Once upon a time, my non-member boyfriend who is now my husband, and I took a walk in the woods near my house. This was when we decided that we should date. On this walk, he asked me why Christians didn’t treat the earth better. You know… with all our talk of “righteous dominion” and all that. I can’t answer for all Christians on God’s Good Earth, but I can explain what we Mormons believe is our responsibility to the Earth.

Mormons and Righteous Dominion

God and Jesus Christ created the Earth. Their followers may not always walk the walk, but it very clearly states in scripture that we are to love and respect the Earth and Her creatures, including ourselves. AKA practice righteous dominion over the Earth.

Let’s go back to the beginning.

Through Jesus Christ, God created the Earth. If we truly follow Jesus Christ, we will truly love and respect Their creation and all the things, great and small, on it! One of my favorite scriptures about the creation reads…

4 And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;

6 But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 

Moses 3:4-6 

God created the Earth first! And He created Her for us to live on! Isn’t that amazing? And guess who was pretty sad about Jesus Christ being crucified? 

12 And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers. 

1 Nephi 19:12

Yeah, that’s right. Nature AKA Earth. Nature was sad because Her God was crucified. 

Their are hymns, scriptures, revelations, beginnings…everything started in nature for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Joseph Smith saw God and His Son, Jesus Christ, in the First Vision, in the woods. 

The prophet, Joseph Smith, respected the Earth!

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. 

Joseph Smith History 1:14 

Shortly after this prayer, he saw God and Jesus Christ, kick starting the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. To read about his experience, click HERE. Whether you believe it or not, it’s an amazing origin story.

More prophetic experiences that took place in nature…

Moses got the Ten Commandments from a Mountain; Nephi received the revelation as to how to build a boat in the mountains; Enos received forgiveness from God in the woods while hunting; Jesus Christ went to a garden to experience the Atonement for all human kind…Need I go on? Some of the greatest greats of all time have had some of the most miraculous experiences in history in nature! 

Do you think any of these people could have had such powerful, world changing experiences if they did not practice righteous dominion over the Earth and Her occupants?

My favorite, FAVORITE story of all time, and the story I read to Patrick to show him what Mormons believe about righteous dominion, is the story of Enoch as told in the Pearl of Great Price. 

48 And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? 

49 And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth? 

Moses 7:48-49

Moral of this story? Prophets have mourned on behalf of the Earth. The Earth is a spiritual being that feels. She feels when we are mean to ourselves, each other, Her creatures, Her…

What other morals of the story might there be? If the Earth is a spiritual being then the Earth deserves to be treated with the utmost respect, love, and tenderness. Especially since God is the one that made the Earth, plants, water, elements, animals, critters, cycles, weather, us and gave us the task of righteous dominion.

A lot of Christians and non Christians alike do not practice Righteous Dominion.

I think it’s important to understand that righteous dominion begins with yourself. Treating yourself with respect will help you treat others with respect which will help others treat others with respect and will overall help everyone treat the Earth with respect.

Some ways to practice righteous dominion over yourself is to eat healthy, practice self care, take care of your mental health, be nice, etc. Smoking, drinking, manipulating others or doing anything that is destructive to your heart, mind, soul, or body is considered unrighteous dominion. Because your body is part of a great creation, to not treat it as such is a direct violation of the laws of nature. 

If we treat ourselves well, the ripple effect of treating others well will translate into treating the Earth well.

One of my favorite hymns of all time is called “For the Beauty of the Earth.” We have many songs in the Church about Earth and Her creations but this reigns as my favorite because of the message and melody. I’ve included the lyrics below.

31243, Hymns, For the Beauty of the Earth, no. 92

1. For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth. Over and around us lies,
[Chorus]
Lord of all, to thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.
2. For the beauty of each hour, Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flow'r, Sun and moon, and stars of light,
 [Chorus] 
3. For the joy of human love, Brother, sister, parent, child, Friends on earth, and friends above. For all gentle thoughts and mild,
 [Chorus] 

My dear friends that are reading this…

Please remember that we are all trying our hardest and that we all come up short, thus there is no need to judge one another. As a great bumper sticker says ‘Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.’ We all have our short comings. We don’t always treat creation as it deserves to be treated, but I would like to believe that we all try and treat it the best that we can to the best of our ability with lots and lots and lots of room to improve. 

Further reading:

Unrighteous Dominion: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1989/07/unrighteous-dominion?lang=eng

Sorry there are not more further readings. I kinda just included everything already.