HOW MANY PIGS IS A HUMAN WORTH?

THE GADARENE PIGS

PART ONE


“The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine’” 
                                                                    Matthew 8:31

            The story of Jesus confronting a demoniac (or demoniacs, depending on which gospel you are reading) and “sending”[1] the demons into a nearby herd of swine, who then rush into the sea and drown, is told in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).  It is a troubling story for those of us who care about animals and what scripture has to say about our relationships to animals, and it has been used over the years to justify much animal cruelty.  It is, therefore, an important story to consider carefully, and for that reason I propose to do so in two parts.  In this part, I want to look carefully at the various elements of the story as it is told in all three gospels, with particular emphasis on the Gospel of Matthew.  Next week, I will consider various interpretations of the story and offer my own. 

Miracle of Gadarene Swine

In the Gospel of Matthew, the story is told in verse 8:28-9:1.  The story opens with Jesus arriving in a boat on the shores of “the country of the Gadarenes” [2] (8:28), and closes with him leaving to “cross the sea,” obviously also in a boat, to go to “his own town” (9:1).  This frames the actions on shore and focuses our attention.  Our attention has also been heightened by the way Matthew has built his portrait of Jesus thus far.  After the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus came down from the mountain and began enacting the kingdom about which he had been teaching.  He performed three healings, including healings both within and outside of the Jewish community and healings through touch and at a distance.  All of this, Matthew explains, is to fulfill the prophet Isaiah.  Jesus is the one who has been foretold.  Next Jesus taught again, this time about the costs and urgency of discipleship.  The message is that what is happening in Jesus is something more important than anything that has gone before - more important even than Jewish law, since disciples are to “leave the dead to bury their own dead” (8:21).  Then Jesus commanded even the wind and the sea and the disciples are left flabbergasted and awestruck, wondering, “what sort of man is this?” (8:27).

ARE CHURCH LEADERS SENTIENT?[1]

The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

                                                                 ~  Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832

                    An Introduction To The Principles Of Morals And Legislation

            I apologize that this week I have not had time to write a reflection on scripture and animals.  I did, however attend a two-day conference this week entitled The Science of Animal Thinking and Emotion: Sentience as a Factor in Policy and Practice, and I’d like to offer just a few thoughts on why I attended this conference, what I learned, and why the church should care. 

            The conference was sponsored by the Humane Society Institute for Science & Policy and featured scientists and policy makers from a wide range of disciplines and from around the world.  We learned about studies being done regarding the emotional and intellectual lives of dogs, chimps, bonobos, fish, farm animals, prairie dogs, and crocodilians.  We heard about the impacts the advances in our understanding of animal sentience has had in the European Union, strides being made in China, and the role of media in shaping public understanding and opinion of proper treatment of animals.  It was a very full two days. 

Psalm Of A Downed Dairy Cow

“A cow’s a piece of machinery.  If it’s broke, we try to fix it, and if we can’t, it’s replaced.”

                                                 ~ quoted in Dominion, The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully

            Following up last week’s post on animals and Sabbath, and in keeping with a Lenten theme of penitence, I offer this “psalm.”  It is written from the perspective of a downed dairy cow (that is, a cow so exhausted from over-breeding and over-milking that she cannot stand or walk) in a factory farm, where animals are given no rest, but are manipulated solely for profit, without regard to their most basic needs. This is a system that disregards the rhythm of work, play, and rest, that, as Ex. 20:8-11 tells us, are woven into creation and into the Sabbath commandment, as discussed in last week’s post.

            We know that farm animals have a great deal more intelligence, self-awareness, and emotional depth than previously believed.  They know pain, fear, and loneliness. Those on factory farms know these emotions intensely.  Farm animals do cry out - with bellows and squeals and squawks - and just as the God of the Exodus heard the cries of the slaves in Egypt which were not intentionally cries or prayers to God, so I believe he hears the cries of the animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.  This psalm is my effort to render those cries and my understanding of the divine response into a theological representation. 

ANIMALS AND THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work -- you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

                                                                    ~ Exodus 20: 8-11

            The Fourth Commandment is one of several places in Scripture where we are expressly told that we have obligations to animals – in particular the animals who work for us and who become our food – yet few people are aware that the Sabbath command has anything to do with animals.  This is particularly significant, for this commandment is a pivotal point of the Ten Commandments, bridging the distance between the first three, which are directed to loving God, and the last 6, which are directed to loving neighbor.  It brings us back to the creation story and the place of humankind in it; it encompasses worship, law, trust in God, justice, compassion, mercy, and life lived in the image of God.  The presence of animals here signifies their importance in all of these themes.  In this season of Lent, it seems appropriate to consider how we keep –or fall short of – this commandment. 

Tissot, Moses and the Ten Commandments