CHICKENS ARE BACK IN THE NEWS 

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”

                                         ~   Proverbs 31:8 (New Living Translation)

            Back in October, I wrote a post titled, “Opening Our Eyes – To Chickens.”   That post addressed an article about a proposed change to USDA regulations governing chicken slaughter.  The proposal would speed up the slaughter lines, allowing 175 chickens to be killed every minute (up from the current 140 birds).  Animal advocates (among others) opposed the measure because every year, even under current speeds, nearly one million chickens are not killed in the slaughter line and are instead dropped alive into scalding water.  I argued that this is the kind of information that demands Christian attention. 

            The proposal remains pending and last week I saw another article about this same proposal and it made me even angrier than the first.

Washington Post, full credit below

The Good Shepherd

 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 

                                          - John 10:11 

            The image of Christ as the Good Shepherd is one of the most beloved among Christians. We like to think of ourselves as Jesus’ pet lamb, safe in his arms or riding securely on his shoulders.  During this Holy Week, as we consider what it means that Jesus is both the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, and the Lamb of God, I want to consider what the Good Shepherd might show us about how to reflect the image of God to our fellow creatures, placed in our care at creation.  

The image of Lord as shepherd is a thread that runs through both the Old Testament and the New,[1] calling to mind one who is tends to the welfare of those in his flock.  It is an image of concern, compassion, and attentiveness. 

 Here are just a few examples:

LIVING AS CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.  Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

                                                                                ~  Ephesians 5:8-14

                This week’s opening quotation is from the second lesson for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, just about two weeks ago.  As I heard these words read during the church service, I could not help but think of recent coverage I had seen regarding the latest round of “ag gag” bills, sometimes known as anti-whistleblower laws, introduced in various state legislatures.  These are bills that, in various forms, seek to make it a crime to photograph or film farm animal operations without the permission of the business owner.  In other words, these are laws aimed at ending undercover investigations of animal abuse at factory farms.  They aim to keep those abuses “in the darkness.”

HOW MANY PIGS IS A HUMAN WORTH?

THE GADARENE PIGS

PART II

“The moral problem can be safely dismissed: one man is of greater value than many swine.”

                                      ~ I. Howard Marshall[1]

Last week I began a discussion about the troubling story told in all three synoptic gospels in which Jesus heals a man (or two men) possessed by demons by allowing the demons to enter a nearby herd of swine, who then rush into the sea and drown.  In that post, I took a careful look at the context and details of the story, with particular emphasis on the Gospel of Matthew.  I argued that the context of the story, Jesus’ escalating demonstrations of power, and the setting, in the tombs of the city, point to an apocalyptic message.  The purpose of the story is to demonstrate that Jesus has power not only over sickness, as various healings had shown, and not only over the natural elements, commanding the wind and water, but also over the powers of darkness.  With “one little word,” he conquers demons who had terrorized the population of the city. 

This week, I’d like to examine some of the interpretations that have been made of the story, and of the significance of the pigs, and to offer my own.  As I noted at the close of last week’s post, most commentaries addressing this story do not focus on the pigs, but have nevertheless considered a variety of interpretations of their meaning and role.  The pigs have been regarded as ironic, comic, symbolic, evidentiary, disposable, and fictional.  They have rarely been considered as sentient being with inherent value to God.

Miracle of the Gadarene Swine, Briton Riviere, 1883, Tate Gallery