ST. ALBAN’S FORUM: CROSSING THE DIVIDE

“Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another, and with God and in right relationships with all of the rest of creation.”
                                                                      ~The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori 

This past Sunday, I was honored to be the guest speaker at the adult forum at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC.  The Rev. Jim Quigley and I discussed why animals matter from a theological perspective, followed by Q&A from the audience.  Our conversation was broad ranging and the questions were insightful and thought-provoking.  I want to write today about some of my reflections coming out of that discussion, which seemed to me to highlight the many ways we can build bridges and make connections – both among and within species.  It brought to mind (stay with me here) the homily by Katharine Jefferts Schori at her installation ceremony as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2006.  In it, she talked about the Jewish concept of shalom, in which the whole world rests, together, in peace and harmony:  

Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all the rest of creation.  It is that vision of the lion lying down with the lamb and the small child playing over the den of the adder, where the specter of death no longer holds sway.  It is that vision to which Jesus points when he says, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  To say "shalom" is to know our own place and to invite and affirm the place of the rest of creation, once more at home in God.

ON PTSD AND BACON

Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, 
so that I may not cause one of them to fail.
                                                                      - 1 Corinthians 8:13 

        I recently saw a link to a February 2014 article in Texas Observer, titled, "PTSD In The Slaughterhouse."  (I posted a link to it on the Dominion In The Image Of God Facebook page, so you may have seen it there.)  This came shortly after I attended the Humane Society of the United States' annual conference, Taking Action For Animals (TAFA), and the two incidents together gave me much food for thought.  The article is a short piece, and well worth clicking through to read, but here is what particularly caught my eye - and my heart:

Slaughterhouse employees are not only exposed to a battery of physical dangers on the cut floor, but the psychological weight of their work erodes their well being. As one former abattoir employee attests in the book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry:

“The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit [where hogs are killed] for any period of time—that let’s [sic] you kill things but doesn’t let you care. You may look a hog in the eye that’s walking around in the blood pit with you and think, ‘God, that really isn’t a bad looking animal.’ You may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them. … I can’t care.”

It will come as no surprise that the consequences of such emotional dissonance include domestic violence, social withdrawal, drug and alcohol abuse, and severe anxiety. As slaughterhouse workers are increasingly being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers are finally starting to systematically explore the results of killing sentient animals for a living.

      I've written before about the link between violence to animals and violence to humans.  I've also written about how we are all connected, and there will be no peace, no shalom, for humans until there is shalom for the animals; that is, humans will never know peace until we recognize that we are called by God to care for the animals, not to exploit them.  

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.

           

THEOLOGICAL VEGAN 

“I love that every time I sit down to eat, I’m able to take a stand on behalf mercy and compassion, and against misery and cruelty. Saint Paul calls on us to ‘pray ceaselessly,’ and for me, veganism is a kind of prayer.”

                                                                                              ~ Bruce Friedrich[1]

            It seems that lately there has been a lot in the news about famous people becoming vegan. Bill Clinton, of course, has been vegan for some time. Al Gore has recently joined him.  Beyoncé famously wore a fur coat to a vegan restaurant shortly after announcing she was adopting a short-term vegan diet. [2]  Mike Tyson is vegan. Even NFL players are writing and speaking about veganism.  And Samuel L Jackson was recently quoted as saying that he has a “new vegan diet” because he wants “to live forever.”
           All this got me thinking about the different reasons people become vegan or vegetarian or just reduce their consumption of animal products. Before going further, though, I want to pause to say that in this post, I will use “vegan” as a sort of goal or end point, recognizing that food (and other lifestyle) choices are most often not an “either/or” proposition (either you are a “vegan” or you are not). Most of us start eating the way our community and culture eats – with lots of meat and dairy - and some of us later move toward veganism, giving up or reducing meat and/or dairy by degrees. Few of us are perfect vegans. Let me also say that as I talk about veganism as a Christian ideal, I have no intent to look down my nose at people of faith who eat meat. Many meat eaters are, no doubt, much better Christians than I am in other areas. Instead, I believe we are all on a Christian journey. Christ meets us where we are and helps us draw closer to God as we are able. My hope here is to raise diet (and other animal-related lifestyle choices) as one of the areas where Christ can work in us and with us to bring us closer to him, and enable us to do his work here on earth. As always, I seek to include animals and diet as not only a legitimate, but an important, element of the on-going conversation about how we, as Christians, can live our whole lives as God intends.

Photo credit: Herbert T, Wikicommons, Creative Commons license