Creation Care & 1 Environmental Health
Creation Care and Environmental Health Case Study
Crystal McGhee, BSN RN
Liberty University
HLTH505: Principles of Environmental Health
Dr. John Griesenbeck
August 24, 2025
What is Creation Care?
Creation Care & 2
Environmental Health
Creation care is defined as appreciating, respecting, honoring, and having compassion
for the living along with nonliving things on this planet and throughout the universe
(SellersPetersen et al., 2025). There are six main principles that creation care is composed of,
and these are: 1). God loves all of creation, 2). Creation reveals God, 3). People are an
inseparable part of creation, 4). People have a special role within and unique responsibilities for
creation, 5). In our fallen condition, we are alienated from creation, and 6). God’s plan of
salvation includes the restoration and redemption of creation (Faw, 2025a). Overall, creation
care is based on the mandate that God created mankind in his image and his image alone.
Genesis 1:31 states: “and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (King James Bible Online, 2025).”
Creation Care in Relation to Stewardship, Justice, and Worship
Stewardship is essential for creation care because stewardship involves recognizing the
importance of all things and taking accountability of its well-being (Turner, 2025). Corinthians 4:
1-2 states: 1. “this, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those
entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2. Now it is required that those who have been
given a trust must prove faithful (BibleStudyTools, 2025).
Along with stewardship, creation care is important to maintain justice or the act of being
fair and reasonable to all (OpenBible.info, 2025). Moral righteousness is important to keep from
discriminating against any certain individuals (Merriam-Webster, 2025). Psalm 106: 3 states:
“blessed are they who observe justice, who always do righteousness (OpenBible.info, 2025).
God always does right by his people, so he expects the same for all humanity.
Lastly, creation care has a strong bond with human worship. Worship is defined as the
act of honoring something (Merriam-Webster, 2025). Creation care is essential to worship
because it encourages individuals to honor and respect the world that God created (Calvin
Creation Care & 3
Environmental Health
Institute of Christian Worship, 2025). Worship allows us to be thankful for what God gave us,
and we can prove to him that we will care for his creation like he would.
Creation Care as a Framework for Environmental Health
Creation care provides a framework for environmental health because it emphasizes the
importance of all living things and encourages the sustainability of life through biblical teaching
and Christian values (B&FT Online, 2025). Being responsible for the management of natural
resources is also a part of environmental stewardship because it helps to conserve the health of
the population (B&FT Online, 2025). Cutting down on air pollution helps to preserve one’s
respiratory system along with minimizing chemical exposures (Catholic Health Association of the
United States, 2025). By being cautious of these, we can help decrease the risk of cancers as
well.
Public Health Professionals as Stewards
Public health professionals play an important role in finding both ethical and practical
ways to help promote environmental health. They focus on assessing harmful environmental
factors that could hinder the well-being of the human population and work towards
implementing ways to eliminate these factors (Bare et al., 2025). Also, public health
professionals provide education to the public regarding the importance of a healthy
environment and encourage everyone to work together to protect the atmosphere that God
blessed everyone with (American Public Health Assocation, 2025).
Public Stewardship and Professional Responsibilities
Both public stewardship and professional responsibilities rely on adhering to standards
and taking accountability for one’s actions. Stewardship focuses more on following decisions
backed by God’s values where professional responsibilities focus on the resources entrusted by
human beings (Hinton, 2022). If everyone sets their mind to working for the glory of God,
professional responsibilities will fall into place.
Creation Care & 4
Environmental Health
Application and Reflection
One way that faith-based principles of creation care can guide actions in environmental
health policy is through the simple process of supporting local farmers. By supporting local
farmers, we are following the commitment of God’s creation and helping to reduce global
challenges that we face as the years go by (Phillips, 2025). By having this perspective each day,
we can help keep our planet in the best shape possible and minimize the health issues that we
could potentially face. Following God’s way will always be beneficial to everyone.
References
American Public Health Association. (2025). Public health code of ethics.
https://www.apha.org/getcontentasset/43d5fdee-4ccd-427d-
90dbb1d585c880b0/7ca0dc9d-611d-46e2-9fd3-26a4c03ddcbb/code_of_ethics.pdf?
language=en (Published 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Bare, G., Kim, T., Hedberg, C., Dutra, N., Walker, C., & Dyjack, D. To build, sustain, and empower
an effective environmental health workforce. NEHA SC. https://www.neha.org/ (Published
July, 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
BibleStudyTools. 1 corinthians 4:1-2 - this, then, is how you ought to regard us: As serv... Bible
Study Tools. https://www.biblestudytools.com/1-corinthians/passage/?
q=1%2Bcorinthians%2B4%3A1-2 (Published 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
B&FT Online. Creation care: Personalizing sustainable environmental stewardship - the business
& financial times. https://thebftonline.com/2025/03/18/creation-care- personalizing-
sustainable-environmental-stewardship/ (Published March 18, 2025). (Accessed August
22, 2025).
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Worship Resources for Creation Care.
https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/articles/worship-resources-creation-care (Published
2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
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Catholic Health Association of the United States. Caring for Creation.
https://www.chausa.org/advocacy/resources/policy-briefs/caring-for-creation (Published
2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Faw, R. A brief theology of creation care. GoodSeedSunday.
https://arocha.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/theology-of-creation-care.pdf (Published
2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Hinton, T. Stewardship & responsibility in the workplace - god’s view. EPIC Fellowship Church.
https://www.epicfc.org/news/stewardship-responsibility-in-the-workplace-gods-view
(Published October 1, 2022). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
King James Bible Online. Genesis KJV. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Genesis-1-31/
(Published 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Merriam-Webster. Justice definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster.
https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/justice (Published 2025). (Accessed August
22, 2025).
OpenBible.info. 100 Bible verses about justice. https://www.openbible.info/topics/justice
(Published 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Phillips, A. Christian environmentalism: Caring for god’s creation for a sustainable future. The
Witness. https://thewitness.org/christian-environmentalism-caring-for-gods-creation/
(Published March 28, 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025).
Sellers-Petersen, B., Braik, S., Neitzey, P., Reinke, V., Campbell, A., & ComptonNelson, A. .
Creation care. Building Faith. https://buildfaith.org/creation-care/ (Published
2025).(Accessed August, 22, 2025).
Turner, H. An evangelical case for creation care - social issues. Affinity.
https://www.affinity.org.uk/social-issues/an-evangelical-case-for-creation-care/
(Published July 26, 2025). (Accessed August 22, 2025). , ,
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