Animals in Christian Practice
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.
Galatians 5:22
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Despite core teachings of kindness, respect for anymals, kinship, and the requirement that we serve God here on Earth in the image of God, there is wide acceptance of anymal exploitation in science, entertainment, pet, clothing, and food industries. (For more on Christian ethics and anymals, see Sacred Texts.) Without reflection, often turning away so as not to see, most people use their purchasing power to perpetuate all forms of anymal exploitation. This section focuses on three ways that Christians may fail to align practice with core sacred teachings: lack of humility, failure to serve God in this life in this world, and forms of entertainment that harm and destroy anymals.
While examining discord between sacred teachings and religious practice has a tendency to stir strong feelings, faithful reflection is essential if we are to strengthen our faith commitment. Throughout history, confronting discord between religious knowledge and practice has opened the door for necessary change, repentance, renewal, a stronger relationship with God, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
Most Christians accept anymal experimentation, though anymals suffer terribly in breeding facilities and laboratories, as is easy to see in the face of a mother macaque (and her young) held in a breeding facility. (We Animals Media)
Living as she was created to live, free from human exploitation, a macaque with her baby, both healthy and contented. (We Animals Media)
Exploring Where Teachings and Everyday Life Diverge
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These tensions take shape in different areas of Christian life. The following topics highlight where differences between teachings and practice become visible.
Humility Forgetting our place within creation can lead to treating animals as resources rather than fellow beings.
Serving God in This World Focusing on the next world can draw attention away from responsibility toward animals in this one.
Bullfighting & Animal Sports Practices that cause harm for entertainment raise questions about how they align with values of mercy and compassion.
Common Questions
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Christian behavior is shaped by the Bible, but it is also shaped by culture, habit, and convenience. It is conventional and normative for communities to push God’s creatures outside of our moral circle—even outside of our sphere of vision, so that we often do not see or understand what animals experience in laboratories or on farms. Christian ideals are distinct from these worldly tendencies, and this creates a gap between teaching and practice. Culture, habit, and convenience are not the ways of Jesus, who modeled a life of love and attentive care to the needs of those conventionally overlooked.
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Core Christian ethics provide a clear understanding of the responsibilities of humankind: Animals are not ours—they are God’s; Christians are called to serve God by tenderly caring for all that has been made. Jesus showed us how to serve God, how to tenderly and responsibly care for those harmed by neglect and indifference, how to courageously minister to the needs of those excluded from the moral circle of the larger society. While worldly ways often hold sway in mainstream society, core Christian ethics are clear and consistent: Through our Creator, we owe animals mercy and the good works of tender care.
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When humankind “uses” animals, especially for food, experimentation, sport, or clothing, this almost always means harming God’s creatures, but Christianity is a religion of love rooted in the example of tender care provided by Jesus. If we “use” baby chicks or little bunnies in our Easter displays, for example, the lives of chicks and bunnies, and the bond between the mother and her young, are harmed because they are too fragile to be handled and passed from one person to another, and because they are too young to be away from their mothers. When we use animals in our feasts or for sport, the wellbeing and lives of God’s creatures are almost always put at risk, and Jesus has shown us how to live lives of love and tender care for those others commonly overlook.
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When church practices do not align with core biblical ethics, especially the life and teachings of Jesus, they invite review and then modification or replacement as needed. For example, bullfighting has been associated with the church for centuries, but deliberately wounding and condemning a bull to a prolonged death is at odds with core Christian ethics: Jesus taught mercy, love, and good works, not ritual slaying of bulls for entertainment. Any tradition that causes or invites harm to God’s creatures is inconsistent with core Christian teachings. When traditions conflict with core ethics, they invite faithful reconsideration. We can create new practices that, over time, become honored traditions—honored traditions that are consistent with Scripture and better represent Christianity.
James 1:22
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
Hubris, often expressed as human exceptionalism, the tendency to focus only on personal salvation at the expense of serving God amid creation, and bulfighting stand in opposition to core Christian teachings and daily practice. While discerning discord between teachings and practice in our personal lives is often difficult, it lends to spiritual growth. Through grace, prayer, reflection, and with willingness to change, we are likely to find fresh ways of growing yet closer to God.
Living Christianity, or humility and engagement in this world, can lead to such acts as rescuing chinchillas from the fur industry.