Why Caring About Animals Is Central To What It Means To Follow Christ

Recently, I was invited to speak at the adult forum at Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville, MD.  I was, of course, delighted to accept.  I very much enjoyed the hour, and hope that the congregation did, as well.  I'm sharing below a copy of my remarks.  

Christ Episcopal Church, Rockville, MD

 

Dominion In The Image Of God –

Why Caring About Animals Is Central To What It Means To Follow Christ

Remarks at Christ Episcopal Church, Rockville, MD

September 30, 2018

Good morning.  Thank you for inviting me here to talk with you, and thank you for the work the St. Francis Flock is doing in raising the issue of animal welfare as a Christian concern, and thank you for your support of this important work, Rev. Simpson.  There is a lot that I could talk about today, but given our limited time, I thought I would try to lay out what I think are the foundational concepts for a theology of animal welfare, and then answer any questions the group may have. 

I want to start with what might strike you as a fairly startling proposition:  that caring for animals is not just an appropriate Christian concern, I believe it is fundamental to what it means to be human, what it means to be created in God’s image, and what it means to carry out God’s will on earth.  To support that idea, I want to focus on the creation stories, which form the foundation of our understanding of our place as humans in God’s creation.  Specifically, I want to focus on the idea that we are created in God’s image and given dominion over the animals. That’s an idea that traditionally has been used to excuse exploitation of animals, but I think it is telling something very different indeed – and something that goes beyond what many mean when they use the word “stewardship” in place of dominion.

AN OPEN LETTER IN GRATITUDE

TO THE MOST REVEREND MICHAEL CURRY,

PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

"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 

Dear Bishop Curry:

               I do not mind telling you that as someone who tries to work for justice and compassion within the Christian community in general and the Episcopal Church in particular, I am often discouraged.  But on the eve of Easter this year, I was blessed to be in attendance at the Washington National Cathedral to take part in the Easter Vigil and to hear your wonderful and heartening sermon.  Your words have refreshed me and offered me encouragement, and for that I am grateful.  

               You spoke of us, a followers of Jesus, being Why Not People in a Why Weary World; of Christians – even Episcopalians – needing to press on with new ideas in both the Christian and secular communities to make the world a better place.  In world beaten down and made weary by seemingly intractable injustice, we, as followers of the risen Lord, are to hold on to hope, to continue to ask “why not” for a better world. You asked, and recalled others who asked:

•        Why not a world where children do not go to bed hungry?

•        Why not a world where we are all the children of God and we treat each other as God’s human family?

•        Why not scientific truth and knowledge instead of intractable fundamentalism?

•         Why not an empire that is better and more noble instead of one trading in human flesh?[1]

•         Why not a world where women and girls are given equal access to education?

Why Not People dream of new possibilities and know that all things are possible with God, despite all evidence to the contrary in a Why Weary World.  So, refreshed and encouraged, I will ask:

ARE YOU A GOOD WITCH, OR A BAD WITCH?

“I’m not a witch at all!”

                                                                         ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

With Halloween just around the corner, witches are making their annual appearances in decorations, costumes, advertisements, and more.  In traditional lore, before our modern sensibilities had tamed witches and made them sources of Halloween fun, they were quite frightening because of their unknown powers; it seemed they might bring harm in ways communities were unable to predict or defend.  But we humans have powers of our own, and, like witches, we wield our power in frightening ways.  

REFLECTIONS ON THE CONFESSION OF SIN

God of all mercy,

We confess that we have sinned against you,

Opposing your will in our lives.

We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves,

And in the world you have created.

We repent of the evil that enslaves us,

The evil we have done,

And the evil done on our behalf.

Forgive, restore, and strengthen us

Through our Savior Jesus Christ,

That we may abide in your love

And serve only your will. 

Amen.

            I am coming across this confession of sin more frequently in worship lately.1  It caught my attention the very first time I said it because of the repentance for “evil done on our behalf,” which strikes me as a very apt description of our societal treatment of animals who are not our pets. If only, I find myself thinking, those saying the confession had the vaguest idea that there was anything to confess in regard to their diet, their wardrobe, or their entertainment.  This line continues to pull at me each time I see or hear this confession, but it seems to me there is a great deal more here that relates to animals worth reflecting on.

