Great post. The animal welfare movement needs the support of Christians, and this is what I will be sharing with my Christian friends as an introduction.
I'm a fan of the conclusion, but I am surprised by the lack of some gimme theology:
- God cares about the sparrows
- Death is discussed only after the fall - the killing of animals is expressed as an outworking of sin. Often in the OT death is a necessity but rarely is it good
- Don't breed animals in certain ways suggests that God thinks there are animal based beneficial things that are wrong for some reason and perverse iirc there is some similar stuff about oxen being denied the ability to eat while ploughing. OT is a pretty pro animial welfare text imo.
Thanks for the comment. I think some of these passages will be more relevant here than others. There are some who think that animals would have died whether or not the fall of man occurred; for instance, Aquinas wrote as follows:
"In the opinion of some, those animals which now are fierce and kill others, would, in that state, have been tame, not only in regard to man, but also in regard to other animals. But this is quite unreasonable. For the nature of animals was not changed by man’s sin, as if those whose nature now it is to devour the flesh of others, would then have lived on herbs, as the lion and falcon."
You're right though that scripture is certainly not blind to the needs of animals. There is the passage (which you alluded to) about feeding oxen: "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain" (Deut. 25:4). The Book of Jonah also has God citing the lives of cattle as one of his motivations for sparing Nin'eveh (Jonah 4:11).
Great post. The animal welfare movement needs the support of Christians, and this is what I will be sharing with my Christian friends as an introduction.
I'm a fan of the conclusion, but I am surprised by the lack of some gimme theology:
- God cares about the sparrows
- Death is discussed only after the fall - the killing of animals is expressed as an outworking of sin. Often in the OT death is a necessity but rarely is it good
- Don't breed animals in certain ways suggests that God thinks there are animal based beneficial things that are wrong for some reason and perverse iirc there is some similar stuff about oxen being denied the ability to eat while ploughing. OT is a pretty pro animial welfare text imo.
Thanks for the comment. I think some of these passages will be more relevant here than others. There are some who think that animals would have died whether or not the fall of man occurred; for instance, Aquinas wrote as follows:
"In the opinion of some, those animals which now are fierce and kill others, would, in that state, have been tame, not only in regard to man, but also in regard to other animals. But this is quite unreasonable. For the nature of animals was not changed by man’s sin, as if those whose nature now it is to devour the flesh of others, would then have lived on herbs, as the lion and falcon."
You're right though that scripture is certainly not blind to the needs of animals. There is the passage (which you alluded to) about feeding oxen: "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain" (Deut. 25:4). The Book of Jonah also has God citing the lives of cattle as one of his motivations for sparing Nin'eveh (Jonah 4:11).
This article is very good!
Thank you.