MINORITY REPORT PART
THREE:
ANIMALS, SOCIAL REFORM,
AND CHRISTIANITY
IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY
“Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God.”
~ Cardinal John Henry Newman
~ Cardinal John Henry Newman
For those of us who care about animals, the silence of
the church on the issue of compassion and mercy for animals is not only frustrating,
it is a challenge to our faith. When
people ask us what animals have to do with faith or why we aren’t concentrating
on “more important” issues involving human suffering, we sometimes want to (and
some do) run from the church into the more welcoming arms of secular animal
welfare organizations. What kind of a
God, we wonder, is silent in the face of a world filled to bursting with
needless and extreme animal suffering at human hands? What kind of a church fails to see the misery to which
it contributes?
The answer, it seems to me, is not the God we meet in the
Bible, and it is not the church as it is called to be. I am not the first to believe this, and in
these Minority Report posts, I hope to bring to the fore our deeply rooted traditions that
recognize the bonds between compassion for animals and holiness and the repeated
calls from a variety of faith perspectives within the church for reform on this
issue. I hope to underscore, as these
long-standing, if often unheeded, voices in our tradition have underscored,
that this is not a matter of abstract theology, but it touches in a very real
way who we are and how we live our day-to-day lives.
Minority Report Part One examined the compassionate and respectful relationships between the saints (whose lives are to be an example to us) and animals; Part Two considered the pleas of John Wesley and Humphrey Primatt for compassion toward our fellow creatures. This post moves to the nineteenth century, an era of dramatic public reforms, and looks at public figures whose faith moved them to public action on behalf of both humans and animals.
Best known is William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a Member
of Parliament who worked tirelessly to end the slave trade in England.
Wilberforce was also an active and outspoken advocate for animals. As summarized byDr. Bernard Unti for the Humane Society of the United States,
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| William Wilberforce |
Wilberforce was also an active and outspoken advocate for animals. As summarized byDr. Bernard Unti for the Humane Society of the United States,
Even as the slavery issue dominated his personal and political
life, Wilberforce found time to champion the cause of animal protection from
the moment it first surfaced. He was present for and involved with every
Parliamentary debate on cruelty issues, from the first failed proposal by Sir
William Pultney in 1800 to the watershed breakthrough of Martin's Act in
1822. Over those 22 years, moreover, Wilberforce remained faithful to the
cause, against objections that the subject of cruelty to animals was not suited
to the dignity of a legislature.
Wilberforce understood
that participating in or allowing cruelty to animals was harmful to both humans
and animals. When a bill to ban bull
baiting was presented in Parliament and those who opposed the bill argued that
“the people” enjoyed this “sport,” Wilberforce responded that the condition of
the people “must be wretched indeed” if this were so. He also said that if any Member of Parliament
“had inquired into the subject minutely, he would no longer defend a practice
which degraded human nature.” [1]
The Palmetto Public Square has recognized the fundamental
role of Wilberforce’s faith in his reform efforts, including his lifelong work
for animals, and that it should serve as model for our own relationships with
animals:
As a Christian philanthropist and British Member of
Parliament, Wilberforce’s inclusion of animal welfare in his life’s work of
alleviating all manner of suffering is a resounding endorsement of this
endeavor’s importance. His efforts in establishing the world’s first
organization dedicated to animal protection—the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals—can serve as a model for what we ought to strive to achieve
as Christians in this area. …
A contemporary of Wilberforce’s, Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1902),
was Vice President of the SPCA, and a supporter of the Victoria Street Society,
the first group in the world to campaign against animal vivisection.
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He was also a social reformer
for several human causes. Like
Wilberforce, he saw the connection between faith in a God of mercy, compassion
for his neighbor, and compassion for animals.
He wrote, “I was convinced that God had called me to devote whatever
advantages He might have bestowed up me to the cause of the weak, the helpless,
both man and beast, and those who had none to help them.”[2] As Andrew Linzey has said of Wilberforce andLord Shaftesbury, “They saw, as we need to see, that the cause of cruelty was
indivisible. A world in which cruelty to animals goes unchecked is bound to be
a less morally safe world for human beings.”[3]
Wilberforce and Shaftesbury, led by an Anglican priest by
the name of Arthur Broome, were also instrumental in the founding of the first
animal welfare organization, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (SPCA) in 1824. As explained bythe Aukland, New Zealand SPCA:
It
was the Reverend Arthur Broome, an Anglican Priest, who called together a
formidable group which included Richard Martin (now affectionately called Humanity
Dick), William Wilberforce (well known for his bold stand against
slavery) and Lord Shaftesbury. Broome sacrificed his London living to work
full-time (unpaid) for the Society as its first Secretary (eventually ending up
in prison because of the organisation's [sic] debts). Broome stamped the
Christian ethos with which the Society still operates to this day with his
first Minute Book declaration that the proceedings of this Society are entirely
based on the Christian faith, and on Christian principles.
Nevertheless, as these examples make clear, the notion
that our Christian faith must compel us to action on behalf of suffering
animals is an idea well imbedded in our tradition. Individuals of faith, convinced of this truth,
have made an abiding difference in the lives of countless of God’s creatures,
even if there is yet a very long way to go.
To those of us who care about this issue deeply, these examples can give
us hope and let us know that we are right to work both in the world and in the
church on behalf of the animals, to “speak up for those who cannot speak for
themselves” and to “ensure justice for those being crushed.” (Prov. 31:8, New Living Translation).
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