            “God of all mercy.”  Let’s start here.  This is the God to whom we pray when we say this confession.  We start that way because it is the very nature of confession to recognize that we are in need of mercy and forgiveness for a wrong done.  Can we ask for mercy if we are unwilling to show it to those in our power who have done no wrong?  

The Prodigal Son, Salvator Rosa

            “We have sinned against you.”  When we support or ignore mistreatment of God’s creatures, we sin not only against those creatures, but against the One who made them, cares for them, covenants with them, and entrusted them to our care.

I AM CECIL

“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

We have all heard a great deal about Cecil, the lion in Zimbabwe who was killed by an American dentist on safari.  Cecil was not just any lion; he was a lion being tracked by researchers inside a national park.  He was well known for his magnificent black mane and he was a favorite with locals and tourists.  Nor was this just any hunting expedition.  This was a guaranteed kill outing and it is reported that Cecil, who, popular as he was, had become accustomed to humans, was intentionally lured outside the protections of the park with an animal carcass so that he could be “legally” killed.  And it was not just any kill.  Cecil was shot with an arrow, which failed to kill him, and he suffered for upwards of 40 hours – nearly two days - before he was finally found and killed with a shotgun.  He was then skinned and decapitated so the American, who had paid more than $50,000 for the privilege, could have his trophy.

            There is so much about this to be outraged over – and many people and nations have been outraged.  There is now a proposal in the senate to ban the import of animal trophies not just to animals on the endangered species list, but to those proposed for listing as well.  Botswana has banned sport hunting and exporting of wild animals, including lions, from the country.  Several airlines are now refusing to carry trophy animals. This tragedy has, at least, put a spotlight on this terrible “sport” and some good will result.   

            But is this a Christian concern?  The secular world is moving on this.  Does the church need to do anything?  Absolutely.

WE ARE PHARAOH AND PHARISEE

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery has established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

                                                 ~ Collect of the Day, Second Sunday of Easter,

                                        Book of Common Prayer, p. 172-73

            As Christians observe the Great Fifty Days of Easter, it is time to reflect on the work that Christ has done for us on the Cross, giving us new life, reconciling us with God, and showing us what it means to be created in the image of God and how power and status are rightly used.  It is an opportunity, too, to consider where we fit into Easter story and its antecedent, the Exodus story.  In both of these stories, God breaks into the history of the world to free those who are prisoners and to help those who are unable to help themselves. 

            I think most of us, if we imagine ourselves in the Exodus story, imagine we are among the Israelites, laboring and yearning for freedom.  When we hear the Easter story, and the gospel stories generally, we like to think of ourselves as among the disciples.  In both cases, we are among the chosen.  To be sure, both the Israelites and the disciples are flawed in their ability to hear what God is telling them and to do His will, and we identify with those shortcomings and struggles, but they are, nevertheless, the ones in relationship with God. 

But in many ways Christians today are more closely aligned with Pharaoh and the Pharisees.  We do not hear the cries of those we oppress; we believe we are entitled to oppress certain others because of our God-like status as bearers of God’s image; and we believe that our particular status before God means we do not need to be concerned with those not in our favored group.  Like Pharaoh and Pharisee, if we do not open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, we will pay a price.

In the Exodus story, Moses seeks freedom for his people, but Pharaoh refuses.  Moses returns time and again, each time warning of a new plague if Pharaoh will not free the Hebrews. Pharaoh, however, hardens his heart and the plagues come, each one worse than the last. Pharaoh would not hear the cries of the Israelites, and he would not let them go, both because he benefitted from their misery and because he did not believe their misery mattered. He let greed, vanity, and pride rule his heart.  In the end, the entire nation of Egypt and Pharaoh himself suffered great devastation because of that greed, vanity, and pride, and Pharaoh learned he was not so powerful after all.

