In 1896 a Christian mission station was set up and the missionaries set about shooting the animals. As a result families moved into the area to farm. 37 poachers had been shot in Zimbabwe between 1987-8. The Need for Balance None of the contributors to this volume believes that care for the environment is either a trivial or worthless pursuit. Of course we all want to have a good environment.
Nobody wants to breathe polluted air or to drink poisoned water.
However we feel it is necessary to warn Christians of the pitfalls which can ensue from embracing the Green movement, as it is currently constituted, too warmly. At the heart of Greenery lie values which are fundamentally different from those of our Judaeo-Christian tradition. In a famous article published in Science in 1967 American historian Lynn White blamed Christianity for environmental degradation, and warned that we would have to 'find a new religion, or rethink our old one' if we wanted to undo the damage. Some Christians are concerned that the rethinking of Christianity which has gone on in recent years with regard to Green issues has come close to creating Lynn White's new religion. Giovanni Moletta, a professor of moral theology in the seminary of Vicenza, told a conference of environmentalists that he had refused absolution to a factory manager who was guilty of polluting the environment.