Chesapeake Watermen Statement

Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation
Information Service

An Open Letter on the Environment to President Bush from Evangelical Christians

May 20, 2002

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

We are thankful for your decision to establish the White House Council on Faith-based and Community Initiatives. And we're encouraged by your firm commitment to motivate Congress to expedite legislation that will allow faith-based service agencies the freedom to compete for federal funding with secular service agencies.

In addition, we applaud your courage in publicly pointing out the efficacy of many faith-based ministries to succeed where government and other secular agencies have often failed. You and we obviously agree that the primary reason for such success is the spiritual dimension that gives moral purpose and depth of conviction to both service providers and recipients. We know, however, that such ministries do not inherently work better: they succeed because they allow God to work.

The purpose of this open letter, however, is not merely to give you due credit and praise for this bold initiative, but to encourage you to affirm that faith-based initiatives are not exclusively related to the traditional human welfare services. In particular we urge you to support and encourage government assistance to faith-based environmental initiatives, many of which have the capacity to benefit all US citizens. Further, a significant number of those in need of direct human services are often the same individuals who do not have the material resources to cope with stresses created by their inability to move out of environmentally distressed regions or change employment-having lost their jobs because of regional environmental crises.

An example of this sort of initiative is the recent effort of one of the individuals in this delegation who worked with the watermen of Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, not more than eighty miles from Washington, DC. The result of her effort to teach the important biblical principles of creation stewardship, neighbor love, Creator worship, and preserving creation's fruitfulness inspired a large group of these mostly Christian men to form a covenant of care for the Bay.

This nationally critical body of water, now in ecological distress, has provided them and several generations of ancestors with their livelihood-going back to colonial times. In a touching service of commitment, these men stood at the front of their churches holding red ribbons which represented the redeeming nature of Jesus' death on the cross, the pivotal act of human history that provided not only for the healing of the human sin nature, but also for the healing of the earth: the message so elegantly proclaimed in Handel's Messiah. These ribbons were then taken by the men and tied to the masts and antennas of their boats as an open declaration to the rest of the community that they would protect the Bay and its resources by avoiding pollution, by obeying federal environmental regulations and civil laws, and by seeking to harvest fish, crabs, clams, and oysters in a sustainable manner as a way to honor their Creator and Lord. Likewise, the wives of these watermen also made their own covenant of support for their husbands. [These covenants are attached to this letter. Their story is also told in a video documentary being aired on several public TV broadcasting stations around the nation.]

Our specific concern as conservative evangelicals is motivated not only by the ancient principles of the Christian faith and evangelical church history, but also by the obvious understanding that a healthy economy is based on a healthy and healthful environment that has been lovingly cultivated and protected. These two understandings are dramatically illustrated in the Old Testament account of the children of Israel who were taken into captivity for 70 years in good part because for 70 years they had disobeyed God and denied the land its Sabbath rest-thus jeopardizing the fruitfulness of the land.

Care of creation is a spiritual responsibility and a God-mandated duty. Therefore, we urge you to regard the tradition of the Christian faith you hold dear by encouraging your Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives to assist such mostly unheralded creation care ministries as equally deserving of government support as the more direct human welfare services that currently receive most of the Office's attention.

We appreciate you and your leadership, and we pray that God will guide you and strengthen you in your difficult and important responsibility of leading and motivating the people of our country. The United States of America is the nation most capable of demonstrating to the rest of the world compassionate care for people-and for their land, a treasure from their Creator that is to be wisely used, but not abused.

Sincerely,

Calvin B. DeWitt, Ph.D.
Director, The Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies
Chair, Evangelical Campaign to Combat Global Warming and Climate Change
Christian Reformed Church in North America
Madison, Wisconsin

Susan Drake Emmerich
Former Senior Conservation Officer, US Dept. of State
Lecturer, Trinity College at Trinity Int'l University
Founder and former Director, Tangier Watermen's Stewardship for the Chesapeake
The Evangelical Covenant Church
Gurnee, IL 60031

Dean Ohlman
Christian Environmental Council
An Independent Evangelical Bible Church
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Jim Ball
Director, Evangelical Environmental Network
Washington, DC

------------------------------------

Attachment:

The Watermen's Stewardship Covenant (Evangelical)

The Watermen's Stewardship Covenant is a covenant among all watermen regardless of their profession of religious faith. As watermen we agree to:

1) be good stewards of God's Creation by setting a high standard of obedience to civil laws (fishery, boat, and pollution laws [e.g., laws against dumping things overboard]), and

(2) commit to brotherly accountability. If any person who has committed to this Covenant is overtaken in any trespass against this Covenant, we agree to spiritually restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. We also agree to fly a red ribbon on the antennas of our boats to signify that we are part of the Covenant.

For the professing Christian waterman, this Covenant additionally means that we agree to set a high standard of obedience to God's laws and, therefore, to civil laws.
We agree to walk a crucified and resurrected life--a selfless life--that is yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We agree to fly red ribbons, which additionally symbolize the blood covenant for which a great sacrifice of God--His only begotten Son--was made.

As Christians we understand that through this Covenant that each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore we do not judge one another, rather, we resolve not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in our brother's way (Romans 14:12-13).
We agree to "let love be without hypocrisy. We abhor what is evil and cling to what is good" (Romans 12:9)
and commit to "not destroy the work of God for food [crab/oyster/fish/clam]" (Romans 14: 20).
Proverbs 23:4-5 states that we are not to overwork to be rich and this because ["riches can disappear as thought they had the wings of a bird!" We shall "love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always"
(Deuteronomy 11:1), for "blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who keep His statues and seek Him with all their heart" (Psalm 119:102), "For if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
The psalmist exclaims "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long" (Psalm 119:97).

Women's Stewardship Commitment

The Watermen Community's Women's Stewardship commitment is a commitment among all women regardless of their profession of religious faith. As wives of watermen who have committed to the Watermen's Stewardship Covenant or as women of the watermen community, we agree to be supportive of our husbands and/or relatives by
1) being good stewards of our financial, human, and natural resources under our care;
2) practicing contentment by reducing our demands for and consumption of material goods that are fulfilling unnecessary wants rather than necessary needs;
3) reusing and recycling as many materials as possible;
4) willingly obeying all civil laws;
5) purchasing things for children that are fulfilling their needs and some wants rather than their every want; and
6) teaching our children to be content and to be good stewards of Creation (fishery, island, and so forth).

For professing Christian women, this commitment is considered a covenant with God and means that we additionally agree to pursue a crucified and resurrected life--a selfless life--that is yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We agree to pursue Exodus 20:17--to not covet anything of our neighbors. "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy" (James 3:16-17).

We will seek to practice contentment in obedience to God and for the sake of our husbands and children, God's Creation, and our heritage.
"Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content" (1 Timothy 6:6-8).
We are called to "train up a child the way he or she should go and when they are old they will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Therefore, we agree to teach our children to live the selfless life, obedience to the commandments of God, to care for Creation, and to be content in all things so that the Creation is not pressed relentlessly.
We agree to set a high standard of obedience to God's laws and, therefore, to civil laws. By humility and the reverence of the Lord are riches and honor and life (Proverbs 22:4).
"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1).
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up" (James 4:10).