Tissot, Moses Speaks to Pharaoh

BUT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY

(AND ITS COROLLARY, WE’VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE)

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
                                   Isaiah 43:19   

       Anyone who has ever been involved in church committees is familiar with the cry, “But we’ve always done it that way!”  Whether the topic is the order of service, the language of the prayers, the color of the carpet, or where the cups for coffee hour are stored, church folk are resistant to change.  Of course, this is not unique to church folk (try changing the menu for family holidays), but “the way things have always been” does seem to have a particularly strong pull in our places of worship. 

Dave Walker, Cartoon Church

Perhaps this should not be surprising, since – at least for many Christian traditions – worship is deeply tied with ritual, and when we come to our houses of worship, we want to feel welcome and secure and sure-footed, notwithstanding Anne Dillard’s excellent admonition that we should come prepared for anything, wearing crash helmets.[1]  Often we have treasured memories of walking down that carpet on our wedding day or with our newly-baptized infant; we remember how that one particular prayer got us through a difficult time and it comforts us to say it again every Sunday.[2]  In a rapidly changing world, we like to think that here, at least, we can rely on things to be as they have always been.  Introducing new practices is hard, can lead to conflict, and needs to be undertaken with care. 

            Introducing new ideas is even harder.  Introducing new ideas that ask people to change long-cherished practices is, perhaps, hardest of all.  For church leaders, balancing so many things and facing so many challenges (not least declining church membership), it might be too much to ask.  Even so:

THE WHOLE LOGIC OF BEING CHRISTIAN
"Cruelty is the worst of heresies."
                                               Humphrey Primatt 

     I have tried to argue in several of my posts that the theology of animal welfare is not just something for animal lovers to be concerned about.  It is fundamental to our very creation in God's image, something Bruce Waltke has called "fundamental to . . . the entirety of scripture."[1]  Moreover, our relationships with animals are grounded in our understanding of the right use of power, a theme that runs throughout the Bible.  David Clough has called understanding these relationships "a vital theological task," and Matthew Scully has explained that these relationships have to do with "the whole logic of being Christian."  We cannot understand who we are as human beings in relationship to God if we do not understand who we are as human beings in relationship to the animals.  Whether we consider ourselves "animal people" or not, we cannot disregard our fellow creatures if we want to follow Christ

     With that in mind, I wanted to repost this essay from September 27, 2013, an early post in which I tackled one aspect of this theme. 

DOMINION AND POWER

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

~ Micah 6:8

The second half of Genesis 1:26 tells us that, coupled with creation in His image, God gave us dominion over the animals.  Bruce Birch explains, “God’s resolve to create in the divine image is coupled with a commissioning to have dominion. . . . It is as representative (image) of God that we are given capacity for power in the world.”[2]  Birch adds, “We are not absolute monarchs in the world but trustees or stewards acting in behalf of God’s sovereignty as Creator.”[3]  Moreover, because our authority over animals is a delegated power, it is not absolute; it is answerable to God, who ultimately rules over all.  This delegation of power over creation comes with an “implied moral norm [that measures] human actions by reference to their faithfulness in reflecting God’s will and ultimate rule.”[4]  Likewise, Christopher Wright explains, that exercise of power over creation “must reflect the character and values of God’s own kingship” and requires careful reflection on the character of God.[5]

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

ANIMALS AND THE TRINITY

PART TWO

Disproportionate use of the goods of the earth, despoiling creation, harming other creatures, abusing other persons, are unnatural ways of being in relationship because God is not glorified by them.

                                           ~ Catherine Mowry LaCugna

            Last week, I began this discussion of the Trinity with a look at the work of Catherine Mowry LaCugna, who steers us away from speculation regarding God’s “inner life” and urges us to understand the Trinity by looking at God’s work in the world through the Son in the power of the Spirit and to respond with praise to God through the Son in the power of the Spirit.  She urges us, in short, to consider the Trinity as God’s way of being in communion with us, and allowing us to be in communion with Him, in an outpouring of love and response of praise.  This communion, she argues, will reshape who we are and how we order our lives. 

