‘Mary’s Song for Justice’ (in defense of PETA)
“… [T]he theology of animal rights is what the church gets when it keeps silent for too long about a major issue….”
– Stephen H. Webb
Around the beginning of December, 2003, the “Providence Visitor Online” featured an article about PETA’s “Immaculate Conception” billboard that was posted in Providence, RI, and which created outrage, not only among some Roman Catholics, but also among some vegetarian animal people of other denominations and religions, who perceived the billboard as being offensive — and hurting the cause. That article is no longer accessible. But here’s a picture of the billboard:
I am not offended by that billboard any more than I was by the one PETA posted in NC last Easter. (See the “He died for your sins” controversy.)
Around the time the Immaculate Conception controversy broke out, I found a reflection on The Witness’ website, called “Mary’s Song for Justice“, by Richard A. Bower.
Although not about animals, it isn’t a far stretch to include the captive and domestic animals we commodify among the poor, outcast, marginalized, oppressed — the “anawim” of our day — the “next” social justice issue. The “second half” of the article (emboldened and indented below) caught my attention, as relating in an unintentional, but parallel way, to “animal rights theology”. The following excerpts, along with the other unrelated things at the end will shed light on why I am not offended by PETA’s attempt to grab the attention of the Church about the unimaginable amount of animal suffering & death caused by human greed and profit. What less might it take for the Church to take notice?! Instead of religious people being outraged by PETA’s approach, I hope they will open their hearts and minds, and redirect that outrage toward what our culture has been blissfully blind and deaf to for too long, and cultivate a passionate and active response to this issue as they have for other issues that pertain to peace and justice.
But I digress. Here’s the excerpt from “Mary’s Song for Justice” that I wanted people of faith to read and to reflect upon.
…Out of these great reversals — the blessing of womanhood in a patriarchal society, and the rejoicing in motherhood of an unmarried pregnant woman — came a song of liberation, the Song of Mary, the Magnificat.
Filled with the simple joy of a pious heart, this song shakes the social and religious foundations of Mary’s world, and of all time.
Mary begins her song with a heart-felt song of love. My soul [euphemism for 'self'] proclaims the greatness of Yahweh, my deepest self rejoices in you, O God my Savior . . . “
Mary tenderly reveals the simple piety of the “little ones” the anawim, the poor, outcast, marginalized of her day. You have looked with favor on your lowly servant . . . (The Greek for ‘lowliness’ is tapeinosis, a word which carries the connotation of affliction and oppression.) Mary sings of the great reversals of her own life, how she, humble and lowly, has been blessed by God, the one who has “done great things for me.”
Her song, her dream of a new world, begins in deep and genuine spirit, love and devotion to the delivering God of her people.
But Mary does not leave the song here, with a joyful celebration of the favor she has received. She looks to the larger hope, to a point of vision that gathers up the anawim of all generations, past present and future, and sings a liberating song of hope for them too.
In this new world, the world of the dream of God, God’s power will be known in the great reversal: where the powerful are brought low, and the humble lifted up; where the hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich sent away empty.
This is a passionate song of a woman who has known oppression, who has been humbled by powers and forces who imagine that the world is theirs to take and enjoy. She uses the language of the prophets as they remind God of the Covenant, of the option God has made for the lowly, the exiled, the people scattered by war and fear over all the known earth. You, O God, have remembered your promise of mercy, the promise made to our forebears, to Abraham and Sarah and their children forever.
In Mary and her song are joined with her deep faith and commitment to justice. In the words of Gustavo GutiŒrrez of Peru, “God’s holiness is that of one who fulfills promises (Luke 1:55); who enters into our history in order to bring it into the sphere of the divine; who transforms the present world. God is the God who does justice, with all that the word ‘justice’ implies in the Bible. To this end God makes an agreement with the people. It is as a member of this people that Mary speaks [and sings]. Her contemplation of God’s holiness is not an evasion of history; her joy at the gratuitous love of Yahweh does not make her forget the demands of justice” (GutiŒrrez, p. 181).
