Creation Care and Animal Welfare

Over the past couple of weeks I have been doing some research on the history and theology of Christianity and its interaction with animal welfare concerns. One of the over-arching themes that I have found is that many believers think there is a direct link between the manner that we treat animals and how we treat our fellow humans who are considered "the least of these." I have also discovered that in Scripture, most specifically the Hebrew Bible, God clearly instructs us to give great care to those animals over which we have been given "dominion." The Exodus account of the 10 Commandments informs us the reader, that one of the purposes of the Sabbath is to give our animals and workers a rest.

Anyway, I'm working on a campaign with the Humane Society to encourage Christians to eat humanely. Here is a great article, that I would like to share and hear your feedback: http://www.esa-online.org/Article.asp?RecordKey=44FBB2E9-5276-4C20-A289-383995C664CA


Enjoy!

Comments

ks said…
I like the idea and the balance the article represents, not wanting us to claim that animals have equal rights to humans. SOmething about it doens't quite settle well with me, though. I do believe in compassionate treatment of animals. I want them to be treated fairly and with respect to their purposes. But I don't think we're called not to eat meat or eggs (and I know the article wasn't saying that, but I can see some people easily drawing that conclusion). I dont know. I probably think about the same thing as you.
3:59 PM
Anonymous said…
Hi, I was so grateful to come across this post and the article you linked to at ESA. It's so rare to see fellow evangelicals pay any attention to animal welfare issues. Thank you so much for doing so. My name is Ben DeVries, and earlier this Spring I completed my capstone project on a Christian foundation for animal welfare at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Since then I've been working on launching a grassroots, faith-based animal advocacy effort called Not One Sparrow (http://www.notonesparrow.com/), and in fact I posted earlier this month on Not One Sparrow's blog about the All Creatures Great and Small Campaign. I would love to connect with you and EAS further if you'd be open to doing so. Please email me anytime (ben@notonesparrow.com), and I hope very much to interact with you more.
8:03 PM
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