WHALES ARE NOT TREES:

CREATION CARE AND ANIMALS, PART ONE

God intends our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator.
                                                       ~   Dr. John R. W. Stott  

In the last several decades a theological movement variously known as “creation care,” “green theology,” “ecotheology,” or similar terms has taken hold in the church.  Theologians writing from this perspective have done yeoman’s work, arguing for a re-imagining of our understanding of “dominion,” away from an idea of unfettered power and toward and idea of “stewardship,” that is, responsible care and management, of the earth and its resources.[1]  Several recent authors addressing this theme have argued that we are to look to Christ as the perfect image of God, which tells us beyond any dispute that “dominion” cannot be understood as power without responsibility.   This last argument may sound familiar to readers of this blog, as I have argued from this same perspective in developing my own arguments about our relationships with animals. 

The main focus of creation care, however, is environmental stewardship, and its proponents often fail to understand or address the distinction between animals as sentient individuals, and the earth, water, and sky, to which we also owe important and related, but differing, responsibilities.  

Photo credit: David Wye

 Creation care, then, is a helpful step away from the traditional understanding of humans as entitled to exploit creation for solely human benefit, but it is insufficient, as currently articulated, to bring us to terms with the cruelty inherent in our current societal relationship with animals and the ways we, as members of faith communities, support that cruelty.  To the good work of these creation care authors we must add an awareness of the theological significance of the suffering of other creatures and recognize our obligations to address that suffering as distinct from, but in concert with, obligations to preserve the non-sentient earth.[2] 

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IS DOMINION A DIRTY WORD?

“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

                                                                 ~ Revelation 1:5-6

            With the rise of the Creation Care movement, about which I will be writing in coming posts, there has been a move to use the word “stewardship” instead of “dominion” as a way of re-envisioning our relationship with the rest of creation.  It serves as helpful corrective to the way that “dominion” has been distorted in the popular understanding to be synonymous with “domination,” or unchecked power.  “Dominion” is the accepted translation of the word we find in Genesis 1, however, and I think it is more useful to reclaim that word, to put it in its scriptural context, and to own up to obligations it imposes.  “Dominion,” while it has been trampled to the dust by those who believe human interests are the only interests that matter, is not a dirty word and I think we lose something when we distance ourselves from it.   

I just wanted to make this addendum to my most recent post. Proving Bruni's point that more and more people are becoming interested in who animals are and how they experience the world, even Parade magazine has done a story on the subject.

Ten Ways Farm Animals Are Like Your Cat. 

Your move, church.

HELLO? CHURCH? ARE YOU THERE?

“When we reflect upon the most shocking barbarities, and see the brutal rage exercised [against animals] by the most worthless of men, without controul of Law, and without reproof from the Pulpit, we are almost tempted to draw this inference, that Cruelty cannot be a sin.”

                                                                  ~ Humphrey Primatt

            Once again I have put my planned post into cold storage so that I can write about something in the news that I think requires people of faith to sit up and take notice.  It is a column by Frank Bruni that appeared in the New York Times on January 13 entitled According Animals Dignity.  It is a very encouraging piece discussing the ways we are slowly beginning to re-conceive our relationships with animals as we come to have a fuller understanding of how they interact with the world and how miserably some of them are treated.  As a culture, of course, we have a very long way to go, but as Bruni points out, there are encouraging signs of change.  As we come to this awakening, however, and as I read Bruni’s discussion of the signs and sources of change, I cannot help but wonder, again, where is the voice of the church?

            Bruni’s article begins by observing that the most e-mailed recent New York Times story was a story entitled “What Your Cat Is Thinking,” reviewing a book on the subject called Cat Sense (by the same author who recently wrote Dog Sense).  He goes on to discuss other articles and books regarding how animals think (including one called Dogs Are People, Too, which, of course, caught my eye because of this recent post) and the growing popular interest in the topic.

           

ASK THE ANIMALS AND THEY WILL TELL YOU, PART FOUR:

FARM ANIMALS AND SENTIENCE

When a man’s love of finery clouds his moral judgment, that is vanity. When he lets a demanding palate make his moral choices, that is gluttony. When he ascribes divine will to his own whims, that is pride. And when he gets angry at being reminded of animal suffering that his own daily choices might help avoid, that is moral cowardice.

                                                                                     ~ Matthew Scully

            We have seen in Parts One, Two, and Three of this series that animals feel, are aware of, and suffer from physical pain, that they can suffer emotionally, from fear, sadness, and depression, and that they are more intelligent than previously believed, more engaged in their surroundings, and capable of suffering from boredom, as well.  Conversely, animals are also capable of experiencing the richness of life, enjoying their surroundings, forming meaningful relationships with others of their own and other species, and enjoying the task of learning new things.  God has made the animals, like humans, for abundance and joy. 

            This Part Four will look specifically at how farm animals experience the world.  I want to look at these creatures in particular because they suffer in far and away the greatest numbers, they suffer extreme cruelties at human hands, and nearly all of us participate in these cruelties through our purchasing decisions.  But because our diets and purchasing habits are so deeply engrained as habits and traditions in our lives, they are the animals we are most likely to “forget” or to fail to recognize as individuals (not herds, or flocks, or food), or to turn away from when we are asked to consider how we impact their lives.  This post looks at farm animal sentience. It touches only very briefly on how we treat them.  That will be considered in more detail in a later post. 

ASK THE ANIMALS AND THE WILL TELL YOU:

A LOOK AT ANIMAL SENTIENCE

PART THREE:  ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE

“Crows hold a grudge, and they are big gossips.”   ~ Prof. David Craig

“Mice value self-actualizaton.”  ~ Dr. Jonathan Balcombe

In Part One of this series on animal sentience we looked at animals and physical pain.  In PartTwo, we looked at animals and emotions.  In this Part Three, we’ll take a look at animal intelligence.  Humans have consistently underestimated animal intelligence and awareness of the world around them.  We tend to believe that animals go through life with very little understanding of what is happening around them, responding to their environment instinctively.  It turns out, however, that animals are much more intelligent than we have previously believed.  They make choices, they have preferences, they plan for the future and remember the past, and, just like humans, they suffer from boredom if they do not have enough to occupy them.  These realities have an impact on what it means to treat animals humanely and what our obligations of right dominion include.