Being Good Stewards
By John Baker

The article below caught my eye, as we sometimes do not realize the impact that modern society has on our lives. The last two years that I lived in Europe I lived on an island called the Isle of Skye, it was located off of the northwest coast of Scotland, and is part of the chain of island’s known as the Inner Hebrides. The Isle of Skye is approximately 50 miles long with varying distances in width. The Island actually resembles an Angel with its wings stretched out. If you were looking at the “angel” face to face, the top of his head would be facing north-west, and the wing to his left facing west towards the open North Atlantic. I lived on the northwest corner of this wing facing the Open North Atlantic Ocean. As you stood on the cliffs looking out at the Atlantic Ocean to the west you could just make out on the horizon the island chain known as the Outer Hebrides. The Sea separating the Inner Hebrides from the Outer Hebrides is known as the “Minch”. It was about 20 miles wide. With these islands being so far north and facing the open Atlantic Ocean, They are in the path of some of the most ferocious winds and storms in the world. Every fall brought a ritual that has been carried out since men have lived on the islands. The securing of all outdoor buildings and anything that might get blown away by the winter gales coming in off of the North Atlantic, sweeping down from the Artic. Anything and everything had to be secured from the 100 mph plus winds that came barreling through the Glens on the Islands. I lived in a glen aptly named Glendale. Its name coming from a mixture of Scots Gaelic and Norse Words: Glen derives from the Gaelic word: Gleann meaning Valley, and Dale derives from the Norse (Viking) word Dahl meaning Valley. So Glendale literally means Valley, Valley!

Even the houses on the island were built to be able to withstand the ferocious winds that came in off the Ocean. The typical Island house was made of Stone, with mortar spread over the stone on the outside and painted white. Each house had an inner stone wall 1 ½ feet thick and then an outer wall another 1 ½ feet thick. With a gap left in between these two walls, and the gap was originally filled with dirt, straw and small rocks. This made the houses airtight. Roofs had to be especially constructed of black Slate shingles securely nailed flat against the sub-roof. There was nothing cozier than in the winter time to put some coals in the fireplace, sit in a nice comfortable chair, with a hot cup of coffee, reading the Bible, and faintly hearing the gales off of the Ocean howling through the Glen. It gave you a very real sense of the power and majesty of God’s creation.

When the weather permitted I would frequently take the sea ferry across the Minch to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. On a good calm day the trip took two hours, on a windy day when the seas were rough it could take anywhere up to five hours. There was nothing more disconcerting than to board the ferry on a particularly windy day and hear the Captain of the Ferry come over the intercom and tell his passengers that it was rough on the Minch with high seas but they were going to attempt to make it across the Minch anyways! The thought always went through your mind “ok they are going to try. What happens if they fail? Do we sink?” But in all my trips across the Minch and in all their “trying” they never sunk, they would just turn around and wait for calmer winds so they could dock back at our departure point. A trip across the Minch on any day was an adventure. The Ferry was a large Ship, that could carry up to 25 cars and trucks on two decks. You drove onto the ferry and a deck hand would point to where he wanted you to park in one of three lanes. Once you were parked, you were instructed to put the cars emergency brake on and then they would proceed to chain the car to the deck to prevent it from shifting in heavy seas! You would then climb three sets of stairs to the passenger deck where there were lounges with large windows so you could see the ocean, and there was also a ships passenger galley where you could eat.

On the days when the sea was rough, it always amazed me how the ship could make the crossing, as the waves would pound the ship so hard that it sounded as if you were inside a steel trash can and someone was beating on it with a baseball bat! The ship would also pitch from side to side and dive into the waves, and as it dove the waves would break over the top of this massive ship! On these days inside the ship would be mayhem, as many passengers would be getting sea-sick from the rough seas. I would for a thrill go outside to the front of the ship on the highest observation deck and watch the waves break over the bow, waterproof clothing was an absolute requirement! Once we reached the other side, the ship would enter the long narrow bay that leads to the village of Tarbert on the Isle of Harris, and as the ship entered the bay the seas would calm, and the wind would die down. Another adventurous crossing had come to a successful conclusion!

