faulker05

HOW MANY PIGS IS A HUMAN WORTH? THE GADARENE PIGS PART ONE “The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine’”                                                                      Matthew 8:31             The story of Jesus confronting a demoniac (or demoniacs, depending on which gospel you are reading) and “sending” [1] the demons into a nearby herd of swine, who then rush into the sea and drown, is told in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).   It is a troubling story for those of us who care about animals and what scripture has to say about our relationships to animals, and it has been used over the years to justify much anima...

ARE CHURCH LEADERS SENTIENT? [1] The question is not , Can they reason ? nor, Can they talk ? but, Can they suffer ?                                                                  ~   Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832                      An Introduction To The Principles Of Morals And Legislation             I apologize that this week I have not had time to write a reflection on scripture and animals.   I did, however attend a two-day conference this week entitled The Science of Animal Thinking and Emotion: Sentience a...

Psalm Of A Downed Dairy Cow “A cow’s a piece of machinery.   If it’s broke, we try to fix it, and if we can’t, it’s replaced.”                                                  ~ quoted in Dominion, The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully             Following up last week’s post on animals and Sabbath, and in keeping with a Lenten theme of penitence, I offer this “psalm.”   It is written from the perspective of a downed dairy cow (that is, a cow so exhausted from over-breeding and over-milking that she cannot stand or walk) in a factory farm, where animals are given no rest, but are manipulated solely for profit, without regard to their most ba...