MICHAEL GRUGAL
When Matthew Sleeth offered to plant trees around the property of the church that he and his family had just joined, the pastor told him he had a “theology of a tree hugger.” As it was a conservative church, Sleeth knew it wasn’t a compliment. But having grown up around Maine’s vast forests—even becoming a carpenter—Sleeth knew the importance of trees in a community.
“But this was a church that believes that every word is inspired in scripture,” Sleeth said. “So, I went and read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to find out whether my pastor was right and I was wrong. What I found in scripture was very different from that thinking.”
That investigation sparked a passion in Sleeth to help protect the Earth. He and his wife, Nancy, who now live in Lexington, formed Blessed Earth, an organization with a mission of “inspiring faithful stewardship of all creation” through speaking engagements and education.
His research has also resulted in several books, the latest being Reforesting Faith: What Trees Teach Us About the Nature of God and His Love for Us. The 2019 publication has garnered positive reviews from across the political spectrum—from the Sierra Club to faculty at Southern Baptist theological seminaries.
Sleeth said the book has “gotten around” the politics and that caring for the Earth is much more important than one political party.
“We don’t know what parties are going to be [around] 100 years from now,” Sleeth said. “But we know that our children’s children are going to need clean air and clean water and things available to enjoy and inspire them, just as we do.”
Sleeth’s journey to becoming a voice of environmentalism began roughly 20 years ago. That Matthew Sleeth was an atheist, an emergency room physician at a Maine hospital and chief of the hospital medical staff. He and his family lived comfortably off the coast of Maine. Then a series of tragedies struck the family, and Sleeth underwent a sea change. After reading a Bible he found laying on a table in the hospital waiting room, he began to change his life. The Sleeths joined a local church, sold their house, and considerably downsized their lives.
They moved to Kentucky in 2006 to be near their son and daughter, who were attending Asbury University in Wilmore. Sleeth said they thought it would be a temporary move, but Kentucky worked its charm.
“I think I could live anywhere in the United States and be happy. There are good people everywhere, and we just happened to find a lot of them here,” Sleeth said. “This is home now.”
The Matthew Sleeth of today—an evangelical Christian who unashamedly shares his faith, lives a simple life, and works diligently to save the environment—has been recognized by Newsweek and Christianity Today as one of the country’s most influential Christian leaders.
He’s been asked to speak at conferences hosted by Fortune 500 companies and business schools as well as hundreds of churches, including a monthly guest series at the Washington National Cathedral. He said his wife stopped counting the number of speaking engagements at about 1,000. Blessed Earth’s website, blessedearth.org, notes he’s spoken to more than 2,500 groups in 45 countries and all 50 states in the U.S.
“It’s taken me from one side of the planet to the other,” Sleeth said, “although 98 percent of what I do is within the borders of the United States, counting Hawaii.”
While he brings his faith into the creation care discussion, he wants to impress upon everyone, regardless of religion, how important the environment is to humanity.
“I’m very, very honored to be asked again and again into nontraditional places to speak. You have to be respectful that there’s other people with other beliefs,” Sleeth said. “Many people who are not believers think that they are very clear on what the church is against, and they don’t really know what Scripture is for. So I am a bit of a novelty, and I make no apologies for my belief.”
Although his message is heavily steeped in religion, Sleeth said he can back it up with science. Reforesting Faith cites several Scripture passages that, when written, unknowingly pointed to its scientific source, including a Genesis “sun-plant-animal-oxygen” connection in which the bronchial tree of the human lung is “indistinguishable from the shape of a bare oak tree.”
Tom Kimmerer, Ph.D., a Lexington-based forest scientist and author of Venerable Trees: History, Biology, and Conservation in the Bluegrass, said he read Sleeth’s book from a biology and forestry perspective, and that Sleeth was accurate in his science. “He pegged that. He got it right, and it’s really impressive,” Kimmerer said. “He’s a physician, so he has that scientific training and background and acumen that he can understand the science.”
Kimmerer and Sleeth became acquainted after the Sleeths moved to Lexington. Their mutual drive to protect the environment, particularly trees, grew into a friendship and a sharing of knowledge, both secular and religious.
“He’s not only familiar with the Bible more than anybody else I know, but he’s familiar with basically every version and interpretation of the Bible,” Kimmerer said. “What’s great about Matthew is that he’s not only a man of deep faith, but he’s a man of deep knowledge and understanding.”