faq #1, is caring for animals a valid Christian concern?

As not one sparrow enters our third year of striving to be a Christian voice for animals, I've been looking forward for a while now to take the opportunity to go over some of the basics of our cause and motivation.  A refresher in our foundation of faith and what that means for how we advocate for animals might be meaningful for our newer readers (welcome, and thank you!), and hopefully for the rest of our community as well.

Sometimes it's possible to become so invested in and overwhelmed by a cause, or even just part of one, that it's hard to keep both the forest and the trees in front of us.  I know I've felt that tension more than a few times since committing to the issue, and am grateful to take some time to re-ground myself in the reasons why we're called to care about animals, and how God might want us to go about doing so. 

I thought it might be helpful to use not one sparrow's frequently asked questions as the framework for our discussion.  In the process, we'll be able to refine those questions and flesh them out a bit more, through mentioning additional resources on the site and several compelling posts from friends.

question #1 ...  As previewed a couple of days ago in Nancy Janisch's thoughtful post "Animals and the Bible," the first and most fundamental question we'll be looking at is: "Is caring for animals a valid Christian concern?"  Wrapped up in that question, for evangelical and other confessional Christians (an aspect of our community we'll come back to down the road), is another which is very much related: Is caring for animals biblical? 

It's hard to begin at a more important question than both of these.  You can probably assume what not one sparrow's answer is going to be, but it's important to know why we can resoundingly affirm  with Scripture that animals not only deserve, but need, our attention and care as Christians.  Perhaps our mission statement would be a helpful place to start:

not one sparrow is dedicated to being a voice for animals in the Christian community.  Animals are unique and precious beings, and each one is known and loved by its Creator.  As God's children created in His image, we're meant to model His care for them, and we're called to play a crucial role in the redemption of all creatures: great and small, domesticated and wild, cherished and disregarded.

not one sparrow wants to help Christ's community become better caretakers of animals, for the sake of our own response to the gospel and to show the world that the good news reaches to all creatures.  We’re committed to supporting the animal advocacy cause where we can, and contributing a faithful perspective to it.  Our hope is to consistently encourage affirming and empathetic relationships with animals, and to speak out against neglect and abuse of all kinds.

Each part of that statement warrants a post of its own, and you can in fact explore several of those themes on our blog, having to do with God's relationship to animals, our being made in the image of God, stewardship (which means caring for something which belongs to God on His behalf) and redemption. 

But before you do that, I'd encourage you to visit our motivation section which touches on the biblical and big picture themes of creation, stewardship, fall and redemption, and how each of them shape our calling to care for God's precious nonhuman creatures.  If interested, an even more in-depth look at those themes and this whole question is available in my seminary capstone paper, "Not One Sparrow Is Forgotten: A Biblical-Theological Foundation for Animal Welfare."

So, while we could write an entire book on this vitally important question, here's an initial answer from our FAQ page on whether caring for animals is a valid cause for Christians to care about:

Caring for animals doesn’t typically receive much attention in Christian communities.  Many Christians wonder if the Bible even has much to say about the subject at all.  But there are many scriptural references to animals and their well-being and suffering, and from start to finish the Bible is clear that God cares very much for every creature He has lovingly made.

God desires for us to relate to animals with compassion and appreciation, just as He does, and has given us the responsibility of caring for them as stewards of all of His creation.  As Christians, we have the hope of belonging to a new creation in Christ, which also calls us to work toward the time when abuse and suffering will not affect any creature.

In the coming days, we'll be posting further reflections from Lauren Merritt and Dean Ohlman on God's infinite care for all He's made, and the relationship of the other two members of the Trinity to creation and its creatures.  We'll also be interacting with a couple of believers who disagree strongly with some of the statements we've just made.

(image copyright Lorelyn Medina/123rf.com, slideshow  includes photos courtesy Daryl DeVries, Cathi Leibforth, Patti Monaghen, Jackie Pointer, Steve Pointer, Christin S., Amy Sondova, Stephanie Taylor and 123rf.com (copyright, see detailed credits))