Why do you exclude Animals from the Golden Rule?
Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion

FROM David Jack James
June 12, 2020 Facebook post

Can a Christian in good conscience participate in activities that degrade the planet, cause starvation and death to other humans, and inflict horrific and unnecessary animal suffering and slaughter?

Golden Rule

What would Jesus do today, if he lived in the age of industrialized agriculture in which billions of animals are bred through artificial insemination, treated like mere commodities, and “processed” like worthless property, exploited and brutalized and killed not from necessity, but just for taste bud satisfaction and profits for extremely violent industries?

Would Jesus praise humanity for respecting God’s creations? Or would he instead invoke The Golden Rule? Would he not insist that, when given a choice between mercy and cruelty, a Christian is compelled to choose compassion over violence?

The Golden Rule is very explicit on how others should be treated:

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”
~ Matthew 7:12

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
~ Luke 6:31

The sixth commandment specifically states that we should not kill:

“You shall not kill.”
~ Exodus 20:13

Would Jesus be horrified by the treatment of animals in our modern world? He taught us to have love and compassion for those who are weak, vulnerable, oppressed, marginalized, and different from us. The undeniable foundation of animal agriculture industries is cruelty and violence. It is incumbent on Christians to follow Jesus and to find out what happens to these animals who are exploited and slaughtered for food, and then to decide if a diet containing animal products is in line with one’s Christian faith.

Can a Christian in good conscience participate in activities that degrade the planet, cause starvation and death to other humans, and inflict horrific and unnecessary animal suffering and slaughter?

For more information, check out the Christian Animal Rights Association, a nondenominational ministry dedicated to educating, advocating, protecting and defending the rights of all sentient animals, from a Biblical and Christian perspective.

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