Is cleanliness next to godliness? Apparently, this phrase may have originated with John Wesley who thought that being a Christian was no excuse for slovenliness.
Although many of us took great care with cleanliness during the pandemic, these days we don’t naturally associate hygiene with being a Christian, despite all the Old Testament laws on cleanliness. Maybe we’re all too aware of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees who were obsessed with the ritual hygiene laws, and have rightly taken to heart the importance of being spiritually clean. Pharisee alert over, that doesn’t mean we should neglect matters of personal or domestic hygiene.
But perhaps we should extend that thought to how we care for Creation. Concern for the moral pollution of sin doesn’t mean we’ve got an excuse to be slovenly or physically pollute the earth. Which brings me in my series to the third horseman of the so-called ecological apocalypse, pollution. There are many forms of pollution, whether of air, soil or water. Light pollution is a problem not just for stargazers but for many nocturnal species of animal like bats. Noise pollution is a big deal if you live near a busy road, airport or nightclub, both for humans and wildlife. Urban birds may be forced to sing more loudly to overcome background noise.
