Serve God, Save the Planet is written by J. Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room doctor, ER director, and chief of medical staff. He writes primarily out of his experience in evangelical Christianity, which is reflected by many of the theological assertions in the book. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the theology he espouses, I do think that his core tenets of tying the care of creation with our love and service of God and fellow humans and are sound.

Though it’s not an incredibly long book (~250 pages total) it does cover a lot of ground. There are 16 chapters in all, so rather than summarize each one I’ll simply hit some of the book’s high and low points and provide some general reflections:

High Points

Style & Format – Sleeth writes in a very readable style, making this a book that can definitely be enjoyed by anyone who has a basic background in Christianity. As I mentioned there are 16 chapters, only 10-15 pages each, and 5 helpful appendices including a workbook, an energy audit, and an environmental to-do list. I could definitely see this book being used as the basis of an ongoing discussion group using the included workbook questions as a starting point.

Global emphasis – An important consideration when talking about the environment is that many of those who suffer the greatest from the damage that is done to the earth live in poorer countries around the world. Sleeth provides global insight into the problems of pollution and overconsumption through both facts and figures as well as personal anecdotes from medical misisons trips.

Practical – This book definitely appeals to my practical side. Even though many of the examples Sleeth shares from his own life are far more drastic than most people will be ready to undertake initially, he does provide other, smaller suggestions that are more easily incorporated into every day living. So while his story of living in a house that is the size of his previous garage may seem like an unattainable goal for some (depending on the size of their garages), his suggestions to use compact flourescent light bulbs, plant vegetable gardens, and hang laundry outside to dry are all more easily incorporated.

Inclusive – I think that too often we focus simply on the actions that are beneficial or detrimental to the environment instead of focusing on the attitudes behind those actions. Sleeth addresses this by grounding creation care in love of God and love of neighbor. He discusses how our attitudes about child-rearing, population control, and even our modern, western fixation on fitness and medical wellbeing can have a large impact on the natural world.

A call to simpler living – I have a theological and spiritual appreciation for simple living. The Church of the Brethren, the denomination I am a part of, has historically emphasized simple living in community as how we are called to live out our faith as Christians. As I read this book, much of what Sleeth said resonated with me not only because of my interest in the environment, but also because I value the quest to seek out a simpler way of life in the midst of modern busyness. What he says about rampant consumerism, our sense of entitlement, and our ignorance of how disproportionately wealthy we are compared to the rest of the world is not new. However, it is something we need to be reminded of often since our commercial-driven media is constantly trying to make us forget.

Low Points

Theological & biblical issues – As I mentioned earlier the theology of the book is more on the evangelical side, and I found my theological hacklesraised by some of the assumptions he puts forth as facts (like some issues of biblical authorship) and some of his choices regarding biblical translations. He uses the King James Version, which in my opinion is based on outdated scholarship and is often contextually irrelevant in the 21st century, and the New Living Translation, which is more of a paraphrase, for many of his scriptural quotations. While I had no trouble reading around these issues and didn’t see them as affronts to my own beliefs, others who have less familiarity or are less comfortable with the diversity of Christian belief may find it more difficult to do so.

Too broad? – I know that just moments ago I praised how inclusive Sleeth is when dealing with the issue of environmental care, yet I wonder if he’s possibly a bit too broad in his approach. Let me explain. Many of the things he writes about do have an impact on the environment, yet some are much more tangential than others. For example, he has entire chapters on his thoughts about television, work patterns and sabbath rest, family dynamics and child rearing, and even a chapter on childhood misconceptions and Santa Claus! While there are no doubt some environmental implications to each of these, the way he writes about them sometimes seems to lack the emphasis I might have hoped for.

Anecdotes – While Sleeth is a very readable writer and a pretty good storyteller, I sometimes found his anecdotes to be a bit much. Almost every chapter seemed to have at least one story from his experiences as an emergency room doctor, a medical missions trip, or his family life. While these stories often serve to prove a point, other times they are a bit graphic and shocking. Maybe that’s what he was going for, turning our stomachs to turn our thought patterns. I’m sure others may appreciate these stories more than I did, so this one I might just chalk up to personal preference.

To Read or Not To Read

Over all I found this to be a very enjoyable and thought-provoking book. I would suggest it to anyone who has an interest in learning how care for the environment can be a natural outgrowth of Christian belief. I also think this would be an excellent read for Christians who might be having a hard time figuring out why so many other Christians are jumping on the environmental bandwagon. They may even find themselves jumping on too!

Those who are already theologically-grounded Christian environmentalists may enjoy reading about Sleeth’s personal lifestyle changes in light of his conviction for creation care. Though I can’t recommend all of his theological nuances, I think his overall reasoning is very sound and I found myself greatly appreciating how he portrays saving the planet to be a natural outgrowth of serving God.

