marriage legislation have nothing to do with evangelism but are primarily social issues. If they are not “off message,” how could a defense of the environment be “off message?”

We do not have to back away from evangelism to address the environment, just like we have not embraced other social issues at the expense of evangelism. In fact, they go hand in hand. I know of one pastor in Washington State, which is a very environmentally sensitive part of the country, who says his congregation is using this very discussion to share Christ.

On the other hand, our lack of action is a hindrance to our witness. The lost world would naturally expect Christians to come to the defense of the world that God has made; instead, we have been strangely quiet and, if you listen to the only voices out there, we are often antagonistic toward protecting the environment and only engage in the most passive ways.

If Southern Baptists see this as being “off message,” then we are paying a lot of folks a great deal of money to work for agencies that are “off message” because they are not directly tied to evangelism. Just take a look at the number of resolutions that we approve in annual session every June that do not deal with evangelism.

Being a good steward of creation is not “off message,” rather it enhances and should accompany our message to a lost world.

 

INDEX: People seem to be confusing global warming/climate change with creation care. What is the difference between the two?

MERRITT: Global warming and its fresher term, climate change, deal with the study of the changing climate and man’s role in that trend. To be honest, we do not know how much humans are actually contributing, and we say as much in our document. We do not take the “chicken little, sky is falling” position that we have been accused of by so many people.

We readily admit that evidence is conflicting, but we do believe that doing something to take better care of God’s creation, however small, is much better than doing nothing. Right now, it seems climate change is a reality we have to address, but if by slim chance it proves to be false, we have no stake in it one way or the other. What we have said is that in the face of conflicting evidence, Christians should find acceptable ways to act in prudence.

 

INDEX: How do you reconcile the newfound Christian emphasis with the science of creationism but no support for protecting that creation which they spend so much time defending? Individuals seem to be very busy talking about the details of how God created the world; a new multi-million dollar Creation Museum in Kentucky has been drawing record crowds. Why does a new appreciation and a desire to protect that very creation not come out of this field of study?

MERRITT: To be honest, it baffles me. We believe that God created this world and was the very first one to call it “good.” Wouldn’t creation care stewardship naturally follow? I think so.

 

INDEX: Anytime you undertake a project of this magnitude you can expect criticism. Were you surprised at the push back you received?

MERRITT: I expected disagreement, but I have been surprised at the negative reaction by people who have clearly never even read the document. Many are just responding to what others have written about it – and many of those people did not read it, either. But what did surprise me was the amount of support I received; it has been a virtual exhale among a tremendous amount of Southern Baptists – especially younger Southern Baptists.

 

INDEX: From where have you received unexpected support?

MERRITT: We have received surprisingly strong support from our international missionaries, strategic coordinators and IMB employees who tell me this is a very big issue on the field. I was surprised to find out that on the mission field, our missionaries often begin by explaining how the world around them – God’s wondrous creation – speaks about His glory and majesty. There is a natural, healthy awe and respect for creation in many cultures where people appreciate the natural world in ways that we seem to have lost because they depend on it for their livelihood; they are more connected to it than we are.

The Apostle Paul did this very thing when he went to Athens. He didn’t begin preaching Jesus who they did not know, but began addressing in terms they understood. Then he used that discussion as a bridge to Jesus. Paul evangelized the Jews and Greeks much like our missionaries, beginning with familiar things and working his way to the gospel.

Now, you may ask how that connects, and here it is. Americans consume more natural resources than any other nation and the average American produces more garbage. Crises like irresponsible deforestation plague Third World countries so that Americans can live well. If we fail to protect and preserve the creation upon which others depend, how can we send our missionaries to those cultures and honestly talk about the God who created a world that we aren’t protecting?

Since we don’t live where that destruction is commonplace and we don’t see the destruction, it is harder for us to relate. But our missionaries assure me that if we, as the historically Christian Western World, work to protect the environment, we will build a greater platform for our missionaries who are preaching the gospel in these places. We need to ask ourselves how our actions represent the biblical mandate to love the poor and to help them who are powerless to help themselves? Didn’t Jesus speak to that very issue?

