We Don’t Want Regulations, Which is Why We Need Them
To fulfill our mandate from God to cultivate and care for the natural world, we need regulations. Why? Because without them we tend to seek what is best for ourselves in the short run, which can hurt ourselves, others, and the planet in the long run.
I recently attended a prayer service held outside the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The prayer service acknowledged EPA’s crucial role in helping our nation deal with climate disruption. We prayed that the members of the agency would work to protect human health and the environment, defend vulnerable communities, and provide leadership in our nation’s shared responsibility to care for God’s creation.
In remarks prior to our time of prayer, Sr. Marie Lucey, who is the Associate Director of the Franciscan Action Network, told a story:
A number of years ago, several of our sisters and associates were meeting with a Senate office about an environmental issue. I forget the specific issue, but I do remember the chief of staff’s response to my question, “Why do you oppose the EPA?”
His response: “We don’t oppose the EPA; we just don’t want it to regulate.”
I have not been able to get those words out of my mind.
It sounds so noble, so rugged, so “American.” Don’t regulate us. Just let us be.
It’s so . . . human. That’s how we are as humans – we don’t want rules and regulations.
But when you transfer the same attitude to other realms, it becomes clear just how self-centered it is.
“I don’t oppose God; I just don’t want him to give us any commandments.”
“I don’t oppose lifeguards; I just don’t want them to enforce any rules at the beach.”
“I don’t oppose art museums; I just don’t want them to make any rules about what I can do while I’m there.“
Regulation is not inherently bad. It is how societies keep their people and resources safe.
The Season of Creation and our call to be stewards of what God has made
We are in the Season of Creation, a 5-week period every year (from September 1 to October 4) during which Christians from many different denominations around the world take time to renew our commitment to care for God’s creation. We thank God for what we have been given, and we explore what we can do to protect the environment and the health of our planet.
The Bible is rich in imagery as it calls us to care for the natural world God created:
In Genesis 2:15, God directs humans to cultivate and care for God’s creation.
Psalm 104 describes the wonders of God’s creation in intricate detail.
Psalm 24:1-2 reminds us that our world does not belong to us: all of the earth belongs to God.
In Romans 1:20, the apostle Paul tells us that the natural world reveals the attributes of God to us.
We have been given a holy stewardship of God’s wondrous creation, which teaches us about God. Yet humans continue to take poor care of the natural world and environment we rely on.
Stewardship requires action
Stewards – or trustees, as we would say it today – do not sit around idly while what has been entrusted to them declines and falls into ruin. Stewards take action to preserve the trust that has been placed in their care. The Earth has been placed in our care, and we, as trustees, are the stewards who are called to action.
But what does action look like when it comes to caring for the Earth and the environment?
Obviously, we can all do our little parts. We can recycle, turn off the tap when we are not using the water, drive less, eat less beef, plant a tree, install solar panels, compost, buy hybrid or electric cars, and so forth.
But individual action cannot adequately address the big issues, such as air pollution, water pollution, climate change, the degradation of the oceans and coral reefs, etc. We need to take collective action at the societal level to address these big issues.
It would be nice to think that corporations, energy utilities, farmers, and other economic actors would do what is necessary, out of the goodness of their hearts, to protect the environment, reduce the carbon dioxide buildup that is driving climate disruption, and preserve the Earth’s resources for the long term.
However, the need to make a profit, the pressures of the market, and simple human shortsightedness and greed can often crowd out long-term thinking.
Regulation is what protects us from the biggest risks we face over the long term.
And the way we foster the development of sound regulations is through our governments. We need members of Congress who will stand up to pressure and pass laws to stop environmental degradation and address the issues that are driving climate change.
We need a president, an EPA, and other governmental agencies that will develop and enforce the regulations that will help us do what is best as stewards of the world around us.
If they won’t do it, we need to replace them with people who will, because our lives and the welfare of our planet are at stake.
