Excerpt from “The Chicken and the Egg”, written by Peter Sawtell, Executive Director, Eco-Justice Ministries:

“This weekend, I’m going to be in Phoenix as a speaker for the annual ‘Caring for Creation’ conference sponsored by the Arizona Ecumenical Council. The theme for this year’s event is ‘Sharing the Earth with All God’s Critters.’ I’ve had to do some extensive research to get to the point of being conversant on eco-justice for animal issues.

“The reading — both theological and political — was fascinating, stimulating and challenging. There’s a diversity of voices urging us toward thoughtful and faithful consideration of how humanity does — and should — relate to other creatures.

“Theologian Jay McDaniel notes that there are very different ethical issues for cases of explicit animal abuse and exploitation, on one hand, and the more diffuse problems of habitat loss that are forcing so many species into decline and extinction. The abuse category takes us into all sorts of unpleasant areas: sport hunting that just destroys life, medical research that does to primates what we’d never do to people, and the whole realm of factory farming — which is where chickens and eggs come in.

“Most of us don’t think of abuse and exploitation in relation to the ‘incredible, edible egg’. Chickens and eggs conjure up wholesome and idyllic images of farms….”

Please read the whole article here:
http://www.eco-justice.org/E-050415.asp