 

INDEX: How do you reconcile the theological response of some, which seems to be fairly common among your critics, that God is in ultimate control and that there is nothing we can do to hold back the world’s destruction; that regardless how much we work to take better care of the planet, it is all in vain?

MERRITT: Believe it or not, I hear this argument a lot. It is hard to believe that anyone would seriously use this argument, especially since we do not know the day or hour when the end will come. But some people are basically asking, Why worry about the future of an earth that has no future?

I always take people back to the parable of the talents. When the lender returned, the Master wanted to know what they had done with his entrusted gifts in the meantime. When Jesus returns, He will want to know if we have squandered what we have been given or caused it to flourish. The knowledge of a returning Master does not free us from our obligation to a stewardship lifestyle. It calls us to it.

All Christians should long for the day when Christ will return. But when He does, He is going to be concerned with how faithful we were while we remained. When Jesus returns, He wants to find us faithfully doing the things He told us to do. I don’t know about you, but when I meet the Master, I want Him to find me serving others, telling people about His gospel and carrying out the commands of His word – including the command to care for creation.

 

INDEX: Did you intend for your document to be a definitive statement representing the official voice of Southern Baptists, as your critics have charged?

MERRITT: Certainly not, as we have explained on several occasions. Remember the name of the document, “A Southern Baptist ...” includes an indefinite article and doesn’t use the word “Convention” referring to the denomination. One of the best things about being a Southern Baptist, as opposed to being a part of a hierarchical denomination, is that we can express a variety of opinions in various ways. These critics need to be gently reminded that part of being a part of a voluntary, autonomous convention is that no one – not me, not the Executive Committee, not the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission – can claim to speak for all Southern Baptists. There is and must always be freedom for Southern Baptists to have healthy debate or we lose part of what it means to be a Southern Baptist.

 

INDEX: If global warming had never become an issue, would your document be as important in view of conserving resources?

MERRITT: Sure. Just because climate change is stealing the stage right now, doesn’t mean that there aren’t other issues that need to be addressed. There are 1 billion people worldwide who don’t have access to safe drinking water, for example. We can’t just sit back and sip our Dasani and do nothing. The declaration says that faithful stewards need to be addressing all the environmental crises that we may face.

 

INDEX: Can you explain the two lists of signatories on your website?

MERRITT: The first list is composed of the roughly 50 individuals I asked to sign or who asked to sign when they learned about it. Some of them helped to craft the document. The other list is the “open” list where anyone who is a Southern Baptist can sign.

I am amazed at the names of those who have signed on with us on this journey; it has been described as a virtual Who’s Who among Southern Baptist soul-winners. My dad puts me to shame because he wins dozens of people to faith in Christ each year. I can assure you that people like James Merritt are not going to let their participation in this declaration or anything else preempt their commitment to leading others to Christ.

What disturbs me is how quickly a lifetime of evangelistic commitment can be discounted and how you can suddenly be stereotyped as being liberal. It is as if conservatives cannot practice environmental stewardship and a difference of opinion becomes a reason to sever fellowship.

 

INDEX: If there is one thing about your document that you could say to your critics, what would that be?

MERRITT: It’s not about global warming, or a political agenda, it’s about creation care and Christian stewardship, a theology that we have always embraced. Environmental crises are theological problems. If Southern Baptists choose to rediscover scripture’s creation care mandates and collectively reevaluate our lifestyles and habits, our future will be brighter and our witness stronger.

 

Conclusion

The Southern Baptist Environment & Climate Initiative does not endorse specific ways individuals can help take better care of God’s creation due to the variety of options already available. Merritt says the organization’s goal “is to call people to be better Christians by practicing better stewardship of natural resources.”

“We do not believe there is one perfect solution for everyone, but everyone can make a difference.”

For information and resources from a biblical perspective, visit www.baptistcreationcare.org and click on “resources.”

 

 

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