earth day – Houghton STAR

This week, Houghton College was invited to celebrate Earth Day. Brian Webb oversaw and organized activities educating students to preserve the livelihood and the health of the planet. Events focused on appreciating and educating students on how best to live in harmony with our terraqueous nursery. They spanned both Earth Day itself–Tuesday, April 22–and the following day.

On Tuesday, the Brown House hosted a lecture titled “Social Justice and the Built Environment.” On Wednesday was hosted both a chapel on environmentalism and a clothing swap.

At the Brown House, Dr. Rusty Pritchard spoke informally about how our constructed world impacts human life and the well being of the poor. Students were invited to interact with Dr. Pritchard who holds a Ph.D. in Resource Economics. He is the founder and president of Flourish, an organization that helps churches tend to humanity through their treatment of the environment.

The chapel, also led by Dr. Rusty Pritchard, took a lighthearted yet focused approach to the christian imperative of environmentalism. He opened the talk joking, “Let me take a few minutes to make you feel guilty.” Growing up, Dr. Pritchard saw environmentalists as “Debbie Downers,” disliking their fatalistic view of the world. He discovered, however, that they instead understood the effects of their actions at a distance in the context of the environment.

Dr. Pritchard demonstrated the convergence of environmentalism and Christianity. As the environment affects those who live off its fruits – all people, but most notably the impoverished – so too does our damage to environment affect them. In this light, environmentalism is an issue of social justice. Instead of embracing the judgement and blame that often comes from environmentalism, he encouraged Christians to care for creation as an act of compassion for humanity.

The clothing swap was coordinated by junior Hanna Kahler, one of the college’s Eco-Reps. This is the first year that Houghton has Eco-Reps. The program selects students who are interested to help promote a mindset of sustainability to their peers, led by Webb.

“The clothing swap idea came about because it’s something that my little sister and I have done with our friends before, and so I thought that it would be a fun thing to do on a college-wide level. It was my Eco-Rep project this year and has come about with a lot of help from friends and other Eco-Reps.” said Kahler.

In early April, bins were placed in each dorm in which students were encouraged to drop items of clothing that they no longer needed or wanted. On Wednesday, the clothes were set out in the basement of the Campus Center. Anyone was free to take as they pleased from the collection. The remaining clothes were donated to a local clothing shelter for the poor.

On Monday, April 22, Houghton College will be observing Earth Day. This is a day intended to raise awareness about the effects of climate change on the earth and on individuals. Allen Johnson—the coordinator and co-founder of Christians For The Mountains (CFTM)—will be speaking in Chapel at 11:30, leading an open discussion over dinner between 5:00-6:30 in the alumni dining room, and giving a lecture in the CFA at 8.

Allen Johnson helped develop the Evangelical Environmental Network while earning a masters degree from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as a founding leader of the Religious Coalition for Creation Care of which he continues on the Steering Committee. Johnson has presented papers for The National Association of Environmental Professionals and The Colloquium on Violence and Religion, has written articles on faith and the environment, and wrote a chapter in Holy Ground: A Gathering Of Voices On Caring For Creation.

Johnson retired in 2011 to pursue CFTM work. CFTM is an initiative to summons Christians to act responsibly to God’s creation with a specific focus on the central Appalachian Mountains region. Their chief objective is the end of mountaintop removal extraction. They have been has been featured in numerous publications including Newsweek, Prism, Grist, documentary programs such as Bill Moyers Journal, and films including Mountaintop Removal and Renewal. Johnson also produced the DVD film, Mountain Mourning.

Johnson’s Chapel sermon, We Either Will Be Lovers or Else the Earth Will Die (Calling all Lovers!),will discuss the decreasing viability of Earth and its inhabitants, and the efforts of science to offer society practical solutions to restore planetary ecological equilibrium. A distinction that Johnson makes is that science, as beneficial as it is, only touches the mind. Social movements come from the heart.

Johnson’s evening lecture, Economic, Political, And Moral Considerations On The Health Externalities Of Mountaintop Mining in Central Appalachia, will be focusing more specifically, as the title suggests, on mountaintop mining in Central Appalachia. Mountaintop mining is a method of extracting coal by blasting apart a mountain layer by layer in order to extract the coal. The remaining 97% of rock debris pushed down into the valleys. Naturally this causes health concerns for local population which are some of the most impoverished in the nation.

These events will be a time where students will be encouraged to focus on the impact they have on the Earth and how we can become better stewards of our natural resources.