REFLECTION ON THE INCARNATION

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

                                                                           ~ John 1:14

               “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”  Luke 2:6-7.  I love this verse of Scripture.  I love the traditional image of the nativity, with Christ in the manger, Mary and Joseph keeping close watch over Him, magi offering their gifts, shepherds approaching, and sheep, oxen, cows, donkeys, and camels calmly looking on.  Here, at the very start of the story of Christ, the animals take their place among the witnesses of God made flesh, among the first to be blessed by the presence of Christ.  The story starts with the Word of God in the presence not just of humans of low and great estate, but also in the presence of a variety of animals. 

REFLECTIONS ON THANKSGIVING, 2015

“Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God.”

                                                ~ Cardinal John Henry Newman 

                Thanksgiving is a difficult time for vegans.  We love a good feast with family and friends as much as the next person, but the great fuss made over the turkey is hard to take.  We know that more than 46 million birds will die for Thanksgiving.  We know that nearly all of them come from factory farms, where they have been bred to be mere caricatures of the birds God created, with breasts so big they cannot mate naturally and with such a fast growth rate that they often suffer serious leg and joint problems.  They have often had their beaks and toes cut off without anesthesia to keep them from harming other birds due to the overcrowded, stressful, and dirty conditions in which they live.  We know that as birds, under US law, they are not even afforded the minimal protections of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act in the slaughter process.  And we know that the slaughter process is terrifying and often badly done, resulting in significant suffering.  We know that year after year, investigations of turkey farms have revealed horrific treatment of these gentle birds, even when they are supposed to have been “humanely raised.” 

               We also know that turkeys, when allowed to live in peace, are intelligent, social, affectionate birds, that they are loved by the God who created them, and that their suffering matters.  It is extremely difficult for us to understand, therefore, how participating in cruelty toward them can in any way, shape, or form be related to giving thanks to God for His great mercies toward us.  

Wild turkey

Butterball turkey, photo by Mercy For Animals

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.

A NEW CREATION FOR THE ANIMALS, 
OR, DO ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN?

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

The calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. . . .

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

                                                                  ~ Isaiah 11:6, 9

            Before my forced blogging hiatus as a result of a broken wrist, I was blogging my way through David Clough’s On Animals, Volume 1: Systematic Theology.  Although it has been some time since my last post on the topic, there is but one chapter left and I think it is time to let the last shoe drop.  As you know if you read those previous posts, I cannot recommend this book highly enough; it provides a very thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion of the place of animals – and humans – in Christian theology, considering our modern understanding of animal nature together with a careful reading of scripture and Christian tradition.  For Clough, taking animal welfare seriously is simply a matter of living in accordance with what Christians have always believed.  I am especially grateful for Clough’s emphasis on animal welfare as “a vital theological task,” which touches on nearly every element of what it means to be a Christian, and for the way he consistently urges us to look at and understand animals in new ways, asking us to appreciate their complexity, their individuality, and their place in the world.  Previous posts in this series are A Vital Theological Task, All Creatures of Our God and King, On Humans and Other Animals, The Heart of the Matter, and Do Animals Sin?  There is also a discussion with the author himself, Q&A With David Clough.  This post will look at Part III of Clough’s book, asking whether animals will be redeemed together with humans.

ANGER MANAGEMENT & TRUE CONFESSIONS

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,

But only what is helpful for building up others according to their needs,

That it may benefit those who listen.

  

                              ~ Ephesians 4:29

            I’ll start right off with the confession:  I’ve been feeling a lot of anger lately.  Mostly it has to do with a ridiculous series of events related to my work involving (in my view) a serious injustice.  Of particular significance for this blog, my anger and lack of patience are spilling out of the workplace, and making me angry and impatient about things relating to animals and the lack of things I see and hear from the church relating to animals.  How can people continue to do X, I stomp about wondering, and why won’t the church speak up about Y?

            Now, my clients are excited that I am angry at work because they want me to fight for them.  But I worry about being, shall we say, too truthful about my views with the wrong people, with unhelpful repercussions.  Similarly, when I think about how to convince the church of the importance of engaging on the topics of animal suffering and how human responsibility for that suffering impacts us theologically, I worry these days about being a little too forthcoming; I forget that what seems utterly self-evident to me now never occurred to me at all until just a few years ago.  Unmanaged anger is almost never constructive, and usually hurts us more than the object of our fury.  

          

Thank you, Sarx

I just wanted to share this link to Sarx.com, another site addressing animals and theology.  They were kind enough to ask me about how I came to understand animal welfare as a theological matter.  Here is my reply.  While you are there, check out some of the other great stories and resources on their page.