            It is clear from her writings that she intends to include all of creation - including all God’s creatures - in the scope of her vision.  So, in God In Communion With Us, she says a Trinitarian theology grounded in the economy of salvation understands that we are created to live in “authentic communion with God, with other persons, and with all God’s creatures.”[1]  In God For Us she explains the Trinity is “overflowing love, outreaching desire for communion with all that God has made” and that when we establish a new household of God, it will be “the dwelling place of all creatures.” [2]  But what, exactly, does this mean, and how do “all creatures” fit into her theological framework? 

Photo credit: David Wye

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

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

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. 

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

         

Because He Had No Pity

Because he had no pity

Nathan’s Confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12

David’s burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!  He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!"

                                                                                  ~ 2 Samuel 12:5-7

           

While scripture is replete with stories of animals, we rarely focus on them, unless we consider the animals as allegories or metaphors for some element of the human relationship with God. Today I want to turn the tables just a bit and look at a story of human interaction to see what it has to say about our interactions with animals.  The story of David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan is a story of the use and abuse of power.  It is a story well worth the church's attention.  If you have read earlier posts, especially this one, this one, and this one, you know that I believe that power is at the heart of our relationship with animals, so scripture’s teachings on the use of power go to the heart of how we rightly exercise dominion, and that it is matter of urgency that the church speak up about our misuse of power over animals. 

While my focus is on the confrontation between King David and the prophet Nathan, the story really begins when David spies Bathsheba from a rooftop.  

David and Bathsheba by Artemisia Gentileschi

Briefly told, David orders his servants to bring Bathsheba to him, although he knew she was married to his faithful soldier Uriah, who was away fighting a war on David’s behalf. Later, when Bathsheba surprises David by telling him she is pregnant, David first tries to have Uriah come home so he will think the baby is his, and when that fails, he arranges to have Uriah killed in battle.  He marries Bathsheba to hide his adultery. 

            This is a turning point in David’s rule.  As D.M. Gunn puts it, here David turns “from gift to grasp.”[1]  Until this time, David, while not perfect and always pragmatic, has been a man after God’s own heart.[2]  He has prayed regularly, ruled justly, and enjoyed success after success against considerable odds.  Yet in this setting of plenty, David took what was not his.[3]  With these actions, David behaved like the kings of other nations - a king who takes what he likes, not because he needs anything, but simply because he can. “But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord sent Nathan to David.” (11:27-12:1).[4]  Here is where the confrontation begins.

ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

“Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’ . . . The angel of the Lord said to [Balaam], “Why have you struck your donkey these three times?”

                                                        ~ Numbers 22:28, 32

“Animals are people, too.”  I used to say this with some regularly years ago – before I ever dreamed of becoming an animal advocate and when I was blissfully unaware of philosophical controversies over what makes a “person” – because it seemed self-evident to me that animals were unique individuals with their own viewpoints on the world and were therefore “people.”  Fast forward several years to when I was writing my proposal for my master’s thesis at Wesley Seminary. I included some language (I don’t remember what it was) potentially attributing “personhood” to animals.  My advisor warned, “Don’t go there.  You don’t need to, and you’ll only get yourself into trouble.”   

It was good advice, but I am going to “go there” today because I want to talk about justice. 

IMAGE OF GOD: WE CANNOT BE HUMAN WITHOUT THE ANIMALS

“God’s resolve to create in the divine image is coupled with a commissioning to have dominion. . . . It is as representative (image) of God that we are given capacity for power in the world.”

