"We may pretend to what religion we please, but cruelty is atheism.
We may make our boast of Christianity; but cruelty is infidelity.
We may trust to our orthodoxy;
but cruelty is the worst of heresies."
Rev. Humphrey Primatt.
A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and
Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals (1776)
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“When we reflect upon the shocking barbarities, and see the brutal rage exercised 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.”
Rev. Humphrey Primatt
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Rev. Humphrey Primatt.
A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and
Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals (1776)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
“When we reflect upon the shocking barbarities, and see the brutal rage exercised 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.”
Rev. Humphrey Primatt
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“If you have men who will
exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you
will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men.”
St. Francis of Assisi
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The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 see the creation of humanity as quite specifically the creation of an agent, a person, who can care for and protect the animal world, reflecting the care of God himself who enjoys the goodness of what he has made.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
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The image of Noah summoning the creatures to the ark may also be meant to recall God bringing the animals to Adam so that they can be named (Gen.2.19): once on the scene, humanity has to establish its relationship with the animal world, a relationship in which meaning is given to the whole world of living things through the human reflection of God’s sustaining care.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The one thing we should not imagine is that God’s covenant means that we have a blank cheque where the created world is concerned. The text points up that God’s promise has immediate and specific implications about how we behave towards all living beings, human and non-human. It is not a recipe for complacency or passivity.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“What do they know – all these scholars, all the philosophers, all the leaders of the world – about such as [a mouse?] They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer.
The Letter Writer
---------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dominion: The Power of Man,
St. Francis of Assisi
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 see the creation of humanity as quite specifically the creation of an agent, a person, who can care for and protect the animal world, reflecting the care of God himself who enjoys the goodness of what he has made.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The image of Noah summoning the creatures to the ark may also be meant to recall God bringing the animals to Adam so that they can be named (Gen.2.19): once on the scene, humanity has to establish its relationship with the animal world, a relationship in which meaning is given to the whole world of living things through the human reflection of God’s sustaining care.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The one thing we should not imagine is that God’s covenant means that we have a blank cheque where the created world is concerned. The text points up that God’s promise has immediate and specific implications about how we behave towards all living beings, human and non-human. It is not a recipe for complacency or passivity.
Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Operation Noah Annual Lecture, 2009
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“What do they know – all these scholars, all the philosophers, all the leaders of the world – about such as [a mouse?] They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer.
The Letter Writer
---------------------------------------------------------
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.
Dominion: The Power of Man,
The Suffering of Animals,
and the Call to Mercy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't answer to inevitabilities, and neither do you. I don't answer to the economy. I don't answer to tradition and I don't answer to Everyone. For me, it comes down to a question of whether I am a man or just a consumer. Whether to reason or just to rationalize. Whether to heed my conscience or my every craving, to assert my free will or just my will. Whether to side with the powerful and comfortable or with the weak, afflicted, and forgotten. Whether, as an economic actor in a free market, I answer to the God of money or the God of mercy.
Matthew Scully.
Dominion: The Power of Man,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't answer to inevitabilities, and neither do you. I don't answer to the economy. I don't answer to tradition and I don't answer to Everyone. For me, it comes down to a question of whether I am a man or just a consumer. Whether to reason or just to rationalize. Whether to heed my conscience or my every craving, to assert my free will or just my will. Whether to side with the powerful and comfortable or with the weak, afflicted, and forgotten. Whether, as an economic actor in a free market, I answer to the God of money or the God of mercy.
Matthew Scully.
Dominion: The Power of Man,
The Suffering of Animals,
and the Call to Mercy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"God intends our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator."
Dr. John R. W. Stott
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field: “This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in the mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of God Almighty.”
R.C. Sproul
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"I do not want the Church to support animals simply to conform to secular pressure, rather I want the Church to see that its own Gospel requires opposition to cruelty."
Andrew Linzey
Creatures of the Same God
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The matter of the abuse and cruelty we inflict on other animals has to fight for our attention in what sometimes seems an already overfull moral agenda. It is vital, however, that these instances of injustice not be overlooked."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is a kind of theological folly to suppose that God has made the entire world just for human beings, or to suppose that God is interested in only one of the millions of species that inhabit God’s good earth."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The saints are exceedingly loving and gentle to mankind, and even to brute beasts ... Surely we ought to show them [animals] great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.”
