ACTIVISM:
Living Christianity
Animals & Religion is designed for those who believe that sacred writings have moral authority and are the best way to understand how we ought to live. This website is for those who, with fresh eyes, would like to explore core sacred texts to better understand rightful relations between humankind and anymals.
Christianity is a path of grace, a journey that offers new opportunities and new insights with the passing of each day. Visitors to the Animals & Religion Website are invited to engage with the material thoughtfully and prayerfully, to return to Scripture, to recall how certain sacred texts have been read, taught, and lived in your religious community, and to ponder how these ancient, holy writings might speak anew in contemporary times.
Micah 6:8…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice…?
In Animals and World Religions, Dr. Kemmerer writes, “Imagine Jesus walking through a slaughterhouse, a vivisection lab, or a poultry farm: How would the Prince of Peace feel about contemporary exploitation of pigs, mice, and hens? Would he justify these institutions as readily as we do?” Scriptures suggest that Jesus would likely display righteous anger if faced with such cruelty and indifference to God’s creatures.
Christianity is lived. Living Christianity can take a wide variety of forms, such as leading a prayer circle, helping with technology for services, visiting those who are elderly or ill, cleaning up after fellowship time, providing pastoral care, or helping out at a local soup kitchen or anymal shelter. Some might be called to work for political and social change, and to establish greater justice, whether for children, the poor, immigrants, the elderly, or anymals. If you think that anymal activism might be your calling, then this page is for you. (To first read about core Christian teachings and anymals, see Sacred Texts.)
Romans 12:1
…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.
An all-female anti-poaching force in South Africa works to protect critically endangered wildlife with boots on the ground, through teaching, and by setting an example in local communities. (We Animals Media)
1 John 3:18
Love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.
Some feel called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the prophets by working for political and social change, to reduce worldly sufferings, and to draw people back to God. Humphrey Primatt, Leo Tolstoy, and innumerable contemporary Christian anymal activists have chosen this path, standing with and for God by protecting anymals, and in so doing, these activists have also protected humankind and the planet. (For more on the connection between the sufferings of anymals and the sufferings of humankind and environmental destruction, see this book, Vegan Ethics: AMORE, or to learn about dietary choice and feeding the hungry, see Sacred Texts, New Testament, Core Christian Ethics, Sharing.)
Everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.
— Leo Tolstoy
Animal activists in Canada. (We Animals Media)