Changing the way Christians think about animals has to come from people of faith. The following is geared toward Christians who are active in their churches, who care about animal suffering as a moral issue.

When The Episcopal Church’s General Convention 2003 Resolution D016 passed, I came home feeling elated, and thinking “Organized Religion is the way to go! (Let’s get organized!)” Even if that resolution has pretty much collected dust, it was passed “audibly unanimously” by the highest authority of the Episcopal Church, and is something to stand on. That was a miracle.

It was all but impossible to try to fit everything I had on my mind, into a 10 minute talk.

Besides some things that I didn’t get to on my posted outline, here are a few things I didn’t have a chance to mention.

First, it was easiest for me to tell about my experiences with the things I’ve been involved with, co-founding the Episcopal Network for Animal Welfare, writing to church leaders, and writing or speaking to diocesan and national resolutions relating in some way to animals, than so offer suggestions about what others might do. Hopefully, people at our “Engaging Religion” session were able to piece things together from all four talks, since each of the other speakers touched on things I might have liked to, if I had the time.

Certainly, one of the best places to find Christians of one’s own denomination would likely be to join the Christian Vegetarian Association’s listserv, and posting a request for people of your denomination to contact you.

If your denomination doesn’t have an animal welfare/rights organization already, the easiest suggestion I have is to start one. How? Here are a few ideas: Build on what’s already available in other denominations, or information that can be found at Best Friends or HSUS’ animals & religion programs, or finding documents or statements that Christians compatible with your denomination have said. The Internet is a good resource. Start a blog that relates to either your denomination & animal issues, or Christianity in general and animal issues. Name it something like “Southern Baptists’ Voice for Animals”. Let people know about it, and what you’re trying to do. Even if they aren’t animal rights-oriented, they may be supportive of you, if they like you. Your blog may attract like-minded people. And if enough people in enough denominations do something like that, the presence on the Internet might put animals squarely on the Christian landscape, because there is something about being a presence on the Internet that lends itself to credibility, and may even influence people’s way of thinking without your ever knowing what kind of impact you’ve made. (Visitors might think something like, “Oh wow! I didn’t know Southern Baptists cared about animal rights issues!” Look what SuperVegan says about my blog: “EpiscoVeg - Yes, there really is an Episcopalian Vegetarian blog.”, as if it was a surprise.) Be credible, and irrefutable. If you want avoid detractors attacking your position, you can link to articles that you find on the Internet, and keep your comments to a minimum, letting the article speak your message for you.

When you find people of your denomination who share your interests, you can start a listserv. You can keep it more or less moderated. And you can use it for sharing ideas, strategies, etc.

Do what you can at your own church, including being involved in other ways, supporting other people’s endeavors, if it doesn’t entail animal exploitation, and cultivate an attitued that shows you genuinely like the people.

If you don’t have any luck at your own church, don’t give up. And don’t quit. If you quit, who will be left to advocate for the animals? But you might go beyond, to a broader venue, like whatever equivalent you have to a diocese or national governing body. Maybe you’ll have more luck there, and that will come back home and people will pay more attention. Don’t write people off. Just when you might think people won’t support your efforts, or support you openly, you might be pleasantly surprised, like I was this past week, when my priest offered to help me in a very practical way behind the scenes. Or you may have to refocus on something that they will support, or find a different way to bring up a topic.

You never know what will change another person’s heart. Oddly for me, I originally became a vegan because of wildlife and other spiritually-related influences, and not because of farmed animals. (Long story.) Or, it may be your very frustration and disappointment that will become your motivation and feed your passion in a positive way. If people at your own church don’t care about what they might perceive as your agenda, they might care about you as a person.

If you start up a denomination-based group, it can be a loose movement without any hierarchy — such as a listserv of people scattered across the county like dandelion seeds. But if you want to be recognized by your denomination as being “church-related”, and have legitimacy, you may need to find out what criteria your denomination uses. It may require something like a steering committee, or becoming sponsored by someone or some existing group, or some other sort of process. Find out what other special interest groups had to do to become “officially-recognized” if that is important to you.

If your church has an environmental stewardship group, or a peace and justice group, or any human rights group that stands for the oppressed segments of society, you may be able to find a way to coalition with them.

