Examples

Heat Pump Reduces Climate Change Emissions

"May I tell you a story about what happened in my church two years ago?

" "We had been reordering the village church and I had been urging use of a ground source heat pump system with the underfloor heating. It would have reduced our carbon emissions by 40%+. I went to a lot of trouble researching it but in the end, various planning issues prevented it from going ahead. People in the village would not let us use the village field for burying the coils to take the heat from the ground. One person said they wanted £2500/year from the church for taking our heat! In the end gas-fired condensing boilers were used, which reduced our carbon emissions by possibly 20% but as the church is used much more now it probably just broke even. I was disappointed as it seemed that the Lord was not in it for us to use GSHP! "Except the Lord builds the house they labour in vain" Chap. --? verse ---?

"However the spin off was that the Chairlady of the Community Association was enthused by what we tried to do and it helped her to use a heat pump system in their new community centre! The centre is probably carbon neutral now as it also has 10kW of solar panels as well. "All things work together for good ..." Rom 8 v 28"

In this example, a heat pump is installed, and this is seen as 'God's way', on the grounds that it is less carbon-intensive than heating traditionally used in the UK and hence more responsible towards God's planet in terms of climate change emissions.

Tuberculosis in Cattle

In the UK there is an epidemic of tuberculosis among cattle, and badgers are believed to be carriers of the disease. Badgers also suffer from it. The Ministry of Agriculture has a policy of wide-area culling of badgers in order to protect cattle. Result: badgers move in from surrounding areas, perhaps bringing the disease with them.

On 5 April 2006 it was reported (BBC Radio 4 Today Programme) that an organic farmer in south-west England, an area where TB is prevalent, had tried a new approach. He noticed that his cattle that were fed on clover rather than maize were much more resistant to the disease. He also knew that badgers liked maize. Maize is deficient in certain elements, especially Selenium. So he left pails by each badger sett with a Selenium-rich mix of molasses. The result: the badgers in his area are healthy and no longer infect his cattle.

This seems a clear example of how, if we look after (do good to) the rest of creation, we will ourselves benefit. The problem is that British farmers have, for long, seen badgers as 'enemies' and 'threats' and I suspect that there is an attitude among them of "Why should we do good to those which ought to be exterminated! Why should I waste my money on doing this?" That attitude - not informed by the fruit of the Holy Spirit - should not, at least, be taken by those who bear Christ's Name.

Perhaps Christian farmers should follow the example of their organic colleague and do good to the badgers rather than seeking their destruction?

Read also Phil Sampson's little story of the history of the world, humankind and God in terms of how we treat animals.

Created: . Last updated: 3 December 2006 sampson. 25 July 2010 MikeK's story. 1 August 2010 slight amendments to that story.