Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation Evangelicals and Forests Evangelical Christians, like other Christian groups, have a hereitage of a strong and vigorous sense of value for creation, including the forests. This derives from a strong biblical emphasis upon Scripture as a mandate for religious formation. Because the biblical teachings on creation care were not considered important in the past two centuries, they became neglected. This legacy of creation care is now in recovery through deeper reflection on responsibility to God for the care of His creation. Francis Schaeffer (1912 - 1984) A new sense of beauty The Church has not spoken out as it should have done throughout history against the abuse of nature. But when the Church puts belief into practice, in man and in nature, there is a substantial healing. One of the first fruits of that healing is a new sense of beauty. The aesthetic values are not to be despised. God has made man with a sense of beauty, in a way no animal has: no animal has ever produced a work of art. Man as made in the image of God has aesthetic quality, and as soon as he begins to deal with nature as he should — as having dominion but not exploiting nature as though it had no value in itself, and realizing it is also a creature of God as man is — beauty is preserved in nature.