You shoud know for factual purposes, they have Peter leading a wayward life until age 33 but, he got saved at age 19. At 33, he started Restoring Eden. And, Restoring Eden teaches environmental stewardship as a form of Christian discipleship, not as a requirement for salvation. Also, while Restoring Eden believes the common good needs a collective voice, they suggest that civil disobedience be a last resort - but it is always on the table.
As far as the salvation issue goes, yes, I agree. It is very close to the beginning of the article, though, so maybe it'll be glossed over in the scheme of things. I had a nice chat with my theology professor this semester when he was talking about the redemption of man and how we often make it over personal and I challenged him on making it worse than that: strictly anthropocentric. The Bible says that Christ is coming to redeem ALL THINGS. We're right up there and equal with creation, redeemed WITH creation not through it, but not without it. As one of my indigenous friends, Terry LeBlanc, likes to say: "If you want to get some mainstream Western Christians fired up, remind them that, Christ died for you AND your dog."
I really liked the article for the most part. I actually found out about it on my dad's Facebook, then made an 11 PM run to a local store that was selling it. I thought it was funny how having a conversation with someone makes you a "friend" of theirs, but it was a good conversation and her quote about her school being "the buckle of the Bible Belt" has certainly rung in my ears since Powershift. I've found a lot more direction in my life and my role in Christian Environmental Stewardship since then, and I'm even more excited now!
It's really interesting. Since Powershift (a sweet alternative energy and environmental themed conference for mostly college-aged youth), where the interviews were conducted, I've gotten to see how coal not only leads to violence and destruction of our Earth in the US, but also in El Salvador (people are getting SHOT) and how it's a hot topic even in the UN now-a-days (visiting the UN for the CSD: Commission on Sustainable Development last year was also LARGELY eye-opening) that is becoming very political. Even my campus (Messiah College) gets our energy from a company that is mainly a coal company :( Actually, I can't wait to show the magazine to President Phipps and talk to her about Messiah's 5 year sustainability plan and what that REALLY means.
I was excited to hear Obama's SOTU tonight, but even China's already beating us at investing in green energy. What's really sad, though, is when out investments in green energy end up (pardon my language) raping other countries. When I was in El Salvador, I talked to an indigenous man whose crops all died when a us company bought up a lot across the dirt road from his village and fumigated it to try and grow "native" crops for biofuel development. After funding his country's civil war, we're still taking advantage of the marginalized of his country because we're still trying to cheap out of our responsibilities to God, the Earth, and our fellow Man. THAT is uncalled for and definitely infringing on the commands of Jesus.
AND, as far as Peter Illyn and hiking the PCT with LLAMAS goes... I wish I would have thought of that first. I LOVE llamas.
Another slant of the article I didn't really agree with was when they made it sound like the girl that they quoted's parents and my parents were in the same boat.
My parents wouldn't kill me if they knew I'd been speaking out for the environment in radical ways... they DO know and they fully support me :)