St. John Chrysostom
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“Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God.”
Cardinal John Henry Newman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
Rev. Dr. Albert Schweitzer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev. Dr. Albert Schweitzer
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Immanuel Kant
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”
Prov.31:8, New Living Translation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"God intends our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator."
Dr. John R. W. Stott
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field: “This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in the mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of God Almighty.”
R.C. Sproul
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I do not want the Church to support animals simply to conform to secular pressure, rather I want the Church to see that its own Gospel requires opposition to cruelty."
Andrew Linzey
Creatures of the Same God
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The matter of the abuse and cruelty we inflict on other animals has to fight for our attention in what sometimes seems an already overfull moral agenda. It is vital, however, that these instances of injustice not be overlooked."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is a kind of theological folly to suppose that God has made the entire world just for human beings, or to suppose that God is interested in only one of the millions of species that inhabit God’s good earth."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The saints are exceedingly loving and gentle to mankind, and even to brute beasts ... Surely we ought to show them [animals] great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.”
St. John Chrysostom
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God.”
Cardinal John Henry Newman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
Rev. Dr. Albert Schweitzer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Anyone who has
accustomed himself to regard the life of any
living creature as worthless is in danger of
arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives."
living creature as worthless is in danger of
arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives."
Rev. Dr. Albert Schweitzer
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"He who is cruel
to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.
We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel Kant
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[W]e live alongside these other animal creatures, employ them for our own purposes with little regard for their well-being, and threaten their environments through our activities, making species extinct through thoughtless neglect or deliberate action. Christian theologians therefore have a responsibility to be attentive to where other animals belong in their theological work, to resist the simplistic and inaccurate received formulations of human exceptionalism that manifest an inexcusable ignorance of the lives of other creatures and to seek new ways of representing the relations of our animal neighbours with God and ourselves.
David Clough
On Animals, Volume I
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given that God did not merely establish the world for our own convenience, but wills the flourishing of all God’s creatures, we must ask what this might mean for the appropriateness of Christian uses of other animals for food, clothing, labour, research, entertainment, companions and for our responsibilities to non-human animals that live beyond relationships of domestication.
David Clough
On Animals, Volume I
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"[K]indness towards our fellow creatures manifests the kingdom of God, while unkindness to any creature manifests its opposite. I hope you agree w me that in God's kingdom, all creatures are our neighbors - our neighbors to be loved, not exploited, to be known and named, not numbered and utilized."
Brian McLaren
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"More and more of us are being convinced that nonviolence - expressed more positively as kindness - is essential, not peripheral, to Christian spirituality. . . . And when we apply thaw rule of kindness to our eating, clothing, and entertainment, we will lose our taste for certain foods and products."
Brian McLaren
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[W]e live alongside these other animal creatures, employ them for our own purposes with little regard for their well-being, and threaten their environments through our activities, making species extinct through thoughtless neglect or deliberate action. Christian theologians therefore have a responsibility to be attentive to where other animals belong in their theological work, to resist the simplistic and inaccurate received formulations of human exceptionalism that manifest an inexcusable ignorance of the lives of other creatures and to seek new ways of representing the relations of our animal neighbours with God and ourselves.
David Clough
On Animals, Volume I
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given that God did not merely establish the world for our own convenience, but wills the flourishing of all God’s creatures, we must ask what this might mean for the appropriateness of Christian uses of other animals for food, clothing, labour, research, entertainment, companions and for our responsibilities to non-human animals that live beyond relationships of domestication.
David Clough
On Animals, Volume I
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"[K]indness towards our fellow creatures manifests the kingdom of God, while unkindness to any creature manifests its opposite. I hope you agree w me that in God's kingdom, all creatures are our neighbors - our neighbors to be loved, not exploited, to be known and named, not numbered and utilized."
Brian McLaren
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"More and more of us are being convinced that nonviolence - expressed more positively as kindness - is essential, not peripheral, to Christian spirituality. . . . And when we apply thaw rule of kindness to our eating, clothing, and entertainment, we will lose our taste for certain foods and products."
Brian McLaren
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”
Prov.31:8, New Living Translation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi
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2 comments:
excellent quotes!
Thanks so much! I look forward to checking out your blog, triumphantman - it looks very interesting!
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