DOMINION AND POWER – PART TWO

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

                                                          ~ Ezekiel 36:26

            I wanted to do an addendum to my most recent post on dominion and power because in the last few days a particular incident has been in the news and making the rounds on the internet that illustrates some of the concepts I was talking about in that post.  According to the story as summarized by the UK's Daily Mail:

·         ‘Under Wild Skies’ [a program on NBC Sports] is hosted by Tony Makris, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association

·         In a highlighted reel from this week's episode, Makris travels to Botswana and hunts an elephant, shooting it several times before it dies

·         Makris laughs as the animal lets out one last groan after the final shot and then he jokes about wanting to hunt for birds

·         Makris celebrates the hunt by drinking champagne

·         Some NBC Sports viewers are now calling on the network to cancel the show

More on this story is available from the Huffington Post and other sources.  There is much to comment on here, and none of it is encouraging.  First, there is the chilling aspect of the “sport” of trophy hunting itself – the taking of life for pure entertainment value.  Second, there is the raw cruelty of laughter in the face of the clear pain and terror of another creature.  Third, there is the brutality of the killing, which required several shots and clear suffering before the elephant died. All of it celebrated with champagne.  There is nothing of God’s dominion here.   

           
This is the raw exercise of power to exploit.  It is self-aggrandizement through the diminishment of others.  It is, as I suggested in my earlier post, the exercise of power without compassion, without gratitude, and without the recognition that all power comes from God and is answerable to Him.  There can be no greater contrast to the image of God as modeled by Christ, the Good Shepherd, than this wanton taking of life for “fun.”  

            According to the stories I have read, much of the protest against this particular episode of this program was due to the fact that the killing involved an elephant.  According to the Huffington Post, Makris[1] defended his killing by noting he “hunts elephants because he hunts all animals.  Makris said that those who were fine with him hunting ducks and squirrels but believed killing elephants was wrong were practicing ‘animal racism.’”  He has a point here.  Elephants are, without question, magnificent animals.  Their very presence is awe-inspiring, not only due to their size, but because they are extremely intelligent, social animals.  They form strong, life-long friendships with others of their own (and sometimes other) species, and they have important family ties, like humans.  When you kill an elephant, you not only take a life, you damage the whole herd, who will grieve their loss. 

            But ducks, squirrels, and other animals are just as capable of suffering as elephants.  All of them know pain and fear.  Many survivors know loss.  Geese, for example, mate for life and when a goose dies, the surviving mate grieves, and may not mate again.  As with elephants, the life taken is not the only life harmed.  An animal’s value cannot be measured simply by its value to us.  The salient question in considering whether it is right to make an animal suffer or to take its life is not whether we like the animal.  All animals are created and loved by God.  

            Nevertheless, the animals we like and can relate to can serve as a window into the animal kingdom.  When we can open our hearts to elephants in the hunt, chimps in the lab, or dogs in the puppy mill, it is an opportunity to learn to expand our compassion to those beyond us – to learn how to love “the other.”  As we grow in the image of God, we can take that experience of compassion for those animals we know and admire and allow it to become compassion for animals we feel more distant from.  As we grow in compassion, and learn how to feel empathy for those so different from us in the animal kingdom, perhaps we can likewise learn how to feel empathy and compassion for humans who seem different from us as well.  Perhaps our hearts of stone will grow into hearts of flesh.  

            Ironically, Makris compared his detractors, who decried the taking of innocent life, to Hitler.  Charles Patterson and others, however, have suggested that there are significant connections between animal cruelty, which hardens our hearts to suffering, and the Holocaust.  In his book, Eternal Treblinka (see Resources page), Patterson makes the connection clear, and discusses some of the many Holocaust survivors who became animal welfare activists after their ordeal, since they knew only too well the cost of being treated “like an animal.”

            Makris’ hardness of heart in laughing at his own cruelty is saddening.  His inability to understand the suffering of another creature and his belief that the lives of others are his to take are disheartening.  The fact that NBC Sports believes this – and like episodes involving the deaths (for “sport”) of other equally sentient animals – is entertainment is an example of the societal engagement with animal cruelty that Christians must confront. 

            As for me, I long for the day when humans will no longer feel the need to build themselves up by tearing down others, where the taking of life will not be considered “entertainment,” either by hunters, television producers, or television viewers. 

           



Photo credits:  All photos by David Wye.  All are copyrighted, all rights protected, and may not be reused without permission.

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[1] I have no wish to single out Makris.  I’m sure he is no better or worse than others who participate in the “sport” of trophy hunting.  I use his name here simply because the story involves him.