The Seventh-day Adventists are being urged by their top leader to develop an approach to environmental issues that is consistent with the church’s historical values.

World church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, writing in the July issue of Adventist World magazine, says he hopes Adventists “will move toward a fuller discussion of Adventism and environmental responsibility.”

Acknowledging that environmentalism “may sometimes take on a flavor or set of dynamics that is not the same as care for the environment,” such as political and economic agendas, Paulsen says the church could emphasize connections between a clean environment and optimum health.

“When we peel back the layers that surround ‘environmentalism,’ we find ideas that resonate also with our own deeply held beliefs and values: care for God’s world and care for our fellow human beings,” Paulsen states.

Paulsen also states the church could focus on its historic stance on “whole person” care and vegetarian advocacy, which requires fewer resources to produce than a non-vegetarian diet.

“When we choose a simple lifestyle and exercise restraint in our wants, when we emphasize the spiritual above the material and choose relationships before ‘things,’ we are following in the footsteps of our Lord,” Paulsen states.