“God’s Doctrine” Includes All Creation
I have heard many Christian vegans say they wish the pulpit would address animal welfare issues and our moral and ethical responsibilities to them, but few of them do. Jesus tells us in scripture that we are to put on love in everything we do, including in our views and treatment of animals. This article suggests some ways pastors could address the topic generally in their sermons with very small changes that do not change the context of their messages while including animals.
Quote from the article: “My friend Manny said something I think is quite profound: “I think Jesus would rather be followed than worshiped. To follow Him is to worship Him.” I quite agree. We need our leaders who are rich in knowledge of scripture to begin applying it to include the animal kingdom and care of the earth in church doctrine, teaching at the pulpit with messages that will awaken God’s people to our collective responsibilities to care for God’s creation – we need them to begin equipping the body of Christ to live in a self-sacrificial way with regard to creation.”
[Creation Care Church does not necessarily agree with all the points of view of showcased content creators.]I thought Absolute Truth and Violence a great post, as posts on the ReKnew.org blog generally are. Greg Boyd is a great teacher; he is also a vegetarian. I’ve heard him teach some pretty powerful sermons, a couple of which included the animal kingdom. Apart from most teaching pastors and especially of most theologians, Greg Boyd does give mention of animals from the pulpit now and then, as well as in other works of his from time to time.
But what is most troublesome is that though there are a few leaders today, including Greg Boyd, who will say that addressing the issue of animal abuse and exploitation is urgent, little is still said from the pulpit, even amongst these. Little is done about teaching the masses of people who attend our churches the realities for animals, and how to live on a daily basis in such a way that puts our faith’s ethics and moral values into action when it comes to our carbon footprint on the planet, what we eat, what we wear, how we shop. Though they (animals) are included in the covenant between us and God, leaders have yet to address what it might look like if we were to truly follow Christ and worship Him when it comes to how we treat His animal kingdom. And bringing animals into the main teaching of church doctrine does not appear to be in any discussion or on the radar any time soon.
So where is the urgency that is spoken about? Animal welfarists absolutely feel it. They certainly see the desperation of the situations involving animal abuse every single day. And much of the time, we feel helpless in the face of the massive issues we face. We desperately need our leaderships help.
Teaching moments are often missed at the pulpit when it comes to animals. Though what is being taught is often fabulous stuff for human to human relationships, it does not plant in peoples minds anything at all about our responsibilities toward the earth and animal kingdom, what our relationship should be to both, when what is being taught well could include them.
Greg says some fabulous stuff in this blog post. I’ll quote my favorite part, and then add a bit that I think brings animals into the mix theologically. The whole point of leaders taking up the causes involving animals is that many people will listen to them. Most of us are not in leadership positions with theology degrees preaching to thousands of people; we are not in the lime light with a well established following; nor do we necessarily have the expertise that leaders who have the schooling, experience, knowledge, and understanding of Biblical text have that could be shared in such ways as to affect masses for their (animals) causes.
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