Today is Earth Day, which means it’s as good a day as any to recycle a post. Last year’s post on Earth Day was one of my favorites of the year, and I’m gonna reduce/reuse/recycle by posting it again. The original post was called “Our Big Honking Stuff Problem.”

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Earth Day has been around, in an official capacity, since the late 60s. The earliest I can recall hearing about it was during my freshman year in high school, which was 1988. We talked it up a lot at school that year, and the student council was selling Earth Day t-shirts with something about saving the earth and recycling on the front. Green silkscreen. The shirts were cool. I bought one and wore it proudly on Earth Day.

I’m not sure of the chronology, but I ran into my 9th grade Sunday School teacher while I was wearing the shirt. I liked the guy. He was nice and fairly young. He was big-time into Young Earth Creationism (the literal 7-day variety), so almost all of our Sunday School lessons turned into discussions about where the dinosaurs fit in and how Noah could have crammed some baby dinosaurs onto the ark and whether or not “leviathan” in Job was a dinosaur reference. He was super-knowledgeable about that stuff and we ate it up.

This is the first thing he said when he saw me wearing my Earth Day shirt: “Why are you wearing that? You don’t believe that junk, do you?” He was not kidding at all. In fact, he seemed a little angry. I mumbled an answer about how I just liked the shirt, and how they were selling them at school. His implied message — that there was something unchristian about Earth Day — was news to me. I was stunned. I was devastated. In fact, I don’t remember ever wearing that shirt again. I never talked to him about it, but I definitely looked at Earth Day differently for the next few years. I didn’t buy any more shirts about recycling.

It was another few years before I decided that my dinosaur-loving Creationist teacher was flat-out wrong (about a lot of things) but especially for being so jerky about my shirt. I still see him every once in awhile. We’ve never discussed it. I’m not sure if he’s come around or not.

But I have.

And I’m not gonna soft-shoe it, either. Christians need to repent for having gotten in the way of the last few decades of environmental initiatives — for treating any environmental talk with knee-jerk suspicion, for acting like it’s all some sort of pagan/liberal mumbo-jumbo, for forgetting that creation care is a spiritual issue and a poverty issue and a human rights issue and not just a corporate or political one. It is not an anti-Christian thing at all…despite what our 9th-grade Sunday School teachers may have said.

It’s not a liberal thing. It is a human thing.

I’ll end the rant and try not to get too preachy about it (too late!). But here are some resources to consider on this Earth Day:

Read this: One of the best faith & environmentalism books I’ve read is Tri Robinson’s Saving God’s Green Earth. Tri is a pastor whose Boise church is doing some groundbreaking things when it comes to the intersection of religion and conservation. Some great articles at their website.

Two other great books are Serve God, Save the Planet, by Dr. Matthew Sleeth, and Go Green, Save Green, by Nancy Sleeth (Matthew’s wife). Lots of great resources at the Sleeth’s non-profit organization, Blessed Earth.

Watch this: We have a big honking consumerism problem. I have a big honking consumerism problem. And it’s good to recycle stuff and walk instead of drive and try to turn off the lights when you leave the room. But those are tiny actions around the edge of the problem. They won’t fix the environmental crisis. Instead we need to get to the heart of the problem, and its heart is consumerism. We use too many resources without thought of conservation or sustainability. We produce too much waste. We buy too much stuff we don’t need. That’s why I think the Junky Car Club is a great idea. That’s why I also want to recommend this short film by Annie Leonard. It’s 20 minutes long, but it’s a fast-paced, funny, eye-opening 20 minutes. You want to participate in Earth Day? The best place to start is by watching “The Story of Stuff.”

Here’s a teaser.

Watch the whole film at www.storyofstuff.com.

Try this: If a young person gets excited about something good — something that’s beneficial to someone else, even if you think it might be somehow misguided — do not discourage him or her from pursuing it. To do so is mean, selfish, and a crappy way to be human.

Yes, I’m talking about the Earth Day t-shirt thing.

On a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, my daughter, Ellie, was riding her scooter down the block. She came back in a hurry, a little frantic because, four houses away, one of our neighbor’s sprinkler heads had come off and water was gushing down their driveway. Ellie had learned at school that week about not wasting water. She was upset about the lawn geyser, “because we might run out of water someday.” She wanted me to go fix it. Or go turn off their sprinkler. My first response was to tell her it wasn’t our yard and we couldn’t really do much about it. And that their broken sprinkler was not going to drain our water supply. Then I thought about my Earth Day shirt, and my Sunday School teacher. And about Ellie’s out-of-nowhere passion for water conservation. So I walked down to that house and — despite getting soaked and muddy — screwed that sprinkler head back into place. Water crisis solved. Ellie was happy. In a small way, we saved the environment that morning.