As the ship neared the dock a voice would come over the intercom system asking all car passengers to return to their vehicles and prepare to disembark. By the time we reached our car the chains would have been removed, we would get in start the engine and wait as one by one the cars and trucks drove off the ferry and onto the island.

Upon leaving the ship you would be in the village of Tarbert, the main town on the island. If you needed gas or food, better get it here and before 5:00PM because once you left the village, the rest of the island was sparsely populated with only one other gas station situated at the other end of the island to the south and it was only open part time. Upon leaving the village, it seemed as though all those cars on the ferry just vanished! As your entire time on the island you would never see them again! Also the one road that led out of the village turned into a single rack road, with “Passing Places” every mile or so, where you could pull off and allow cars coming in the opposite direction by. After you had been to the islands many times you began to understand the “rules” and the “Ballet” that occurred at the “Passing Places” . The rule was: The first car to reach the passing place pulled over and let the opposing car go by. The “Ballet” was when both cars going in opposite directions were able to time their entrance into the “Passing Place” and be able to remain at speed and not slow down when swerving to avoid the other car!

It was always terrifying, but now in hindsight comical of how we would see one of the few local island residents come barreling down the single track road towards us, and then us trying to rightly judge the timing of the entrance to the “Passing Place” so we wouldn’t cause the local driver to have to slow down. Because if you did you always got “Sassenach” yelled at you and a raised arm and a swinging fist in your rear view mirror! “Sassenach” was the Highland Scots Gaelic word for “Lowlander” or “Englishman”. All outsiders who came to live or visit in the Western Highlands or Islands of Northwest Scotland are called “Sassenachs”.

About two miles out of Tarbert the single track road split into two single track roads: The “Golden Road” runs north-east and southwest along the eastern seashore of the Island. The western road runs north-east and southwest along the western seashore of the Island. The “Golden Road” was so named because, the eastern portion of the Island is rocky with thin soil, and on the thin soil about the only thing that will grow are wild flowers and heather, and with the island being so far north, the Sun for most of the year is so far south that its rays are softened and hit the ground at a sharp angle and when the wild flowers and Heather are in bloom, the ground sparkles like Jewels and Gold. The soil is so thin that in centuries past the residents of this side of the island would heap the soil up in to mounds, that ran like long ridges across the small patches were soil could be found in between the outcroppings of rock, and they would gather sea weed along the shore to mix with the dirt to make the dirt fertile enough to grow food. Sea weed contains phosphate which is a good fertilizer and increases the germination rate of food crops. These long low ridges were known as “Lazy Beds” or in Scots Gaelic “Run-Rigs”.

Today as you drive the “Golden Road” you see the remains of these lazy beds along the length of the road. You also see many broken down stone cottages, which have been long abandoned as their former residents left the island looking for better prospects. Up until the First World War the Island had a vibrant population. But the generation that went to war got a taste of what life was like off the Island and most never returned, but instead took jobs on the mainland in factories built as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Life has always been hard on this island but a few itinerant and hardy souls refuse to leave their island home. They subsist on fishing and Sheep herding. The Sheep of Harris are known the world over for their soft wool known as Harris Tweed, which at one time was the height of fashion. Still today local’s eek out a living spinning and weaving the wool on antique looms for export to the world.

At the southern end of the Golden Road you reach the only other “village” on the island, the spot in the road known as Rodel. The town consists of a small hotel (most small hotels in the northwest of Scotland and the Islands are actually converted and extended houses) a few houses and the small stone St. Clements Chapel. Where for centuries the Chiefs of the Clan Macleod of Harris were interred. Up until 1745, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland were populated by groups of People known as Clans. The Clans originated as groups of family members who lived together and descended from a common ancestor. If you have aver seen a last name with “Mac” or “Mc” at the beginning of the name, it is either an Irish Name or a Scottish Clan name. The “Mac” or “Mc” is derived from the Irish or Scots Gaelic word for “Son of” So MacLeod means “Son of Leod” Leod being the common ancestor. MacDonald means “Son of” Donald, Donald being the common ancestor.

