"I saw how little decisions we make in America have huge impacts on the third world and how getting shade grown coffee versus normal coffee is not a big difference for us--it's a matter of a few cents--but for them it's the difference between in the shade and not having to use pesticides versus working in over 100 degree weather just out in the glaring sun."

Conversations to an end: Emma Sleeth

As ubiquitous as the term green has become in recent years, there still is something completely unhip about the site of a 17-year-old college student digging through a trash can to fetch a discarded water bottle.

But that kind of a scene has been routine in the girl's dorm at Asbury College in Kentucky since Emma Sleeth skipped her senior year of high school and moved into the dorm of the small Christian liberal arts school in Kentucky in 2006.

The daughter of well-respected environmental activist J. Matthew Sleeth, MD, and Nancy, a talented English teacher, Sleeth didn't originally set out to follow in her dad's footsteps, but three years after writing a book proposal for an assignment at her Vermont private school Sleeth now has an environmental book of her own in stores.

Released in March by Zondervan, "It's Easy Being Green" is aimed at Christian teenagers with a similar message that propelled her father's "Serve God, Save the Planet" to the forefront of the fledgling Christian creation care movement.

We recently caught up with Emma at her family's home in Wilmore, Ky. (the Sleeths relocated there to cut down on trips to visit Emma and older brother Clark at Asbury). With a healthy dose of natural light coming through the living room windows and a handmade clay cup of water at her side, Emma talked about rescuing discarded water bottles, her new book and growing up in a "green" family.

Tell me a little bit about what was behind the motivation to write about the environment?

Well, I think it actually started with wanting to write and then figuring out what I wanted to write about. But I had my mom as my AP English teacher my junior year and every junior at my high school has to write what's called an AOI, which is an area of inquiry. And it's like a 10-page research paper on any subject that you want and you have to get the subject approved by your teacher. So I was like, 'Hey mom, can I do research about writing a book proposal?' She was like, 'Yeah, sure,' because you know there's a lot of resources out there. And then I was like, 'Hey mom, mind if I just write the proposal?' So instead of writing a 10-page paper, I wrote a 185-page rough draft. It's probably the longest research paper ever written at St. Johnsbury Academy (Vermont). Um, but as far as the environment goes it's obviously something that is kind of a family business. Have you read my dad's book? That whole kind of transformation, moving and dad quitting his job and everything was my eigth grade year. I was fine with it but I was really depressed because it was like all this world is going to end we're destroying the earth kind of stuff and I just hated hearing about it because I would always get so down about it. But then my sophomore year of high school I became a Christian and I was like, 'Oh man, there's hope. This is cool.' Then about a year after I was saved I started writing, percolating and thinking about writing a book about the environment because there's great resources out there for kids who want to do something about the environment and there's great things out there for adults, but there's not much out there for teens and nothing for Christian teens. And so I was just like, 'Ah, there's a need here, might as well fill it.'

It sounds like from what you are saying this connection between environmentalism, creation care and faith really go hand-in-hand?

Yeah. I definitely believed in it. I knew too much because I knew all the statistics, but pretty much I saw the world was dying and I didn't really see how I could have any difference in that because I was too literal minded about it. Like I'm just one person, there are billions of people out there, I'm not actually going to be able to change it. But then I became a Christian and I realized that whole faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains thing and I realized that yeah I am only one person but I need to worry about my part and God will take care of the rest. It's about personal responsibility.

Growing up in the family you've grown up in have you ever felt a pressure to take on the environmental cause?

I don't think my parents would have been mad at me if I hadn't taken this on as my cause or anything. But I feel like, you know how you hear a lot of Christians, at least I hear this a lot at Asbury they're like, 'I grew up in a Christian home and at some point I made the faith my own.' For me I grew up in an environmental home and at some point I had to make it my own. I think that was in high school.

Was there something specific that you remember that made you really start to think about the individual choices you make?

There are a lot of little things but one big thing is I went on a mission trip to Honduras my sophomore year of high school and I saw how little decisions we make in America have huge impacts on the third world and how getting shade grown coffee versus normal coffee is not a big difference for us--it's a matter of a few cents--but for them it's the difference between in the shade and not having to use pesticides versus working in over 100 degree weather just out in the glaring sun. Just seeing our materialistic lifestyle and just how it really doesn't make us any happier.

What has it been like putting yourself out there as a Christian environmentalist when there are many Christians who traditionally have been skeptical about the environmental movement?

It's a very scary thing, especially because I go to Asbury and it has a very conservative background. I'm kind of undercover right now, people don't necessarily know that that's what I stand for. I'll have a lot of people talk to me and you know you just get into a lot of conversations in the dorm and climate change and creation care is not something a lot of people believe in. So it is scary for me sometimes to say no I really believe this. One thing that has been really encouraging to me is my roommate Jenny didn't recycle or anything, she just hadn't really thought about and now we started rooming together. At first, I didn't want to be like proselytizing. But now she's the one who reminded me to bring my recycling home. She's the one who is taking initiative. That's been really encouraging because she is from this traditional background and she hasn't thought too much about climate change but now she's taking on the cause a little bit.

In that, do you see that one of the issues is simply that people don't know any different?

Definitely. Since I grew up recycling and always just trying to conserve I wasn't aware that this just isn't an issue for a lot people. Some people just have no idea that some light bulbs use more energy than others, they just don't think about it. I think a lot of it is an education thing.

How do you approach these personal decisions you advice in your book that aren't exactly popular for teenagers to do?

Most people don't feel comfortable with pulling water bottles out of the trash can which is what I do. I mean, yeah, it's kind of grubby. But yeah, I'll just be sitting in the dorm and there's a microwave in the laundry room and there's a trash can and when my food is in the microwave I'm pulling out cans that people have thrown away. So yeah, it's not really popular. But I've never been too self conscience of other people's opinions because it's really what God thinks and what you think of yourself and I would have a really hard time respecting myself if my words and actions didn't line up. I guess it's a growing process, you don't have to really start out with the radical things. You can start out by riding your bikes or changing a light bulb, but I feel like the more I do the more I want to do. The other thing is, we are the ones who decide what is popular. If we decide that saving the environment is one of our priorities it will become one.

Do you have any concerns about the way the 'green movement' has grown in popularity?

Well, I think it's just great that green has become a family word even. When my dad first wrote the book ("Serve God Save the Planet"), he was just a voice crying in the wilderness. It just was not even on the evangelical radar so even what you were talking about earlier about someone criticizing green pastors. At least there are green pastors out there. So pretty much I'm just excited about that. I mean, nobody's perfect. Everybody can be called a hypocrite. I know I do things that don't line up with what I say and that I can always cut down on my energy use. I'm just really excited and I hope it keeps going.

How has it helped you having the parents you have?

My mom taught me how to write and I'm so thankful for that because she is an incredible English teacher. If it weren't for her I wouldn't be able to write. Both my dad and I are dislexic so she's the one who taught both of us how to spell. We're pretty much hopeless. I can't even read a clock. So my mom has been huge, the fact that she has believed both my dad and me because we both get discouraged very easily. My dad has not read my book yet. I felt like this had to be my own message. I love what my dad is doing and I've been to a lot of his talks. His book has had an amazing influence on the Christian world.

posted [04.22.08]

Past Conversations To An End:
Mike Magill - musician, ex-pat living in Sweden [11.01.07]
Marty B - musician, newspaper reporter [02.24.07]
Michael Miller - musician, card maker [12.24.04]
Jason Dodd - magazine editor [01.15.04]
The Rev. Into Rock - minister with good music taste [1.04.03]
Nate Ruth - musician, music retail [09.07.02]

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