Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8460 Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016 a creation of eroded soil, unbreathable air, and polluted waterways. The Bible is full of admonitions regarding earth stewardship. From Adam and Eve taking care of the garden, to God’s command to the Israelites not to chop down fruit trees when they entered the Promised Land, to Jesus’ words about his Father numbering the sparrows, godly living grows out of visceral relationships between people and the planet. I believe part of the Christian mandate is to use our intellectual capacity and mechanical ability to be God’s hands and feet in redeem- ing the earth, remedying the devastation wrought by humankind. The principles and patterns established by God, clearly demonstrated through ecology, are not opposed to biblical principle; in fact, they corroborate it. The way that farmers large and small choose to farm impacts the way we eat. What’s on our plate is not just inert stuff. Shouldn’t food, and, by exten- sion, farming, actually be a manifestation of God’s provision and grace in our lives? As a farmer, I ask myself: When people visit my farm, do they see a physical repre- sentation of biblical truth? That is, do they see forgiveness, mercy, abundance, glory, and neighborliness? Or do they see an outfit that runs roughshod over its neighbors, creating stench and pollution thoughtlessly excused as “smelling like money”? If being a good neigh- bor means anything, it should include not stinking up the community with huge volumes of fecal waste from confined animal feeding operations. And what about pesticides and chemical fertilizers? It’s hard to see how we’re honoring the sanctity of life if most of what we apply to our food ends in the suffix –cide, meaning killing. To help understand what’s at stake, let’s take a look at the word glory. Christians tend to assume that certain words in the Bible are spirit-speak, and glory is one such word. After all, who talks about glory in everyday conver- sation? Usually we restrict it to spiritual contexts such as the angels’ announcement of Christ’s birth: “Glory to God in the highest.” Glory, we think, belongs to the invisible spirit world, and we speak of it only in hushed cathedral tones; by contrast, we view physical, visible things as lacking a moral dimension. But the Bible does not make this modern distinc- tion between the spiritual and the physical. In fact, in Scripture the word glory describes terrestrial things more often than celestial ones – it speaks, for instance, of the glory of nations, kings, old people, and young men and women. In biblical usage, glory means the true essence of something: its distinctiveness and uniqueness. Accordingly, when we bring glory to God, we recognize and accentuate the virtues that make him divine: we recognize that nothing else in the universe is immutable, sovereign, without beginning, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, and perfect. These are lofty thoughts. But I propose that the best way to appreciate God’s specialness is to first appreciate the physical specialness of his creatures. To give a flesh-and-blood When people visit my farm, do they see biblical truth? That is, do they see forgiveness, mercy, abundance, glory, and neighborliness?