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Voices of Faith in the Environment |
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Dr. Matthew Sleeth
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Weekly Earth Summit Commentaries (click on a date to listen) back to top |
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| J. Matthew Sleeth, MD, a former emergency room director and chief of medical staff, now writes, preaches, and teaches full-time about faith and the environment. Together with his wife, Nancy, and their two children, he helps lead the growing evangelical environmental movement. The Sleeths live in northern New Hampshire. Foreword writer Rev. Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs for the 30-million-strong National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which has advanced action by evangelical Christians on human rights and religious freedom, the sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, and protection of God’s creation. Cizik, a signatory of the 2004 Sandy Cove Covenant on environmental concern, is a leading advocate for evangelical action on global warming. | ||
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Ben Lowe
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Weekly Earth Summit Commentaries (click on a date to listen) back to top |
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Wheaton Environmental Studies majors Ben Lowe was among thirty student leaders from Christian colleges across America who met in Washington D.C. in November 2006 to challenge America’s elected and faith leaders to take stronger action on global climate change. The students, including Ben and Jennifer, explained the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative (EYCI), a document signed by over 1,500 young Christians concerned about climate change, at a press conference before heading to Capitol Hill to present the Initiative to their Senators. In February 2006, over 80 evangelical leaders, including Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, and Wheaton College President Dr. Duane Litfin presented the Evangelical Climate Initiative (http://www.christiansandclimate.org) to the public. Complementing the concerns of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, The EYCI (http://www.restoringeden.org/resources/EYCI/download)underscores the growth of Christian concern about environmental stewardship among student leadership on Christian college campuses by showing that such leaders consider such stewardship to warrant moral response, biblical understanding, and action-oriented concern. Ben and Jennifer, with other student leaders, also helped draft a letter (http://www.restoringeden.org/campaigns/GlobalWarming/EYCILetter/view) which was sent to President Bush, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid asking them to work together to enact legislation to combat climate change. On their home campus at Wheaton College, Ben and Jennifer are working with other Wheaton students in preparing events associated with the upcoming visit of Sir John Houghton, the world's leading scientific authority on climate change and a leader in the Christian community on environmental stewardship, to Wheaton from January 22-24, 2007 (see related article on the visit, "Sir John Houghton to Speak at Wheaton College Chapel"). Ben
spent the summer of 2006 working in Tanzania as part of an international
research team studying Africa’s second largest lake, Lake Tanganyika.
Ben was chosen by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate
as an undergraduate researcher as part of the NSF’s Research
Experience for Undergraduates program in the Nyanza Project, an
interdisciplinary study of the effects of climate change on the biology
and limnology of Lake Tanganyika, supervised by Dr. Catherine O’Reilly
of Vassar College and Dr. Andrew Cohen of the University of Arizona.
Ben’s studies concentrated on the ecologic and economic effects of the
local demersal (bottom-dwelling) fishery, especially the effect of local
fishing on two species of cichlids, Benthochromis tricoti and
Linnotilapia dardennei. With his colleagues and supervising scientists,
Ben presented the results of his study to the Tansanizan Fisheries
Research Institute. |
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Emma Sleeth
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Weekly Earth Summit Commentaries (click on a date to listen) back to top |
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