The Bible Sides with PETA
People who follow the Bible often scoff at animal lovers like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). We also group environmentally friendly tree huggers with them.
We do so because we properly understand that human beings are unique in all of creation. Human beings are the only creatures created in the image of God. We are the ones given the mandate to rule, manage, and govern over all of creation. We are the masters of this earth -- not chickens or oak trees.
Yet, the Bible is concerned with how humans treat animals and trees. Surprisingly, we find provisions against animal cruelty in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These two books come with ample instructions on how to slaughter and kill animals as part of the religious sacrificial system. Yet even in these two books, God made provisions against animal cruelty.
God Cares
God cares enough about the emotional bond of a mother animal and her young to regulate when one can kill a mother or her young.
So don't scoff at PETA. Love them because the people who make up PETA are created in the image of God. Love them because you are called to love God.
We ought to agree with PETA and treat animals ethically because the Bible tells us to. So agree with them, but, ask them how we ought to judge treatment as ethical or unethical? What is the standard?
I remember that PETA got very upset with how chickens and ducks are hung in Chinatown.
Well, Chinese people have been hanging chickens and ducks this way for thousands of years. That doesn't make it ethical for Westerners, but from the perspective of the Chinese, it is an ethical way of treating animals.
Leviticus and Deuteronomy implore me to treat animals ethically. That is why I agree with PETA in that we ought to treat animals ethically. But what rationale can PETA give for agreeing with itself?
PETA is called PETA because it stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." It is not called PCTA because it does not stand for "People for the Cultural Treatment of Animals." If it was simply cultural, then the Chinese should be able to hang their ducks however they want.
PETA is not in the business of imposing cultural preferences. It is in the business of imposing its vision of ethical and moral behavior on everyone else through legisation. But wait, should we even legislate morality? Isn't that very faux pas in our day and age? What right does PETA have to impose its moral values on everyone?
We're All Animals
Besides, we're just animals. At least that is what I was taught in school.
In the oceans, sharks kill tunas. They do it very unethically. They bite into them and chew them up while they are still alive.
Lions do the same to zebras.
If we're just animals, then we ought to be able to eat our food however we want to. But we're not just animals. We're human beings created in the image of God. PETA members are human beings created in the image of God. We ought to behave ethically both in how we eat our food and in how we treat PETA.
People who follow the Bible often scoff at animal lovers like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). We also group environmentally friendly tree huggers with them.
We do so because we properly understand that human beings are unique in all of creation. Human beings are the only creatures created in the image of God. We are the ones given the mandate to rule, manage, and govern over all of creation. We are the masters of this earth -- not chickens or oak trees.
Yet, the Bible is concerned with how humans treat animals and trees. Surprisingly, we find provisions against animal cruelty in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These two books come with ample instructions on how to slaughter and kill animals as part of the religious sacrificial system. Yet even in these two books, God made provisions against animal cruelty.
God Cares
God cares enough about the emotional bond of a mother animal and her young to regulate when one can kill a mother or her young.
When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as a food offering to the LORD. But you shall not kill an ox or a sheep and her young in one day. (Leviticus 22:27-28)God cares enough about the cruelty of eating a young animal that was cooked with its mother's milk.
You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. (Deuteronomy 14:21)God cares about sustainable eating.
If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)God cares about sustainable tree chopping.
When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. (Deuteronomy 20:19-20)Loving PETA Like Loving Abba
So don't scoff at PETA. Love them because the people who make up PETA are created in the image of God. Love them because you are called to love God.
We ought to agree with PETA and treat animals ethically because the Bible tells us to. So agree with them, but, ask them how we ought to judge treatment as ethical or unethical? What is the standard?
I remember that PETA got very upset with how chickens and ducks are hung in Chinatown.
Well, Chinese people have been hanging chickens and ducks this way for thousands of years. That doesn't make it ethical for Westerners, but from the perspective of the Chinese, it is an ethical way of treating animals.
Leviticus and Deuteronomy implore me to treat animals ethically. That is why I agree with PETA in that we ought to treat animals ethically. But what rationale can PETA give for agreeing with itself?
PETA is called PETA because it stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." It is not called PCTA because it does not stand for "People for the Cultural Treatment of Animals." If it was simply cultural, then the Chinese should be able to hang their ducks however they want.
PETA is not in the business of imposing cultural preferences. It is in the business of imposing its vision of ethical and moral behavior on everyone else through legisation. But wait, should we even legislate morality? Isn't that very faux pas in our day and age? What right does PETA have to impose its moral values on everyone?
We're All Animals
Besides, we're just animals. At least that is what I was taught in school.
In the oceans, sharks kill tunas. They do it very unethically. They bite into them and chew them up while they are still alive.
Lions do the same to zebras.
If we're just animals, then we ought to be able to eat our food however we want to. But we're not just animals. We're human beings created in the image of God. PETA members are human beings created in the image of God. We ought to behave ethically both in how we eat our food and in how we treat PETA.
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