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I hope you all enjoyed the excellent posts on our themed week of christian engagement with animals, I certainly feel more challenged about how individually and as a community care and tend for creation. My thanks go to Ben, Karen and Stephen for taking time out to write for the site and to interact with us.You may be wondering where you can go next so we’ve put together a list of resources that might fire your imagination further:
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I am undertaking a review of my site, with a view to some changes and new items. Can you help and follow the link below and complete the short online review?I know you may be one of the many people who read and don’t comment, but I would love to hear from as many of you as possible, as you help me shape the future design and content of this site.
link to online survey of www.jasonclark.ws
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Stephen writes… Genesis, for all of its problems and provocations, says something about animals that is really unbelievable. Genesis says that animals were domesticated first before they became wild. The details of the text can be debated, of course, and many Christians do not take Genesis literally anyway, so the depiction of animals is easily read as a fable. But even as a fable, what do we do with the fact that Genesis gets the biological story exactly backwards? How can we possibly take Genesis seriously if its narrative structure is so wrongheaded?I want to argue that Genesis actually gives us the clue to the secret history of the origin and fate of all animals. Animals were meant to be (in the language of Genesis, they “originally were”) domesticated, in the sense of being at peace with each other and with us, and their wildness is a temporary state that will not withstand God’s redemption of the world.
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Karen writes… I grew up on a gentleman’s farm in rural Maine, the daughter of the daughter of folks who lived—literally—off the land. My father being a white collar businessman, we raised animals for food and companionship by choice rather than necessity. But we executed that choice knowledgably, responsibly, and—I think—biblically.Though I tended then (and still do today) toward a romantic and sentimental affection for all of the animals we raised, I also knew the facts of life. I knew that Billy, the kid goat which came with the mother goat we purchased for milking would eventually reach our dinner table. I knew that the little baby chicks we brought home as eggs would wind up in our freezer–even Peeper, the little rooster I hatched myself by breaking little pieces from his shell over the course of days when he was too weak to do so himself (he gained his name from the fact that we “peeped” at each other through the entire process).
Despite the fact that I was imprinted as his surrogate mother and that he would, throughout his later chickhood in the coop, fly up to me and sit on my head or shoulder when he saw me did not prevent him from growing eventually into a cocky, aggressive rooster whose fate was the same as his brethren: his neck under my mother’s axe and his carcass in a pot of boiling water.
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Brian McLaren, has been speaking at the Lambeth Conference.
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Ben writes… I should admit I’m fairly recent to this subject myself. It was less than a couple of years ago that animal welfare began to tugging on my heart, but as a bible college graduate and seminary student I didn’t know if a faithfully Christian theology or ethic allowed for a thorough concern for animals. The New Testament seemed to emphasize evangelism, discipleship and Christian community above anything else, and its other priorities were almost exclusively humanitarian. I remembered the odd verse about God remembering the sparrows or the righteous person caring for their beast, but that was about it.
But as I became increasingly fascinated by the unique personalities of the pets in my home and more distracted outdoors by the various wildlife which I stumbled across, I began to realize just how much thoughtfulness God had invested in each one of his animal creations. And if he created them with such apparent attention to detail, then he can’t help but continue to care about their wellbeing.
It was then that I remembered the total trajectory of Scripture: the innocence with which creation was once described as well as God’s intention to redeem all of it one day, and the fall sandwiched in between.
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A few weeks ago a family member pointed me to a post on Paul Mayers’ blog from a couple of years back in which he emphasizes that caring for God’s creation necessarily involves caring for animals. He writes:“To treat animals as things to exploit says much about ourselves and our own appetites, whilst to restrain ourselves and pay a higher price for healthier, safer conditions (for them) is to recognise that role of tending rather than just consuming.”
I was somewhat surprised, and happily at that, to come across Paul’s post. There is a general dearth of attention to animal advocacy in my evangelical heritage, and more often than not what attention exists is critical. But even the emerging church has hardly picked up on the concern. Aside from perhaps one other post on God and chickens, I’m not aware of any other focus on the subject by a community which is otherwise very socially progressive (and which I think I might belong to myself, but I’m not entirely sure).
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I just wrote this piece for the new Azusa Remixed blog, that I have been asked to contribute to.You can read it here, in advance of it appearing there. It’s based around the loss of the charismatic in the UK churches.
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That’s the title of the first post of a new blog, by my mate Robin Parry.Reasons you should check out Robin’s new blog:
1. Friend: He’s a good friend, and you’ll like him
2. Smart: He is very clever, but not in a way that makes you feel stupid
3. Quirky & Interesting: Robin sees the world in a different and fascinating way, that will ensure his blog is far from run of the mill.
4. Publisher: He is the acquisitions editor for Paternoster (a great publisher), so be nice to him, and he might help get you published.
5. Dr Who: He loves Dr Who, what more could you want?
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A couple of years ago Jason wrote this post: Is Christianity Irredeemably Speciesist. At the time there didn’t seem to be many people covering this issue of christianity and animals but we are delighted to be able to raise the profile of this important topic with three guest authors: Ben DeVries, Steven Webb and Karen Prior.Ben, Steven and Karen will each be writing a guest post that we will be publish on the site next week, starting with Ben’s post on the 21 July. We hope you’ll find their thoughts challenging and be prepared to discuss the issues they raise and your own questions and thoughts on this topic.
We will also be providing links and resources to stimulate your own thinking in this area.