It was not the religious or political leaders of her day who recalled these holy promises, it was a Galilean young woman who remembered and sang. I think about the countries of our world in the 20th and 21st century, countries where power and tyranny tried to destroy the spirits of people. In these countries — Poland, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua, Chile, Palestine, the United States — it has been the poets, the songwriters who have revived the dream, those who wrote songs of protest, deliverance and hope . . . just like Mary.
Mary knew her heritage. Her song echoed the songs of earlier poets — Miriam (Exodus 15:19-21), Deborah (Judges 5:1-31), Judith (Judith 16:1-17), and especially Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10).
It takes holy imagination, formed by a deep love and experience of God, and of the community of anawim, of simple believers filled with hope, to imagine things outside the box, to dream dreams larger than the desperation of the moment, to imagine and live the great reversals of God’s dream for all humankind.Who are the poets and singers of our time, those who nourish our spirits, who remind us of God’s promises, who empower us to say and live the Yes of life, the capacity to see how God is lifting up even now the lowliest among us?
In Mary we discover a different history. And so we share her song (Enriching our Worship, p. 27):
My soul proclaims the greatness of our God,
my spirit rejoices in you, O God my Savior,
for you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your name.
You have mercy on those who fear you
from generation to generation.
You have shown strength with your arm
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.
You have filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
You have come to the help of your servant Israel,
for you have remembered your promise of mercy,
The promise made to our forebears,
to Abraham and Sarah and their children for ever.From among the least, the smallest comes the liberating grace of God. That is what the prophet Micah seems to be saying in today’s Lesson: O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel . . . (Micah 5:2-5a).
Contrast all of this with today’s economic capitalisms and imperial governments, where more is better, maximization of profit is the ethic, where survival of the fittest is lauded, where bigger is better, power is to be lusted after, where conquest in war shows greatness, and being the empire is a sign of blessing and worth….
I’ve also seen paintings of Mary with animals, and have links to them on my site (at the bottom of The greatness of a nation… page):
“Madonna and the veal calf”
“Madonna & Pups”
And, if you click here,
http://www.annerobertson.com/woodchucks4.html, and scroll down, you’ll see a picture of Jesus comforting the woodchucks on a Methodist pastor’s site, which was part of her activism to save the woodchucks on her church property.
(Also, related to woodchucks, but not to PETA, here is a sermon I linked to from her church’s site:
“Living with Woodchucks”: http://www.stjohnsdover.org/010617.html.)
As an afterthought, famous artists throughout history have depicted Mary, Jesus and others in the context of the times and cultures in which they lived. There is nothing wrong with that. If we can’t find ways to relate the people of the Bible to our own times and lives, and to those issues that are most important to us, what are we doing? What is relevant about our religion? What does it even mean to “accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior” if we can’t interpret the meaning and the impact of who he was in the context of who we are? (I think that falls within the definition of “theology” — maybe even “incarnational theology”.)
And as a second afterthought:
Although PETA is a secular organization, people have to remember that many PETA members, and many members of other secular organizations, are Christians in another compartment of their lives. Many of us are members of your churches. So to ignore or denounce the message is also to ignore or denounce some of your own people. Bruce Friedrich is a Roman Catholic, and one of PETA’s voices who is crying out in the wilderness. If the Church doesn’t like the approach PETA takes, it is up to the Church to speak out on these issues in a manner that is “ecclesiastically acceptable.” But we’re waiting to hear something, anything from the churches on this issue of how animals are treated, instead of just a rant against PETA!
I like the following quote I found a few months ago:
“People who take their Catholicism seriously have to be vegetarian if they examine the issue…. The catechism is very clear that it is not just wrong, but a sin to cause animals to suffer needlessly. What it means to lead an ethical life, what it means to have integrity is that we do not pay other people to do things that we would not do personally, or could not even watch. If we wouldn’t personally mutilate these animals, if we wouldn’t personally slit open their throats on these slaughter lines, then we shouldn’t pay other people to do it.”
– Bruce Friedrich, quoted from an article at
http://prweek.com/thisweek/index.cfm?ID=190586&site=3
Here is what one Episcopal priest has to say in support of PETA.
Tags: Lent