Baby steps. It’s all about baby steps.

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Wanna do something small but environmentally sound, and which your kids will think is awesome? Try worm composting. Here’s a January post about my entry into vermicomposting. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s healthy for your yard and garden, and it reduces the amount of stuff you throw away. Also, it’s thousands of worms.

I’ve been thinking lately about the questions I have for God, the kinds of things I would ask if I could get an answer, and which I do ask from time to time. They’re the kinds of questions that aren’t always acceptable to ask in some religious circles — they indicate, in some minds, a lack of faith (which not everyone deals with very well). But I think it’s healthy to ask questions of God. If you look at the Bible, guys like Moses and David and Elijah and Jeremiah all got away with asking very serious questions of God. Job spends a whole book questioning the Almighty…then God (sorta) rewards him for it in the end.

My upcoming book about doubt and spiritual weakness (Zondervan) asks a lot of these questions, and in most cases, they’re questions for which I don’t have good answers. The Bible doesn’t really have satisfactory answers either. Neither does most theology.

Because I’m editing the book right now and am curious, I’m wondering what questions you might ask God if you knew you could get an answer? Not goofy questions like “What is the purpose of mosquitoes, anyway?” or “Why allow the continued existence of Carrot Top?” but real, hard, serious questions.

Here’s my big question, at least for now:

Most so-called “proofs” of God are subjective, disputable, and can somehow be explained away by science. Why doesn’t God give us more substantial, objective proof that he exists?

That’s my question. What’s yours?

Thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday’s “ideas needed” post. I’ve passed your suggestions along to the church guy and they are much appreciated…and might eventually be implemented. Who knows?

Since you were so helpful yesterday, I’d like to pose another question and see how you might respond to it. Because I’ve written a few advice books — Pocket Guide to Adulthood for 20somethings and A Guy’s Guide to Life for teens — I occasionally get sincere questions about certain issues from readers. I can’t answer all of them, but I do try to answer a few as I have time.

Yesterday I received the following email from a young man who is a senior in high school and seems to be pretty thoughtful. Read his questions below. (He’s agreed to allow me to post this, though I’ve edited out any identifying stuff to keep it anonymous.)

If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear what you might say in response.

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Dear Jason,

Recently I’ve had a growing sense of frustration with the American Church in general and value your advice (and I’ll try to not make sweeping generalizations where one bad experience labels Christians everywhere).

But recently my Humanities class took a look at the genocide, cruelty and injustice that has ravaged the Darfur region of Sudan. My heart broke for the people as they related tale after tale of rape, murder, slaughter and starvation. One PBS video criticized the UN and Bush’s administration for essentially ignoring or understating the problem, but in disgust I asked, “Where is the church? Where are the advocates of the orphan and widow, the hands and feet of God reaching to the least of these?” I can’t help but question our incentives as we construct multi-million dollar facilities, skate parks, game rooms, and coffee shops that are built for our own comfort, while the world is bleeding all around us. Couldn’t those resources be better used to hold our palms against their wounds and cater to the needs of the hurting?

Not that I am above that affluence; as I write this I gorge myself on a plate of chicken in the comfort of a large home and later plan to drive in my truck that costs thousands of dollars. I don’t know, I guess my point is that I struggle to see the practicality of the extravagant money spent of making our churches comfortable. I know that the rich need to be ministered to, but wasn’t the only thing Paul and Barnabas were asked to do was to remember the poor, the very thing they were eager to do? As I read the gospels, it appears to me that things like comfort, fashion and entertainment weren’t very important to Jesus. I’ll be the first to admit to my own greed, pride and lust for comfort and the plank in my own eye; but should or shouldn’t our churches prioritize service to the hurting and poor community? Is there a balance in there somewhere?

That’s what’s been on my heart lately and I can’t really figure it out, and I appreciate you taking the time to look at this.

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Serious questions. How would you respond?

A friend of mine posed me a theoretical question about his church, and I think it’s a great one to put some creativity to. This modest-sized church has been making a regular debt payment around $20,000 every month for a few years. It intends to pay off this building debt soon.

Which means the church will soon be in the position of having an extra $20K in its budget…unattached to anything. Certainly it could spend the money on itself. New lighting, new audio/visual, new whatever. But this church doesn’t want to head this direction — which is highly commendable, in my opinion. It wants to use the money to do good in its community, to help people, and to make the world a better place.

So, even though the question is theoretical at this point, there’s a chance it really could happen. What this minister is asking for is ideas.

If your church had that much money to spend on others every month, how would you spend it?

I have my own ideas, but I thought I’d open it up to you guys. What would you do?

Comment away…

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(Note: When I say above that it’s “a friend of mine,” that’s not a sneaky way of referring to myself. It’s not me. Please don’t come asking me for $20,000 next month.)