                               ~ Bruce Birch

In last Friday’s post, I took a very brief look at some of the traditional understandings of what it means to be created in the image of God and how that has led to the perspective that humans, separated from the rest of creation with the gifts of reason and will, are privileged in creation.  We saw that these traditional understandings of our creation were heavily influenced by philosophical ideas from different times and places and that those philosophical views about what it meant to human were grafted onto theological interpretations of our creation in God’s image.  In particular, many theologians, notably Augustine and Aquinas, were strongly influenced by Aristotle, including Aristotle’s view that there exists a natural hierarchy, with the “lesser” things in creation existing for the benefit of the “greater.”  Thus, the church traditionally reasoned, animals were created for the benefit of humans, which was fully in keeping with our privileged status as the only creatures in God’s image and thus (it was thought) the only creatures capable of being in relationship with God.  We shall see in a later post that there have always been Christians who have felt that compassion for animals is a necessary part of what it means to be Christian, but the mainline traditional view, that animals were created for human benefit, has resulted in a great deal of suffering by God’s creatures and has kept humans from living more fully into the purpose for which we are created. 

Aristotle

 Before I turn to what I call the “minority report” on animals from the Christian tradition or the consequences of the church’s mainline traditional view, however, I would like to take a closer look at how modern Old Testament scholarship is changing our understanding of what it means to be created in the image of God.  Over the last few decades, as scholars have come to better understand ancient cultures in which the stories of the Old Testament were preserved and written down, a new perspective has arisen that has garnered nearly unanimous support among those scholars.  This perspective underscores, in keeping with all Biblical teaching on power and privilege, that our creation in God’s image brings with it significant responsibility, answerable to God.  

WHY HAS THE CHURCH TRADITIONALLY TAKEN A DIFFERENT VIEW?

[I]rrational animals . . . are dissociated from us by their want of reason, and therefore by the just appointment of the Creator subjected to us to kill or keep alive for our uses . . . .

                                               ~ St. Augustine, The City of God, Book 1

            If it is true, as I argued in earlier posts, that our creation in the image of God imposes on us an obligation to care for our fellow creatures, that Scripture tells us that how we relate to animals is reflective of our character, and that Scripture’s teachings on the right use of power extend to animals as well as humans, why has the Church traditionally taken the view that we owe no duty of care to animals?  To understand that, we need to consider early conceptions of what it meant to be created in the image of God and where those conceptions came from.[1]

Because Scripture says that humans alone are created in the image of God, most theories about what that might mean centered on those traits that were believed to set humans apart from other animals, including our rationality, moral consciousness, capacity for relationship, sense of responsibility to (or ability to be in relationship with) God, and even our upright posture and facial expressiveness.[2]  In his book, The Liberating Image, Richard Middleton attributes the diversity of opinion on the subject to the infrequency with which the phrase appears in scripture and the fact that until quite recently, most interpreters have disregarded the context of the phrase as it appears in Genesis 1.  Instead they have relied on “extrabiblical, usually philosophical, sources to interpret the image and end up reading contemporaneous conceptions of being human back into the Genesis text.”[3]  One of the earliest and most significant philosophical influences was Aristotle, with his theory of a natural hierarchy whereby plants were meant for the use of animals, and animals for humans.[4]  Augustine and Aquinas, both hugely influential, drew heavily on this idea.   

                                                               St. Augustine

DOMINION AND POWER – PART TWO

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

                                                          ~ Ezekiel 36:26

            I wanted to do an addendum to my most recent post on dominion and power because in the last few days a particular incident has been in the news and making the rounds on the internet that illustrates some of the concepts I was talking about in that post.  According to the story as summarized by the UK's Daily Mail:

·         ‘Under Wild Skies’ [a program on NBC Sports] is hosted by Tony Makris, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association

·         In a highlighted reel from this week's episode, Makris travels to Botswana and hunts an elephant, shooting it several times before it dies

·         Makris laughs as the animal lets out one last groan after the final shot and then he jokes about wanting to hunt for birds

·         Makris celebrates the hunt by drinking champagne

·         Some NBC Sports viewers are now calling on the network to cancel the show

More on this story is available from the Huffington Post and other sources.  There is much to comment on here, and none of it is encouraging.  First, there is the chilling aspect of the “sport” of trophy hunting itself – the taking of life for pure entertainment value.  Second, there is the raw cruelty of laughter in the face of the clear pain and terror of another creature.  Third, there is the brutality of the killing, which required several shots and clear suffering before the elephant died. All of it celebrated with champagne.  There is nothing of God’s dominion here.