Together With All Creatures

My colleague, Tim Saleska, put me on to an op-ed in the New York Times regarding a ballot initiative that was passed by Californians to ban certain factory farm practices. In particular, it states that farm animals cannot be confined for their entire lives to cages in which they cannot move.

I’m glad that it passed. But not because I support “animal rights.” The author believes that the passage of the measure shows that the “animal rights” movement has become a mainstream issue. The problem with the “rights” approach is that it blurs the distinction between human creatures and non-human creatures.

As Christians we reject the notion of our “kinship” with other animals as developed by Darwin. But we can’t correct this error by rejecting our common creatureliness. That’s why I like Luther’s phrase, “together with all creatures.” It can highlight our common creatureliness while maintaining our distinctive creatureliness.”

I thus find the “compassionate” approach of Matthew Scully (a Christian, Republican, and a vegetarian) in Dominion to be more helpful than a “rights” approach to the question of animal welfare. This approach recognizes that we care for a creation “in travail” (Rom 8). This side of the new creation we (vegetarian or non-vegetarian) are not be able to live without harming other creatures—try as we might. We can only seek to limit that harm. And we can act out of compassion for the well-being of other creatures.