What do things like word processing and surfing the ‘net have to do with saving the environment? More than you might realize. In this day and age of constant connection it is increasingly common for households to have multiple computers left running 24/7. In addition, the marketplace’s push for us to constantly upgrade our computing equipment means that there is a lot of “e-waste” with lead or other toxic chemicals that is not being disposed of properly. Here are some quick tips and links on how you can make your computing experience a little greener:

Power Down

I’ll start off with a tip that I admit I could do more often. Currently we have three computers in our house (a server, a workstation, and a laptop) that stay on all day and all night. My excuse for doing so is that they are all set to back themselves up to the server overnight. Some folks also leave their computers on at night to do things like update virus protection or run system updates. To help counter this practice a little bit my wife and I have instituted a practice of going “unplugged” on Monday nights, powering off our two main computers (and the television) around 6pm and leaving them off all night long. In the near future I plan to rework our backup server’s schedule and set up our computers to initiate a timed shutdown automatically (using GShutdown) after we have gone to bed. Windows users may want to look into Poweroff for the same sort of functionality.

Also, powering off peripherals such as speakers, monitors, and printers when you’re not using them can help cut your power consumption as well. All modern operating systems will allow you to set up your monitor to automatically enter a low power “sleep mode” after a predetermined amount of time. Instead of setting your computer to display a screensaver when it goes idle, which means your monitor continues to use the same amount of energy, you can set it up to cut your monitor off after 5 minutes instead. After all, do you really need a screensaver to remind you that you’ve stopped using your computer? You may also want to check out the SmartStrip, which is a surge protector that will automatically cut the power to accessories when you power down your computer.

Reuse or Recycle Old Hardware

There is an increasing amount of e-waste being generated by our society. A great deal of this comes from old computers. Knowing that many computer parts like circuit boards and hard drives can contain hazardous chemicals, I have never thrown away any computer hardware (much to my wife’s chagrin.) In addition, I try not to replace hardware unless it physically fails. This recently happened when my server’s motherboard and power supply literally melted down, fusing to one another and shorting out in the process. Both parts were about 7 years old and had been running nearly 24/7 since they were purchased. Not too shabby. But instead of going out and buying all new hardware to rebuild my home server, I instead walked out to my garage and disassembled an old computer I had been using for web surfing and streaming music while I worked on cars. It only took a day or so of work to get my server back up and running, and with no additional cost.

One of the things that allows me to get by without using cutting-edge hardware is the fact that I run Ubuntu Linux on all of our computers. Like most versions of Linux, Ubuntu can run comfortably (and quickly) on older hardware. It has been my experience that most installations of Windows become bloated to the point where they slow to a crawl after a couple of years. Meanwhile, I recently replaced my garage computer with one that was saved from a local dumpster (how’s that for reusing!) and it runs Ubuntu quite easily, despite the fact that most of its hardware is at least 10 years old! Sure, I won’t be doing as much multi-tasking or complex number-crunching on that computer, but for surfing the web and listening to music it works just fine.

So what should we do with all of our old computers that have either died or we no longer need? My recommendation would be to find a local charity or other organization that will recycle (or reuse) your old computer for you. You may be able to find such places by calling up some locally owned computer shops in your area (who may also be willing to take your old hardware off your hands.) The church I currently attend has recently started a computer “hardware co-op” that does this. For a small processing fee they will take nearly any old computer parts and either properly dispose of them or rebuild them into functioning computers that can then be redistributed to those who may not be able to afford computers otherwise. It’s a great idea, and one that I hope catches on.

Greener Hardware

Finally, when you do find that it’s time to replace aging or failing hardware, you can do so with more environmentally friendly products. I recently replaced the power supply and motherboard in our workstation, and in doing so I was sure to look at products that were RoHS compliant, meaning that they contained less toxic chemicals, and when possible I tried to look for solutions that used less energy. One way of getting computers to use less energy is to start from the source of their energy, the power supply. The 80 PLUS program is an effort to certify and recognize high-efficiency power supplies that may use up to 33% less energy than similar, non-certified models. The model I ended up settling on is an Antec EarthWatts EA380, which at the time had a mail-in rebate that made it nearly the same price as other similarly-sized units.

Another consideration when upgrading hardware is the fact that LCD flat-panel monitors are much more power efficient than old-fashioned CRT monitors. LCDs are more efficient not only when they’re in use, but also when they are turned off in sleep mode. Depending on how much time your monitor spends “awake” or “asleep” you could use between 60% and 90% less energy by switching from a CRT to a flat panel of a similar size.

If you are looking to replace your entire computer system, a popular low-energy solution is to get a laptop. In general, laptops use much less power than desktops, plus you have the added convenience of being able to pick up your computer and take it wherever you like. Just don’t forget to properly recycle those batteries! You may think that getting a laptop would cost much more than getting a desktop, but that’s not necessarily the case, especially if you’re willing to look into the possibility of getting a slightly used model (reuse and recycle, remember?) I recently helped acquire a lightly used IBM Thinkpad laptop for my mother-in-law for less than $500. Though it may not be brand new, after loading it with a fresh install of Ubuntu it has been a great system for her to use on a regular basis.

I hope these ideas help to spark your interest in the growing “green computing” movement. If you’ve got any additional ideas of how to make our interactions with technology less environmentally intrusive I’d love for you to share them, so post them in the comments section below.

Update: Here are a couple links for further reading on this subject …

• Easy Ways to Go Green with Your Computer @ Lifehacker
• 8 Ways to Easily Reduce the Energy Consumption of Your Computer – and Save Big Money @ The Simple Dollar