In Scottish Highland society before 1745 you were either part of a clan through birth or swore allegiance to a clan in exchange for protection. If you distinguished yourself in your allegiance to the Clan you were honored by being allowed to use its name as your last name. The Chief of the Clan was chosen from the eldest direct male or closest male descendent of the common ancestor. The Clan and those who swore allegiance to the Clan worked the land, herded the clan’s cattle and fought along side each other to protect the clan’s land and possessions, No written deeds existed for clan land, they held their land by the might of the sword . Over time certain clans became more powerful and dominated the other clans. The Highland Clans were also known as fearsome fighters. The Highlands of Scotland for centuries were divided by constant battles between the clans, they eventually became so powerful that no King of Scotland could hold his throne without the support of the Clans. In 1745 that all changed.

In 1707 an act of Union was signed between England and Scotland unifying the two countries under one Parliament and King. In 1603 the English Queen Elizabeth the 1st died without an heir, so the English Parliament asked the Scottish King James VI to be King of England. James was the second cousin of Elizabeth. James accepted and became King over the two Countries. His Grandson Charles II died without an heir and so his brother James II became King, but James II was Catholic and tried to force England to return to Catholicism, but he was defeated and exiled. So William of Orange a Duke in the Netherlands, who was married to Charles II sister was asked to be King of England and Scotland, as he was an ardent Protestant. Many of the Scottish Clans were upset at the exile of James II because it meant the end of a Monarchy (the House of Stuart) that originated in Scotland. While James II was in exile in France he conspired with the help of France to return him to the Throne of England and Scotland. He died in France but his son Charles Edward Stuart famously known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie” never gave up trying to win back the Throne. Finally in 1745 the King of France wanting to put pressure on England during the French and Indian war in The American Colonies, agreed to fund a small force to assist Bonnie Prince Charlie in invading Scotland and “raising” the Clans to rebel against England and install Charlie as King of Scotland and then England. This was known as the Jacobite Rebellion.

Some of the clans allied themselves with Charlie and they defeated the Government forces in Scotland and marched on England making it within 80 miles of London, before the Highland Clans tired of the long war and seeing that they would receive no support from any promised Rebel English forces, refused to go any further and turned and headed back to Scotland. In the meantime government forces had been landed ahead of them via boats in Scotland and attacked the Clans as they headed back north. The final battle and the death knell of the Clans came on April 16th 1745 at the Battle of Culloden near Inverness in the highlands of Scotland. The Government forces with their superior modern fire power which included canons mowed down the Highland Clans. To ensure that the Highland Clans would never again threaten the government, the Clan system was destroyed through laws that stripped the communal ownership of the clan lands by the whole clan and gave title of the lands to the clan chief, thereby removing the bond of the Chief to his clan through their common ownership of the land. To further control the Chiefs, they were required at their own expense to maintain a presence at the Kings court in London. The wearing of the Tartan was outlawed as was the playing of the Bag-Pipes, and a highlander was not permitted to carry a weapon larger than a small knife. These laws stayed in effect until the British King George III (A German by birth), King during the American Revolution popularized and then legalized the wearing of Tartan and the playing of Bagpipes.

Anyways back to the Isle of Harris, passing on through Rodel and rounding the southern tip of Harris you come to the west side of the Isle of Harris. There at the South Eastern tip. A small thin half mile strip of Golden sand links the island to a small hilltop that juts out into the North Atlantic, here the Ocean boils and rages from the winds that drive the waves which break against the rocky base of the Hill. You can hike across the sandy strip and make your way around the base of the hill to its far west side. On the other side the hill stands between you and the island blocking it from sight, and you are left on a small strip of green with the raging Atlantic in front of you and a rock face behind you. Here centuries ago Irish Monks built a small stone chapel, and a small monastery. All that remains today is the roofless stone Chapel. Standing within its four stone walls all you hear is the howling wind and the crashing of waves against the rocks. Not a single man made sound can be heard, and not a man made object can be seen, the next bit of land to the west out over the vast raging north Atlantic is the coast of Canada some 3,500 miles away.

Sitting on this small bit of green looking out over the vast ocean it is as if you are where time stops and existence ends. It is no wonder the Monks built a monastery here. The seclusion and remoteness removes all man made distractions and focuses your mind on the power and majesty of God.

But unfortunately even here in a place so remote, where the waves sometimes become so high that they break over the fifty foot cliffs and onto the patch of green you see the ground littered with plastic bottles, bits of plastic fishing nets, plastic buoys that have broken loose from nets, and various other plastic artifacts. And it makes you aware of how pervasive our modern throw away society has become.

