The buzzwords ‘stewardship’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘creation care’ are ringing out from pulpits across the nation. At face value, they sound biblical and commendable. However, once we peel back the layers, we see a different picture—one where biblical truths are twisted to fit secular ideologies, where Marxism and radical environmentalism disguise themselves as biblical stewardship.

In the intellectual echelons of evangelicalism, the propagation of this ‘creation care’ dogma finds a home. Listen to Douglas Moo, professor emeritus at Wheaton College. He implores the listeners to consider the effects of climate change and the disparity between the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of places like Miami versus Bangladesh. According to him, wealthy cities like Miami can build seawalls and elevate highways to combat rising sea levels, while countries like Bangladesh, with their lower GDP, are left defenseless.

Moo’s words are a masterclass in the tactics employed by the creation care movement. On the surface, it seems like a cry for justice and an appeal to our Christian duty to care for the less fortunate. But look closer, and you’ll see the movement’s true motive—not biblical justice but a form of redistribution based on Marxist principles.

His language mirrors the tone of the secular environmentalist movement, reducing the complexities of a naturally and constantly changing environment to a narrative of wealthy oppressors and helpless victims by oversimplifying it, removing individual responsibility, and assigning blame based on economic status rather than actual culpability.

According to Moo, “creation care is simply a species of biblical social justice.” But is it really? Yes, the Bible calls us to justice, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to steward God’s creation well. But it does not call us to adopt secular ideologies that twist biblical principles into something they are not.

The Bible doesn’t instruct us to redistribute wealth according to Marxist principles or to demonize the advantages and progress of Western culture in the name of environmentalism. Instead, it calls us to personal responsibility, wise stewardship, and genuine love for our neighbor—principles that are at odds with the creation care’s baptized environmentalist agenda.

Moo’s speech is just one example of how secular ideologies are being propagated in evangelical circles under this banner. You may remember several years ago when Liberty University professor, Karen Swallow Prior—who later became a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary—insisted that we end factory farming, even at the expense of our economy. “We have to prick the conscience on factory farming,” she said, “so we have to say the economy of the country be damned, this has to stop.”

And then we have radical animal rights activist, Charles Camosy, who has partnered with multiple Southern Baptist leaders and entities including the ERLC to promote the idea of “creation care,” teaches that animals, like humans, are “persons” on a certain level that deserve the same protections as human beings. In one interview, Camosy stated:

When gorilla[sic] have a vocabulary of over 150 words via American Sign Language, elephants pass mirror tests proving their self-awareness, or dogs show evidence of understanding the concept of justice, we need to at least consider the idea, for instance, that some animals are non-human persons.

A biblical perspective on environmental stewardship does not align with the dogmas of these radical environmentalists or their Marxist roots. We need to maintain a biblical view on these issues, not allowing secular ideologies to infiltrate our understanding of God’s commands to us as stewards of His creation.

“Creation care”—it’s a phrase that’s being increasingly thrown around in these Evangelical circles. On the surface, the movement may seem harmless, even noble. After all, doesn’t God command us to care for the Earth in Genesis 2:15? But the devil is in the details, and in the case of the creation care movement, these details reveal a disturbing marriage of secular ideologies with Christian stewardship. The movement suggests that wealthy nations should cut back on their prosperity for the sake of ‘ecological justice’. This is a slippery slope that aligns more with the redistributive agenda of Marxism than with biblical principles.

Furthermore, the movement is born out of radical environmentalism, a belief system that paints humans as the Earth’s enemy. In the eyes of these radicalists, we are destroyers, not caretakers. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. God made us stewards of His creation, not its destroyers.

Colossians 2:8 cautions us: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ”. It is Christ, not cultural trends or political philosophies, that should guide our values and directives.

The creation care movement, while seemingly noble on the surface, is built on unbiblical foundations. Yes, we are called to care for God’s creation, but not in the way that the creation care movement advocates. It’s important that we distinguish between genuinely biblical stewardship and the skewed version offered by the creation care movement.

Don’t let the catchy phrase “creation care” fool you or take you captive. Our mission as Christians is to live according to God’s Word, not to follow trends that align more with worldly ideologies than biblical truth. Keep your eyes on the Bible and discern carefully when engaging with these seemingly never-ending contemporary “Christian” movements.