solar cells, baby seals and God's glorious redemption

An important reminder from Lauren Merritt of the very real and biblical redemption God intends for His creation and creatures ...

We think and scheme and recycle and use ‘green’ cleaning products and cut the rings on our soda packaging.  But still millions of cattle on a thousand hills of excrement face blows to the skull after spending 8 months in feed lots without seeing a blade of grass or natural stream of water, and birds of paradise are driven without rest into the sky, away from their burning homes as Western corporations make way for new cocao plantations on utterly unsustainable land.

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pain-free animals?

I'm grateful to Nancy Janisch, our resident voice of prudence on matters of science and animals, for looking into the following, very dubious, developing prospect in animal agriculture:

Over the past few months there has been some discussion about genetically engineered pain-free farm animals.  Adam Shriver, author of an article on the same subject in the journal Neuroethics, recently discussed his proposal in a New York Times op-ed piece.

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hey, that's personal?

The following reflection comes courtesy of LaVonne Neff, who blogs at Lively Dust and God's Politics (Sojourners' blog).  I think you'll appreciate the dilemma she raises ...

I’m a cradle vegetarian.  Didn’t have even a bite of meat—red or white, fish or fowl—until I was maybe eleven years old, and then I lost my dietary virginity to a hot dog.  Go ahead and snicker.

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a farm boy reflects

Nicholas Kristof is a much respected journalist and op-ed columnist for The New York Times, who has made a media splash of late with his praising of evangelical and other conservative Christian humanitarian efforts around the world.  I was reminded of a piece he wrote a couple of summers ago called "A Farm Boy Reflects," at the time in support of the Prop 2 ballot measure in California to introduce some very basic welfare standards to the state's industrial animal farms (which thankfully passed).

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eating humanely: why and how?

Some final thoughts from Sarah Cunningham on Matthew Scully's Dominion, including helpful motivation and practical advice for seeking out more humanely raised animal products:

Scully suggests humans have an instinctive connection with animals.  From a young age, we wince at the sight of animal suffering (hurt dogs, deer hit by cars, abandoned baby birds ...).  We may even feel a natural inclination to intervene to help creatures in need.

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compassionate eating as care of creation

My good friend Matt Halteman is the author of an excellent booklet with a very helpful perspective on eating compassionately.  The booklet is titled "Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation," in fact, and is available to read and download online (published by the Humane Society's Faith Outreach program).  Matt is a philosophy professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan and faculty sponsor for Calvin's Students for Compassionate Living, as well as organizer extraordinaire of Wake Up Weekend which invited not one sparrow to participate the last two years.

In "Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation," Matt invites Christians to take a serious look at the ethics of how we eat, especially the myriad of moral issues surrounding the animal products which often dominate our diets.  While our food choices may seem like a very personal and isolated issue, especially with much bigger problems seemingly facing our world today, Matt makes a great case for how interconnected our consumption habits really are to so many other personal and global concerns:

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eating compassionately

As alluded to in last week's posts on fasting for Lent and Sarah's reflections on Dominion, we're going to take a look at the possibility of eating more compassionately in the coming posts.  This can be understandably be a bit of a daunting discussion, as animal meats and other products are such a huge part of our consumption habits and traditions: from fast food burgers and Summer barbecues, to Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas ham, even church potlucks. 

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'Dominion'

I came across more than a few books on Christian theology and animal ethics while I was working on my seminary capstone project, more than you might expect at least given how little attention animals usually receive in Christian circles.  I recommend some quite strongly for their valuable perspectives on the relationship between faith and animals, including: Kaufman and Braun's Good News for All Creation, Andrew Linzey's Animal Theology, Stephen Webb's Good Eating, Robert Wennberg's God, Humans, and Animals and Richard Young's Is God a Vegetarian? 

But if I had to pick one book from the bunch, for the impact it made on me personally, as well as its literary poignancy and strength of argument, it would be Matthew Scully's Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (St. Martin's '02).  Scully is a prolific freelance author as well as a political conservative who's served as speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain's presidential campaign and others.  

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a compassionate new year's resolution

The turning of a new year, not to mention a decade, usually makes us reflect a bit one the one just behind us, and often prompts some soul-searching on how we can improve on it.

As far as new year's resolutions go, I seem to have had the same basic rotation the past few years, and am bringing most of them with me into 2010 as well: I want to spend more time in prayer and reflection on the Bible, read more books rather than just online content, and of course workout more.  I can, however, say that I brush my teeth with more regularity than I used to (only after extensive, and expensive, dental work done this Summer)!

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Walk for Farm Animals

Cheryl and I had a great time at the Farm Sanctuary's Walk for Farm Animals in Milwaukee last Saturday.  Baby Jadon, three months old, came along for his first animal advocacy experience.  We walked along Lake Michigan, and stopped for a while at a couple of intersections, peacefully holding signs to hopefully get people to think a bit more about where their animal products come from. 

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