Author:
Bruce Freidrich
Advent is upon us. It's a particularly holy time of the year for
Christians, a time for us to ponder the meaning of Christ's birth, his
proclamation of "Good News" for the poor and downtrodden, and the degree
to which our lives align with Christ's vision. And so I view Advent as a
key time to reflect and consider whether I'm living up to my Christian
call to service on behalf of a more compassionate world.
From 1990-1996, I lived and worked in a "hospitality house" in
Washington, D.C., sharing my life with the city's most down and out
people, as a part of the
Catholic Worker
movement. We provided shelter to homeless families, as well as food,
clothing and blankets to the city's poor. While I was there, a friend
gave me
Christianity and the Rights of Animals by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey, an Anglican Priest and professor of theology at Oxford University. It changed my life.
As a result of my prayer over Linzey's work and conversations with my
spiritual director at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, my focus turned to
animal protection, where it's stayed for the last 15 years. Since that
time, I've occasionally been asked why I focus my efforts on protecting
animals, rather than humans. So, as this Advent season begins, I decided
to offer some thoughts on why I view working on behalf of animals --
and especially farmed animals -- as God's work.
God's Design
Pope Benedict XVI stated in an interview that the question of animal
treatment is a crucial one for the faithful. By any measure, what
happens to farmed animals today is anti-Christian. For example, as His
Holiness explained, "hens live so packed together that they become just
caricatures of birds." Similar abuse occurs in all of the farmed animal
industries. Explains His Holiness, "this degrading of living creatures
to a commodity contradict[s] the relationship of mutuality that comes
across in the Bible."
Indeed, it doesn't take much reflection to see that the Pope is
right: God created humans and other animals out of flesh, blood and
bone. We share the same five physiological senses and the ability to
feel pain. God designed us this way. God designed all animals with a
desire to enjoy sunlight, fresh air, fresh water and the rest of God's
creation. God designed pigs to root around in the soil for food and play
with one another. God designed chickens to make nests, lay eggs, raise
their chicks and establish communities (the "pecking order").
Yet agribusiness today denies animals their most fundamental needs.
Chickens are crammed into cages by the hundreds of thousands, each with
less space than a standard sheet of paper on which to live. During
pregnancy, pigs are stuffed into tiny metal crates so small they can't
even turn around. Forget rooting in the soil or laying their eggs in
nests -- these animals can barely move. The one natural thing they do
get to experience is agony, and lots of it.
Agricultural Frankenstein scientists "play God" by manipulating
animals to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs and limbs can't keep
up, often causing heart attacks, lung failure or crippling leg
deformities within weeks of birth. Modern farmed animals have their
beaks seared off and are castrated without pain relief, mutilations
that, if done without anesthesia to a dog or cat, would be illegal.
Finally, those who survive these factory farms are trucked by the
billions -- without food or water -- to a hellish death at a
slaughterhouse. Chickens and turkeys have it the worst there: Nearly all
of the 9 billion slaughtered each year are conscious when their throats
are cut, and, according to the USDA, millions are boiled alive.
Michael Specter, writing for the
New Yorker, described his
visit to a modern chicken shed: "I was almost knocked to the ground by
the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did
my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe. ... There must have been
thirty thousand chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me.
They didn't move, didn't cluck. They were almost like statues of
chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every
minute of their six-week lives that way."
Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, yet there is nothing
loving or compassionate about the modern industries that produce almost
all of the chickens, pigs and other farmed animals that are turned into
meat in this country. Christians have a choice: When we sit down to eat,
we can support misery and cruelty or we can make choices that support
mercy and compassion. Shouldn't that be an easy decision for us?
Father John Dear, a Jesuit Priest from New Mexico,
explains:
"Many Christians who agree that harming a dog or cat is wrong think
nothing of harming cows, pigs, chickens, fish and other creatures. We
need to understand that if we're eating meat, we are paying people to be
cruel to animals."