Unless you enjoy endless and unwinnable debates, and getting hot under the collar, you might want to stick with the facts from the secular organizations, or speak from your own experience and feelings, which no one can argue, instead of trying to win an argument by using isolated verses or passages from the Bible. (Good luck, if you choose that route. You’re dealing with people of “unyielding faith” who aren’t going to be inclined to think differently about their beliefs, even if you quote things they never heard about in Sunday School. If people of your denomination don’t take the Creation stories literally, Genesis 1:29 isn’t going to convince them. But they’ll be able to throw something back at you.) You might have more luck finding animal-friendly statements by people of similar religious background. Conversely, you might also be able to reference animal-friendly beliefs and statements by Jews, and especially animal-friendly/veg’n Rabbis, since we share their scripture, and yet, we most likely have a different understanding of it. It should be credible to note that they have a more direct understanding of it than we do, since it didn’t go through so many translations, etc. You know the culture of your church, and will have a feel for what seems most viable. (In other words, it is easier for Christians to argue Christian beliefs with other Christians, because we all know what’s right, right? That’s why we have splintered into so many denominations in this country.)

What works for me is leaving other people’s beliefs relatively intact, unless I feel up to getting them to think about something, if not answer. For example, one of my favorite questions for people who profess the “plain meaning of Scripture” (regardless of all the discrepencies that can be found in it) is to ask, “Does God desire mercy and not sacrifice? Or does God desire sacrifice and not mercy?” I haven’t gotten anyone to answer that question yet. Another thing that works for me is when someone is talking from a biblical or theological perspective, and I am talking about the same topic from an animal rights perspective. It seems that it puts us on a level playing field, and they don’t know what to do with that, because there are no biblical verses to refute what I’m saying. In the end, it turns out that we’re talking similarly on a parallel plane, but in different terms. And everyone gets to speak, and no one loses the argument. It’s almost like speaking in metaphors or in parables. Maybe that’s why Jesus liked to use parables….

Don’t be bothered if people don’t share your opinions about an animal issue, especially a controversial one, or one where public opinion has been skewed by the industries’ PR people. Listen to theirs. Disagreements can promote further dialogue, if handled well, and with respect. (It’s better than dead silence, which is just dead.)

The bottom line is that if you believe that God cares about animals, and if you trust that we are doing God’s work in the world, you will persevere — and you will do amazing things to change the culture of Christianity in general, and your own environment in particular. Remember the fruit of the Spirit. There are no laws against these things. “Speak up for those who have no voice, for the cause of those appointed to die” (Proverbs 31:8 - NRSV). Do it in such a way that even the meat-eaters, who are the majority, will support you. Treat them as allies. Treat your church as an “affinity group”. It can happen. It has happened. Attitudes are changing. Rejoice in the little things, and let them feed you.

If all you can do is convince your own church to support humane humanitarian charities, or replace exploitive social functions with something else that isn’t exploitive, that is huge, and will carry over into other things in people’s minds.

Give people credit for being able to think for themselves. You can present the facts, but it’s up to them to let it “bubble” in their own time. Don’t “evangelize” or “preach” about things they don’t want to discuss with you, unless you want them to avoid you like the plague. Don’t point out other people’s sins to them. If you must talk about the evils of the world, make it about the industries, and not the people who support them. They’ll eventually get the message without feeling like they’re being judged.

Balance lightly on the tight-rope into a new frontier that has no road map. “Be the change….”

Pray for the animals. Pray for guidance, patience, courage, wisdom, etc. Be open to the possibilities, and opportunities.

I guess with this post, I’ve covered everything that my talk didn’t, except what the Animal Rights Movement and Organized Religion have to offer each other.

