Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said recently that God will not save mankind from his own environmental "stupidity." He also said we are in danger from, “"a whole range of doomsday prospects," ranging from global warming to threats from what he called "bio-terror" weapons. The ultimate tragedy is that a material world capable of being a manifestation … of divine love is choked, drowned or starved by its own stupidity. To suggest that God might intervene to protect us from the corporate folly of our practices is as un-Christian and un-biblical as to suggest that he protects us from the results of our individual folly or sin."

He is theologically correct. Adam and eve got kicked out of the garden for folly. Israel went into permanent exile through folly. Judah went into exile in Babylon through folly. God doesn’t always bail us out. Our God-given free will can lead us into paths of our own destruction. And we are given free will to be in relationship with God. God loves us. We can only respond to God’s love if we give our love freely. Love cannot be coerced. So, if we destroy ourselves through our own greed and stupidity, then we will die.

The good news is: that God always loves us. We don’t’ have to earn it. Judah was restored. Eden will be restored by us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus called this the kingdom of God. But we can’t get to the kingdom of God if we produce weapons of mass destruction and if we pollute God’s world so much that species die off and it gets so hot that humans beings can no longer live here.

God gave us this planet to care for it and all that dwells therein. We have not done an exemplary job of it. But we can change. We can repent. We can do better. But we better start now. This isn’t something that procrastination will heal.