Malone University is kicking off a week of events Monday focused on the connection between Christianity and environmental stewardship.
The university is hosting a series of events encouraging students and faculty to take on long-term behavior changes that can reduce their contributions to climate change.
"Malone University is a Quaker institution," said Rebecca Eagle-Malone, an assistant professor of biology. "We're rooted in the denomination of the Friends Quaker Church, which historically is one that advocates for social justice [and] environmental justice."
Eagle-Malone sits on the university's sustainability committee, along with Bryson Davis, an assistant professor of sociology . The committee, along with an "essential" team of students, put together a week of events to encourage students, staff and faculty to eat less meat, conserve electricity, learn to compost and more.
"Some of the students are less receptive than others and some of staff are less perceptive than others too," said Mattie Huber, a junior who is a worship arts major. "So we were like, how do bring awareness to this in a fun way that everybody's gonna be able to understand and accept."
Monday is focused on reducing meat consumption, encouraging students, faculty and staff to try to eat meatless options on campus throughout the day.
"If everybody can dedicate one day per week, to not eating meat, that could be a behavior change that they do over the long-term," Eagle-Malone said, "which ... can have very, very far-reaching impacts on our planet."
On Tuesday the campus community will be challenged to reduce electricity in dorms and school buildings. Wednesday, the university will host a clothing swap encouraging participants to exchange clothes rather than allowing them to end up in a landfill.
"If we can go and try to limit the amount of jeans that are being created by thrifting and reusing things like jeans and dresses and t-shirts," Eagle-Malone said, "then we can make a huge difference on the environment."
Cooking workshops will be available on Thursday to demonstrate how to cook meat alternative's like tofu. Friday features an invasive species poll through a partnership with Stark Parks.
The week wraps up with the university’s second annual Sustainability Fest on Saturday.
Faith and environmental stewardship
The Malone community has diverse perspectives on climate change, Davis said, but through its sustainability week, he hopes to foster a connection to faith-based protection of the planet.
Religion tends to paint humans as the center of the universe, he said, with God, plants and animals existing to serve them. However, the scripture reveals the opposite.
"God's like, 'I'm gonna take care of you. I'm going to give you everything you need in this garden to, like, to thrive,'" Davis said. "So you should do the same thing. Exist in the kind of relationship that ... allows everything to flourish."
When taking a look at language in the Book of Genesis, the connection becomes clearer, Huber said. The Hebrew word "radah", translated to "dominion" in English, may not accurately reflect the intended message, she said.
"It kind of is more akin to gardening, how you have to weed the soil. You have to pull off the bad bugs, right? You have the, you have to cultivate everything," she said. "It's really important to look at it as a cultivation, because if we don't, then what are we doing to benefit the earth?"
Another example can be found in God's direction to Adam, Davis said, to till and keep the soil in the Garden of Eden.
"There's no notion of, like, we're going to take this oil from the water and use it to burn stuff so we can exploit the planet," Davis said. "[It] doesn't exist in scripture."
Climate change can be a polarizing topic on campus, Eagle-Malone said, but framing sustainability around religion helps to bridge the divide.
"Taking climate change out of the equation and just focusing more on God's creation and taking care of God's creation is where I would say all or the vast majority of us on this campus want to be," she said.
