Leader's Insight: Earth: Love It or Leave It

I have just finished reading James Martin’s The Meaning of the 21st Century (Riverhead Hardcover, 2006), and—my opinion anyway—every person who seeks to influence others to the Christian way ought to be conversant with this book.

If you take my advice, don’t expect to find a Christian point of view about the future—just the opposite, in fact. But you will get a catalog of the issues that humanity faces in the next few decades (read our children and grandchildren). The issues are political, economic, technological, scientific, and, I believe, moral.

Martin, who comes out of the world of Oxford, spends most of his time ruminating on the social and economic impacts of computers and technology. So says the book jacket. His mind is deep and broad, which is to say that he knows lots of things. And this book demonstrates it.

I found myself fascinated, not threatened, by James Martin for several reasons. First, because he is an intellectual who represents the totally secularized mind. It doesn’t hurt to acquaint ourselves with what people like him really sound like.

Second, because Martin has done his homework within the world he’s defined for himself. In other words, he’s thought through this stuff and isn’t going to be easily dismissed. Push back at him if you want, but you better have done your homework.

Third, because he’s identified the issues of real consequence that everyone of us is soon going to be living with, like it or not. Live twenty more years, and every one of Martin’s concerns will be on your mind … daily.

Finally, I appreciated Martin’s call to civilization to make some tough conversion-like decisions (some of which I think are plainly spiritual) if it cares to see the planet survive the 21st century. I wish I heard more voices in my faith tradition speaking as clearly as Martin does.

The Meaning of the 21st Century is the polar opposite of the Left Behind series. The former book challenges my sox off and calls me to thought and spiritual reflection; the latter just embarrasses me. The first is a serious effort in saying “We’ve got to deal with the consequences of some unwise choices and the implications of some mind-boggling opportunities.” The second says, “Hey, what’s the fuss? We’ll soon be outta here.” The first (in a strange way) loves this world; the second treats it with a novel contempt.

At this point in my life, I have felt a freshened call to do whatever I can each day to encourage and cheerlead a younger generation of Christian leaders. To challenge them to deepen their communion with God, to rediscover the Biblical building blocks that lead to a durable and resilient faith, to call people to a vibrant witness to Jesus which is less about words and more about meaningful initiatives that align with God’s purposes. And James Martin helps me identify another aspect of this call: to persuade younger men and women to become more involved and influential in the emerging planet-wide dialogues (everything from Starbucks to Davos) about the imperiled future of the human race.

I think Jesus would like us to do this.

Writing about how close the world came to nuclear war in the past 25 years, Martin makes this comment. “A small number of men had built something that was immoral beyond belief. Yet the great forces of morality had nothing to say about it. The Catholic Church had much to say about not using condoms. The Dalai Lama wrote books about how to be happy. The Anglican Church argued about gay marriages. One might have expected total outrage from the great religions about making possible an atrocity unsurpassed in human history, but they were silent.”

I groan at these words.

From Anthony Bloom’s Beginning to Pray: “I remember a certain number of (my father’s) phrases. In fact there are two things he said which impressed me and have stayed with me all my life. One is about life. I remember he said to me after a holiday, ‘I worried about you’ and I said, ‘Did you think I’d had an accident?’ He said, ‘That would have meant nothing, even if you had been killed. I thought you had lost your integrity.’ Then on another occasion he said to me, ‘Always remember that whether you are alive or dead matters nothing. What matters is what you live for and what you are prepared to die for.’ These things (says Bloom) were the background of my early education and show the sense of life that I got from him.”

And from Abraham Joshua Heschel: “The Greeks learned in order to comprehend, the Hebrews learned in order to revere, while modern man (or woman) learns in order to use.”

Pastor and author Gordon MacDonald is chair of World Relief and editor at large for Leadership.

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