MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May you find many wonderful things under - and in - the tree - and I will see you in January!

POPE FRANCIS AND THE ANIMALS

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us . . .”

                     ~ John 1:14

“Man and beast thou savest, O Lord.”

                        ~ Psalm 36:6b

            There has been a great deal of press coverage about Pope Francis and a statement he was reported to have made to console a young boy who had lost a pet.  “Paradise is open to all God’s creatures.”  The statement immediately filled the internet with all manner of people weighing in on what this might mean for Christians.  I posted a link to this story about the statement on the Dominion In The Image Of God Facebook page.  It got quite a number of views.  Then it turned out he didn’t say that after all (although Pope Paul VI apparently did).[1]  According to the Regions News Service, what he really said, citing the Apostle Paul in a discussion of the End Times, was that the new creation was not the annihilation of all that is, “but the bringing of all things into the fullness of being.”  The New York Times’ corrected story quotes him as saying, “Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us.”  The Religion News Service has a very helpful story about how the Pope’s statement became transformed through interpretation and errors in reporting. 

            Whatever the Pope’s actual words, the story got a lot of people talking about whether we will, indeed, see our pets and other animals in heaven.  

St. Blaise with animals

THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

Open our eyes, our hearts, our ears to the cries of all those whose distress we would ignore:

refugees and prisoners; victims of greed or fraud;

those injured by the abuse of power and privilege.

Give us, O God, the heart and the will for compassion and mercy.

We look to you in hope.

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come.

  

         This was one of the prayers at the Washington National Cathedral last Sunday.  It struck me that here, if only those who were praying knew it, was a prayer for the animals.  

• Refugees:  all the pets in animal shelters; abandoned, lost, they got "too big," they got "too old," their people died or moved and didn't take them, some of them very seriously abused.  All of them needing refuge, care, love - and waiting for a home of their own where they can live in peace with those they love.
• Prisoners:  all the animals in testing labs enduring lives of pain, fear, and loneliness; animals kept for "caged hunts," animals kept for fighting.
• Victims of greed or fraud: puppies in puppy mills; animals in roadside zoos and circuses; exotic animals on display; animals hunted to near extinction or raised on cruel "farms" so that parts of their bodies can be used for "medicine."
• Those injured by the abuse of power and privilege: all the animals we call food, especially those in factory farms; animals killed for their fur: baby seals clubbed to death, animals caught in steel leg traps, animals confined in fur farms; the victims of trophy hunters.

      And so many more.  

     Open our eyes, our hearts, our ears to the cries of all those whose distress we would ignore.  Give us, O God, the heart and the will for compassion and mercy.  We look to you in hope.  Come, Lord Jesus. Come.  

Detail of Nativity by Andrea Previtali

IN CONVERSATION: 

Q&A With David Clough

"When Christians get the chance to think about these issues, they recognize that treating other animals better is an obvious step to take in putting into practice a faith-based view of the world."

                                          -  David Clough

   
         Not long ago, I reached out to David Clough, whose book On Animals Volume I: Systematic Theology, I've been discussing in my last few posts (here, here, and here).  We corresponded about his book and his thoughts about animal advocacy within the Christian community, where it stands now, where it may be going, and what we can do.  Here are some of his thoughts on these topics and others.

Q:      How did you first become interested in animals as a matter of theological concern?

A: Questions of origin are always interesting! I remember a classmate at school giving a presentation against laboratory research on animals when I was 14 that impressed me. I also remember sitting alone on a Scottish hill in the Cairngorms during a hiking trip, and witnessing a reindeer walk past only a short distance away, look at me in the eye for what seemed a long time, and then amble slowly off. I became vegetarian when I was 18. I’m convinced that my Christian faith was a key influence on this choice: a simple belief that that if it’s possible to live without depending on the suffering and killing of others of God’s animal creatures, that is obviously preferable for Christians. Since then I’ve been surprised at how few fellow Christians make a similar connection, and I think it was that puzzlement, a sense of wanting to explore the issue in depth, and a sense of the scandal in the way we treat other animals, especially in intensive farming, that motivated me to focus my academic work on the topic. I’d like to persuade fellow Christians that they have faith-based reasons for respecting the lives of their fellow animal creatures before God.