FIGHTING
FOR THE LAND

Topics: Beauty; Creation; Creator; Environmentalism; Nature; Unity; Vision

References: Genesis 1:28–30; Psalm 24:1–2; Revelation 11:18

Allen Johnson, a conservative evangelical Christian living in the mountains of West Virginia, is an environmental activist and cofounder of Christians for the Mountains, a group of people who have demonstrated against coal companies and participated in Rainbow Family gatherings.

Allen hopes that environmental stewardship will quickly become a unifying issue for Christians across the nation. “God has called all of us seriously,” he says, “and we should agree on one thing: to take care of his earth.”

Allen’s passion for environmentalism began in 1993 while visiting Haiti with a Christian Peacemaker team. He saw desperate farmers cutting down grapefruit trees to make a cash crop of charcoal. “I just started sobbing,” he says. “It really hit me that impoverishment is so closely tied to environmental destruction.”

Since that day, Johnson has been a pioneer in a growing movement called “Eco-Christianity.” His biggest challenge has been convincing other Christians to join him in the fight instead of labeling him a “New Age wing nut” or a liberal. “My identity is not as an environmentalist,” says Johnson. “It’s as a Christian. Because I am Christian, I should be involved with social justice—the poor, the needy. Environmentalism is one thing in my circle, but it’s not my center.”

—Vanessa Juarez and David Gates, “A Shepherd Protects His Own Backyard,” Newsweek (September 5, 2005)