In my travels I have been to some of the most remote spots on the planet, from Iceland to the Artic in Northern Sweden, to the southern Hemisphere and the southern tip of Africa, the Indian Ocean, remote islands in the south Atlantic, and there has been one thing that I have seen in all of these places, a proliferation of plastic waste. It is so odd to stand in a place where no human settlement exists within hundreds if not thousands of miles admiring the beauty of God’s creation and then to look down and see the ground littered with plastic that has been carried by the ocean vast distances. I have stood on beaches in the Indian Ocean, which interestingly enough does not border the U.S. but is separated from the U.S. by thousands of miles and picked up plastic bottles that floated from the U.S. via either the Pacific Ocean or Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. One of the trivial facts I have learned in my international travels is that specific plastic bottles are manufactured for specific geographic markets. And you can tell this by the bottle as well as the labeling printed on the bottle.

Not to pick on the U.S. alone. I have went diving in the Mediterranean Sea between Southern Europe and Africa and found the long beds of seaweed and sea grass that grow up from the floor of the shallows choked with plastic bags, plastic rope, and plastic fishing nets. We were always warned that when we went snorkeling or diving to always go in twos and always carry a knife on your belt to cut yourself or diving partner free if need be from fishing line or fishing net underwater to keep from drowning.

As Christians we are many times made to believe that articles such as the one below are just the false ramblings of “left Wing Environmentalist Alarmists” What would be nice if we could separate the rhetoric from the truth, there are many issues such as the one below that Christians refuse to recognize as true because they are considered as part of a liberalist platform.

Good stewardship is a Biblically based virtue. For example, the Sabbath laws, that called for rest on seventh days and seventh years, applied to households, animals, resident aliens, and the land (Exodus 20.10, 23.10-11, 25.4-5).

Leviticus 26 is a wonderful chapter that speaks rather poetically about the ramifications of obeying or disregarding God's law and ties obedience to God with relationship to land. The chapter talks about the rewards of following God's decrees. In particular, it paints a picture of harmony between humanity and the land, with the land providing both abundant crops and sanctuary. (Leviticus 26.4-6)

In contrast, rebellion will result in enmity between mankind and the land. The people who turn away from God will be persecuted and afflicted, but "the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths." (Leviticus 26.34-35) And not only will the land no longer be safe haven, it will actually "devour" its former oppressors. (Leviticus 26.38) The state of the land is a sign of our state with God.)

Land was not so much a commodity. Rather, it was an inheritance for the Israelites and it was core to the covenantal promises that God made to them. God's people are not to abuse their inheritance, but to treasure it. It cannot be bought and sold. (Leviticus 25. Actually, the land could be bought and sold, but every fifty years, it reverted to its "owners" or "inheritors." What term to use is problematic, because we are inclined to use labels that imply dominance over the land. Instead, Leviticus 25.23 proves helpful: "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine [God's] and you are but aliens and my tenants." This verse clearly assumes that mankind is custodian or caretaker of land.)

The land was a promise to Abraham (e.g., Genesis 12.7, but really throughout the Bible). The "promised land," a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3.17), figures prominently in Jewish thinking (e.g., Psalm 137.1-6, Ezekiel 36.24) and Christian metaphor (e.g., Revelation 21.1). It is "home." Moses, the great prophet, longed even just to see the promised land, as if it were a glimpse of heaven. (Deuteronomy 34)

Abusing the land is like chopping the leg on which you stand. The people of the Bible were invariably farmers, vintners, shepherds. They did not "mine" the land and so deplete it. Rather, they relied on the land as a sustaining resource, year after year.

Numbers 35.33-34 has an interesting nuance. It reads,
Do not pollute the land where you are... Do not defile the land where you live and where I [God] dwell.

It seems like the environmentalist's dream verse. Well, actually, the "pollution" and "defilement" refer to ritualistic abuse (committing sins, like murders, on the land), but I think this helps make the case: God's people are called to treat the land as holy. Worship of God means nurturing the land just as we care and maintain a church building.

If you would like to see some photos of the Isle of Harris. You can go to my online album here: http://travel.webshots.com/album/480663230CkDsMC