Regulations are our way of protecting ourselves from ourselves
When God told the Israelites to sow their fields for 6 years and then let the land lie fallow for one year (Lev. 25:3-7), that was a rule – a regulation – designed to preserve the long-term health of the land and, in so doing, preserve the long-term well-being of the people. (In modern times, we do this through crop rotation rather than resting all of the land in the same year, but the principle is the same.)
Every farmer might be tempted to sow every year because of the immediate benefit. Every corporation wants to make the greatest profit possible. Every human wants to be free to do what they want. That’s simply human nature.
Regulations help us look beyond the immediate to preserve the society for the long term. They are our collective way of protecting ourselves from the human shortsightedness and greed that we might otherwise fall prey to, so that we do not exhaust and despoil the resources God has entrusted to us and put ourselves and our children at risk over the long run.
This does not mean that every regulation is good. Some regulations go too far; some do not go far enough; and some focus on the wrong things.
But a knee-jerk resistance to regulations is a sign of an attitude that says, “No one should be able to tell me how to live my life.” That is, at root, a self-centered attitude and it isn’t acceptable when our actions and choices have such major effects on other people.
Many years ago, a store in my neighborhood did not have any lanes or signs telling you how to line up to be checked out, even though there were several checkout stations and often a large group of people trying to check out at the same time. Without regulation by the store managers, it was a mess. People weren’t sure where to stand. People who arrived at the checkout area after you often jumped ahead of you. The lack of regulation was especially unfair to people who tried to politely wait their turn.
Humans don’t want rules and regulations governing us, and that’s part of why we need them.
Regulations protect us all. We benefit from them all the time. Speed limits are regulations. Overtime rules are regulations. Background checks of prospective teachers are regulations. Clean water standards are regulations. Food recall rules are regulations. We need regulations.
Over the course of my childhood, my family visited Disneyland in Southern California a few times, always in the summertime. On hot summer days in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, we found it hard to breathe in the afternoons because the ozone pollution was so severe. We had to stay indoors or take a special dose of anti-asthma medicine in the afternoons so that breathing would not be difficult and painful. (And I was healthy. Imagine what it was like for the elderly and people with respiratory issues.)
Back then, ozone levels in the Los Angeles Basin exceeded safe standards more than 200 days a year. Now, as a result of decades of regulation under the Clean Air Act, an even tighter standard is exceeded, on average, fewer than 10 days a year. Why? Because of regulations enforced by the EPA and other agencies pursuant to the Clean Air Act and other laws.
For big problems like air pollution, our activities may need to be regulated in many ways, but the savings in the long run can be huge, including the enormous health benefits. For example, from 1990 to 2020, the benefits of the Clean Air Act exceeded the costs by a factor of more than 30 to one.
Blessed are those who don’t put their own gain first
Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). He added, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Jesus calls us to an attitude of humility, a willingness to hold ourselves back to achieve the greater good. Jesus modeled that attitude for us, placing the common good of others over his individual, human welfare.
That attitude does not support a “don’t regulate me” stance.
Paul writes, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3, ESV). Greed and selfish ambition are often what is behind a business’s rejection of regulation. Conceit – the idea that I am better than others and know better than others – is often behind an individual’s desire not to be regulated.
Paul calls us to count others, and not just ourselves, when we evaluate our actions. A willingness to submit to regulations is one sign of that kind of humble, Christian heart.
Let us support regulation that benefits the common good
At our EPA prayer service, Sr. Marie Lucey said, “Today, we people of faith and others have a moral imperative to do all we can to protect the environment.... Today, we urge the Environmental Protection Agency to remember its mission, to do its job of protecting the environment and vulnerable people.”
Our hope and prayer is that the EPA will do the job assigned to it by our representatives over the past 50 years: to develop and enforce regulations that will protect the environment and vulnerable people, now and for generations to come.
And so, in this Season of Creation, let us take a stand in favor of regulations that benefit the common good and the long-term health of our common home. And let us hold our governmental leaders accountable to use regulation as an important societal tool for securing the health of our world and the people living in it.
Let us accept the environmental regulations that are developed for the greater good, and not elevate our selfish freedom to an absolute priority. Then, the earth we inherit will be a land that nourishes and supports us in ways that allow all of us to thrive.
Comments