First Organized Religion…. It is the “missing link” in the Animal Rights Movement. When Religion gets on-board with animal exploitation as a moral issue — on whatever level — it will begin to change the way society thinks, making our cause mainstream, and more than acceptable. And it will right some wrongs, including some of its own theology that is due for new understandings. The environmentalists in my Church, including our Presiding Bishop, are defining “dominion” as stewardship. Dominion as domination has been a problem for the animals and the environment. Stewardship connotes taking care of something that belongs to someone else, like God. (This is God’s world, not ours to be exploited and trashed.) Organized Religion is the institution that is known for standing up for what it considers to be moral issues. Whatever it was that convinced Christians that human slavery was morally wrong, even though it was accepted in the Bible, is the same thing that can change the way we think theologically about animals. Church leaders (at their best) can take information and frame it in a compelling way, to a different audience. The Amimal Rights Movement has a lot of good information out there, thanks to undercover investigations, photos, facts, etc. But as long as it’s perceived as a “secular movement”, Organized Religion doesn’t need to get involved. (And of course, Organized Religion would not want to be identified with the more militant factions of the Animal Rights Movement.) But if animal rights advocates who are people of faith would self-identify, their churches and religious bodies might not be able to write it off as “secular” anymore. Our lives should be integrated. We should not leave our faith at the door when we leave our churches. Our churches know this. They just need to realize that we are living out our faith in a way that most others haven’t thought to, and should be supportive, especially if they’re serious about the richness of diversity.

Arthur Broome was an obscure Anglican priest who founded what eventually became the RSPCA, the first animal protection organization. The RSPCA was co-founded by William Wilberforce, an evangelical politician, who is better known for speaking out against human slavery, and instrumental in it’s eventual abolition in England decades before we abolished it here. Christians should not be written off by people who feel that religious teachings have added to animal suffering, because thinking evolves, and with each social movement the Church has become an eventual voice for over the past couple of centuries, it evolves more quickly. And animal exploitation is the “next thing”.

The people in the Animal Rights Movement have a high level of commitment, perserverance, passion, compassion, etc., that are exemplary against apathy and complacency and self-centered religiosity of people who have grown comfortable with their entrenched beliefs. Our message, our stories, and the animal stories of all sorts challenge that apathy and complacency and self-centeredness (human-centered) — and can translate into “parables”, metaphors, and illustrations that teach theological lessons. Cardinal Newman’s Good Friday sermon was a prime example of comparing the suffering we inflict on animals to Jesus’ execution.

“[T]here is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who never have harmed us,
and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power,
who have weapons neither of offense nor defense,
that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it….
Think then, my brethren, of your feelings at cruelty practised upon brute animals,
and you will gain one sort of feeling which the history of
Christ’s Cross and Passion ought to excite within you.”
– Cardinal Newman

The Animal Rights Movement walks the walk and talks the talk, has the facts and the evidence to break myths. Christians, especially those in the peace and justice movement are also myth-breakers. The myth-breakers are similar, and have a similar agenda whether the victims of abuse and injustice are humans or non-humans. The Animal Rights Movement is good at whistle-blowing. It is time for the churches to do the same — in their own way, of course, but at least to begin to break the silence, and to stop supporting animal exploitation. It just needs a minor shift in thinking to change the paradigm.

It needs people like us, because no one else will do it.

Click here to read/listen to one of my favorite hymns for a movement like ours.

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

Added comment (12/26/08): The nice thing about a blog or other sort of Internet presence is that people can read what you have to say in the privacy of their own homes. They may agree or not. But even if what you say isn’t in accordance with “accepted theology”, it is your soap box. And no one is going to sweep you under the church’s carpet for saying something that might not agree 100% with their beliefs. That’s what I liked so much about J.R. Hyland’s book, God’s Covenant With Animals: A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures. I know a priest who disagreed with her on one point. But that’s not bad out of all the other points she made. She had such an amazing take on issues of animal sacrifice, and on Jesus’ pre-meditated “direct action” at the Temple just prior to his arrest, that the book is well worth reading for those reasons alone. I first discovered J.R. Hyland’s writings on the “Humane Religion” section of All Creature’s website. I knew there are people who wouldn’t agree with everything she wrote, but I thought “so what?” They’re there for people to read and think about. (She was, by the way, an Evangelical pastor who grew up as a Roman Catholic. So she had a strong Christian background that should carry some credible weight among Christians — even if there’s something they don’t agree with. And her attitude toward animal issues should be a comfort to non-religious animal rights activists, too.) One thing I liked about her writing is that it is easily understandable without having a PhD. And I can remember some of the things I read years later, without having to dig through the book. I highly recommend her book for anyone interested in a Biblical defense for animals.

She died about a year ago, just prior to the multi-faith religious leaders going to Washington DC for the unveiling and signing of “A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion” on 11/7/2007.