He continues: "For the simple reasons that all animals are creatures
beloved by God and that God created them with a capacity for pain and
suffering, we should adopt a vegetarian diet."
Living Christ's Message, Not the Status Quo
In
Animal Theology, Rev. Linzey writes that "[a]nimals are
God's creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor
commodities, but precious beings in God's sight. ... Christians whose
eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position
to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ
is God's absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the
vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent
suffering."
So this Advent season, I'm thinking a lot about fallen humanity, what
our fallen nature means about how we interact with animals, and what
Jesus' arrival means for us and how we lead our lives. When Christians
pray, "Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven," the one prayer
given to us by Jesus, it seems to me that this should obligate us to, as
much as we can, make choices that are as merciful and loving as
possible. We are a fallen humanity, but with regard to eating God's
creatures, this is one area where we can begin to live the eschaton
vision of the prophets (and Jesus) -- right now.
Father Dear explains: "Vegetarianism proves that we're serious about
our belief in compassion and justice, that we're mindful of our
commitment, day in and day out, every time we eat. We are reminded of
our belief in mercy, and we remind others. We begin to live the
nonviolent vision, right here and now."
All the questions that are put forth in favor of eating animals
(e.g., "Didn't God put animals here for our use?" and "What about animal
sacrifice in the Bible?" and "What about the loaves and the fishes?")
don't address the fundamental fact that eating God's creatures
causes needless suffering.
None of the common rationalizations address the points I've discussed
above. None of them respond to the fact that today, eating God's
creatures is inextricably linked to their abuse. If you are eating meat,
you're paying others to deny God's animals their natures, and to abuse
them. Even the very few organic and small farms abuse animals in ways
that would be illegal if done to dogs or cats. Watch
this video (also posted at the end of this reflection), if you're not sure.
And of course, these same justifications for animal slaughter or
eating meat fall to the side when one is challenged to directly partake
in the process: Would you want to sear the beaks off of baby chickens or
castrate pigs and cows without painkillers? Would you want to cut a
pig's throat and eviscerate him? Would you want to personally stuff
eight hens in a cage the size of a file drawer and lock it shut for 18
months?
It might be boring, but we could all watch grains being tilled or
spend an afternoon shucking corn or picking beans, fruits or vegetables.
But how many of us could spend an afternoon slitting open animals'
throats? If we wouldn't do it, where is the basic integrity in paying
others to mete out these cruelties on our behalf?
Thankfully, the Church is showing signs of life on the issue, marked
in part by Pope Benedict's condemnation of factory farming. Rev. Linzey
writes in
Animal Theology: "[G]o back just two hundred years,
and we will find intelligent, respectable and conscientious Christians
supporting almost without question the trade in slaves as inseparable
from Christian civilization and human progress."
The challenge is not, of course, to point out how morally backward so
many Christians were just 200 years ago. The challenge is to ask what's
happening now that in 50 or 100 years will warrant similar ethical
incredulity. It is a simple fact that all animals are God's creatures,
and that what is happening to them today, with widespread Christian
support, is ethically indefensible.
Father Dear continues: "I am convinced that society will look back on
human arrogance and cruelty toward other animals with the same horror
and disbelief that we presently reserve for atrocities committed against
human beings." And more and more people of faith are waking up to the
fact that modern farming practices warrant both suspension of our
support and Jeremiah-level denunciation.
And that latter understanding, that people of faith should be
speaking out for justice for all God's creatures and not just the human
ones, explains my role, given to me by God through mindfulness and
prayer.
Decision Points
It's Advent, a time for reflection on our lives. I hope that if you
eat meat, you will spend some of the season reflecting on whether eating
God's creatures reconciles with our hope for God's peace on earth.
Happy Advent.
Watch
"Glass Walls," narrated by
Sir Paul McCartney.
Watch
Free Range, a short documentary on animal welfare.
Get your animal welfare news fix here.
Dog meat trade must end.
Dog rescue is a must.
Animal cruelty is wicked.
