To the editor:

There has been a flurry of letters about the slogan “What Would Jesus Drive?” Even though on the surface, the slogan does sound a little silly, I would like to speak in its defense because it asks such a pertinent question.

According to the Christian scriptures, Jesus, in loving cooperation with God, created the Earth and all that lives upon it. Genesis reads that God and (according to Christians) implicitly Jesus were pleased with the earth and its creatures, both animate and inanimate. Christians have no reason to believe that God’s love and concern for the earth and all of its creatures has waned. It behooves all of us then, especially those of us who profess belief in Jesus, to take proper care of not only humans but also the planet that sustains us and all living things.

This care includes doing all we can to reduce the pollution we add to the air. It also could include speaking out against a possible war that would be fought in large part to meet our nation’s insatiable appetite for fossil fuel, regardless of the lives it would take in the process. I might even carry the question further: Would Jesus drive every time he needed to go someplace? Might he walk or bicycle or even ride the “T”?

Kelly Barth

Lawrence